Tag: Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges, the country's attorney general said Thursday, just weeks before the country goes to the polls. Read more on this here: https://fxn.ws/2EnGYxR FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing…

NEW YORK (JTA) — An American Orthodox Jewish group is defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to work with a far-right political party. It is the first statement by a major American Jewish organization defending Netanyahu’s decision. Last week, Netanyahu orchestrated an agreement between the extremist Jewish Power and Jewish Home, a religious Zionist party. “We understand what Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and he did it to have ministers of the national religious and national union parties in his coalition.” The statement stands in contrast to an alphabet soup of major Jewish groups that have condemned Jewish Power — from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to the American Jewish Committee to the Anti-Defamation League. “You have to take into consideration all of the ramifications and all of the concerns.” With Netanyahu’s intervention, Jewish Home agreed to include on its slate in April’s elections Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir, self-professed followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of the Palestinians from territories controlled by Israel and a near theocratic state of the Jews. Netanyahu would need the support of successful right-wing parties in addition to his own Likud to form a government. The Young Israel statement likened Netanyahu’s decision to the 1993 vote on the so-called Oslo II accords, when a left-wing government relied on votes from Arab-Israeli political parties to secure passage of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. That argument echoes one made Saturday by Netanyahu himself on Twitter. The ZOA statement did not discuss the actual positions of Jewish Power, except to say at one point that its critics were engaging in “Nazi-name-calling against Jewish candidates.” “It is also mystifying that these Jewish-American groups condemned Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for encouraging small right-wing Israeli parties to merge, so that Israeli voters on the right are not disenfranchised,” the ZOA statement reads, telling other American Jewish groups to “direct their condemnation to those who oppose the State of Israel, and are truly racist and reprehensible, and a danger to the Jewish people and the Jewish State.” The Young Israel statement also contrasts with statements condemning Jewish Power from the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements. RCA responded that it doesn’t comment on Israeli politics.

WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the 2019 AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., a statement released Saturday by the powerful pro-Israel lobby group said, a day after it condemned a controversial political union endorsed by the prime minister. The heads of other leading parties have also been invited to speak at this year’s conference, including former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and his co-chairman in the centrist Kahol Lavan party, Yair Lapid. While Lapid is expected to appear before the conference, it is not yet clear if Gantz will also speak. AIPAC’s statement about Netanyahu’s speech came a day after the group issued a rare denunciation of the far-right party Otzma Yehudit, following criticism of the party from other leading Jewish-American groups, such as the American Jewish Committee, as well as prominent Jewish members of Congress, including Rep. Jerry Nadler. Followers of the racist Rabbi Kahane might make it to the Knesset - ??? Otzma Yehudit, led by followers of racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, recently formed a joint slate with the religious-Zionist Habayit Hayehudi party ahead of the April 9 election. The deal was encouraged and orchestrated by Netanyahu. >> For U.S. Jewry, Kahanist caper casts Netanyahu as prince of darkness and Trump on steroids AIPAC endorsed AJC's repudiation of Otzma Yehudit, and added: “AIPAC has a longstanding policy not to meet with members of this racist and reprehensible party.” This was seen as a very unusual step for AIPAC, which usually never comments on internal Israeli politics. While in Israel the statement made major headlines, many within the American Jewish community treated it with skepticism, noting that AIPAC failed to directly mention Netanyahu, who was the chief architect of Otzma Yehudit’s union with the religious-Zionist Habayit Hayehudi party. Among the critics was former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, who wrote: “Maybe AIPAC should consider disinviting Netanyahu from addressing its annual conference two weeks before the Israeli elections.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A popular former Israeli military chief jumped into the political fray Thursday, announcing he would run for office in the upcoming election and instantly injecting a potent challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lengthy rule. Retired Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz has been polling favorably in recent weeks, emerging as a fresh, exciting face in Israel's staid political landscape. By officially registering his new party, "Israel Resilience," Gantz shakes up a snap three-month election campaign that has been widely seen as Netanyahu's to lose. Gantz has yet to comment publicly on the new party. Israel's attorney general is now weighing whether to file criminal charges. Early opinion polls indicate that Gantz would take away votes from all the major parties and may not tip the scales away from Netanyahu just yet. Gantz, 59, was a paratrooper who rose up the ranks to head special operations units and other various commands before serving as military attache to the United States and ultimately becoming Israel's 20th military chief between 2011-2015. Despite his impressive pedigree, Gantz remains a political unknown, which explains part of his appeal in such a highly partisan climate. To finally topple Netanyahu, Gantz will likely have to team up with a combination of Lapid, Kahlon, the venerable Labor Party and others. Opposition leader Tzipi Livni has called on the various candidates to "put their egos aside" and unite against Netanyahu.

“What is right for the nation is to be a right-wing nationalist on security but also [to have] concern and compassion because I always think about minorities, the elderly and the situation of the other,” he said. Free Sign Up Hirsch did not say which party he would join, but media assessments linked him to a yet to be announced party or the ruling Likud. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who nominated Hirsch for police chief, said he asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to reserve a spot on the Likud’s electoral list for the former brigadier general. Hirsch was nominated for the position of police commissioner by Erdan in August 2015, but shortly after his nomination was announced, media reports surfaced saying that the FBI and Israel Police had been conducting a two-year undercover corruption investigation into businesses linked to him. Hirsch’s nomination was revoked a month later by Erdan after then-attorney general Yehuda Weinstein said that he could not be legally appointed until the conclusion of the investigation against him, a process that Weinstein said at the time could take months. Police had enlisted a state’s witness against Hirsch, and part of the evidence he provided reportedly included the bank account information of a disgraced minister of Israeli origin in the Georgian government to whom Hirsch’s company Defense Shield Holdings allegedly paid bribes as part of a deal to siphon money from Tbilisi. Though prosecutors informed Hirsch earlier this year that one of the probes into his business activities was closed, investigators continue to probe his business dealings in Georgia. Hirsch, who has denied wrongdoing, addressed the police investigation in his speech Wednesday. “I am torn that there is an open but manufactured case against me. However, something happened — there was a dirty act here that prevented me from serving the public,” he said.

He did cause a stir among some audience members at the conference when he said it was damning for Israel to shoot at Palestinian children throwing stones from Gaza, the Jerusalem Post reported. JACK GUEZ (AFP/Archives) Meanwhile, Avigdor Liberman seemed to chastize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for speaking publicly about sensitive security matters. “I think it’s irresponsible to discuss intelligence information with the public and it’s an irresponsible way to discuss sensitive security issues with journalists and MKs,” Liberman told the conference. He reiterated the need to continue hitting back with force in Gaza. There is a time when you can’t be a cabinet member. Both Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called on all supporters of Israel to boycott AirBnB, following the apartment rental platform’s decision to suspend its activities in the West Bank. BDS was a major focus of the conference, with a uniformly anti-BDS panel taking foreign diplomats in the audience to task over their support of a movement perceived to be a threat to the peace process. We live in the same areas, Palestinians and Jews work together in Barkan, Efrat and other places, and I believe that we will succeed in the end...I am not afraid to talk about such a thing. Of Israelis and Palestinians living together in Judea and Samaria," Jabri said referring to the West Bank by its biblical terminology typically employed by nationalist Israelis. Remarks from former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who resigned last week, and opposition party Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg are expected to take place in the afternoon session.

Trying to keep it together: Attempting to hang on to his foundering coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu has begun to portray the downfall of his government as a blow to Israel’s security. First to the stump: Netanyahu’s speech is widely covered as the opening shot in his re-election campaign. The idea that the coalition has to stay together because of secret security issues was actually floated almost a full day before Netanyahu’s speech by Israel Hayom’s Amnon Lord, in what some may see as yet another sign of the close relationship between the paper that works as a Netanyahu mouthpiece. Netanyahu “can’t hold the rope at both ends, keeping his coalition stable and putting down Naftali Bennett at the same time,” columnist Moti Tuchfeld writes, calling on the prime minister to give the defense job to Bennett. Bennett and Jewish Home No. 2 Ayelet Shaked are slated to give a statement to the press at 10:30 during which they are widely expected to announce they are resigning, thus toppling the government. Uri Ariel, another Jewish Home minister, tells Army Radio that the two are ready to resign, meaning the government could fall as early as Wednesday. Peace plan deferred: Early elections will likely give the US administration another reason/excuse to delay its long-awaited peace plan, ToI’s Eric Cortellessa writes. “Netanyahu’s right-wing government is dying. “As long as the situation in Gaza is ongoing, the Knesset committee won’t take up the bill to dissolve the Knesset,” he says, essentially threatening to put Israel in an indefinite totalitarian state of emergency.

Leaders of the political left and center, speaking at the annual rally marking 23 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, decried what they said was the government’s systematic use of “incitement” and “fearmongering” rhetoric and its persecution of political rivals to score political points, at the cost of dividing the country. We’ve had it with pinning blame and marking traitors,” he said. Peace was destroyed.” Netanyahu, she said, “has turned incitement into his chief tool to leave the peace camp defeated, controlled, crushed…. Not all of the right murdered Rabin. I feel an obligation to warn that when the government says any who think differently are traitors and accomplices of the enemy, it is leading us down a dangerous path. The minister said assassin Yigal Amir “wanted to kill the man to kill a policy, even at the price of killing democracy and civil war.” Hanegbi said, “Many in the public, and I among them, believe the [Oslo accords] were a terrible mistake. The right didn’t murder Rabin, Yigal Amir did.” He added: “I’ve had it with the false accusations of the left. Right-wingers should not attend a rally whose purpose is to defame the right.” Netanyahu tweeted: “It is regrettable that the memorial rally for prime minister Yitzhak Rabin has been turned into a political gathering. Those who champion freedom of speech try to silence any who don’t agree with them.” For the second year in a row the rally was organized by the Darkenu movement, which describes itself as a group seeking to “empower the moderate majority of Israelis to exert influence on government policy and on the public discourse.” The organization said ahead of the rally that it would “focus this year on warning against an atmosphere of divisiveness, incitement and inflamed spirits ahead of the upcoming general elections.” Noting the “violent and incendiary public discourse” that was prevalent ahead of Rabin’s killing 23 years ago, the group said elected officials from across the political spectrum would be called upon to “maintain a civilized rhetoric.” Ahead of the rally, roads around the square were closed off beginning at 5:30 p.m. Right-wing extremist Yigal Amir shot Rabin to death on November 4, 1995, at the end of an event the prime minister had held in Tel Aviv to demonstrate public support for his efforts to make peace with the Palestinians.

The camp — the sole Palestinian refugee camp within Jerusalem’s city limits — receives services from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). That could change if the next mayor of Jerusalem adopts the plan recently drawn up by Nir Barkat, the city’s outgoing mayor, to evict UNRWA and provide the services, including schooling, sanitation and health care, that the agency has been providing since the mid-1960s. Both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have accused UNRWA of perpetuating the refugee status of Palestinian refugees. Politics aside, no one disagrees that Shuafat needs far better services than UNRWA is providing. Although UNRWA workers collect some of the trash, the camp’s open-air garbage collection site gives off a nauseating odor that can be discerned blocks away. “You can wait an hour or more in traffic at the checkpoint,” M., a camp resident who worked in the Israeli government for 30 years, noted. We had far fewer problems when we could move freely in Jerusalem.” M., who requested anonymity, said the checkpoint should never have been built because the majority of Shuafat’s residents hold Israeli I.D. M. said he would welcome the Jerusalem municipality in lieu of UNRWA, but only if the Israeli government removes the checkpoint and provides Shuafat with the same level of services it provides in overwhelmingly Jewish West Jerusalem. UNRWA workers work just four or five hours a day, and you can see the results,” said the retired government employee, pointing to the garbage strewn across his narrow street. M. said the Israeli government and Jerusalem municipality have all but abandoned Shuafat, a place the Israeli police rarely enter.

To the Editor: Re “New Wave of Democrats Tests the Party’s Blanket Support for Israel” (news article, Oct. 8): While focusing on a handful of Democratic candidates who have faced heavy right-wing criticism for their positions on Israel, your article misses the larger evolution in American politics on the issue. Instead of relying on the outdated idea that support for Israelis and Palestinians must be mutually exclusive, a growing majority of Democratic candidates increasingly recognize that it is possible and necessary to promote policies, like the two-state solution, that benefit both peoples. We need leaders who will move past these tired dichotomies, which have only undermined United States efforts to secure Middle East peace. To the Editor: Thank you for covering the increasing support for Palestinian rights among American politicians. A growing number of Jews — especially young Jews — oppose Israeli policies and support B.D.S. (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), the Palestinian-led civil society movement pressing Israel to respect Palestinian rights. My organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, has long criticized Israeli policies and American support to Israel. We endorsed the B.D.S. call in 2015, and have only grown in size since taking that step: We have more than 15,000 dues-paying members, 70 chapters nationally and more than 250,000 online supporters. can no longer be ignored, nor can the Jewish community be simplified as a monolithic group.