Likud Gains Another Mandate

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Photo of the Day:

Kolakevod to Lt. Col. “M” who became the first female commander of an operational squadron in the IAF yesterday! 

The names of all squadron commanders in the Israel Air Force are not published for obvious reasons. What we do know about Lt. Col. M is that she has been in the IAF since 2003.

Quote of the Day:

“Multiplying the number of visits while Hamas holds an Israeli and two soldiers’ bodies is a moral disgrace.”

Yossi Tsur, a bereaved father and member of the Almagor organization

Tsur was referring to the fact that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has caved in once again to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist prisoners. Those prisoners had been on a three week hunger strike until yesterday’s “agreement” with the IPS which doubles the amount of visits they can receive from relatives.

If we have written it once, we have written it a hundred times: the IPS has no backbone whatsoever–just like the Israeli government when it comes to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

What the IPS did was indeed a moral disgrace.

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The News On The Israeli Street

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .

In Judea and Samaria:

*Two knife-armed Palestinian terrorists were captured just outside of Azzun.

*Palestinian terrorists planted an IED along the route used by Jewish worshipers to get to Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem. It was discovered before detonation and defused by IDF sappers.

*Palestinian terrorists attacked IDF patrols in Halhul, Hevron, and Deir Nizam.

*Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli motorists with Molotovs and “rocks” throughout Gush Etzion.

On the Gaza border:

Explosive “balloon” launches and attacks on the border fence continue unabated–though in slightly diminished numbers for the last 24 hours.

Why in “slightly diminished numbers”?

Because the Egyptians and Qataris have pressured Hamas to suppress violence until all of the equipment for the new, 16-department, Gaza Hospital are ferried through the Erez Crossing. The new hospital is being built on a 4 hectare (10 acre) plot of land just on the other side of that Crossing.

The transfer of materials should be finished by Friday or early next week, at which time we can expect Palestinian terrorism to resume full force.

By the way, Qatari and German medical teams will be providing most the medical services at the hospital which is being built with funds supplied by an unnamed private American NGO. 

Speaking of Qatar . . .

It is interesting how warmly Israel has embraced Qatar since the 2014 war in Gaza–especially considering how Qatar facilitated that war by building underground infrastructure for Hamas and paid for weapons to be transported to Hamas from Libya through Egypt.

In recent months, Israel has docilely signed on to Qatar’s payment of millions of dollars in blackmail money to Hamas–the next payment of which will happen next week. Also, Israel has allowed Qatar to begin massive construction projects in Gaza.

So has the Qatari attitude toward Israel changed?

Not one whit.

Just yesterday, Qatari Ambassador to the United Nations Nasir Abd Al-Aziz Al-Nasser delivered a blistering condemnation of Israel during his speech at the U.N.

Nasser blasted Israel for violating international law in regard to “settlements, the Judaism of Jerusalem, the siege of Gaza, and actions on the Golan Heights.”

Among the loudest of those applauding his speech were the representatives from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt–the “moderate” Arab countries who have supposedly warmed to Israel.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Likud Gains Another Mandate

Just as we suspected, the “almost official” results from the election were published last night by the Israel Election Commission.

In this most recent accounting, Likud gained a seat–giving it a total of 32.

Unfortunately, that seat came at the expense of United Torah Judaism which dropped from 8 to 7 seats. Therefore, the total number of seats in the “right” block remains at 55.

The results remain “almost official” because the Commission has still not decided to do with several polling stations in which forgeries took place.

In any case, the “almost official” results show that Gantz’s Kahol Levan received some 35,000 more votes than Likud allowing it to declare victory.

Of sorts.

Because the same results show that the “Right block” ended up with more mandates.

Significantly more mandates than is being reported.

If you take away the Joint Arab List’s 10-seat recommendation for Gantz (because the Left has never considered the Arab List as belonging to it), and add the 8-seats of Yisrael Beiteinu to the Right as Lieberman continually claims he is, then the numbers you end up with are:

44 seats for Kahol Levan, Labor, and Democratic Union

63 seats for Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Yamina, and Yisrael Beiteinu 

From this perspective, the election was a resounding victory for the “Right” in Israel. The problem is simply that Lieberman will not go along with Shas and UTJ.

Negotiations continued yesterday between the “Right block” and Kahol Levan with all kinds of ideas being floated and none agreed upon concerning a unity government. In fact, Kahol Levan continues to insist that it is not negotiating with the “Right block”, but with Likud.

Such questions as “who would serve as prime minister first?” and “what will happen if Netanyahu is indicted?” are not even close to being resolved. Kahol Levan issued a statement yesterday saying that what Netanyahu really wants is a third election.

We’ll see what today brings.