11-12 Adar 5780
7-8 March 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
Corona . . .
The Corona map in Israel. Each pinpoint is a confirmed case. This map changes by the hour.
As you can see from the above map, there are still relatively few cases of Corona in Israel (25)–mostly centered around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And as we reported yesterday, virtually every case involves an Israeli who returned from travel abroad.
The Health Ministry has just announced that every Israeli returning from abroad must go into a 14 day isolation. It has also announced that passengers on flights originating in New York, California, and Washington (state) must also go into a self-imposed isolation,
Corona has also hit Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria–the Palestinian controlled areas. Bethlehem and Ramallah are completely locked down, and foreign tourists have been specially bused through Israel to Ben Gurion airport for departure. Schools and mosques are closed.
The news from Iran . . .
According to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, Iran has now enriched more than 1000 kg of uranium at 4.5%. You are probably saying so what? After all, hasn’t the IAEA been telling us that 20% or higher is necessary for a nuclear bomb?
No longer.
It now says that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make 1 nuclear bomb.
And how many nuclear bombs would it take to lay waste to central Israel and kill hundreds of thousands?
1.
And more from Iran . . . by way of Syria . . .
In the past few days, more than 50 Shi’ite Pakistani mercenaries paid by Iran have been killed near Idlib. Trained by the Revolutionary Guards, they were apparently killed in a strange pincer movement carried out Turkish forces and Syrian forces loyal to Assad.
Another Revolutionary Guard Commander, Farhad Dvirian, was assassinated Friday in Damascus.
TODAY’S BLOG
A Minority “Government”?
Gantz, Liberman, and the Joint Arab List Move To Unite
Isn’t it amazing how hatred can unite?
Ostensibly, the Blue and White Party of Benny Gantz, the Yisrael Beiteinu Party of Avigdor Liberman, and the Joint List would seem to have little in common. Yet their mutual hatred of PM Netanyahu may lead to a new governing system.
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A series of announcements today has started the ball rolling.
First, Liberman spelled out his 5 conditions for joining Blue and White:
1. A minimum income of 70% of the minimum wage for all pensioners living from income support and the old age pension.
2. Transfer of all authority concerning public transportation and business openings on Shabbat to local governments.
3. A return to the Draft Law that was initially approved in the 20th Knesset.
4. Approval of the so-called Civil Marriage Law.
5. Approval of a new “conversion” law by which “every municipal rabbi can establish a court and carry out conversions.”
As you can see, conditions 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all designed to take away power from the ultra-orthodox–or to put it another way, to throw Shas and United Torah Judaism under the bus.
Within hours of Liberman announcing these conditions, Gantz agreed.
As soon as Gantz agreed, Liberman went farther and said that he supports removal of Yuli Edelstein as Knesset Speaker and replacing him with Meir Cohen of the Blue and White Party (we reported on this strategy several days ago). The point of this replacement is to allow the Blue and White anti-Israel group to take control of Knesset committees.
So where does this Gantz-Liberman marriage leave us?
If we take Gantz’s 33 seats, Liberman’s 7 seats, and Meretz/Labor’s 7 seats, we have an anti-Bibi faction of 47 seats–14 seats short of having the requisite 61 seat majority in the Knesset.
That leaves the Joint Arab List and its 15 seats.
It now seems extremely likely that this List will join the anti-Netanyahu “group”, but not an anti-Netanyahu “coalition government.” In other words, it will vote to support the type of laws that Liberman wants and the new Knesset speaker, but will not be part of a Coalition government (because if the Arab List joined a Gantz-led Coalition government, Liberman would drop out).
In short, Israel would have a “minority government” consisting of a 62 seat anti-Netanyahu group.
However, there are two big “howevers”.
First, there are a number of members of Blue and White that totally disagree with this strategy.
Second, the Joint Arab List support for this anti-Israel group is not without conditions. In fact, it has 10 (which are too lengthy to list here today). Suffice it to say that a number of these conditions are very controversial.
And so it goes in Israel on this eve of Purim.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.