This direct and open intervention in the internal affairs of a country by a foreign politician is somewhat unusual (maybe not unusual enough) and is surprising and upsetting.

Right wingers, especially politicians and media personalities, are all screaming about the hypocrites on the Left who were happy enough to involve Biden in the fight against judicial reform are now upset about Trump's intervention. And they are right.

I did see two politicians (maybe there were more but I saw two), Simcha Rothman and Moshe Saad, who called out Trump's intervention as inappropriate, even if they feel the trial should be stopped. So good on them and they are worth noting and commending.

I would note that the right wingers are busy screaming about the left wing hypocrites, but the right wingers are just as much hypocrites as the left wingers. the right wingers were upset about intervention when it was against them whether by sanctions of foreign governments against individuals on the Right, or when Biden or Obama interfered or other times, and now they are happy Trump is intervening on behalf of Netanyahu, while screaming about the other side's hypocrisy.

Basically, most politicians on both the right and the left are hypocrites all too happy to scream about the hypocrisy of the other side while ignoring their own and only care about their own interests and the means to get there dont matter.

  

Today, without specifically connecting it to Netanyahu, the news is reporting that the formation of a new party (or alternatively his joining an existing party) is being explored to be led by Jonathan Pollard, who has supposedly expressed interest in a political career. This too, even without connecting it directly to Netanyahu, is being said to be a way of weakening Bennett.

I don't know much about Vinter's opinions and positions, but if the people who support him are any indication of his political positions, I suspect he wont be as much a challenge to Bennett as to the more right edge of Likud and to Smotritch.

Pollard on the other hand has been pretty outspoken in recent years and has been shown to be super extreme right wing. If he were to join an existing political party, I cannot see any party more appropriate than Otzma Yehudit of Itamar Ben Gvir, though that party too might not be right wing enough. And whether he joins Ben Gvir or another, or whether he forms a new party, again, considering his more extreme positions, I dont think he would be hurting Bennett much by running. Bennett's support seems to come from the softer, more liberal, right of the DL community, not the more extreme, more conservative, right. While it is not for me to say if Pollard or Vinter should or should not join politics and if so via which party, I dont think either will hurt Bennett much and both would more likely hurt the Likud and Smotritch. If Netanyahu wants to take away votes and support from Bennett he should find someone more centrist right to form a new party, such as maybe pushing a Gilad Erdan (whom Netanyahu is struggling with already) to leave Likud and form a party or maybe Tzippi Hotovely.

I am getting that sense again.

The unity in Israel (whatever unity and achdut mean), the goodwill in Israel, the brotherly love in Israel, is soaring, at an all time high, through the roof. As if nothing can rip us apart.

I think at this point the only thing that can ruin all this and rip us apart again is the end of the war and the elections that will occur in its wake. That will bring politics back and that will be the end of all this. 

Unless we find a way to be civil in politics - not an easy task.

Deri was in the process of shaking several esrogim in rotation, as it seems his custom is, in order to increase his chances of shaking a definitely kosher esrog, as some do, with varieties of esrogim with varying provenance. In the process he mentioned his own cost $5000 cash.

Deri came under fire for spending that kind of money on an esrog. Additionally, paying that kind of money cash sounds like it was "off the books" (I dont know if it actually was or not).

His office later put out a notice that he "was joking" when he said that.

Personally, Deri is a multi-millionaire and can spend his money how he likes. It is more of a question to me how a career politician (who had first been an avreich) became a multi-millionaire than how or why he spends $5k (about 18knis) on an esrog. And I ask this question of other politicians as well.

 

This construction freeze would be accompanied by some other goodwill measures on both sides, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in an effort to lower tensions in the region. Some of those other goodwill measures would be Israel not dismantling illegal construction of Palestinians and Israel not evicting Palestinians from homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have to agree to put an end to any motions filed in international courts against Israel and renew security coordination with Israel. 

According to Walla News, Israel has responded positively to the request in a general sense, being noncommittal on the specific requests but generally agreeing to taking steps to lower the tensions and minimize activities the Biden administration opposes, but they cannot be frozen completely, especially construction in Judea and Samaria.

Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch party today said in response to the news that there will be no building freeze in Judea and Samaria. The Prime Minister's Office has not yet responded publicly to the news report.

The only Prime Minister to ever agree to a full building freeze in Judea and Samaria was Netanyahu, when President Obama requested/demanded it. If he agrees to a similar request now with his current political partners it might be political suicide. We'll soon see what happens this time. No matter what he decides to do he is going to upset people he can't really afford to - either the Biden administration or Smotritch and Ben Gvir.

We are in a cold spell right now, but this isnt the type of freeze we were expecting.

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I am not going to talk about him but something that struck me when I heard the news reports of final moments.

The news was reporting Rav Baadani's status in critical condition, of the viduy, of his impending passing and all the reports (at least the ones I heard) mentioned that Rav Aryeh Deri (and fellow Shas Minister Yoav Ben Tzur, but he's less interesting) was present in the hospital room.

Now, of course I can understand and would expect his family - children, grandkids, wife, etc - to be with him. I might even be expecting to hear about his gabbai or some close talmidim being in the room with him. But Aryeh Deri? Why is a politician in the room with him in his fial moments?

And this isnt unique to Rav Baadani's situation. This has come up numerous times before when rabbonim pass. In their final moments the politicians flock to their bedside. Sometimes it might be understandable - Rav Ovadia Yosef and Aryeh Deri were extremely close, Rav Shteinman and Rav Kanievsky with maybe Moshe Gafni for example. In some situations maybe they are close enough that it makes sense to be one of the few surrounding the bed. Besides for those unique situations I think this is a sign of how our rabbinics have gotten way too enmeshed in politics. And from the other side, it shouldn't be a time for the politicians to try to be scoring points with communities and followers. The politicians will also surely speak at the funeral. That should be left to the children and talmidim, not to the politicians.

UTJ's response, reportedly, was that they will not compromise and have no reason to, considering that Raam and the Muslim Brotherhood got 53 billion shekels from the last government. Whatever it might cost to fund their educational system, it is far less than what Raam got, so they have no reason to compromise.

Let's not forget - that "53 billion" was a major part of the Opposition fighting against the government over the past year and a half, and it was a major part of the campaign of Netanyahu and the Netanyahu-led bloc in the recent elections. Any claims to the contrary saying the numbers was actually much less was shot down and the person claiming it attacked as a Leftist, a liar, protecting the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.

According to Sherki, Netanyahu responded to the UTJ claim saying they did not actually get 53 billion from the last government but it was actually 2 billion shekels.

(as an aside, the number 53 was real, but it wasnt given to Raam or anyone - 53 billion was the plan for the multi-year development of the Arab sector over a period of, I think, 5 years. It was designated for road infrastructure, education, crime fighting, etc. Obviously only a small portion of it actually got dispensed because the government collapsed, but even if the entire 53 billion had been dispensed, only a tiny portion of it, the 2 billion (and some say 6) referenced by Netanyahu here, was for Raam to use for their constituents).

Basically Netanyahu said I lied - I lied to you, I lied to the entire country. But it was all part of the campaign to make his way back to power, so it was ok. I dont feel bad for UTJ because they knew he was lying - the numbers were public knowledge and even if they werent nobody knows the actual numbers better than Gafni (among some others like Netanyahu and Deri). UTJ was complicit in stating the lie for their own benefits. Now, during negotiations Netanyahu is just not letting them use the lie against him. I also dont feel bad for the outgoing government, the one that was lie about - they should have opposed it, and explained the truth and not leave the Likud narrative to basically go unanswered. Netanyahu made everyone believe that Lapid and Bennett had sold out the country to Raam, but Lapid and Bennett basically let everyone believe it, in their attempts to be statesmanlike. The sad part is the general public that was lied to, most of whom only read the headlines and not the actual details, and believed the bill of goods they were sold.

Netanyahu just told UTJ not to use his own lie against him. Hey everybody I lied, but now let's get back to reality.

  -- MK Moshe Arbel (Shas)

In Israel soldiers are not allowed to express political opinions or go to protests, can't get involved in election campaigning, or do anything else political. The soldier referred to expressed an opinion in favor of Ben Gvir and then was sentenced to 10 days in the brig. Ben Gvir criticized that, and Arbel is criticizing Ben Gvir for politicizing the IDF and its soldiers. When I first heard Arbel say this to Ben Gvir I had a funny thought. Shas and UTJ have used this recent election season and government forming period to equate the avreichim and yeshiva boys with the IDF soldiers, specifically regarding budgets and subsidies, but also in the public discourse regarding their level of importance. So if the avreichim and yeshiva students are "equal" to IDF soldiers, maybe the avreichim and yeshiva boys should also be left out of the political discourse, and they should be not allowed to get involved publicly in politics....

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Politics is full of rivalries and anger and conflict. Naftali Bennett unexpectedly became Prime Minister via an unusual political move, leaving some voters feeling betrayed, and more to the point - shocking some of his political rivals and leaving them behind. They spent a year doggedly opposing Bennett's government and every move they tried to make, and they did it with unprecedented verbal and emotional violence and abuse. Politicians need a thick skin, but the abuse thrown on Bennett was well over the top of anything reasonable.

The news is reporting that since the government collapsed and PM Yair Lapid took over the caretaker government, Bennett has basically been holed up at home, has skipped meetings, is depressed and angry (including at Lapid).

Obviously you cannot make a diagnosis of depression or whatnot form a newspaper article, let alone untrained people and non-professionals trying to make such a diagnosis, so without talking about a real mental health issue or serious depression or anything like that, I will still say the viscous attacks he went through the past year were horrible. And maybe even worse is that people, real people, even people I know, are commenting online how he deserves to be holed up like a criminal, he deserves to be sick and depressed, and the like. Most of them probably did not even vote for him and were not betrayed by him but they joined the Netanyahu mobs against Bennett for daring to send Netanyahu to the Opposition. You won, he lost. he is no longer Prime Minister. The country is going to elections. It is bad enough how viscous and un-decent you all were to him over the past year, you don't have to drive him to suicide now, God forbid it should get that bad. 

Politics is not worth losing your humanity. Especially when you aren't the one who will benefit or lose from it.

It is unclear what the ramifications would be if the current law setting the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria as under Israeli law instead of martial law were to allow to expire. It seems, if I understand it correctly, that if the current government falls before the end of June, the temporary law in place will automatically renew. If the government does not collapse before the end of June, they will have to either renew the temporary law for another five years or it will expire. With the Likud and its Opposition partners voting against and saying they will continue to, it looks like the chances of it passing are slim, but I think most people figure a solution will be found.

As I mentioned it is unclear what the ramifications would be if the law will not get renewed. It will definitely create some chaos. Some are saying that Israeli residents will lose their access to Bituach Leumi, health care, voting rights, educational rights, etc.. criminals will be tried in military courts and not in Israeli courts. There is only one prison in Judea and Samaria that is supposedly already overfull, but this will create a problem for people who are sentenced to prison. And probably more.

The government legalists are surely all scrambling now to figure it out but let's assume for a moment that this is correct. Jewish residents will lose their right to vote in Israeli elections. I am not sure why - they are Israeli citizens so they should retain the right to vote, but perhaps they will have to travel to a polling station within Israel proper (which might be a hassle but definitely doable) rather than voting in Judea and Samaria locations. There is no absentee voting in Israel so they wont be allowed to vote from locations in Judea and Samaria but they should be able to be assigned polling stations within Israel and travel in to vote, like any other Israeli citizen residing abroad. But I havent heard any of the more knowledgeable or official spokespeople or reporters say that, so maybe not. So for now let us assume it is a real problem.

I would suggest to the government, that is regularly on the brink of collapsing anyway and right now closer than ever, to call Likud's bluff and let the law expire and then in July bring down the government and go to elections. It would ultimately be a failure of the government, failing to renew the Judea and Samaria Law, but they could go to elections campaigning against the Likud and Smotritch and Ben Gvir and Shas and UTJ  focusing on the fact that they all voted against the interests of the Judea and Samaria residents. Those "no" votes are on the record. it is official - they voted against the law being extended to continue treating Judea and Samaria residents as Israelis. The parties in the current coalition should focus on that and hammer it home in their campaigning and eat away at some of the support for those parties in Judea and Samaria, along with supporters elsewhere.

Additionally, besides for a campaign focused against the Likud et al on this issue, the overwhelming majority of Judea and Samaria Jewish residents are supporters of the Likud. There will also be many supporters of Smotritch and Ben Gvir, along with Shas and UTJ (UTJ probably doesnt have too many but they will have some affected communities like Emmanuel, maybe Modiin Ilit and  maybe even Beitar Ilit if the Gush region is affected by this).. If all those supporters cant vote for their favorite parties, these Opposition parties that voted against will lost upwards of half a million votes in the coming elections! That would be a major blow and hurt them badly and make it even more difficult for the Likud to form a majority coalition and government. And even if they are able to travel in to Israel to vote, I am sure many would not want to bother, or wouldnt be able to, or would buy into the campaign against the Likud for doing this to them...

All this is theoretical, if the legal complications play out the way it is being described now. And it would be a really big political risk. And it could very well backfire. The current parties leading the country may have nothing to lose at that point. I would love to see this happen in real life, but I dont expect it to. 

Merkaz Harav has invited the Prime Minister to the Yom Yerushalayim celebrations for a long time. I dont know if they always did or only since Netanyahu has been Prime Minister. I tried finding information but couldnt really find anything solid. I know they invited Jerusalem mayors as well, and other politicians at times.

Even if they do not have to invite PM Bennett, I think it is a mistake not to, and it is definitely a mistake to invite the Head of Opposition without the Prime Minister. Meaning, if you are not going to invite the Prime Minister, dont invite Netanyahu either. Inviting Netanyahu and not Bennett turns the yeshiva too political and divisive and in the long run will likely be bad for the yeshiva and for Torah in general. Dont invite any politician is better than inviting just Netanyahu.

All that being said, whenever this government will make its way into the history books, I wonder what will happen with the next government that gets formed. while obviously I dont know what the makeup of the government will be, which parties will get in and which will fail to cross the minimum threshold, how many seats each will have and what type of coalition will come together, assuming either the next Knesset looks somewhat similar to the current one, or assuming elections will be avoided and attempts will be made to form a new government from the current Knesset, will they let bygones be bygones or will they work together?

Meaning, after all the verbal and emotional abuse the Likud and Bibi, along with UTJ and Shas, have heaped on Naftali Bennett personally this past year calling him the worst names (whether you think he deserved it or not), and others as well but Bennett got the brunt of it, so what happens next? Does Naftali join a Likud government and ignore the past? Does the Likud take Naftali and his party as members with positions of authority commensurate to the size of the party despite everything they called him this past year - is he suddenly kosher because he will help Bibi/Likud (assuming Likud is tasked with forming a government)?

And was this RAAM's one chance - after Bibi legitimized Mansour Abbas and Abbas joined the Bennett government, the Likud has spent the last delegitimizing Abbas and RAAM. So, is that it? Will they no longer join, or be invited to join, a future government, at least in the near future? And after they were a very unstable partner, regularly demanding more things in exchange for remaining in the government, did they overplay their hands and make themselves undesirable again?

What do you think?

This has been done in the past as well, at Benjamin Netanyahu when he was Prime Minister, and probably at other Prime Ministers as well.

Truly such ceremonies on such solemn days are not the time or place for involving politics and screaming political messages at this or that politician.

That being said, the families present are grieving and hurting and cannot really be blamed for it, though by no means must their opinions be given any special importance. 

And, that being said, perhaps it is time for a different approach. Maybe these ceremonies should not include the participation of politicians, especially when people have lost the ability to be non-partisan and accepting of the other.

If the State can decide that the biggest and most anticipated part of the celebration of Independence Day, the fireworks display, can be abandoned to the potential of triggering PTSD in too many people, perhaps the politicians should not be present at these events as their presence triggers the trauma and PTSD of some grieving participants.

I understand some people in the Religious Zionism sector are upset at PM Naftali Bennett, Minister Matan Kahane, Minister Ayelet Shaked, and some others. There is nothing wrong with that. They can be upset, they can argue and prefer a different route and a different way to navigate the political situation.

Arguing, disagreeing, is fine. The polarization really bothers me. They are passul because they have taken a different political path and have made decisions I disagree with. That is what I really dont like.

Smotritch said, and others (like MK Rotman) supported him, that they should be chased out of their shuls on Shabbos and the upcoming holidays. They should be rejected and banished.

In response some people are talking big - things like comparing it to Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, causing the destruction of the mikdash, etc. That is too weighty for me.

For me it is just crossing a line into polarization. Who made Betzalel Smotritch the guardian of all shuls and of Judaism? Who is he to say who should be banished from shul? Just like I asked who is MK Gafni to decide who should wear a kipa and who should not when he screamed at Matan Kahane to remove his kipa, who is Smotritch to decide who gets to go to shul and who doesn't? Why are we letting them mix politics and religion, bring politics into the shul? if you stick to my politics I will let you come daven but if you disagree and go a different political path you cannot come daven? Who ever heard of such a vile position? Maybe this is just another sign for the need of more separation of Shul and State. This is just another victim - politicians get to decide who is allowed into shul and who isn't.

And it did not start with this.

Idit Silman was under heavy social pressure, as were others like Nir Orbach, for months, until she eventually flipped last week. Protests outside their houses (which is reasonable), in addition to social banishment, punishing their kids in school and Bnei Akiva youth groups? That is not right and should not be part of the arsenal.

That is pure political violence. This type of polarization should not be a part of our system. 

Smotritch's response is basically that people have the right to be upset. Yes, people have the right to be upset, but Smotritch is the one riling them up. Even if some people are upset, they were not chasing these people out of shul, they were not harassing them and their families, not all on their own. They were riled up by the leadership and guided to do these things. That is not "people have the right to be upset". That is Smotritch saying throw them out of shul.

Political violence should be unacceptable no matter which sector it comes from, and the Dati Leumi sector is clearly not immune to it.

If the Coalition wants a law passed, the Opposition will oppose it even if it is something they want and have always wanted, and even if it is bad for them in the future to have voted against, they still will. 

So, while we still do not yet know what will happen in the coming days and everything that hits the news media right now is still just "spin", I had some thoughts along the way.

1. Finance Minister Yisrael Katz supposedly offered Netanyahu a plan for Netanyahu to step down and Katz would lead Likud temporarily as Prime Minister, putting together a "full right" government. At some later stage, in a year or two, Netanyahu would come back and take over. Netanyahu supposedly rejected the supposed offer, and the Likud (or some of its leaders) put out a harsh statement against Katz as being a political usurper at the worst time, the way they recently did against Barkat. They even called him a horrible Finance Minister.

I am amazed how Netanyahu will supposedly offer Bennett and Saar "first in rotation" agreements (which we are pretty sure he would find a way to renege on) but does not trust his own Likud leadership and closest ministers to work out some similar arrangement with them. Similar ideas have been floated in the past (Yariv Levin among others) and he always refused them.

2. Netanyahu is coming up with all these ideas at the last minute. the 11th hour, as they say. Daka 90, the 90th minute, in Hebrew parlance. Today he got the entire right bloc leaders to say they would sign an agreement that would give Saar first spot in a rotation, followed by Bibi, followed by Bennett. So far Saar said no, it is just spin, Netanyahu can't be trusted to follow through (and we know Deri's word as guarantor is already meaningless by now as well). We'll see what happens, but sometimes it is just too late. Where was he with a serious offer any time in the past 3 weeks? or 2+ months?

3. Netanyahu is reaping what he sowed. Nobody trusts his word any longer, after seeing years of him destroying political opponents, breaking up parties by dividing them, breaking promises, and the like.

4. It looks more and more likely that it will work out with the "change bloc" and a government might be formed. As I said earlier, that does not mean it will be functional or long lasting, but they might succeed in doing what they set out to accomplish - getting Bibi out of Balfour. And the threat of elections might be the greatest thing to make it happen. I am sure neither Bennett or Saar nor Abbas, or some of the others, want to go to elections now considering the strong backlash they might encounter.

5. Lapid has been amazingly consistent for the past couple of years - he has repeatedly given up the first spot despite being the largest faction or party, for the ideal of getting rid of Netanyahu. He might have a massive ego (what politician doesn't?) but he has repeatedly put it aside for what eh considers the greater good. Not many others can claim that. For the past few years he has stayed on message and worked toward a single goal. he is on the cusp of achieving it. We will see what happens, but kudos to him for his determination and focus. 

Of course any time someone praises Lapid for anything it raises hellfire because he is "horrible", "anti-haredi", a "leftist", "uneducated without even a high school degree", "worst finance minister in history", etc, so I expect some backlash for this, but my comment is not about his policies but about his focus and determination and finally being on the cusp of seeing success. I think some lessons can be learned from this.

6. It doesn't bother me that a head of party with just 6 seats might become Prime Minister. Some are screaming it is undemocratic for such a thing to happen. It does not bother me. I am impressed by his negotiating skills if he can arrange that after just achieving 6 seats in the elections. I think people on the Right should be praising him for this, not attacking him

7. It is amazing how all the "leftists" are willing to support a right winger, and a religious one who wears a kipa, for Prime Minister. And there is not even any mention of that. The bigger issue is that he is right wing. The fact that he is religious does not even get mentioned. We are on the cusp of the possibility of a religious Jew becoming Prime Minister and his religion  is not an issue. Sure, maybe it is out of hatred for Bibi that they support him, but so what. They could say no. They could say we'll support Saar first but not Bennett. They could talk about the difficulty, even if they'll begrudgingly support him. But not a peep. Bennett is religious, might be imminently appointed Prime Minister supported by the Left and that has not been an issue at all.

An example of that is today. MKs Smotritch and Shaked are both accusing each other of lying and of being at fault for the inability to form a full right wing government. If they both are willing and it is the other one's fault, why don't they do it now? In the meantime they are each just accusing the other of being responsible for the failure.

Another recent example was the rumors recently of a Likud offer to split Yamina - they would not take Bennett and his people, but would take Shaked as she has shown more loyalty to the right. The next day they floated more rumors of a repeated offer to merge Yamina into Likud - but without Shaked.

Everything now is spin and marketing. Each and every politician is bu8sy trying to make himself or herself look better and the other look worse. The spin is to both look better and also to put pressure on the other to break off talks or to bring this or that one into the fold, etc.

You just have to remind yourself not to listen to it all now, not believe it, and not get so worried you feel the need to comment. I see some people upset and crying in various political groups every time a new rumor is floated - they say we can't trust him/her, they stole my vote, etc.. and ten minutes later we hear a rumor exactly the opposite of the previous one.

Take it easy, let them do what they do, and at the end when something is final then we will know what is going on.

  

  -- Jonathan Pollard, on the possibility of joining Israeli politics...