Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel’s government survived another day when Bayit Yehudi leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett backed down from his demand for the defense ministry as a condition for keeping the governing coalition intact.
And last night, addressing the government turmoil during prime time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that snap elections were not an option amidst “one our most difficult security periods,” and said he would hold the defense portfolio himself. But Israeli media reported he would choose a foreign minister from within his Likud party (who?) and make other unspecified cabinet appointments. Netanyahu also currently holds the immigration absorption and health portfolios.
Israel Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman’s abrupt resignation as defense minister left Netanyahu’s governing coalition with a barely-there 61-59 Knesset majority. Don’t think the political uncertainty ended with Bennett’s blink. It’s only just begun, as the Times of Israel explains:
With Bennett’s Monday announcement that Jewish Home would remain in the coalition, the immediate threat of early elections appears to have passed, but Netanyahu remains premier by dint of a razor-thin majority that leaves him vulnerable to collapse at any moment and could make it all but impossible for his coalition to make controversial decisions or pass meaningful legislation for the remaining lifespan of the current government.
If the government completes its four-year term, the next elections will be held in November, 2019. Last word on the matter, for now, goes to Haaretz cartoonist Amos Biderman.
— Amos Biderman (@Amos123Biderman) November 19, 2018
2. Will Hebron lose its international observers over Israeli election fever?
3. The Israeli cabinet approved the appointment of Amir Yaron as Governor of the Bank of Israel. Yaron, a 54-year-old finance professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school of business and dual US-Israeli national begins his five-year term on December 24.
4. The Independent Calls Netanyahu “Warmongering,” Despite Striving to Avoid War: An analysis of Israel’s political situation is riddled with mistakes, misunderstandings, contradictions and a paucity of context.
5. Video: Living in Fear: HonestReporting met some of the Israeli students from the Gaza periphery to better understand their fears of rocket attacks.
In the News
• Meet Avi Arieli, who after 30 years with the Shin Bet, opened up on the agency’s efforts to foil Palestinian and Jewish terror.
• Man apologizes for yelling ‘Heil Hitler, heil Trump’ at ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ performance in Baltimore. Man arrested in Brooklyn for harassing Jewish car owner with ‘Heil Hitler’ salute. And in New York, “An alarmed straphanger snapped a photo of a man placing a swastika sticker inside an East Village subway train, which cops hope will help them catch the hateful vandal.”
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Commentary
• Here’s a sampling of what they’re saying about Israel’s coalition follies.
– Prof. Eyal Zisser: Arab world prefers stability in Israel
– David Horovitz: Let me get on with my job: How Netanyahu humiliated his political rivals within
– Anshel Pfeffer: Netanyahu’s non-election election speech
– Lahav Harkov: Did Netanyahu the magician pull off another trick?
– Amos Harel: Netanyahu beating war drums is about politics more than security
– Oded Shalom: Sderot protest: Not a false alarm
– Eric Cortellessa: In looming Israeli elections, Trump may find excuse to delay peace plan
• Tweet of the day goes to Idan Eretz with a translating assist from Benjy Lovett.
In Israel, there are 4 seasons: summer, war, elections, and strikes. https://t.co/KzDPWW1N01
— Benji Lovitt (@benjilovitt) November 19, 2018
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jennifer Oriel: Islamist bullies should butt out of Australia’s Jerusalem embassy debate
– Pinhas Inbari: NGOs in Gaza and the West Bank incite with European support
– Raymar Hassani: The peace activists who fuel the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
– Jonathan Tobin: Israel and the death penalty
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinians arresting women: Where are the media?
Featured image: CC BY-NC-ND Emiliano;
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