Chit Chat

By Peloni

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 9,907 Comments »

Leave a Reply

19 Comments / 9907 Comments

  3. Federal judge dismisses complaint against anti-Israel groups that protested outside NJ synagogue
    In her ruling, Katharine Hayden wrote that the alleged victims may have interfered with one of the defendant’s right to protest.

    “…Protesters made threats and tried to obstruct Jews from entering a house of worship, violating the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act.
    Hayden wrote that “arguably these facts just as easily support the inference that Glick and Silberberg interfered with Sharif’s First Amendment right to be part of the protest.”
    She warned that treating every physical confrontation during a demonstration as a statutory violation “would demonize protesters, who exercise their own First Amendment rights as being part of a mob.”
    Hayden found insufficient facts connecting each defendant to the FACE Act and wrote that for Sharif, the complaint did not adequately connect his alleged violence to intentional interference with religious exercise.
    “Getting into a scuffle during a protest, a scuffle that took place somewhere on the grounds of the place of worship, definitely away from its entrance, does not mean that person’s conduct falls under FACE Act interdiction,” she wrote.
    Hayden also found that though the complaint alleged that the protesters “made passage to or from the synagogue unreasonably difficult or hazardous,” the court “does not decide whether the crowd-level allegations concerning the sidewalk, synagogue grounds or noise may establish physical obstruction or another statutory violation.”
    “More to the point, were the court to decide that the described obstruction was a sufficient allegation to satisfy the FACE Act, then every protester there would be a defendant,” she ruled.
    Addressing allegations that Camins pointed at Silberberg and said “the Jew is here” in order to get Sharif to “beat him up,” the judge found that “context is missing.”
    “He could just as easily be warning Sharif that Silberberg was threatening violence against Sharif,” Hayden wrote.
    The Justice Department has 30 days to amend its complaint.
    Glick, who faced state charges stemming from the confrontation, received a pardon from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in January just before Murphy left office.”

    https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/federal-judge-dismisses-complaint-against-anti-israel-groups-that-protested-outside-nj-synagogue

    Yes, that’s right every antizionist/antisemite there was, in fact, a criminal. There is no such thing as an unlimited right to protest.

    The Jewish victim is prosecuted instead of the Palestinianist terrorists? What, are we becoming like Israel in Yesha?
    Such an antisemitic judge should be removed or
    Impeached.

  4. Eisenkot could become Prime Minister not because of Arabs but because of the Haredi.

    Goldknopf’s move could shatter Netanyahu’s haredi alliance
    Senior Agudat Yisrael officials believe that faction chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf would not vote against a minority government led by Gadi Eisenkot, but would abstain if such a government were formed.

    Senior Agudat Yisrael officials believe faction chairman MK Yitzhak Goldknopf does not intend to vote against a minority government led by Gadi Eisenkot if such a government is formed, but would instead abstain, Amit Segal reported.

    Such a move, if carried out, would mark a break with the close political alliance the haredi parties have maintained with Netanyahu in recent years.

    The same officials estimated that Goldknopf may not be the only United Torah Judaism lawmaker to take such a step, although there remains considerable uncertainty over Degel HaTorah’s position.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433788

    • @Rafi

      The title of this article is incorrect as stated: “Eisenkot could become Prime Minister not because of Arabs but because of the Haredi.”

      The formation of a minority govt would require BOTH the abstention and ergo the tacit support of both the Arabs and the Haredi parties. Hence, the Leftist cabal of an Eisenkot govt would be require either the support or cooperation of both the Arabs and the Haredi.

      So Eisenkot could only become Prime Minister because of both the Arabs and the Haredi.

      • Actually depends on vote count. The Arabs certainly are not voting for Bibi.

        So will it be the Haredi who take the vote to where Eisenkot can win a majority of those casting votes but not 61?

        • So will it be the Haredi who take the vote to where Eisenkot can win a majority of those casting votes but not 61?

          Not if Rabbi Hirsh has any further influence among his flock. So the contest may simply come down to the question of whether Rabbi Lando’s influence or that of Rabbi Hirsh will dominate in the negotiations which follow the coming election.

  6. thestateofisrael.com
    +1
    .

    Latest Poll of Polls
    Seat averages (last 10 polls, 17–25 Sept 2026)
    thestateofisrael.com
    thestateofisrael.com
    +1

    Right?religious bloc: 56 seats

    Center?opposition bloc: 50 seats

    Non?aligned / Arab parties: 12 seats

    Likud: 23 seats

    Yashar (Eisenkot): 22 seats

    Together (Bennett?Lapid): 11 seats

    The Democrats: 9 seats

    Shas: 8 seats

    Yisrael Beiteinu: 8 seats

    Otzma Yehudit: 8 seats

    United Torah Judaism: 8 seats

    Religious Zionism?Zehut: 6 seats

    Ra’am: 5 seats

    People of Israel (Winter): 3 seats

    Reservists?Economic (Hendel?Zelekha): 2 seats

      • @Sebastien
        The last time an Arab party was blocked from running by the Central Elections Committee and that decision wasn’t reversed was in 1965, when the Supreme Court upheld rather than reverse the disqualification of the Arab-led Socialist List.

        Since 1965, each time an Arab party was banned from running, the High Court reversed the ban.

        With any chance that the Left has riding on the support of the Arab parties, either inside or outside the govt, the chances that the Leftist High Court does not reverse it is pretty much zero.

  7. Approximate averages since 17 September 2026 of all Israeli Election Polls

    Using the compiled poll tracker and the Middle East Forum “poll of polls” (which averages the newest poll from each house over roughly this window):

    Average by party (seats)
    Party Approx. average seats (mid?Sept window)
    Likud 23
    Yashar (Eisenkot) 22–24
    Together (Bennett–Lapid) 11–13
    The Democrats 9–10
    Shas 8
    United Torah Judaism 8
    Yisrael Beytenu 8
    Joint List 8
    Otzma Yehudit 7–8
    Religious Zionism–Zehut 6–7
    Ra’am 5
    People of Israel (Winter) 3–4
    Reservists–Economic (Hendel) 2–4

    These ranges reflect both the MEF poll?of?polls as of 17 September and the 10?poll average in the live tracker through 23 September.

    Average by bloc (seats)
    Right–religious bloc: about 53–55 seats

    Center–opposition bloc: about 50–54 seats

    Arab parties (Joint List + Ra’am): about 13–14 seats

    Non?aligned / small new lists: around 2–4 seats

  11. @Rafi
    @Peloni

    Avi Abelow on FB

    They are being exposed!!!

    One of Israel’s most prominent and independent journalists, Ayala Hasson, not from the right, is sounding the alarm about what she says is happening at the very top of Israel’s justice system, at the Supreme Court.

    “Something here is deeply distorted,” Hasson warned. “What happened behind the scenes? Who fabricated this case?”

    Then she delivered the line that should shake every Israeli:
    “There is an attempt to bury this affair.”

    And Hasson went straight to the Supreme Court:
    “The Supreme Court should have been outraged that they (the Attorney General’s office) dared to deceive it.”

    That is the real story.

    The problem is no longer merely the former Military Advocate General. The problem reaches the institution sitting at the very top of Israel’s judicial system: the Attorjey General’s office and the Supreme Court.

    And that makes the upcoming Israeli election enormously consequential.

    With existing vacancies and expected retirements, as many as 10 of the Supreme Court’s 15 seats could require appointments during the next government’s term.

    Think about that.

    The government Israelis elect will shape the Supreme Court for a generation.

    And the political divide could hardly be clearer.

    A Netanyahu-led government and its allies have spent years demanding fundamental judicial reform to rebalance power between Israel’s elected branches and its unelected judicial officials, including the AG office and the Supreme Court.

    An alternative government led by figures such as Gadi Eisenkot and supported by parties of the Israeli left would take a profoundly different approach toward the existing judicial establishment, they would strengthen the hold of the deep state within the Supreme Court and the judicial system.

    That means this election isn’t merely about Netanyahu versus Eisenkot.

    It is about whether Israel reforms its judicial system, or further entrenches the extraordinary powers accumulated by the Supreme Court and legal establishment.

    That is why Hasson’s warning matters so much.

    The scandal surrounding former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi began with a betrayal of the IDF soldiers of Force 100.

    The very military legal establishment entrusted with safeguarding our soldiers turned its enormous power against them, telling the world that they were “despicable rapists of terrorists”. The Military Advocate General admitted to leaking a video, proven to be edited, of the alleged crime and it spread around the world, helping portray Israeli soldiers as monsters while they were fighting our enemies.

    That was a betrayal of our soldiers, our army and our country by the highest-ranking legal official in the IDF.

    The video did not show what the world was led to believe it showed, and the indictment against the Force 100 soldiers was ultimately withdrawn.

    But by then, the damage had already been done. Global headline news. Anti-Israel UN resolutions. These soldiers publicly disgraced before the entire world, their names and reputations dragged through the mud before their guilt was ever established.

    The consequences devastated their personal lives, families were torn apart, jobs were lost, and one of the soldiers took his own life.

    Their reputations were destroyed first. Still no accountability for those responsible.

    Tomer-Yerushalmi subsequently became the central suspect in the investigation into the video leak.

    You would therefore expect the entire justice system to demand:
    Who authorized it?
    Who participated?
    Who knew?
    Who misled the courts?
    Who protected whom?
    Expose everything.

    Instead, Hasson is warning:
    “There is an earth-shattering affair here… and they (senior officials in the Justice system) want to blur it and bury it.”

    And that is where the Supreme Court becomes central.

    When elected politicians are suspected of wrongdoing, Israel’s legal establishment unleashes investigations, interrogations, prosecutors and court proceedings.

    But when allegations reach into that same legal establishment, suddenly Israelis encounter conflicts of interest, procedural obstacles and arguments over why further scrutiny isn’t necessary.

    This is the fundamental democratic problem Israel must confront.

    An unelected judicial and legal establishment has accumulated extraordinary authority over elected governments while the mechanisms for holding that establishment itself accountable remain far weaker.

    The Supreme Court can restrain elected governments.
    The Attorney General can restrain elected ministers.
    Legal advisers can prevent government policies from being implemented.
    Yet when serious allegations implicate the legal establishment itself, who restrains them?

    That is not sufficient checks and balances. It is an enormous concentration of unelected power.

    And reforming that imbalance is not an attack on democracy.
    It is strengthening democracy.

    That is what makes the coming Supreme Court appointments so consequential.

    If Netanyahu and the right-wing parties succeed in making a government, they will continue with judicial reform, to build a system with an independent judiciary and genuine accountability.

    If Eisenkot and the political left form the next government, they will preserve and further entrench the existing deep state judicial power structure, halt the reforms and reverse the appointments and hard-won changes this government has managed to achieve so far.

    This isn’t an abstract argument anymore.

    The Force 100 showed Israelis what happens when enormous legal power is exercised against our own soldiers.

    The Supreme Court stonewalling an investigation into the former Military Advocate General raises the question of what happens when scrutiny reaches those exercising that power.

    And Ayala Hasson is now warning Israelis that “there is an attempt to bury this affair.”

    The coming election will help determine who appoints the next generation of Supreme Court justices and what institutional philosophy guides those appointments.
    That is a democratic choice of enormous consequence.

    Because the question is no longer simply who governs Israel for the next four years.

    The question is whether Israel restores democratic accountability to its judicial system or allows an increasingly powerful unelected deep state establishment to become even more deeply entrenched for a generation.

    The choice is ours. Hopefully, the people of Israel will choose wisely.

    The question is whether enough Israelis have awakened to the reality of a powerful, unelected elite embedded at the highest levels of our security, intelligence, judicial and bureaucratic establishments, an entrenched establishment that too often obstructs the elected leadership and prevents the people of Israel from fully embracing its purpose back as a sovereign Jewish nation in our God-given, indigenous, ancestral homeland.

    Or do more Israelis still need to wake up before we can finally break this stranglehold and restore genuine democratic accountability?

    Regardless of what happens in the coming election, something much bigger is already happening. The Jewish people in Israel are awakening. We are strengthening our Jewish identity, reconnecting with our purpose and strengthening Israel as a proudly Jewish state.

    The deep state may delay this awakening. It may fight it. But it cannot stop it.

    It is not a question of whether Israel will ultimately break the deep state’s grip and restore sovereignty to the people. It is only a question of when.

    Strengthen your faith in God. Great times are ahead even with the ups and downs.

    Am Yisrael Chai!!!

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DiczpmfQT/?mibextid=wwXIfr

  12. Updated September 10: four same-night surveys published after candidate-list filing closed agree on the central fact but not on the ranking. KAN 11 and Channel 13 show the Netanyahu-aligned and Zionist opposition blocs tied, while Channel 12 gives the opposition a five-seat lead. i24NEWS/Direct Polls produces the strongest result for Likud. None gives either camp 61 seats.

    The range is too wide to hide behind a single headline: Yashar receives 22-25 seats and Likud 19-21 in the three main-broadcaster polls, while i24NEWS puts Likud on 27 and Yashar on 22. Amcha Israel clears the threshold in all four. Hendel-Zelekha does so only in KAN’s poll, leaving the route to a coalition dependent on both pollster effects and parties hovering around 3.25%.

    For the details and breakdown of all the polls click on this link:
    https://israel2026.co.il/en/election-polls.html