Your News From Israel – Jan. 14, 2020

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1. From today’s Ynetnews. Infamous.

   Knesset OKs panel to debate Netanyahu immunity
   House Committee can debate and potentially vote on PM’s immunity bid in coming weeks, perhaps even before March 2 ballot; Likud MK Zohar accuses Blue & White of hijacking Knesset
   Nina Fuchs, Moran Azulay |
   Published: 01.13.20 , 20:20

   Members of the Knesset Sorting Committee voted Monday in favor of establishing a House Committee, the only parliamentary panel able to debate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for immunity from prosecution in his three graft cases.
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   After a two-hour deliberation, constantly interrupted by right-wing MKs, the panel voted 16 to 5 in favor of establishing and staffing the committee.
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   Sorting Committee Chair Avi Nissenkorn (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky )
   The committee will constitute of 30 members “to ensure representation of all factions,” said Sorting Committee Chairman MK Avi Nissenkorn of Blue & White.
   Eight seats, each allotted to Blue & White and Likud; three seats for the Joint List; two apiece for Shas, Labor-Gesher, Yisrael Beytenu and United Torah Judaism; and one seat each for the Democratic Union, the Jewish Home, and the New Right.
   Nissenkorn, who called the establishment of the committee “an absolute necessity,” agreed to Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer’s proposal to also establish all the other permanent Knesset committees that have been dormant during the past year.
   The formation of a House Committee still requires a plenum vote, which Nissenkorn said he hoped would be held this week.
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   Likud MK Miki Zohar (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky )
   Likud MK Miki Zohar stormed out of the debate, accusing Blue & White of “hijacking Knesset” and stated he will petition the decision to the High Court.
   The results of the vote mean that the House Committee can debate and potentially vote on Netanyahu’s immunity request in the coming weeks, perhaps even days, long before election day on March 2.
   Likud officials have said they will try to delay the process, hoping to push it past March 2, when a new Knesset will be voted in.
   Blue & White is hoping the committee will debate and reject Netanyahu’s request within three weeks, with enough time to spare before the election.
   The House Committee will also debate the immunity request filed by former Likud minister Haim Katz, who also faces several corruption charges.

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2. This from Amnon Lord in Israel Hayom. I agree with the jist of what he is saying, although I am annoyed by his somewhat hysterical tone.

   The Israeli Right is on the precipice of defeat
   The Left, with support from the media and judiciary, is plowing ahead to victory while the Right is mired in division, indolence and self-pity.

   by Amnon Lord Published on 01-14-2020 13:20 Last modified: 01-14-2020 17:13
   From a national perspective, the upcoming general election is frightening. The Zionist bloc in Israeli society is on the precipice of defeat. The Left is united in its unbridled urge to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thus a clear minority of the population – unified by a single desire while being pushed along by two MKs from the back benches, Ahmad Tibi and Ayman Odeh – is disseminating fear, confusion and a lack of direction among the Zionist majority. Consequently, it could realistically seize power a month and a half from now, making Benny Gantz the next prime minister.

   The fact that a mainstream intellectual like author Haim Be’er dares refer to such a large group of Israelis as “a benign tumor that has become a malignant tumor,” needs to raise alarm bells. This statement, of course, made him a darling of the media, which has treated him with kid gloves.

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   On the other hand, a simple comment by Education Minister Rafi Peretz – whose children are being raised in a healthy and natural manner – is being turned into an orchestrated campaign of grief, with black ribbons on the arms of small children on their way to school. Expect any new education minister under Gantz to launch a re-education campaign in religious schools. Life under the irrepressible left-wing steamroller will be far scarier. The “anyone but Netanyahu” contingent takes center stage wherever and whenever the old elites gather, whether it is a memorial service for a fallen hero or the premier of another propaganda movie.

   The political situation on the religious right, which has split into two camps – at the very least – doesn’t bode well for the right-wing bloc. We can no longer tell what’s better for the Right from an electoral perspective because before anything else it must secure the right-wing bloc a victory with 61 seats. Anything less would mean another paralyzing draw; or a Gantz-led government that would pull any willing right-wing faction into the tent of the post-Zionist Left, which will be propped up by the Joint Arab List. These days, the Left labels statements such as Peretz’s “incitement,” even though we can already see Tibi’s fingerprints allover MK Avi Nissenkorn’s current circus. He is openly threatening MK Yoaz Hendel, while Odeh mocks the prime minister.

   On the other hand, there are those on the Right who believe the two-way split – Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked on one side; Bezalel Smotrich, Peretz and Itamar Ben-Gvir on the other – provides the best chance for the Right on Election Day. According to this assessment, if Bennett and Shaked were to technically join the Likud, the Likud’s situation wouldn’t change at all, and they wouldn’t help the party get more votes. However, a separate ticket for their New Right party, despite the giant risk involved, gives them a decent chance to scrounge enough right-wing votes from Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid – voters who are just beginning to internalize the catastrophe of another left-wing government, but will never vote Likud.

   What’s clear is that the Left, with a tailwind of support from the media and judiciary, is plowing ahead to victory while the Right is mired in indolence and self-pity.

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3. Item 1 HOW ABOU TELLING US WHAT THE ISSUES ARE? Do Israeli really vote on who’s shagging who?

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