A coalition crisis is waiting in the wings as the Knesset gears up for its winter session; EU sketches ‘red lines’ in West Bank

BY ILAN BEN ZION, TOI

Yair Lapid (center), and Tzipi Livni (right), with Moshe Ya’alon (left) at a cabinet meeting last year.

A coalition crisis captures the front pages ahead of the opening of the Knesset’s winter session. The questions remains: will Israel’s government fall apart amid irreconcilable differences, resulting in snap elections?

“The last thing we need right now is elections, that’s the last thing the people of Israel need right now,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted in Israel Hayom saying Tuesday. The paper reports that Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with the heads of the various coalition parties, namely, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, on Wednesday. The meeting aims “to agree upon a way to cooperate ahead of the opening of the [Knesset] winter session,” Israel Hayom says.
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[Time for Israel to bite the bullet. Let the EU do their worst.]

Israeli officials fear that proposed negotiations are prelude to further European sanctions.

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

The European Union is interested in opening negotiations with Israel with the aim of preventing a series of Israeli moves in the West Bank deemed “red lines” which may jeopardize the possibility of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel, an internal EU document obtained by Haaretz reveals. Officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry are concerned the negotiations are a prelude to further European sanctions against Israel.
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Facing daily violence and harassment, and the target of international criticism, why are Jews moving to Silwan?

By Ari Soffer, INN

Recent days and weeks have seen “Silwan” hit the headlines time and time again, as dozens of Jewish families have moved in to this predominantly Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem despite the violent opposition of many of their Arab neighbors to the presence of Jews there.

Arab extremists regularly target the embattled local Jewish communities; indeedjust hours after moving in a small group of new Jewish families were targeted by rioters who hurled bricks and molotov cocktails at their homes.

So why are Israeli families are willing to brave violence, intimidation and even international opprobrium to live there?
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I attended today a lecture at the JCPA by Ronnie Fraser on the subject of antisemitism on British campuses and in the British labour unions. Needless to say the situation is horrible in both cases and will only get worse.

But the lecturer said something that caught my attention. He said that the Board of Deputies of Br Jews put out a joint statement with their Muslim equivalent. He said he agreed with the statement but not its timing. Since I reject interfaith dialogue, I asked him what he agreed with. He and the British macher he had in tow defended the dialogue and argued that good things come out of it. I pressed them on the matter and they gave no satisfactory reply. I argued that no good can come from it but that it is harmful as it co-opts us to dialogue rather than to fight or challenge. I certainly opened up a can of worms. This mentality is part of the problem. Ted Belman

by Isi Leibler

The British parliamentary resolution that called for the immediate and unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, endorsed by an overwhelming majority of 274 to 12, was an unprecedentedly aggressive act. Although not binding, and with the participation of only 44 percent of parliamentarians (primarily opposition Labour MPs under instructions to vote in favor of the motion), it nevertheless provides evidence of the dramatic surge of hostility against Israel that is sweeping through Europe.
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The butchery and barbarism of IS is the same butchery and barbarism that fueled the spread of Islam from the time of Mohammed’s death.

By Dr. Mordechai Kedar

(Written for Arutz Sheva, translated from the Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky)

For the past several months, the entire world has been busy writing and talking about the “Islamic State” or the “caliphate nation”, as if this phenomenon poses a totally new threat whose cruelty and rapid advance has never been seen before.

Without doubt, the cruel behavior of the organization’s adherents, expressed for the most part by beheadings, massacres, the starving of non-Muslims to death and the sale of their wives on the open market gives rise to revulsion, fear and feelings of horror in the Middle East and beyond. The rapidity with which the IS fighters have wrested control of large areas has caused widespread panic as well.
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TOI

There are many epidemics that seem to have their roots in Africa. AIDS, Ebola and an assortment of other scary sounding hemorrhagic fevers, to name but a few, all have this continent firmly stamped on their Certificate of Origin.

But the latest one to sweep the globe is a pandemic that we are able to feel a little more proud of. Shabbos seems to be spreading fast with more than 340 cities in 35 countries outside of South Africa being affected. The Guide Book has so far been translated into 8 languages and the Project’s website has had more than 14,000,000 hits. It is rumoured in fact that Facebook is looking to buy Shabbos, as it fits their criteria – it doesn’t make money but everyone is on board (I might have actually made that one up myself). Grade A celebrities have leapt to join this trend even ones with not so Jewish sounding names. Consequently the most heard phrase in Johannesburg around dinner tables is “What? I didn’t know he/ she /it is Jewish?” So much so, that many South Africans wait with baited breath for Julius Malema, leader for the infamous EFF party, to claim Shabbos as his own.
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Is Hamas really ISIS, as Netanyahu argued, or an organization we negotiate with and offer gestures to, like treating its leader’s daughter in Israel?

By Yoaz Hendel, YNET

Once again I find myself courageously defending the Israeli siege policy, and then everything turns over at once.

The first time was immediately after the Marmara flotilla raid. A number of killed terrorists from the IHH organization got the entire world talking about Israel’s naval blockade policy in Gaza.

In a public event, I was sitting in front of a famous left-wing person, who kept rubbing his hands in a pompous manner. He explained fervently that the siege of Gaza was inhumane, exaggerated and indiscreet. I explained with the same passion that there was a need to seize materials which would be used for terror. He called the passengers peace activists; I called them terrorists who should be interrogated in Israel.
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By Caroline Glick, JPOST

Since he assumed office nearly six years ago, US President Barack Obama has been dogged by allegations of managerial incompetence. Obama, his critics allege, had no managerial experience before he was elected. His lack of such experience, they claim, is reflected in what they see as his incompetent handling of the challenges of the presidency.

In everything from dealing with the Congress, to reining in radical ideologues at the IRS, to handling the chaos at the Mexican border, to putting together coordinated strategies for dealing with everything from Ebola to Islamic State (IS), Obama’s critics claim that he is out of his league. That he is incompetent.

But if Israel’s experience with him is any guide, then his critics are the ones who are out to sea. Because at least in his handling of US relations with the Jewish state, Obama has exhibited a mastery of the tools of the executive branch unmatched by most of his predecessors.
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This video that I posted today illustrates Daniel’s point. The interviewer totally supports Sharia law though she looks quite westernized. Ted Belman

By Daniel Greenfield. FPM

Every few years the debate over reforming Islam bubbles up from the depths of a culture that largely censors any suggestion that Islam needs reforming.

But Islam does not exist apart from Muslims. It is not an abstract entity that can be changed without changing its followers. And if Islam has not changed, that is because Muslims do not want it to.

Mohammed and key figures in Islam provided a template, but that template would not endure if it did not fit the worldview of its worshipers. Western religions underwent a process of secularization to align with what many saw as modernity leading to a split between traditionalists and secularists.
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Egyptian TV Host Kicks Guest Out of Studio for Expressing Controversial Ideas on Religion

Muslims go crazy during anti-islamic movie sweden

By David Horowitz, FPM

Beheadings of innocent human beings are unspeakable acts reflecting the barbaric savagery of the Islamic “holy war” against the West — against us. Yet despite the intentions of their perpetrators, they have had an unexpected utility. Their gruesome images have entered the living rooms and consciousness of ordinary Americans and waked them up.

The barbarity of the Islamic movement for world domination has actually been evident for decades: in the suicide bombing of the Marine compound in Lebanon in 1982, in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, in the suicide attacks on Jews — men, women, and children — during the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, and in the beheadings perpetrated in Iraq by al-Qaeda’s Abu al-Zarqawi and the Salafist group known as Ansar al-Islam during the Iraq War.
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By Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, The Jewish Press

October 18, 2014 — The Obama administration stopped shipping to Israel all defense items – and not just Hellfire missiles as previously reported – for a short time in the middle of the war against Hamas, reported Israel Defense’s Amir Rappaport, the well-informed and highly credibly editor of the website.  Makor Rishon added to that report that the US actually cut off all communications with Israel’s Ministry of Defense purchasing offices in the US for days.

Increased cooperation with US, diplomatic agreement for Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fighting anti-Semitism, increasing cooperation with Europe: these are the goals Foreign Minister Lieberman outlined for the coming year.

By Itamar Eichner, YNET

While high-ranking government officials have been criticizing US Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has made it his goal to make Israel’s cooperation with the United States a priority in Israel’s national security policy.

Lieberman sent out a classified document titled “Top priorities for Israel’s foreign policy in 2015” to Israeli ambassadors worldwide with detailed instructions on how to conduct foreign relations in the year ahead.

After saying that “Europe does not understand” what is happening in the Middle East, Lieberman made it a point to strengthen Israel’s dialogue with Europe among the goals outlined in the document.
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Why is Leiberman not part of the mix? Apparently Netanyahu prefers the religious parties to Leiberman. What negotiations have taken place between Bibi and Bennett regarding building east of the greenline? Ted Belman

Netanyahu is working to lay the groundwork for a general election as early as May; according to officials, Netanyahu will first call primaries in the Likud and then move to form new collation with Bennett, Haredi factions.

By Moran Azulay, YNET NEWS

“All the signs indicate that Netanyahu is preparing for elections,” a senior Likud official said Monday as the Knesset prepares to reconvene for what is expected to be a busy winter session.

However, senior politicians and officials seem less concerned with the 2015 state budget than with rampant speculations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could move to disperse the Knesset and send Israel to early elections.

According to senior political sources, Netanyahu has hatched out a two-pronged plan to retain power both within his Likud party and over a new government. In the first stage, Netanyahu will call primary elections in the Likud – despite fierce opposition from within the party. Meanwhile, coalition officials say, Netanyahu will lay the groundwork for his next coalition which he hopes to establish by the end of May together with Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi party and the ultra-Orthodox factions, currently in the opposition.
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I support this bill. When Bibi opposes it, he is currying favour with the Hareidi parties who are currently in the opposition. It means he has cut a deal with them to be in the next coalition. This despite the fact that many report that Shas is moving to the left.

Ted Belman

By Jonathan Lis, HAARETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his coalition partners Monday that he will not allow proposals on conversion reform – the flagship initiative of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party – to advance any further in the cabinet, because the ultra-Orthodox parties, the chief rabbis, and major religious-Zionist rabbinic figures object.

The reform would have allowed local rabbis to set up conversion courts and permit conversion candidates to choose the rabbinic court they wished to convert under, regardless of where they lived. The move was aimed at significantly easing the conversion procedure for thousands of non-Jews who have difficulty meeting the tough requirements set by conversion courts in recent years.

The reform was meant to be advanced as a cabinet decision, rather than through legislation, as Hatnuah had wanted. But in recent weeks Netanyahu has repeatedly delayed a vote on the proposal. On Monday, he ordered the issue removed from the agenda of the cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday, and made it clear to Hatnuah’s chairman, Livni, that he would not advance the proposal because of Haredi objections.
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Major Met Donors Deafening Silence Is An Operatic Kristallnacht- If Bloomberg, Annenberg, Neubauer, Toll Bros. Spoke Out, Anti-Semitic “Klinghoffer” May Have Been Cancelled 

Monday, October 20, 2014 —Painfully, today is the opening performance at the Metropolitan Opera of the pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel opera “Death of Klinghoffer.”

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) notes with sorrow that four Jewish foundations or entities that are major contributors to the Met Opera – Michael Bloomberg, L.P., The Annenberg Foundation, The Neubauer Family Foundation, and Toll Brothers Foundation, have thus far failed to withdraw multi-million dollar support from the Met or speak up publicly against the Met’s live performances of the pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel opera “Death of Klinghoffer.”

This can be called an operatic Kristallnacht since an anti-Semitic, Israel-demonizing opera that promotes hatred of Jews while “humanizing” killers of Jews is met with silence and inaction by most major donors, Jewish leaders, and other public figures.
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By Omar Shaban, AL MONITOR

The Gaza donor conference in Cairo on Oct.12 achieved pledges totaling $5.4 billion, half of which were allocated for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Thus, Gazans are awaiting the start of the reconstruction, which they hope will put an end to their suffering.

The Gaza Strip has been subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007, with a noticeable easing since mid-2010. During the blockade it has seen three wars, with the latest one lasting 51 days and being the most severe in terms of the extent of the destruction it caused. Gaza’s citizens expect the donors conference to allocate sufficient funds to address the destruction, and to lift the political and economic siege.
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