Israel Hayom is reporting that Ministers Lieberman (Finance) and Hendel (Communications) have agreed and decided to sell off Israel Post and fully privatize it. 100% of the shares will be sold to private investors.

I just received this letter form the Likud in my mailbox this morning... I was wondering what it could be, as no new date has been set yet for primaries. I thought maybe it would be announcing a discussion about new primaries, or maybe it would be a statement form the head of the Likud rallying support while Likud is in the Opposition, or maybe some other statement about the state of affairs.

ביקורת פתע בדואר - והפעם בבית שמש

רוצים שאגיע לסניף הדואר הקרוב אליכם כדי לבדוק את רמת השירות?
כתבו לי! pic.twitter.com/iboq3ZhUCU

— Yoaz Hendel יועז הנדל (@YoazHendel1) July 12, 2021

Hopefully the government will last long enough for Hendel to actually make improvements in the postal system!

Online shopping has taken over the world. Even in Israel it has been increasing rapidly, and Amazon's entry into the Israel market has sent shock waves through the entire Israel brick and mortar retail industry. We've already seen businesses complaining about the effect of Amazon free shipping to Israel on their businesses, and they filed a lawsuit against Israel Post for giving Amazon priority service and hurting local businesses who suffer with delayed service because of Amazon.

According to a report on Hamodia.com, based on a Channel 12 report, a lawsuit has been filed by a group of businesses against Israel Post for not checking imported packages properly for payment of import duties.

As is known, personal import, meaning anything you buy for personal use on websites like Amazon, Next, ASOS, Ebay, Aliexpress or other sites, are tax-free up to $75. Once your purchase amount is over $75, you have to pay VAT (17%) and other duties. Over $500 and you will be hit with more duties.

The businesses are claiming that their businesses are being hurt because people are ordering from abroad and not paying the proper taxes, making it an uneven playing field. If the Israel Post would inspect properly and collect taxes that are due, many people would order less from abroad and buy locally.

The Supreme Court accepted the argument and as of February 15 Israel Post will be forced to inspect incoming packages more thoroughly to determine proper duties for collection.

Being how Israel Post can hardly keep up with the current workload, I do not see how they'll be able to function with such an added workload. Expect more delays in delivery of your packages. Maybe they will hire more handlers to inspect packages, and all this online purchasing that was thought to hurt the local economy and cause local unemployment will actually be a boon and increase employment in the Israel Postal Services...

After the recent reports about Israel Post secretly giving priority service to Amazon deliveries, leaving all other companies shipping through them in the lurch, things are getting really interesting.

According to TOI, an online business that relies on Israel Post for delivering the products customers buy from them has filed a class action suit against Israel Post for damages due to ongoing delays in deliveries of the packages. The lawsuit is for 50.6million NIS and the claim is that Israel Post is favoring Amazon deliveries to the detriment of all other companies.

The lawsuit claims breach of contract as preferential treatment is forbidden, along with the fact that he is paying full rate for deliveries yet the deliveries are not being processed in a timely fashion, even when he purchases special expedited delivery. Israel Post sold, and continues to sell, services at full value knowing it would not keep its side of the contract due to prioritizing Amazon packages.

I cant wait to see how this turns out. In the meantime, perhaps companies needing to ship product to customers should look for alternate delivery companies and stop using Israel Post. Even Amazon does not use Israel Post for all its shipping needs and uses a slew of other delivery companies to handle its deliveries.

Kan News is reporting that Israel Post is giving priority delivery service to packages shipped to israel from Amazon over all other packages, whether shipped internationally or even domestically, and many online businesses are suffering from this.

It seems the recent promotion by Amazon for free shipping to Israel on many products has swamped Israel Post with packages for delivery and they can't keep up with the number of packages coming in daily. They are swamped in packages and completely backed up.

Watch the Kan report:


I would just add that when Amazon and Israel Post announced the collaboration I suggested that Amazon must be getting some sort of priority service or else there would be no chance they would use the Israeli postal system, or if they would use it without priority service they would quickly cancel due to poor service form the Israel Post system.

I feel bad for the companies suffering from the delays. This can destroy a business. I hope they find a solution, perhaps using alternate delivery companies. Amazon is using a slew of delivery companies. While the bulk might be coming in via Israel Post, many are being delivered by other companies.

According to this article on TOI, and of course by seeing some people in some groups on Facebook complain about these things, Israel Post has been unable to handle the massive increase in packages arriving for delivery in Israel from Amazon shoppers.

Personally I have had no problems with any of the delivery methods and have gotten whatever I have ordered in a pretty timely fashion, sometimes even surprisingly fast, but one cannot say this was not predictable. Israel Post has had a bad reputation for a long time, and increasing their workload was not going to improve the situation.

While it was probably expected and predicted by just about every Israeli who might have ever used Israel Post, I did put it down in writing over 3 months ago when Amazon first announced it was going to be using Israel Post to handle much of the workload...

According to Globes, in prep for the launch of amazon Israel, Amazon has signed a deal with the Israel Postal Authority to use Israel Post for delivery of packages in Israel via Amazon Israel.

The deal is expected to boost revenues of Israel Post by tens of millions of shekels annually.

Way to go. This practically ensures customer dissatisfaction, especially when a significant percentage of packages don't get delivered or when it takes weeks or months instead of days for delivery.

The only hope is if Israel Post gives Amazon some sort of priority service, taking extra care to deliver Amazon packages quickly and efficiently. But then every other business in Israel shipping via Israel Post will get upset.

According to Ynet, the security forces are catching postal packages being delivered to Gaza that contain weapons accessories such as scopes, night vision goggles, drones, binoculars, gun parts and more. These packages were often purchased online via Ali Express. Postal deliveries to Gaza come through Israel and then get transferred to Gaza - with the security forces checking them first. They have recently been catching many packages containing this dangerous contraband and the security officials believe they will be going to terror organization in Gaza. No duh!

I am not quite sure what to say, other than I am really ordering the wrong things on Ali Express.

This is big news for Israels, and especially for Olim Chadashim. We all love to order items from abroad, whether online stores in the USA, such as Amazon or others, whether NEXT form the UK, or Ali Express in China, for example. Yet we get tracking notice that the order is in Israel and it can still take weeks until we get that notice that a package has arrived.

Israel Post is working on a new system that will have your package delivered to you within 48 hours of it having arrived in Israel.

They are putting together an automated sorting system that can handle tens of thousands of packages every hour. The new location will be staffed by 250 employees and will be located on a site in Modiin that is 18 dunam large.

Until now sorting was a long tedious process. The package would arrive at the airport and then get sorted multiple times, by hand, at various sorting centers. The sorting process alone took 5-7 days.

Now the packages will go straight from the airport to the new sorting center and from there straight to your local post office branch.
source: NRG

I hope it works. This would improve the process a lot!

The Postal Authority has recently started using a new service in some post office branches. In participating branches one can use their new app to make an appointment at the post office. If you come at the designated time, you get to skip the lines and take your turn.

Somebody, a lawyer, is complaining that this is discriminatory against Haredim and elderly people who do not have smartphones. Advocate Chester says that the post office should make its services available to everybody, and even to people who choose to use a kosher phone that does not support the ability to make appointments. They are discriminated against by having to wait longer  in line, just because they chose, or like the elderly are often not technologically savvy enough, to listen to their rabbis and not use a smartphone. And it is absurd that young people come in and go before elderly people who were already waiting, a secular person goes in and goes before a Haredi waiting, just because he cannot use a smartphone.

The Postal Authority responded that they are working on creating the ability to order appointments by phone.
source: Behadrei

As if it is the fault of the post office that some people choose to not use smartphones. And nobody else should benefit just because some people choose not to. Many other aspects of religious life also make a person choose to not avail himself or herself of available benefits - that does not make the mere existence of such benefits discriminatory.


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A Debbie Gilbert posted this image to Facebook.

Gilbert explains that when she went to the post office to send a package to Mexico, she was surprised to see that the package did not weigh what she had expected based on the weight she determined it to be on the scale in her house.
So, she took a kg bag of rice and weighed it on the scale in the Post office. Lo and Behold, the 1kg bag of rice actually weighs 1.86kg!

I hope this scale problem is limited to that specific branch she went into and is not a problem across the board in all the post offices.

On the other hand,, maybe Sugat got the packaging wrong on their rice.

I am bundling these interesting law proposals into one post, even though each probably deserves its own post...

1. MK Motti Yogev (Habayit Hayehudi) has proposed a law that would prohibit all houses of worship from using sound systems.

Yogev reasons his proposal by saying that the loud noise disturbs the quality of life of many residents who live in the areas near these houses of worship. According to Yogev, the freedom of religion and freedom of worship does not need to come at the expense of other people's quality of life.
source: INN, TOI

Obviously not too many shuls use such sound systems that broadcast out to the public. Also obviously, many (all?) mosques do, and this law would largely affect them, if it passes..

I can't wait for the video of Ahmed Tibi screaming about this from the Knesset podium

2. you might be saved from the Muezzin by Motti Yogev, MK Miki Zohar (Likud) is going to have you suffer more on Lag BaOmer and Chag HaMimouna.

Zohar has proposed a law that would add Lag BaOmer and Mimouna to the list of holidays in which it has an automatic exemption from the noise laws. Meaning, Lag BaOmer night and Mimouna night celebrations won't have to end at 11pm (in residential areas), but can go until the wee hours of the morning.

Zohar explains these are days that have become celebrated by everybody like the regular holidays and there is no reason they should be limited by the law. Especially because they both fall out during Daylight Savings Time in the summer and therefore both start and end late.
source: Srugim

So Daylight Savings Time does have a victim...

3. Have you ever received a postal note informing you of registered mail waiting for you at the post office - then, after waiting 30, 40 or 50 minutes in line at the post office you find out it is a calendar from an organization looking to hit you up for a donation? There is no way you would have waited in line for so long to go get something like that, but the postal note does not tell you who sent the registered mail, and you thought it was your new passports or that check you've been waiting for!

MK Nachman Shai (Hamachane Hatzioni) has proposed a law that would require senders of registered mail to write their name, address and any applicable legal issue for the item on the mail slip.
source: Srugim

The first law proposal above seems dangerous to me. Maybe limit the speakers by decibels and volume, but canceling it altogether seems like an impediment in a freedom of religion that has been allowed until now.

Once you start making laws against other people's religious practices, you don't know where it is going to end.

The second law seems unnecessary to me. Do we really want the noise and smoke and kids out so much later than Lag BaOmer night already is? I definitely don't.

The third law looks good to me. It might make it more difficult for legal issues, such as bank notices or legal notices that will now go ignored and won't be picked up because the recipient knows in advance that it is something he does not want, but overall it seems good to me. If somebody wants to serve a notice, they can work and find other ways to do it.

I don't know why the local post office (not just local, but I'm only talking about local because I have seen it firsthand) is in such a difficult situation, but it is.

It has come to the point that they have piles and piles of mail bags filled with mail and packages that they simply do not have the time or manpower to sort through and organize.

I would guess that they are responsible for too broad of an area with not enough staff. It does look, to me at least, that there has been a significant increase in the number of packages people are getting delivered by mail.

If anyone thought the postal service was being killed off by email, due to people no longer sending snail mail, it is the significant increase in online shopping that is going to save the postal service and keep it in business.

Or, as you can see in the images below, maybe it will drown them.

Here are a few images from my trip to the post office this morning..





There is more than what you see here, but this is what I photographed. When these two guys (1 shown in picture) came delivering more mail bags and boxes, I pointed to the piles and asked if they don't already have enough backlogged. They laughed and just continued to go about their business of dropping off the new mailbags..

Maybe a yeshiva, a seminary, or a youth group (or anyone else) might consider volunteering to spend a few hours a week to sort through all those bags and get it organized as part of their chessed programs... It would be a tremendous chessed for the community - so many people must be waiting for packages or mail that are just sitting there in the mailbags waiting to be sorted!