T. Belman. But the pressure to engage in the peace process will come from UTJ, Shas and Kaluna in addtion to coming from the opposition and the EU and US.

By Anshel Pfeffer, HAARETZ

[..]
But despite the prime minister’s backing, proposed amendments to cut the Supreme Court down to size are extremely unlikely to pass through the Knesset. Kahlon’ coalition agreement with Netanyahu grants him power of veto over any such legislation; even if he doesn’t exercise it, he can merely abstain – along with the other nine members of the Kulanu faction – denying Shaked and Netanyahu a majority. Shaked will try and make life hell for the Supreme Court, but her chances of achieving any lasting change in the legal edifice are exceedingly slim.
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By Akiva Eldar, Al-Monitor

Avigdor Liberman’s decision to forgo the Foreign Ministry and move to the opposition benches splits the 20th Knesset almost equally between the coalition and the opposition. There are now 61 Knesset members who support the new government and 59 who oppose it. But this ratio is just one part of the story, and not necessarily the most important or interesting. The real story is the balance of power between the camp that prefers to maintain the status quo over any diplomatic arrangement that involves the creation of a Palestinian state, and the camp that supports a diplomatic arrangement that will result in the creation of such a state. In between, there is the ultra-Orthodox camp, which is more interested in initiatives for reaching some arrangement that will keep its young men out of the army than in those designed to advance a diplomatic arrangement with the Palestinians.
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T. Belman. I am glad to see that ZOA no longer supports the Corker Bill.

This conversation took place on Sunday evening, May 3, 2015, when a huge crowd of almost one thousand people attended a major public event of the Zionist Organization of America Long Island-Queens region (ZOA-LIQ),

ZOA PRESS RELEASE

[..]
Klein urged the audience to tell their Congressmen to stop the disastrous Iran deal, and to support Israel if Israel needs to take military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Klein stated:

“The deal with Iran is a catastrophe. The deal will immediately eliminate most if not all of the sanctions in place now, which will give Iran $50 billion to $100 billion a year of additional revenue which it will use to fund and arm Islamic terrorism, the scourge of the Western world. We are funding the Hitler of today’s world with this deal. We are giving Iran money to promote its monstrous and outrageous goals.”

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T. Belman. Liberman has more in common with Bennett and Lapid than with Netanyahu. Bib’s decision to embrace Shas and UTJ alienated Lapid, Liberman and Bennett. Together they hold 25 seats. Bib made this mistake because he wanted a more docile government. It backfired.

Many writers are lambasting Bennett for being too greedy. Bennett had every right to make the demands he made because Bibi tried to screw him. Had Bibi not stampeded Bennett’s support to himself,in the last week before the elections, Bennett would have had 12 seats and would have gotten more than he got in this deal. What goes around, comes around.

By Alex Maistrovoy

In opposition, Lieberman hopes to rebrand himself as a “hawk” and a supporter of social equality.

Lieberman’s decision not to join the coalition was a surprise to many Israelis. What prompted the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu to take such step?

1. Joining the coalition would have silenced him. During his campaign, Lieberman strongly opposed funding ultra-orthodoxy Jews. He was opposed to canceling the bill, which seeks a more equitable sharing of the burden of military service in Israel, and the reform of conversion (giur).
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By Isi Leibler,

Following weeks of unedifying horse trading, threats and extortions, compounded by personal malice, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally cobbled together an untenable coalition with only a single-seat majority — which any single Knesset member in the coalition could bring down. To survive, it must be broadened.

Most Israelis are disappointed that a national unity government could not be formed at a time when we are faced with daunting political and diplomatic challenges, in particular further major tensions with the Obama administration.

Yet, there is still considerable speculation that, despite public protestations to the contrary, both Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog would prefer to create a unity government and that at a later stage, the coalition will be expanded to incorporate the Zionist Union or as a last resort, even Yesh Atid.
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BY HAVIV RETTIG GUR, TOI

At approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday, after 42 days of grueling negotiations and just two hours before the final deadline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed his name to the final coalition agreement he needs to inaugurate his fourth government.

In a rare consensus across party lines and across the even more fractious fault lines of Israel’s partisan media, everyone seemed to agree that Netanyahu’s great 30-seat victory on Election Day had ended dismally.

The last coalition deal signed Wednesday with Jewish Home saw Netanyahu handing an eight-seat faction two top ministries — education and justice — together with the Agriculture Ministry, the Diaspora Ministry, the West Bank settlement planning and budgeting body, the chairmanship of the Knesset Law Committee and the state committee that appoints judges, the post of deputy defense minister, along with countless financial and legislative promises that have yet to be fully hammered out.
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Republicans beginning to aim for new breed of Orthodox Jews, who are angry at Democrats’ policy toward Israel.

By The Forward and Nathan Guttman, HAARETZ

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate, center, during a conversation with Jewish community leaders, New York, U.S., on Monday, April 27, 2015.

Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have long appreciated the importance of tapping into the pool of Jewish donors, who are among the most generous political contributors in the nation.

But until recently, Orthodox Jews have been an elusive target.
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T. Belman. What about the Levy Report.

By Moshe Cohen, INN

The new deal between Jewish Home and the Likud that led to the establishment of Binyamin Netanyahu’s new government is a “historic achievement for Religious Zionism,” the director of Jewish Home, Nir Orbach, said Thursday. “Today, there are no winners and losers,” Orbach said. “It is the state that has won and gained great representatives who will do their work faithfully.”

The deal was due to the hard work of party activists, who were dedicated to helping the party, despite the pressures and difficulties, said Orbach. “We would not be where we are today without their help.”

Under the deal with Likud, Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett will be named Education Minister, while Uri Ariel will be appointed Agricultural Minister, with responsibility for the government’s settlement division, which is largely responsible for construction in Judea and Samaria.
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By Christopher S. Carson,FPM
Which is the greater cave-in—cutting a terrible nuclear deal with Iran, or letting it flout the terms of even that deal? The question is now academic.

Let’s revisit the anticipated “Comprehensive Agreement on the Iranian nuclear program,” struck in outline form back on April 2^nd and supposed to be finalized by June 30^th. Foreign Minister Zarif announced at the time, “No agreement has been reached so we do not have any obligation yet.”

We should be so lucky. Under the deal, nothing will be done to stop Iran’s exporting of terrorism and its drive to dominate the Middle East, including its giving Hamas (a Sunni terrorist group) millions of dollars to re-dig new terror-tunnels in Gaza. Hamas’ Fedayeen use the tunnels to attack Israeli citizens.
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T. Belman. Given that Netanyahu is against reducing the High Court’s power and that he gave Kahlon a veto over any such changes, its hard to see what she can accomplish. Now Bayit Yehudi was also given control over  the Settlement Division and the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and one of its MKs will be appointed deputy defense minister. I believe that the latter position includes construction in J&S. Does this empower Bennett to embrace the Levy Report and its recommendations? Bennett can make a big difference in charge of Education than he could have made as Foreign Mihnister.

YNET reports on Bennett’s victory

In a last minute move on Tuesday night, Bayit Yehudi demanded Shaked be appointed as justice minister.

Netanyahu agreed to the demand, on condition that Shaked not head the committee overseeing the nomination of new judges, does not have the authority to appoint rabbinical judges and does not head the Ministerial Committee for Legislation – three roles traditionally tasked to the justice minister.

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T. Belman. I am gravely concerned for Pamela’s life. This is no idle threat. Pamela was brave, not dumb, to put herself out there. The whole world has been debating whether what she did was right or wrong and that’s a good thing.

By Gary Bauer, President, AMERICAN VALUES

Supporters of the Islamic State posted an ominous warning last night vowing to kill Pamela Geller.

“Our aim was the [swine] Pamela Geller and to show her that we don’t care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter. . . . everyone who houses her events, gives her a platform to spill her filth are legitimate targets,” the threat reads.

Many on the left, who are quick to defend flag burning as a form of “free speech,” have condemned Geller for her free speech. Sadly, some on the right, even in conservative media, have criticized her. They are wrong.
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Ayelet Shaked

The agreements reached between the Likud and Habayit Hayehudi pave the way for Netanyahu to form his fourth government.

Likud and Habayit Hayehudi coalition negotiating teams have reached an agreement: MK Ayelet Shaked will be appointed Minister of Justice, and will head the Ministerial Committee on Legislation. Shaked will also be a member of the Security Cabinet.

This paves the way for the establishment of Netanyahu’s fourth government. The time allotted for Netanyahu to form a coalition expires tonight at midnight.

According to the agreements that are expected to be signed with Habayit Hayehudi, party head Naftali Bennett will become Minister of Education, Uri Ariel will become Minister of Agriculture, and Ayelet Shaked will be appointed Minister of Justice. In addition, the party is expected to receive the position of Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.

Ayelet Shaked, says Judea and Samaria settlement pioneer Daniella Weiss, is the right person in the right place at the right time to serve as Justice Minister. “There are many issues – land ownership rights, construction permits, residents,the status of communities, and more – that she will have to deal with. And I am sure she will deal with them successfully.”
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Constitution? Liberty? Not today.

By Phyllis Chesler, BREITBARTS AND INN

We are living in infamous times. Reality outpaces fiction, and the worst case scenarios keep unfolding in our daily headlines.

Critics of torturers and mass murderers are demonized as “extremists” and “provocateurs.” Israel is accused of human rights atrocities it has never committed by those very entities who themselves actually commit such atrocities; anyone who points this out is deemed an “extreme conservative” and a “racist.” Anti-infidel hate speech—as long as it is directed against America and Israel—is seen as protected by the First Amendment and by the doctrine of Free Speech; exposing the diabolical Big Lies is consideredpolitically incorrect “racist” hate speech which has no place in the Western media, on campus, at the UN, or in any international human rights organization.
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By Lee Kaplan, Shoebat

Hatem Bazian is a senior lecturer in Near East Studies at UC Berkeley. A Palestinian Arab, Bazian is also a supporter of Hamas and one of the terrorist group’s apparatchiks in the United States. Bazian was the founder of the Students for Justice in Palestine which has chapters on over 80 campuses in the United States and that operates as a Hamas support network in the United States. Bazian also co-founded American Muslims for Palestine which also links to Hamas and functions as a propaganda and fundraising mechanism to Hamas in Washington and is active with the Muslim Students Association on over 150 campuses in the United States and Canada. As an organizer, Bazian is tough to equal and he has used the California college educational system and its taxpayer-funded deep pockets to help facilitate massive propaganda events and fundraising not only for the Palestinian terrorist group, but for pro-jihadist groups across American campuses and Europe as well.
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T. Belman. The American media, or most of them, are outraged, not at Muslims for attempting a mass slaughter at the event, but at Pemela Geller for holding the event.

Pamela Geller tested the First Amendment and America failed.

By Jack Engelhard, INN

Winning Cartoon

Have you hugged a Jihadist today? Everybody else has. Have you trashed Pamela Geller this morning? Welcome to the club.

Pamela Geller made a mistake. She tested the First Amendment and the First Amendment lost.

This fighter for Israel, this battler against Radical Islam can seem to find no friends after what she did.
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DEBKAfile Special Report May 4, 2015,

For the first time in the nearly five-year Syrian war, opposition forces, such as the Army of Conquest and the Free Syrian Army, are receiving substantial quantities of heavy weapons from  the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. The balance of strength in the Syrian war has accordingly shifted in favor of rebel forces which are are winning victories against Bashar Assad’s army. In the last two weeks, the rebels have captured Jisr al-Shughour, in the northern Idlib province, able to move into new positions directly opposite Assad’s Alawite stronghold of Latakia and the Homs plain. Rebels have also gained ground in southern Syria in the Quneitra region opposite the Israeli Golan.

Our intelligence sources report that the opposition is now armed as never before with such heavy weapons as T-55, T-62, and T-72 tanks, BMP infantry fighting vehicles, rocket launchers, mortars, and vehicle-mounted heavy antiaircraft machine guns (12.7, 14.5, and 23 mm). They now command at least four types of antitank weapons, including RPG-7s, RPG-22s, M79s, and an extra-large supply of thousands of TOW missiles. All the hardware has come with night-vision attachments.
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T. Belman.  I think it important for Israel to inculcate Zionist values and Jewish identity in her youth.This doesn’t prevent them from having tolerance of the other. They should also be taught that instilling a Jewish identity and patriotic values is not inconsistent with democracy. That Zionism is not racism but the Jewish liberation movement. They should also be taught that Judea and Samaria, by international law, belong to the Jews.

By Akiva Elder,(radical leftist),  Al Monitor

The most prominent message of the last election and of the government to be formed in its wake is that a “good Israeli” is a straight, conservative, right-wing Jew who hates Arabs. All the rest are delusional leftists at best and at worst, despicable traitors. The easiest target audience to absorb these messages, whether explicit or implicit, is students. At the same time, Israel’s children are the greatest reservoir of potential voters for the government. Now, the system charged with shaping their moral and political worldview is about to be handed over to the chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi, Naftali Bennett, the most talented salesman for a monolithic brand of Orthodox Zionism, and also the most dangerous.

And if there are no last-minute changes, control of Israeli culture will be handed over to Knesset member Ayelet Shaked, Bennett’s colleague in this radicalized incarnation of the National Religious Party leadership. It seems as if the decision today of Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman to transfer his Yisrael Beitenu Party from the government table to the opposition benches has left the foreign minister portfolio vacant. But a more general assessment would indicate that HaBayit HaYehudi would benefit greatly from taking over the education and culture ministries than getting the Foreign Ministry.

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