If Naftali Bennett's career is over, he may deserve it

World Israel News has an analysis of now former Israeli government education minister Bennett's fortunes following the catastrophe of his "New Right" party, which did not make it over the threshold for the Knesset:

Those dreams may have ended with what is turning into his biggest misstep. In December, Mr. Bennett unceremoniously dropped the Jewish Home party, which he led, in order to found the New Right party.

The Jewish Home is still angry, justifiably so as Mr. Bennett left the party in disarray. In a sign bad blood still exists, senior Jewish Home members on election day disseminated video clips of Mr. Bennett four years ago telling voters to choose Jewish Home. Mr. Bennett complained to the Central Elections Committee, which ordered Jewish Home to cease and desist.

The Jewish Home party only survived the elections because it combined with still smaller religious-Zionist parties.

The bigger problem for Mr. Bennett is that he burned bridges with his national religious base, which is likely to view any political comeback by Mr. Bennett with a jaundiced eye after his shattering act of disloyalty.

More to the point, the voting public is furious because Bennett's laughable maneuver cost them thousands of votes at the ballot box:

Mr. Bennett had hoped the soldiers’ vote, which is counted later, would put him over the top. It did not. The New Right came up 1,461 votes short. No party has missed the threshold by such a small number.

The more important number is 138,491 — those who believed in the New Right and saw their votes wasted. They’ll think twice before signing onto any Bennett ticket in the future.

My sister is one of those people who had her vote wasted by a man whom I've come to view as an utter disgrace. To make matters worse, he even - at least initially - resorted to the classically cheap notion of trying to siphon voters from Likud, proving he lacked faith in his ability to convince voters on the left to try him out. After all the hard work Netanyahu did to get Jerusalem and the Golan Heights recognized by the US, and they return the favor by making it sound like he's suddenly going to turn traitor overnight?!? That was degrading. It goes without saying if Bennett hadn't split up, there might've been another seat or two won for the right-wing bloc, and he just had to ruin everything.

And while Ayelet Shaked may not be innocent in all these mistakes either, she did do a positive job as justice minister, and now Bennett cost her a Knesset seat too. She may be able to rejoin the Likud, where she once worked, and even work as a non-parliament minister, but it still doesn't excuse the damage Bennett's wrought. Therefore, I honestly think it best for him to retire, and his grave errors serve an important lesson why you don't just simply divide the right, period, and you also don't act desperate for a neighboring party's votes instead of convincing the other side of the spectrum to try your platform.

Why younger Israelis lean more right-wing

Here's an article explaining why younger generations of Israelis are supporting conservatives more than in countries like the US and/or UK:

According to the 2018 Israeli Democracy Index (an annual study by the Israeli Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan Israeli think tank), approximately 64 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18-34 identify as right wing, compared to 47 percent of those 35 and older. An Israeli Democracy Institute survey conducted just one week before Tuesday’s election likewise found a direct correlation between age and support for Prime Minister Netanyahu: 65 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18-24, and 53 percent of those 25-34, favored Netanyahu winning re-election, while 17 percent and 33 percent, respectively, preferred his more centrist rival, Benny Gantz.

“There are young people who like Netanyahu’s ideology,” Eli Hazan, a Likud campaign spokesman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They see the diplomatic achievements of Netanyahu and believe in him. Those are the facts and that’s the reality.”

[...] The trend might have to do with the events that shaped their formative years. An 18-year-old Israeli wasn’t alive during the heyday of the peace process in the 1990s, nor when the Israeli left last won an election, in 1999.

Young Israelis grew up during the second intifada, which saw hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings. The aftermath of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, which occurred when this group was between 4 to 20 years old, has led many young Jewish Israelis to resent any leader who is willing to cede any more land currently under Israeli control. Since some of this group has served in the army, successive wars in Gaza have only hardened that perception.

“They were born after the Oslo process started, they were exposed to the bloodshed during the second intifada, they are coming right after military service,” Hermann told JTA.

Hazan, the Likud spokesman, said that “people who grew up in the middle of the Al-Aqsa intifada don’t trust the Palestinians, don’t believe in peace. They really want there to be peace, but there is no partner.”

For younger religious Zionist voters in particular, the disengagement, which displaced some 8,000 Jewish settlers, “was considered an absolutely devastating moment that they’ve vowed never to return to,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst and a public opinion expert, told JTA.

“The general narrative is, we gave up this land, they sent rockets in return,” Scheindlin said. “The national religious have considered it a national trauma ever since then.”

[...] Right-wing parties have also attracted young voters because they prefer the same platform: social media. Netanyahu, who is famously averse to speaking with the Israeli press, is most comfortable tweeting and posting videos to Facebook. Those happen to also be networks popular with young Israelis.

And there you have it. These are some of the most valid reasons anybody in Israel today prefers the right to the left.

Netanyahu wins his 5th electoral victory

97 percent of votes have been counted so far, and while the Likud and the Blue & White party are tied at 35, the right-wing has a majority, ensuring Benjamin Netanyahu his 5th term as prime minister, and 4th consecutive one since a decade ago:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clinched a clear victory early Wednesday morning in Israel’s general elections.

With some 97 percent of votes in Tuesday’s contest counted, his Likud party was tied with Blue and White, but his right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc held a decisive lead and Netanyahu was thus safely en route to forming a majority governing coalition.

With more than four million votes counted as of 9 a.m., Likud had snagged 26.27% of the vote, or 35 seats in the 120-seat legislature — the party’s best result since the 2003 election (when it won 38 seats under Ariel Sharon), and its best under Netanyahu.

Likud’s main rival in the election, the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, won 25.94% of the vote, which would also give it 35 seats, but had insufficient support from other parties to prevent Netanyahu staying in power for what will be a fifth term.

The left-wing is 10 seats behind, and since there's even leftists who don't want to work with the Arabic parties (though they may not be willing to join a coalition regardless), that's one more reason why Gantz won't be able to form a government. Besides, most importantly, he's never served in public office before, and so, he's untested and thus unreliable.

Maybe most interesting about this election is the Labor party's plummeting to a single digit, their lowest number to date:

The historically dominant Labor Party crashed to sixth place with 4.46% (six seats), the party’s worst showing in its 71-year history.

Yep, and a lot of leftists abandoned them for the sake of Gantz's pretentious cobbling together of a political faction with Yair Lapid, himself a crummy politician, who's since suggested he's not really opposed to the Haredi parties, as he too actually hoped to court them.

On the right side of the spectrum, Naftali Bennett's "New Right" failed so far to win any Knesset seats:

In a shock development, the New Right party, led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, appeared to have failed to cross the electoral threshold of 3.25%, garnering just 3.14% of the vote, thought it held out hopes that soldiers’ votes could lift it above the threshold; those final votes should be tallied by early Thursday morning.

I get the feeling he alienated some voters with his dreadful campaigning, and splitting from Union of Right-wing Parties obviously didn't help. He honestly struck me at times as a very fishy character, and so, if his career in politics is over, who knows? He may have asked for it. He may have had good intentions, but he sure didn't know how to convey them well, and his approach may have even alienated some Haredi voters who decided to just vote for the 2 Haredi-led parties as well as Likud, as they'd be the safe choices.

So anyway, this is relieving news, and now, we'll see if Netanyahu keeps his promise of seeing to it Judea/Samaria are given valid status they deserve.

Update: here's a columnist at Israel HaYom summing up that Labor's fiasco is chairman Avi Gabbay's fault.

Election results are hopefully better in some ways, if not all

I'd voted early in the morning, then waited all day long for the results of the Israeli election, realizing it may not turn out well. But now, here come the results as reported on Bloomberg, and while Benny Gantz's party may have more according to these exit pollings, the Likud does seem to have a majority coalition available.

Well I sure hope this is about what's estimated. It doesn't look like Gantz and Yair Lapid will be able to form a coaltion. It most certainly does, however, look like the Labor party did terribly, brought down to a single digit of 8 or 9 seats. Here's more on INN about Channel 13's results:

An exit poll published by Channel 13 News showed the Likud and Blue and White parties tied at 36 seats while the right-wing bloc won 66 seats in total.

According to the poll, the Labor, Shas, Hadash-Ta'al and United Torah Judaism parties would each receive seven Knesset seats, while the United Right, New Right, Kulanu, Meretz, and Yisrael Beiteinu parties would receive four seats each.

The results on the different channels are conflicting, however. But if this is any indication, the results are a relief for the most part.

Update: the Kulanu and Shas parties will give their recommendations to the president that Netanyahu form the next government.

Netanyahu's told Trump he won't evacuate anyone from Judea/Samaria

The prime minister's told about what he's said to Donald Trump in their discussions together:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had made clear to President Donald Trump that he is not prepared to evacuate “a single person” from any West Bank settlements.

When asked if he knew the details of Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Netanyahu told Channel 13 in an interview broadcast Friday that he knew what he had told Trump to include in the agreement.

“I know what I said: I said there can’t be the removal of even one settlement, and [that Israel insists on] our continued control of all the territory to the west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu said.

Which I hope is what ambassador David Friedman was referring to when he spoke of the administration understanding Israel's need to maintain control of Judea/Samaria.

Asked in the interview, which was recorded on Wednesday, whether he had specified this to Trump personally, Netanyahu said he had set out the same positions to Trump and former US President Barack Obama. He elaborated that he had specified to Trump that he would not evacuate “a single person” from the settlements.

“You said that to Trump?” he was asked.

“Like that,” he said, adding that it had been recorded.

Were the US plan to contradict those positions, he indicated, it would not be viable. “As far as I am concerned, [the evacuation of settlements] won’t be there [in the plan], and if it is [in the plan], it won’t [happen].”

Trump, he said, “is the best friend Israel has had” in the White House, and respects his position, “as I respect his,” when he insists on something.

When asked if he expected the US administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank like Trump recognized the Golan Heights last month, and why he wasn’t pressing Trump now to approve Israeli sovereignty over the settlements, Netanyahu said: “Wait until the next term.”

“All the settlements, without exception, those that are in blocs and those that aren’t, need to remain under Israeli sovereignty,” Netanyahu told interviewers Rani Rahav and Sharon Gal, adding that this would “eventually” happen.

Over 400,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements. Another 200,000-plus live in East Jerusalem neighborhoods annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.

I sure hope it does happen. And something tells me it will. Not only that, something tells me that in time, Europe will be able to free itself from socialist shackles it's been trapped in for centuries, and also free itself from the Islamist forces that were foisted upon it by awful politicians in past decades.

Trump's excellent deal of the century

Donald Trump's middle east policy plans include getting Jordan to give citizenship to the so-called palestinians:

President Donald Trump will push for Jordan to grant citizenship to one million Palestinian refugees as part of his "Deal of the Century," according to the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar.

According to UNWRA as of 2016, there were 2 million Palestnian refugees in Jordan.

Trump will also ask Egypt to grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees.

According to the report, Jordan and Egypt will receive USD $110 billion in economic aid. It is not yet clear where this reported aid will come from. Jordan would receive USD $45 billion, and the remainder would go to Egypt. For both of the countries part of the money will be used for implementing projects on the ground.

The absorption would happen in stages, where the largest number of refugees that Jordan would have to take in at one time would be 300,000. Palestinians from Gaza who are currently in Jordan would be included in this deal.

Part of the deal would also include giving Jordanian land, Naharayim and Tzofar, to Israel. These enclaves are currently leased to Israel, but officially Jordanian land. In return, Jordan would receive land from Saudi Arabia, the report claimed.

There's more about the topic over here, including that Lebanon's being urged to do this. And it's the right thing to do, to have Arabic countries start accepting their own back into their fold again, and not force them into specific roles or identity politics. This is a plan I can decidedly get behind, since it can work to Israel's benefit, and the Arabs too.

Gantz doesn't trust his party colleagues

And they may not trust him either. In this latest report on leaked audios from the Gantz party headquarters:

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz said he is “not sure” about a single member of his party’s senior leadership, in a new batch of leaked recordings aired by Channel 13 on Sunday night.

The TV channel released a series of remarks made by the prime ministerial candidate on a host of issues, including his thoughts on his fellow party members, the possibility of joining a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the performance of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in the corruption probe involving submarine purchases from Germany.

Channel 13 did not specify when the comments were made, but the recordings appeared to have been from the last several weeks.

On the remaining three members at the top of Blue and White’s list — Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi — Gantz was revealed to regard them with suspicion.

“I’m not sure about any of the three. I’m not sure about anyone,” the former IDF chief of staff is heard saying.

On Ashkenazi in particular, the Blue and White chairman was caught taking issue with an interview the No. 4 candidate gave to Channel 12 last month, in which he did not say outright that Gantz was the most suitable candidate from the party to serve as prime minister.

“I think he wasn’t right,” said Gantz of Ashkenazi’s response to a question about whether Gantz was the best candidate in the party for prime minister. “He should have said ‘Benny will be an excellent prime minister… He is more suitable than me at this point to be the prime minister,'” Gantz was heard saying in another undated conversation.

Ironically, the recordings were broadcast on Channel 13 just after Lapid told reporters at a Blue and White campaign event Sunday evening that his relationship with Gantz is very close.

“There are values of friendship here as well as an understanding that this (election) is greater than any of us. I trust Benny and Benny trusts me,” Lapid told reporters. “We know we will know how to work together.”

But as some analysts are now stating, they surely don't, and that's mainly because they're only in this to oust Netanyahu as premier. Interestingly, it still looks like they're willing to sit in a government with Netanyahu:

Willingness to sit under Netanyahu

Gantz was also heard considering the possibility that he may fail to defeat Netanyahu on April 9. But despite public statements asserting that he will not sit in a Netanyahu government, the recordings caught the Blue and White leader entertaining that idea.

“Let’s say that he wins the election, a week later (US President Donald) Trump puts forward a (peace) plan and the people of Israel look at Benny Gantz and say, ‘Come, let’s shield Netanyahu,’ because otherwise (far-right MK Bezalel) Smotrich will kill the last option (we have) to do something.”

Oh, I get it. He so dislikes what the other right-wing parties stand for, he's willing to sit in the same government just to entertain leftist ideologies. Ultimately, Gantz and company don't have a policy, and that's why they're not worth voting for. Their failure to maintain unity within the ranks is another reason why they'd make an awful government.

Update: here's more about this on Breitbart.

NYC councilman expelled from immigration committee for stating facts

A member of the NYC immigration council was removed by Democrats for making clear "palestine" doesn't exist:

Kalman Yeger, a New York City councilman, lost his seat on the City Council’s Immigration Committee for tweeting “Palestine does not exist.”

The tweet, posted Wednesday, came in response to a tweet by Zainab Iqbal, a journalist for the local publication Bklyner. Yeger, who represents the haredi Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, also called Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar an anti-Semite. Omar has been accused repeatedly of echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The City Council’s leadership team met Monday and removed Yeger from the committee, according to The New York Times. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had condemned Yeger’s statement and said he should step down from the Immigration Committee if he does not apologize. Council Speaker Corey Johnson also said he was “uncomfortable” with Yeger sitting on the committee.

So creeps like Ilhan Omar are fine in their twisted view, but decent people who're trying to defend Israel are not. This is the Democrat party as it is today, and nobody with common sense and realism should waste their time on what's now becoming a horrible cesspool in politics.

Netanyahu's televised speech to AIPAC

Although the prime minister was unable to attend AIPAC in person, he was able to broadcast a televised speech to them:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the AIPAC policy conference from Israel Tuesday.

Netanyahu had been scheduled to speak at Israel live in Washington DC. However, he flew back to Israel following the rocket attack on the town of Mishmeret which destroyed a home and injured seven people Monday morning.

The prime minister began by addressing Israel's ongoing military response to the rocket fire from Gaza. "We are prepared to do a lot more. We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state."

He praised the bipartisan support for Israel by both Republicans and Democrats, saying that that bipartisanship is "the way it should always be."

Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for signing an official order recognizing Israel's sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

"Yesterday, at the White House, President Trump again made history. He formally recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Now that decision deserves enormous applause," he said.

"The Golan Heights is indispensable for our defense. It's part of our history. When you put a shovel in the ground there, what you discover is the ruins of ancient synagogues. Jews lived there for thousands of years and the people of Israel have come back to the Golan. Israel holds the high ground, and we shall never, ever give it up. It's part of Israel," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu also thanked President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

He also spoke out against Ilhan Omar:

In a jab at Rep. Ilan Omar, Netanyahu said: "Take it from this Benjamin, it’s not about the Benjamins."

"The reason the people of America support Israel is not because they want our money, it’s because they share our values. They just don’t' get it. It’s because America and Israel share a love of freedom and democracy. It's because we cherish individual rights and the rule of law. It's because we don’t judge people by the color of their skin, their religion or their sexual orientation.

"I am proud of Israel’s vibrant democracy, where no one – no one – is a second-class citizen. All of Israel’s citizens are first-class citizens. All of Israel's citizens whether Jew or Arab, Muslim, Christian, or Druze, have exactly the same individual rights. We vote in the same elections. We’re subject to the same laws. We study in the same universities. And we are also treated in the same hospitals.

"But Israel is also the one and only country on earth in which the Jewish people exercise our collective right of self-determination. And that right is expressed in the Star of David that is on our flag, in the Hatikvah that is our national anthem, in Hebrew our official language and most powerfully, in the right of every Jew across the world to automatically immigrate to Israel and become a citizen if they choose to do so.

"It is these features of our collective existence that the Nation State bill enshrined into an historic constitutional law. And contrary to the false attacks and allegations, it did not denigrate any individual rights, which remain sacred and equal for all our citizens. And it will always be that way.

"Israel will always be a democracy, just as Israel will always be the Jewish State, a place where all Jews anywhere can always call home, no matter how they pray or how they wish to conduct their lives. Israel is the home of all Jews.

"That is why we all celebrate today the democratic, Jewish State of Israel. We know the truth," he said.

It's a good thing he brought up the topic of Omar, because the Democrats themselves are already causing enough problems through their refusal to expel her from the party, along with Rashida Tlaib. And overall, it's good he was able to address the AIPAC conference after all, even if it was from long distance.

Trump signs order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights

Donald Trump's done a good again as he's signed the order for recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan:

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference at the White House Monday afternoon.

The two leaders met as President Trump prepared to sign an executive order officially recognizing Israel's sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

As he sat down to sign the order, Trump said that the act was "a long time in the making. It should have taken place many decades ago."

Trump said that the US-Israel alliance "has never been stronger."

"At this moment the American embassy stands proudly in Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish have established. They wanted the embassy for many, many years, for many decades, and frankly, through many presidents. And we got it done," Trump said.

"We will confront the poison of anti-Semitism through our words, and maybe even more importantly, our actions. In the last century, humanity witnessed the horrific consequences of anti-Semitism and a world without a Jewish homeland.

"In the wake of those unthinkable horrors, the Jewish people built a mighty nation in the holy land, something very powerful, something very special and important ... There can be no better example of greatness than what Israel has done starting from such a small speck of sand.

"Israel is an inspiration, a trusted ally, and a cherished friend. The United States will always stand by its side," the president concluded.

This is a most historic moment in Israel-US relations.

Gantz made another obscene remark about Netanyahu

Benny Gantz just can't seem to get a grip on himself. He was recorded making the following offensive statements about the prime minister:

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz has told a group associates that he wouldn't rule out the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had directed the Russians to break into his cellphone, Channel 13 reported Sunday, based on recordings of Gantz speaking at a closed-door meeting.

"If Netanyahu had a way to hurt or kill me, he'd do it. Would Benjamin Netanyahu, the man I know, wish me harm? The answer is no. Would this Benjamin Netanyahu, on the eve of the election, be willing to see me hurt? Yes, unfortunately that's what I'm saying," Gantz is heard saying.

Gantz also said that Iran might have been behind the attack on his device, an accusation Iran has denied.

"OK, if it's not the enemies, who did it? The opponents. There are two possibilities – one is that they took private individuals who carry out cyber operations of various kinds. The second possibility, which is something Bibi would do – even if I don't think it's very likely – is that he directed the Russians to do it ahead of the election."

In the recordings, Gantz also says that Netanyahu "knows he's going to prison."

Wow...this is truly disgusting. He wants to make Netanyahu out to be a total monster, and that's no way for a politician who wants people to think of him as civilized to behave. If he's elected, he'll be an utter disaster and embarrassment for the country.

Netanyahu's Likud party said in response to the recordings: "Benny Gantz has lost it. After accusing the prime minister of betraying the country, he is saying the prime minister will send people to kill him. If Benny Gantz is showing signs of advanced paranoia after weeks of pressure in an election campaign and after the Iranians hacked his phone, how will he run the country?"

Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Avi Dichter (Likud) said, "Gantz has gone off the rails and is dragging [Yair] Lapid and the others after him. A week that begins with the 'Four Musketeers' [Blue and White leaders Gantz, Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi] accusing Prime Minister Netanyahu of betraying his country will naturally go on to accusing him of intending to physically attack Gantz.

"These are signs of the stress that is threatening to bring Gantz down. His remarks against Netanyahu illustrate how unequipped he is to handle diplomatic and political pressure. These facts lead to the conclusion that they are trying to influence the past, whereas Netanyahu in Washington is trying to influence the future," Dichter said.

Correct. Gantz is not suited to be a leader, and neither are his other candidates if they consider this acceptable.

After the latest Hamas rocket attack, IDF should bring them down once and for all

Another rocket assault was launched by Hamas in Gaza. The IDF's now gathering forces in the south of the country:

After a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Monday morning hit a home on Moshav Mishmeret in the Sharon region of central Israel, wounding three, the IDF issued a reserves call-up and was moving forces to the southern front.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said that the IDF had placed infantry and an armored brigade under the IDF's Southern Command and had put out an emergency call-up to reservists to bolster the personnel available to operate the Iron Dome rocket defense system and anti-aircraft systems and carry out intelligence work.

"We are ready for a variety of scenarios," Manelis said, stressing that the rocket had been fired from a Hamas position and that Israel was holding Hamas responsible for "everything that happens in the Gaza Strip."

At 5:24 a.m. Monday, the Hamas-manufactured rocket was fired from the area around Rafah in southern Gaza and traveled 120 km. (75 miles) northeast before hitting a home in Moshav Mishmeret. Three of the seven occupants were injured, but the house itself – home to a couple, their children and two grandparents – was wrecked.

The incoming rocket set off a warning siren and the family managed to seek shelter in one of the children's rooms, which had been fortified as a secure space, before it landed in their living room. The grandmother, 60, sustained burns and shrapnel wounds when she ran out to pull the door to the safe room shut. She was listed in moderate condition. The mother of the family and a six-month-old baby were lightly wounded by shrapnel. The rest of the family, including a 12-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were suffering from shock but physically unharmed.

The family's dogs were killed in the attack.

The people in the house were very lucky to survive the assault. But it's entirely possible next time will be much worse, and that's why raiding Gaza, arresting terrorists or killing them altogether and dismantling headquarters and cells, would be the best option now that these horrors are flaring up again. The prime minister's cancelled a speech at AIPAC in order to deal with the situation, while his son will be doing speeches instead.

Netanyahu should certainly sue Gantz and Yaalon for defamation

The prime minister wants to sue Gantz and Moshe Yaalon for inciting against him in the case of the submarine deal that Netanyahu's been exonerated from:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Friday that he would sue Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon, the leaders of the Blue and White party, for libel after Ya’alon suggested his behavior in the submarine affair “could constitute treason.”

“The call of ‘traitor’ against me by [Yair] Lapid, [Benny] Gantz and Ya'alon is a serious incitement that must not be ignored,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to his Facebook page.

“The lies of Lapid, Gantz and Ya'alon are crossing a red line on the most sensitive issues concerning Israel's security. Therefore, I instructed my lawyers to sue them for libel,” added the Prime Minister.

Netanyahu said he would also have sued Lapid, but that Lapid has parliamentary immunity as a sitting MK.

Lapid later published a video of his own in which he declared he would remove his immunity and invited the Prime Minister to sue him as well.

“You know very well that not me, not Benny Gantz, not Bogie Ya’alon and not Gabi Ashkenazi called you a traitor in the submarine affair,” said Lapid.

But it was. And Lapid's not doing any favors now by backing them up. Mainly because:

Police have also stressed that the Prime Minister is not suspected of any connection to the affair.

And that's why it's ludicrous and offensive to accuse Netanyahu of something he's not a suspect in. By all means, I do believe Netanyahu should sue. It would be a very good way to fight back against political defamation.

Punk Teenager Cracks Egg on Head of Australian Senator Who Blamed New Zealand Attack on Muslim Immigration (VIDEO)

See, "Young Punk Cracks Egg on Head of Australia Senator Fraser Anning."

This is all stupid, I'll tell you.

But, the kid deserves a beating. You don't assault someone without expecting to be taken down.

At Chicks on the Right, "VIDEO: Controversial Australian Senator Slaps Teen Across the Face After Stupid Prank Gone Wrong."

Actually, the prank didn't "go wrong." It went exactly as planned, which included the young punk using his smart for to capture the attack on video and perhaps later create a viral video.

Claire Lehman's supposed to some hip conservative intellectual of the dark web, or something. She's a pansy-assed bleeding heart, if her tweets over this incident are any clue.

Apparently this boy seen here being punched in the face by a sitting member of Parliament was then wrestled to the ground by Anning's thugs & lost consciousness. I have never felt more ashamed of being Australian. https://t.co/ZDo8mOmdgv

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) March 16, 2019

I don't care if the kid egged him on the back of the head. He's a KID. It's an EGG.

FFS.

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) March 16, 2019

Anyway defending Anning's response can fuck right off.

This is what they did to a CHILD.https://t.co/X9ky9YdvAH

— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) March 16, 2019

He shouldn’t assault other humans, regardless of political differences. They’ll hit you back. And he was looking for a Facebook post, the way he was recording it with his phone. So I’ve fucked myself right off apparently, sorry! You’d file charges for assault, be honest. Come on.

— AMERICAN POWER!! (@_Pax_Americana_) March 16, 2019

State Department no longer calls Judea/Samaria/Gaza "occupied territory"

A positive development at the US State Department, as they've removed the negative descriptions of Israel and the Golan Heights from their Human Rights Practices reports:

The US State Department has erased the word “occupation” from its description of the Golan Heights and the Palestinian territories in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which it published on Wednesday.

Last year, it referred to the areas as “occupied” by Israel; now, it speaks of them as under Israeli “control.”

The change began gradually two years ago, when the State Department replaced the country designation of “Israel and the occupied territories” with “Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza.”

Within the 2017 report itself, however, the State Department last year still used the word “occupation” but much more sparingly. In 2016, the report referred to the occupied territories, and in 2017 it spoke of the Palestinian territories.

This year, the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices made no mention of the word “occupation” at all.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981. The United States and the international community have never recognized that act. Since the Six-Day War, Israel has never annexed the West Bank, and it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Right-wing politicians have pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, which they refer to as Judea and Samaria.

The shift on the Golan comes as US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham promised Netanyahu that he would work to sway the Trump administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

Graham deservces considerable credit for his own efforts in getting Israel's sovereignty recognized. As for the paper itself, they may deserve a demerit for saying "captured" instead of "RE-captured", ditto for acting as though calling Judea/Samaria what they were in Israeli history wasn't so.

ISRAELI POLITICIANS took the linguistic shift as an affirmative nod from the Trump administration on the acceptance of the Golan as part of sovereign Israel and support for the annexation of the West Bank.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said, “The nation has long been with the Golan, now [US President Donald] Trump is also. Thank you, President Trump, for another important step on the path of truth and justice – for the Golan Heights and for Judea and Samaria. The next step: the application of sovereignty [in Judea and Samaria]!” Edelstein said.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) called on Netanyahu to take action, explaining that the State Department shift in language provided a “window of opportunity” for such a step.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) thanked Israel’s “great friend” the United States, which “continues to stand for historical truth.

“The fact that the term ‘occupied territory’ is absent from an official [US] State Department document is an important step for Israel’s foreign relations and the future of the [West Bank] settlements,” Hotovely said.

She credited both Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry for the State Department’s linguistic shift.

“I welcome the move. I’m confident that in the future, other countries will also stand by Israel,” Hotovely said.

Yesha Council foreign envoy and Efrat Council head Oded Revivi said it was a “welcome and courageous act by the US administration that has consistently resisted the standard international consensus when it diverged with reality, just like the US government’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum said, “This is a massive change in how America relates to the conflict. It is coming to understand that while Israel and the Palestinians have a dispute, international law does not provide the answers to that dispute. The report, also for the first time, expresses skepticism at the claims and submissions of anti-Israel groups, whose poorly documented allegations have previously been accepted as gospel.”

Now this is what one calls success in seeking recognition for historical facts. Probably the only person who could possible loath it is somebody like former ambassador Martin Indyk, formerly of both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's staffs, who said it "belongs to Syria", all because leftists like him say so. The man is still an utter disgrace who clearly doesn't recognize the Trump administration either. Guess Indyk remains one very vindictive member of the Democrats who can't appreciate a positive step being done. No matter. Graham, on the other hand, is a fine man who's doing a lot of good on his part, and has. This is very good for Israel in foreign relations.

Gaza Muslims continue their rocket fire

As Israeli elections draw near, the Hamas is stirring up more trouble in Gaza:

Israeli aircrafts attacked several Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, hours after a projectile was fired towards southern Israel, the IDF said.

The IDF Spokesperson's Office said that IDF fighter planes and aircraft attacked a number of terrorist targets in the military compound of the Hamas terrorist organization in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as underground infrastructures in the northern Gaza Strip.

The army said jets struck a Hamas military compound in southern Gaza and underground infrastructure in the north. According to reports the targets included a naval facility near Sudaniya, a naval facility in Khan Younis, and two other sites in Zeytoun and Tuffah in Gaza City.

There were no reports of casualties.

The strike was “carried out in response to the launching of a rocket into Israel earlier this evening, as well as the terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip including [the launching of] balloons and attempts to damage security infrastructures in recent days,” the military said in a statement.

“The IDF views with great severity any attempt to harm Israeli civilians and will continue to act vigorously against these terrorist acts,” the statement continued adding that Hamas “bears responsibility for everything that is happening in and out of the Gaza Strip.”

The rocket launch and retaliatory strike came after a day of intense clashes between IDF forces and some roughly 8,000 Palestinian protesters marking the 50th week of the Great Return March protests.

The protests began on March 30th and has seen hundreds of thousands of Gazans violently demonstrating along the security fence with Israel demanding an end to the 12-year long grinding blockade of the coastal enclave.

If they continue to preach jihadism, that's precisely the point why there needs to be a blockade. It's clear they want to open the gates of hell, and this can't be ignored.

The left's hypocrisy and double-standards on sexual harassment

Ruthie Blum wrote about the hypocrisy and double-standards in reaction to Nava Jacobs' allegation of sexual harrassment by Benny Gantz when they were teens in the 70s, all of which would've been far different if the accused figure had been a right-winger.

Democrats fail miserably on antisemitism

Jonathan Tobin sums it up well about where the Democrats are headed with the vile Ilhan Omar, which is nowhere fast:

Back in November, I wrote that the election of radicals like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) wouldn't have much impact on the U.S.-Israel relationship. I reasoned that the trio of newly elected radicals would be backbenchers without power or influence, while the Democratic leadership of the House remained solidly pro-Israel and friends of the Jewish community.

But as the events of the last week have shown, I was wrong about that, especially in thinking that Democrats would speak out specifically against anti-Semitism if a member of their caucus acted as Omar has done.

Yet now that it has happened, I wouldn't be surprised if their faithful Jewish Democratic supporters simply shrug it off.

The Democratic Party as a whole is shifting to the left. But with the bulk of Democrats, especially officeholders, still reliably pro-Israel, there could be no comparison between it and Britain's Labour Party, which under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn has been captured by anti-Semitic radicals.

But while the Democrats are not yet the moral equivalent of Labour, there can no longer be any doubt that AOC, Omar and Tlaib are far from powerless. Indeed, they have not only intimidated the Democratic leadership but also demonstrated their ability to rally much of the party, including leading presidential candidates, around the cause of defending Omar from facing any consequences for her anti-Semitic hate. This feat calls into question not only the future of a bipartisan consensus on behalf of Israel but also the future of the Democratic Party as a political home for centrist Americans.

See, this is exactly the problem. The party as it now stands, is literally allowing itself to be brought to its knees from a moral perspective by these creeps. And it won't be a shock if their Jewish electorate puts up with this too, seeing how they've sold out to Islam. The Democrats are going way downhill, dragged down by their willingness to associate with such reprehensible personalities.

Why is Gantz suing Israel Hayom but not other papers who reported about the sexual harrassment allegations?

Benny Gantz could've let the whole scandal be buried and moved on, but instead, it appears he's going the bully tactic route and suing Israel Hayom in what looks more like a politically motivated act than a quest for justice:

Chairman of the Blue and White Party, Benny Gantz, said on Thursday that he is suing newspaper Israel Hayom for NIS 1 million for "a series of false reports concerning fictitious accusations made by Nava Jacobs about him on Facebook."

The letter of intent to sue, which was publicized on Thursday morning, alleged that Israel Hayom acted with "blatant journalistic negligence, without conducting minimal mandatory examinations and a lack of good faith."

According to the letter, "the false reports were made with intent and lack of good faith."

In the letter, Gantz went on to say that reports were intended to hurt him politically, since Israel Hayom "is acting in the service of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," and in the framework of Netanyahu's election campaign.

"Israel Hayom decided to take every means to promote the political interest of Mr. Netanyahu," Gantz said in the letter.

Gantz clarified in his claim that he intends to donate any amount that will be awarded in his favor in this claim for a public purpose, such as the Association of Centers for Victims of Sexual Assault.

As if that makes him any more innocent than Bill Cosby, who donated to similar outfits before the truth came out about him 5 years ago. I'm sorry, but this is little more than vindictive litigation, and what's strange here is that he's targeting one specific paper, despite the fact they weren't even the first one to write about the allegations; it was Yediot Achronot that was, and even Haaretz did too. Don't they count? This doesn't sound even the least bit altruistic of Gantz; it just sounds like like he's being selective in whom he targets, without doing anything genuine to prove his innocence. Also, Israel Hayom spoke with his party to ask if they could comment, so I don't see what his problem is. From what he says in his "letter", it sounds more like he has a problem with any source that dares support his political rival, Netanyahu.

Until now, the press had largely dropped the subject, and now, Gantz is bringing it up again, which is surely not a good idea, because then, people will take notice and start wondering. It's clear he hates the paper because it's more outspoken than the other, left-leaning papers, and is just seeking to silence them for having the guts to tackle serious issues. His conduct is shameful, and unbecoming of a politician no matter what side of the spectrum they're on.

Second allegation of sexual misconduct made against Gantz

Israel Hayom received a confirmation report of another allegation made against prime ministerial candidate Benny Gantz that he'd acted sexually perverse, alluded to in one of the earlier news articles:

The new accusation comes from a man who attended the Kfar Hayarok boarding school in central Israel some 42 years ago. The man said that when his sister arrived, Gantz, who was also a student there, exposed himself before her.

The accuser said that apart from his sister, other family members witnessed what Gantz and his friends were doing.

"I remember this vividly. Gantz and his friends both took off their clothes in front of the girls and laughed while they did that," the man says. "This act of mischief truly scarred me. Gantz was a senior at the time, and he kept acting like this." The man said that it was important to reveal this despite the decades that have passed "because the public needs to know what happened."

So this man was acting perverted in his teen/young adult years? This sounds as horrific as it does. If he's elected, it'll only be disastrous for Israel's reputation to have a man who acted like a creep towards young girls in office.

Did Benny Gantz really do something so disgusting when he was 17-18 years old?

An alarming report's come up, with Yediot Achronot the first one to publish it in print, that Benny Gantz sexually harassed a girl at a boarding school in the Sharon district when she was 14, and he was 3-4 years older, in the mid-70s:

Nava Jacobs, who left Israel in 1982, first made her claims against Gantz in December, saying the alleged harassment took place while the two were attending HaKfar HaYarok youth village and boarding school in Ramat HaSharon, around 1976.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Jacobs repeated her allegations. "I was a teen in the midst of adolescence, a young girl at HaKfar HaYarok," she wrote about the incident. "I was innocent, and I still didn't understand the things that were going on at the youth village, and certainly not what the things that were happening between boys and girls."

"It happened one day at the cowshed, where I most loved to be, among the animals," she wrote. "Benny Gantz burst inside, coming toward me, and he had a very scary look in his eyes. He was a big man, among the oldest at the village. He came close to me with a terrifying look, opened his pants, and exposed his penis in a way that made me feel I was in danger."

She went on to write that "I froze, and even if I wanted to escaped, he blocked the way. He stood there and laughed and had a terrifying look on his face, like a predator. I was lucky his friend showed up and pulled him away from me."

"I stayed at the cowshed stunned, crying and humiliated," Jacobs wrote. "For many years later, I remembered the scary eyes, which put terror into me as he looked at me. He ruined my life. This was my first encounter with sexuality, and he acted like a pervert."

Could this have happened? From a psychological perspective, let's ponder that a lot of victims of even harassment itself can feel scared and ashamed to tell about it for years after, as even some of Bill Cosby's victims were. So who knows, did he humiliate the woman at the time?

Some of the press are now trying to take Gantz's side in a very non-altruistic way. But Haaretz said:

[...] Jacobs said a male friend of Gantz had told her that Gantz had also exposed himself to the friend’s sister, who was 7 years old at the time.

And the Jerusalem Post said:

Judith Yehezkely, a former reporter for Israel Radio and Yediot Aharonot and a good friend of Jacobs, told the Post that Jacobs called her and told her the story about Gantz before posting on Facebook. Yehezkely said she cautioned Jacobs that there would be backlash, but said that her friend decided to go forward anyway.

She described Jacobs as “trustworthy” and “believable,” and a person dealing with a “very difficult situation. She is a good friend of mine,” Yehezkely said, “and she can be trusted.”

So who knows? Could this be true? If so, it also reminds me of another army official turned politician, Yizhak Mordechai, who worked to undermine Israel in the late 90s and was later accused of sexual abuse. It also reminds me of disgraced actor Stephen Collins, who was discovered to have committed at least 3 felonious acts, including one similar to what Gantz is accused of, and this came to light a few weeks before Cosby was exposed for his offenses. You have to wonder, how many perverts have been bred in leftist society? And how many more will be discovered post-Weinstein?

Naftali Bennett is a disgrace, and appears to be working with Gantz and Lapid against Netanyahu

I was often suspicious of whether the politician who now heads "The New Right" was really a responsible man. Now, he's attacking the Likud and Netanyahu after all the hard work they did to provide Israel with better status:

Officials in the Likud party reacted angrily to New Right party chairman Naftali Bennett's statements on the Trump Administration's upcoming peace plan Monday.

Bennett said that "the day after the elections, the Americans will push the Netanyahu-Lapid-Ganz government to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state on Route 6 and the division of Jerusalem, and Netanyahu will have to sell it [to Israel]."

I can't believe this. Here, Netanyahu sought to have Jerusalem's legitimacy recognized through moving the US and other embassies there, which also helps to keep it united, Trump closed the PLO's offices in Washington, and this is how Bennett thanks them? Of course, let's remember that this was the same fishy man whose party tried to damage Israel HaYom about 5 years ago, and later lost seats in the Knesset at least partly as a result. To think there were times when I tried to be favorable to Bennett, and now, I can only say he's demonstrated he wasn't worth the effort. Especially if he's pulling this angering tactic for the sake of Gantz and Lapid:

"When Bennett and Shaked founded the New Right, hey said they did so in order to attract votes from Lapid and Gantz in order to enlarge the right-wing bloc and that they would not [criticize the right]. Now they are making false accusations against the Likud in order to attract votes from the Likud. This will lead to a government led by Gantz and Lapid, whose party will be larger than the Likud," the Likud party said in response.

"While representatives of the New Right held talks with Lapid-Ganz to join them after the elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear unequivocally that he would form a right-wing government. Netanyahu guarded the land of Israel and the State of Israel against the hostile Obama Administration, and he will continue to do so with the sympathetic Trump Administration."

Very fascinating. So Bennett - and Shaked - are making shady deals with Gantz-Lapid to work with them? This is stupefying.

And after reading this news, I'm starting to wonder if Caroline Glick realizes she's in with questionable company that could make her look ridiculous if she doesn't protest. I think she'll have to either demand they cut this out and apologize, or she'll withdraw from their list. Bennett should be ashamed of himself for the way he's acting at a time when unity is needed, and so too should Shaked.

Update: Netanyahu's been trying to reach a truce with Bennett, however, I'm not sure the latter's learned his lesson yet.