Israel General Discussion: The Return of the Rotation Government

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This is the most exciting thing to happen this week (not the government, the moving threads)

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The Haredim always manage to sneak into these governments. Ugh.

Tbh? We had a "thin" government without the Haredim in 2013 and nothing really changed. If we want secular reforms, we need to get the religious zionists out just as much as the Haredim. And if we want good government, we need to get Likud out of power.

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I just took a peep on the coalition agreement. I don't think parts of it will stand judicial review.

Indeed the "extended leap frog Norwegian law" which would have allowed B&W to resign but to be placed only by Hosen members further down the list is currently off the table (retroactive).

I expect the mechanism designed to override the regular apparatus of constructive motion of no confidence set in the Section 28 of the basic-law: government to be nullified by the SC as it constrains the power of the majority of the Knesset to elect a government. Also, the automatic substitution of PMs at a single date could raise some issues. What if B&W dissolves by then and Gantz is left with only 4 MKs supporting him, should he really be allowed to automatically become PM with no confidence?

Some of the rotational mechanisms regarding sacking and appointing ministers could go either way. The high road would have been a gentlemen's agreement like between 84-88, but as I wouldn't believe Bibi telling me it's raining during a monsoon I can understand the need for assurances.

As to the difficulties with some many sycophants on one side and too little on the other to man all posts. Likud will probably send some members to be ambassadors. Haskel is rumored to be heading to Australia. Ardan to the UN. Akonis might go to London. Meanwhile, Gantz who has too few MKs to fill all posts in the house and in government will probably appoint exterior ministers to some posts as professional ministers.

Good riddance to Haskel, who'll no longer influence economic policy as a useless ambassador. Arden is one of the least incompetent Ministers in Likud, but at least he's better to represent us than clown Danon.

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So...

- Labor party central committee okays their entry into the coalition
- Meretz MKs are calling them sellouts, telling left-wing activists to join them instead
- Mairav Michaeli accuses Peretz of stealing votes, saying she's gonna see what the Supreme Court decides before making her next step

The fact that about 1/3rd of the party convention voted against joining government shows that there are some people who will respond to that call from the left. I can definitely see them failing to cross the threshold next time, at this rate. I think it will be a double squeeze, too, as more moderate Labor voters could migrate to Yesh Atid thanks to continued opposition to Netanyahu, but Meretz is the much greater threat.

One poll had them at 1.1%. Below Gesher, Drek Israel (Hendel and Hauser) and Otzma. Labour is dead.

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In other news, Yair Netanyahu is still a white supremacist:
https://twitter.com/YairNetanyahu/status/1255056296384040960?s=20

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In other news, Yair Netanyahu is still a white supremacist:
https://twitter.com/YairNetanyahu/status/1255056296384040960?s=20

Really odd, especially considering his grandfather despised Christian values, Joffrey here is essentially a far-right catholic

It's classic neo nazi rhetoric. He's no different than these people at this point, his grandfather would probably be ashamed (the probably is "if he wasn't as morally bankrupt as his son")

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In other news, Yair Netanyahu is still a white supremacist:
https://twitter.com/YairNetanyahu/status/1255056296384040960?s=20

Why in the world would any self-respecting Jew want Europe of all continents to "return to being Christian"?!

Don't worry, the (((evil globalists))) will be eliminated by Yair's friends

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I found this in a discord I'm in.

Amazing. I'm definitely the Yarok, it's literally me. Also anti-Bibist.

In other interesting news, MK Gadeer Mreeh gave a wonderful, wonderful speech in the Knesset. She was articulate, funny, made the point effectively and without inciting hostility. A rising star. She tore the hypocritical treatment of the Druze as a nice and docile population while they're not given the funds they're promised. And she said this sentence that I found really powerful: "I resent the militaristic discourse, what's that phrase 'blood alliance'? I come to live with you, not to die with you."

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Yamina going to the opposition! Great news. Just to understand to lengths to which Bibi had to go to get rid of them- he offered them the chairmanship of the Committee for Public Complaints. Now Bibi is free to distribute more Ministries among his people, including possibly Health or Education (which I'm still hoping KL will take).

Also, Gantz is giving Yoaz H*ndel an important ministry- Communications. I'd add that this is one of the ministries most important to Bibi. Lol

Do they specifically single out Russian Jews though (as opposed to Secular Jews in general)?

I'd just like to add my two cents as an Israeli Russian- first, the Russian community in Israel definitely isn't some crime nexus, and Sharansky's party was just a normal secterian party (that sadly wasn't able to permanently wrest control of the Home Ministry from Shas.

As for Shas, I'll start by saying that yes, there's a lot of racism in the Russian community- against Arabs, against Ethiopian Jews, and against Sephardic Jews. It often makes me ashamed to be a Russian. But Shas is are a real racist party- there's no election in which they don't use dog whistles or active racism against Russians. One instance was when they made an ad in which a "proper Jewish Sephardic guy" is marrying a "blonde Russian woman" who turns to be non-Jewish, as a warning on the "dangers" of easy conversion to Judaism for these Russians (who are x100 times the patriots and x100 times more helpful to Israel than Shas' base, but I digress). Last time, Deri said that "you can't walk in the Immigration Ministry without knowing Russian" and promised to demand that protfolio in the government (a promise that since disappeared). He also promoted a disgusting idea of checking the DNA of Russian immigrants to ensure that they do have Jewish roots, saying that "unfortunately we have hundreds of thousands of non Jews admitted [from Russia]".

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Why does Bibi care about Communications so much?

Communications is the ministry responsible for media sources such as radio and television. Bibi is absolutely obsessed with the media- two of his corruption cases include favourable regulations for media barons in exchange for favourable coverage of him and his family, he's being pushing for years (increasingly successfully) to put mindless puppets in maintream media channels, he has a whole newspaper gifted to him by Sheldon Adelson which is pretty much a propaganda outlet, he's been keeping the Communication Ministry to himself for several years until the courts forced him to hand it out (he gave it to loyal soldier David Amsalem). There's a mountain of evidence of how he and his family were extremely petty in how they wanted to influence media coverage, for example his wife demanding nicer pictures of her and smearing the wife of his rival, Bennet.

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Thanks for your insight. I'm sorry if I came across as implying Russian Jews were all criminals. There's now a sizeable amount of organised criminals who are non-Russian too, some of whom have infiltrated the Likud. I am starting to realise though why YB broke away so easily from the Hasidic parties.

Could you link the Shas ad? It seems almost surreal, but then Shaked's ad did too

No worries, it's just that there's a lot of stereotyping in Israel so I had to clear that up a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5wCALTOhCU

Holy sh**t, it's worse than I remembered. The woman's accent is really extreme, she speaks half in Russian as if Russians can't speak normal Hebrew, and the guy exclaims "you're not a Jew?!" in the end.

Also includes the hypocricy in the smug treatment some mizrahi Jews give Russians: the sentence "keeping the Jewish tradition" in that ad, while playing an Arab song. Treating us and our heritage as alien and non-Jewish while keeping their heritage, which also has some parts that are decidedly non-Jewish. Not that I have a problem with this.

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3, all this really gives me the vibe Shas are a nasty party, even by the standards of Isreali politics.

They're just basically a cult. I worked in a polling place in the April election, and one woman who came from another city came looking for a polling place where you could vote as an absentee. She was distressed because "it's a sacred obligation to vote Shas". They use their dead Rabbie, Ovadia Yossef, who was really popular, in all their ads, telling voters that he's "looking from above" and that they have to vote Shas for him. They also sold charms against covid-19 last time and other "blessings" every election. Not to mention the fact that their leader served a jail sentence for corruption and is now due to be indicted again.

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3, all this really gives me the vibe Shas are a nasty party, even by the standards of Isreali politics.

They're just basically a cult. I worked in a polling place in the April election, and one woman who came from another city came looking for a polling place where you could vote as an absentee. She was distressed because "it's a sacred obligation to vote Shas". They use their dead Rabbie, Ovadia Yossef, who was really popular, in all their ads, telling voters that he's "looking from above" and that they have to vote Shas for him. They also sold charms against covid-19 last time and other "blessings" every election. Not to mention the fact that their leader served a jail sentence for corruption and is now due to be indicted again.

I'm laughing at the the irony that they attack Russians for mafia stuff while they are basically THE mafia in Isreali politics, due to their exceptional corruption. Is that bad?

Well, they have no organzied or violent crime connections that I know of. Generally, mafia stuff isn't really an issue in Israeli politics (save pershaps for instances like the witnesses in Lieberman's trial, um, disappearing). But I think it's an accurate assessment that both Shas and YB represent the bad sides of their sects and not the good (sadly, I think this can be said for a lot of sectarial parties- the Haredim, the religious zionists, even the Arabs to an extent).

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3, all this really gives me the vibe Shas are a nasty party, even by the standards of Isreali politics.

They're just basically a cult. I worked in a polling place in the April election, and one woman who came from another city came looking for a polling place where you could vote as an absentee. She was distressed because "it's a sacred obligation to vote Shas". They use their dead Rabbie, Ovadia Yossef, who was really popular, in all their ads, telling voters that he's "looking from above" and that they have to vote Shas for him. They also sold charms against covid-19 last time and other "blessings" every election. Not to mention the fact that their leader served a jail sentence for corruption and is now due to be indicted again.

I'm laughing at the the irony that they attack Russians for mafia stuff while they are basically THE mafia in Isreali politics, due to their exceptional corruption. Is that bad?

Well, they have no organzied or violent crime connections that I know of. Generally, mafia stuff isn't really an issue in Israeli politics (save pershaps for instances like the witnesses in Lieberman's trial, um, disappearing). But I think it's an accurate assessment that both Shas and YB represent the bad sides of their sects and not the good (sadly, I think this can be said for a lot of sectarial parties- the Haredim, the religious zionists, even the Arabs to an extent).

There's some pretty serious allegations in Misha Glenny's book McMafia (which led to be interested in how Russian Jews are perceived) that Likud was infiltrated by organised crime.

After Dubai, Israel is the next money laundering capital of the Middle East...

Interesting. Might be telling that I didn't know much about this, despite living here and being pretty knowledgeable about our politics. We're definitely due for a cleanup, that's for sure. From Labour to Likud and from the JL to the Haredim, many parties have some shady stuff.

Oh I meant that Shas was the personification of corruption in Isreali politics, evenmoreso than Bibi. They have been basically in 95% of the governments (dunno the exact figure, so treat the 95% here as a figure of speech), and have done an exceptionally skillful job at enriching themselves.
And that is mafia-like.

Ah, agreed there.

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Government to be sworn in this Thursday.

Bar for the allocation of the minor portfolios nothing interest left.

"Whether Regev or Ohana will be police minister" is nothing of interest? Sad!
(/s)

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Some updates that weren't covered:

1. Today in the evening we're finally officially getting a government sworn in. It'll be a bloated government of 73 people, the majority of which will be Ministers- wait, weren't they 72? Just a moment
2. Rumours (I think unfounded) that Dudi Amsalem, certified dumbass who definitely doesn't know English, will get the London Ambassadorship which would be hilarious
3. Gilad Erdan being shipped off to be Ambassador to Washington and the U.N. is significant because he's the current Internal Security Minister who's one of the more competent Likud people willing (kindaaaa) to challenge Netanyahu
4. Yamina will stay in opposition, BUT: Rafi Peretz (Jewish Home) is splitting from Yamina to join the government as Minister for Jerusalem and National Projects, also responsible for the Settlement Division and National Service. Basically a tailor-made role to advance settler interests and to keep deepening the influence of religion in Israel.
5. Orly Levy will finally get a Ministry- and it's a total joke called "Minister for Social Strengthening and Advancement", which is basically nothing and would be better if it was just called "Minister without Protfolio". She'll be responsible for the struggle against violence, alcohol and drugs, protecting kids in the internet and a vague "empowering the Arab public" project. A total joke, as I said.
6. The Health Ministry will go to former Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edlestein, and Education probably stays with Likud too.

Personal take: this Rafi Peretz thing is my last straw with Gantz and Amir Peretz. It was one of the easiest things they could do- just like, not allow Peretz to split from Yamina and join the government. It's not even the whole Yamina, it's just one person who Bibi doesn't care that much about. They could've easily demanded that he stays out. Instead, they choose to betray the LGBT+ community by letting Mr. Conversion Therapy get in and keep supporting the settlements and the increasing influence of religion with ideological zeal (a Likud Minister would be much less ideological about it and would probably mostly pay lip service). Not that his Minsitryt is very important but it's just another sign of how little they care. A total disgrace.

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Michaeli announced she’s voting against the confidence motion which means she will have to split from Labour.

https://twitter.com/ReactionVideos_/status/1121038886082314241?s=20

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Michaeli announced she’s voting against the confidence motion which means she will have to split from Labour.

https://twitter.com/ReactionVideos_/status/1121038886082314241?s=20

Who do you think she will join?

I'm guessing she'll stay independent and claim to represent "the voters of Labour" or something.

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MK Avi Dichter and Minister Tzachi Hanegbi are rebelling because they won't get ministries and will not arrive to the government swearing-in. We still have no inkling who the hell will get Education.

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Regev will be the Transportation Minister and will become Foreign Minister after the 1.5 years pass (lmaooo I'd love it). Meanwhile, Bibi continuing with the tradition of appointing the dumbest person he can find in the whole country for the Coalition Chairman, and chose Miki Zohar (who'll also become a Minister after 1.5 years). Others who served in this prestigious role are Dudi Amsalem and David Bitan.

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Yoav Gallant- retired General, formerly Construction Minister as part of Kulanu. Defected to Likud and is currently (as I learned from Wikipedia because he's doing literally nothing related to the office) the Immigration Minister. Was almost appointed Chief of the IDF but wasn't because he illegally seized public land. Great example for the kids

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Zeev Elkin (current environment protection minister) was just appointed... Minister for Higher Education amd Water Resources...

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Yoav Gallant- retired General, formerly Construction Minister as part of Kulanu. Defected to Likud and is currently (as I learned from Wikipedia because he's doing literally nothing related to the office) the Immigration Minister. Was almost appointed Chief of the IDF but wasn't because he illegally seized public land. Great example for the kids

Sorry, this might just be me on 24+ hours of no sleep, but what's the news regarding him? To me (& again, this might just be my lack of sleep talking), this just reads like a TL;DR biography of the guy.

Lmao, sorry, I left out the most important part! He was appointed to the important office of Education Minister.

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Hotoveli will also apparently be in rotation with Hanegbi for the Settlement Ministry

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Former Health Minister Litzman on Coronavirus: "from the start I was saying that nothing will happen and it's nothing, but Netanyahu chose to buy the panic of the Ministry's Director". Thank god that Moshe Bar Siman Tov (Health Ministry Director) and Netanyahu reacted appropriately.

I think the Haredim truly did themselves no favour in the past months: their main representative was an absentee health minister who did nothing except try to loose restrictions on religious facilities, and by their refusal to comply with the restrictions until it was too late they contributed to more thab half of our epidemic.

I'm sure now that Litzman will only work for Haredim as Construction Minister and the rest will get nothing. Oh, except the very privileged settlers who got their own ministry. I'm also deeply suspicious of any other Haredi party politician. Before the epidemic I tried to check myself and prevent the resentment and division against Haredim that people like Lieberman are promoting from taking over me, but this is the last straw. I really think that the Haredim need to reform deeply before most Israelis can ever trust them.