Israel general discussion

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In the last hours, I received three or four negative messages against Margalit and one against Bar Lev. These are also the first negative sms I received about them, while the other 3 candidates, who I believe got none today, got a lot of negativity before election day. Cautious prediction- these two will outperform, especially Margalit.

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Results supposed to come in 2 minutes. Supposed.

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In the last hours, I received three or four negative messages against Margalit and one against Bar Lev. These are also the first negative sms I received about them, while the other 3 candidates, who I believe got none today, got a lot of negativity before election day. Cautious prediction- these two will outperform, especially Margalit.

I have a feeling these SMS messages against Margalit were from his HQ, perhaps an attempt to create a buzz...

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Who will you guys be voting for?

I think Hnv1 is a Meretz member so he can't vote in the Labour Primaries, but I'll be voting for Gabay. Peretz is just too corrupt and driven by identity politics.

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Weird, 2 Sephardic Jews running against each other in the Labor run-off. This is a bit like if the two main contenders for the GOP nomination were Herman Cain and Ben Carson. Well, probably not that weird, but a little weird.

I wonder if (Ashkenazi) turn out will be hurt as a result. Presumably the Ashkeanzis that do turn out will all support Gabay.

...No. If that were true, Gabay would win by a landslide. Ashkenazis are not white voters from Mississippi or something.
As for the turnour, I think there will be an overall decrease because some Herzog, Margalit or Bar Lev (lol) supporters will not bother voting, but I doubt that any Ashkenazi other than a few old racists care about the Labour candidate being sephardic.

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Herzog and Margalit have endorsed Peretz.

Herzog voters could be swayed by it, from what I hear and see on social media Margalit supporters aren't rushing to Peretz (for a variety of reasons). Yechimovic and former PM Barak endorsed Gabay. Only Shaffir from the big names is still on the fence (Bar Lev refused to endorse any of them).

I wonder if many voters would want to stick one up the "establishment", electing Gabay could put the PLP (am I allowed to use this term outside of the UK?) in a dangerous spin.

Shaffir endorsed Gabay yesterday. He seems to have the less old-establishment-minded MPs like Rosenthal, Yachimovich, Biran and Shaffir with him, while Peretz gets people like Herzog, Bar, and Shay.

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Turnout figures will be similar to the first round (just short of 60%). Results in an hour, Gabay's hq are a little stressed and are trying to get more people to vote. Time for bets! 53-47 to Peretz, Gabay is too unfamiliar to carry this

In the area of 55-45 for Peretz. Voted for Gabay today, the machine had a problem with it and took a few tried to register the vote, but it's probably just the machine.

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Avi Gabay won.
52.4% for Gabay, 47.6% for Peretz.

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Has the Nissenkorn vs Yachimovich race happened yet? If not, when?

It did, Nissenkorn won by a lot.

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Herzog will remain the leader of the opposition in the Knesset along with the privileges of the post. This is going to be weird, as the leader of the opposition gets 1 on 1 meeting with every foreign leader visiting Gabay will have to tag along. I wonder if Bibi will permit him to join to monthly intelligence briefing with the leader of the opposition...he could pull a stunt there.

A big mistake. Should've chosen someone like Margalit, Shaffir or even Peretz, just not Herzog.

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Yeah, Yisrael Beiteinu. I know their voters don't care but was still interested, because I do care and YB taking a position I really couldn't stomach would be a disappointment to me.

I'm not sure, but I think they supported the compromise and made noises of disapproval when it was rejected, along with the conversion reform (which IS important to their voters since the Chief Rabbinate is disgustingly cruel to Russian immigrants).

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Netanyahu's former CoS flipped and became a key witness for the prosecution in 2 criminal investigations (one of corruption), indictment is inbound. The glorious leader appears determined to refuse to go as the law (not a statute though but it doesn't matter as we are a common law country) requires. His political partners are lukewarm about playing the role of ushering him out, so we might be heading into quite a political and constitutional conundrum (some like myself will also predict some military conflict inbound)

Let's see if an indictment actually happens. I'm still doubtful it will. If it does, he needs to resign. But, until that day (if it ever comes), I still think a lot of this nonsense is unsubstantiated.

Israeli Police are an utter joke when it comes to political corruption and are, imo, much more corrupt than the politicians themselves.

It's pretty obvious that Netanyahu is corrupt to the bone, and there seems to be hard evidence. In fact, it's been obvious for a long time, just like it's obvious that Lieberman is corrupt in even worse ways.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu took days to disavow the neo-nazis, marching on the streets and shouting that "Jews won't replace us". He took days to discover that "everyone needs to oppose this". And he didn't even squeak about Trump's terrible response to it- I do wonder how he'd respond to Obama botching his response to nazis in the same way.
Meanwhile, MK Oren Hazan, who is himself a ridiculous attempt to mimick Trump, said that "Trump is right about violence on both sides". He equated people who shout nazi and terribly antisemitic warcries to leftist protestors.
And then there's Netanyahu's son and heir apparent, Yair, who posted that the nazis are "a thing of the past" and that the real threat is antifa.

I'm sorry, but the Israeli right is morally bankrupt. I will never vote for Likud, at least not until it's cleansed of elements such as Oren Hazan, Miri Regev and yes, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Parrotguy, do you think the next election will see a coalition of Zionist Union, Kulanu, and Yesh Atid? Or would Meretz probably have to be included?

Nope, this won't hurt Netanyahu. I believe he's going to be indicted soon, so the likeliest scenario in the next election is another Likud coalition, probably with a different leader. But I just felt so much disgust when I saw people who claim to be the most zionist in the world fail so much at disavowing Nazis out of pure political interest.

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Parrotguy, do you think the next election will see a coalition of Zionist Union, Kulanu, and Yesh Atid? Or would Meretz probably have to be included?

Nope, this won't hurt Netanyahu. I believe he's going to be indicted soon, so the likeliest scenario in the next election is another Likud coalition, probably with a different leader. But I just felt so much disgust when I saw people who claim to be the most zionist in the world fail so much at disavowing Nazis out of pure political interest.

Ze'ev Elkin, Tzachi Hanegbi, Avi Dichter, Miri Regev, or Nir Barkat are my ideal choices to replace Netanyahu, though I suspect Erdan or Edelstein will succeed Netanyahu.

You truly want Prime Minister Miri Regev? She's the complete opposite of most politicians you seem to support. That would really make me start planning how to immigrate.

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Parrotguy, do you think the next election will see a coalition of Zionist Union, Kulanu, and Yesh Atid? Or would Meretz probably have to be included?

Nope, this won't hurt Netanyahu. I believe he's going to be indicted soon, so the likeliest scenario in the next election is another Likud coalition, probably with a different leader. But I just felt so much disgust when I saw people who claim to be the most zionist in the world fail so much at disavowing Nazis out of pure political interest.

Ze'ev Elkin, Tzachi Hanegbi, Avi Dichter, Miri Regev, or Nir Barkat are my ideal choices to replace Netanyahu, though I suspect Erdan or Edelstein will succeed Netanyahu.

You truly want Prime Minister Miri Regev? She's the complete opposite of most politicians you seem to support. That would really make me start planning how to immigrate.

I don't support her at all on immigration or Palestine, but so many other issues come into play when dealing with a party as bad as Likud. If Likud were to elect a female who supports SSM and LGBT+ rights, I truly believe it would keep the... worse elements of Likud from stepping forwards.

Regev IS the worst elements, a populist loudmouth who basically wears a personality which, as she herself admitted, appeals to the "warm Likud members". Her allegedly moderate position on LGBT rights is shared by many Likud members, and like all of them, including MK Amir Ohana (who's gay himself), she never votes or does anything substantial to help the LGBT community. She's a fraud and in my opinion would be worse than Trump.

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Netanyahu's son posted a meme smelling of antisemitism against his father's opposition, edited from a blatantly antisemitic meme. He even added Soros to the new meme, as if it wasn't antisemitic enough.

News at 11.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Netanyahu's son posted a meme smelling of antisemitism against his father's opposition, edited from a blatantly antisemitic meme. He even added Soros to the new meme, as if it wasn't antisemitic enough.

News at 11.

Got a link? I want to see how one Semite accuses another Semite of being anti-Semitic.

I do not accuse him of being antisemitic, not at all. But I do accuse him of ignorance and of foolishly encouraging antisemitic rhetoric.

Here: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.811374

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I looked at this Facebook page that Yair Netanyahu recommended and where he got his meme from, and the problem isn't that it's anti-Semitic, it's isn't (contrary to what some journalists seem to think, using Pepe memes doesn't mean your'e Anti-Semitic).

 What it is though is full of Trumpian style crap where "haha leftist tears" becomes a goal, and it supports violence against leftists and blames all its opponents of anti-Semitism, and has strong support for Pinochet.

 So despite not agreeing with the whole anti-Semitic part, I'm certainly not pleased with the PM's son sharing this kind of crap.

As I said, I do agree that this page is not antisemitic. But the use of an originally antisemitic meme, replacing the stereotyped "Jewish face" with real life Jews like Soros and Ehud Barak, certainly isn't doing any favours and, I'd say, could embolden actual Anti-Semitism. Also, getting complimented by David Duke for a meme you shared isn't something one should strive for.

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SC struck down the draft law (which had all sorts of loops and quotas deemed unconstitutional). Now this was expected during the legislation but the Israeli law angle is uninteresting here. politically: if someone was looking for an issue to topple the government then ding ding ding. (Haredi parties will die for this)

UTJ and Shas will be furious, but are they furious at the government or just at the courts? I'm not sure why they'd leave Netanyahu's government and provoke an early election when the government isn't the reason that the law was struck down.

They'll want a new bill even more in their favor, the government can't provide.

In other news MK Guetta of Shaw was forced to resign for attending a gay wedding

According to Haaretz, Litzman said that the Supreme Court overturned the draft law because it's trying to bring down the government. So yes, seems you're right.

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Are there any other religious groups in Israel that get such a ludicrously unsustainable sweetheart deal?

I guess most Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Israel are satisfied with their monopoly over marriage, with no civic option. And they don't have to serve in the army, either. But the Haredim really are a special case- their outsized political power lets them trample over the general population on their way to enforcing religious laws and earning special benefits for their population.

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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.814579

Elor Azaria's sentence reduced to 14 months by IDF Chief of Staff.

Great news, though it remains a disgrace that he was sentenced for doing his job in the first place.

This is objectively false because it's not only not his job but also against the rules, but we shouldn't get into that.

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MK prof. Trachtenberg and MK Margalit (ZU) both resigned from the Knesset, with the latter it's interesting as he ran for Labour's leadership recently and probably estimated his chances to get in next time as slim.

They will be replaced by some Druze nobody and the deputy mayor of some northern town and the head of the party's women division

Uh, a shame. Margalit was actually good. Some are speculating that he could run for Jerusalem mayor.

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MK prof. Trachtenberg and MK Margalit (ZU) both resigned from the Knesset, with the latter it's interesting as he ran for Labour's leadership recently and probably estimated his chances to get in next time as slim.

They will be replaced by some Druze nobody and the deputy mayor of some northern town and the head of the party's women division

Uh, a shame. Margalit was actually good. Some are speculating that he could run for Jerusalem mayor.

Hope so, he could be whatever Barket couldn't, and he might actually improve the situation in Eastern Jerusalem.

Meanwhile in Meretz there will probably be a leadership election after the new convention is elected. Galon vs Gilon vs Dabush is what's shaping out. Galon backed by MKs Rosin and Fregg (and other old guard figures), Gilon is backed by his youth nutters, and Dabush by Zandebreg and her supporters

This is surprising. I'd have expected Zandeberg to support Galon, considering she wanted to step down in her favour when Meretz initially got only 4 seats.

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@Hnv1- what would you say about the results of the Meretz delegate elections? Which faction should celebrate?