This is the "changing of the guard" ceremony at the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, as Minister Tzippi Hotoveli hands off the ministry to the new minister, Minister Omer Yankelevitch.

Neither looks like the "typical" minister from the Likud or Kachol Lavan parties, if there is such a thing as typical. Maybe "expected" is a better word.

Best of luck to both of them in their new positions...

Assuming the announcements made this afternoon stick and are not changed at the last minute, we are witnessing history being made.

The new government, seemingly to be sworn in on Sunday instead of tonight, will make history by including the following:
 - the first ever Ethiopian-born minister, as Penina Tamno Shata will be appointed to the post of Minister of Immigration and Absorption
 - the first ever Haredi female minister, as Omer Yankelevitch will be appointed to the post of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs
 - the first minister from Bet Shemesh (not sure this counts as historic, but it is significant for residents of Bet Shemesh) as Omer Yankelevitch, a resident of Bet Shemesh (RBS) will be appointed to the post of Ministry of Diaspora Affairs

there are others as well, but I am less proud of them so won't include them in the list, such as it slated to being the largest government in Israeli history, PM Benjamin Netanyahu being the longest serving Prime Minister (increasing daily), etc

Make history and serve Israel well!

MK Omer Yankelovitch (Kachol Lavan) has proposed a law that would put an end to the exorbitant parking fees collected in hospital parking lots.

Yankelovitch is proposing that the Ministers of Health and of Transportation should, together I guess, set the maximum limit that hospitals are allowed to charge for parking. The Ministry of Health has previously determined that hospitals should charge no more than 20nis per day for parking, yet the hospitals ignore the unenforced directives and charge exorbitant prices. Her proposal is that parking fees should be limited to 15nis per hour and 40nis per day.

As the occasional consumer of hospital parking, thankfully not often, I concur that they charge ridiculously high parking fees, and are basically taking advantage of a captive, and often desperate, public that has no other choice.. 
source: Haredim10

MK Omer Yankelevitch (Kachol Lavan) went to pay a visit to a seminary called "Sharansky's Seminar". Yankelevitch is an alumnus of this school and in her role as MK has helped the school with something procedural and has promised to work on getting them recognition for one of the courses they offer that is currently no accredited.

As part of the ceremony with Yankelevitch, the school administration gave her a copy of her teacher's certificate she had qualified for as a student years earlier.

The visit upset MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ). In Gafni's opinion, only official Haredi MKs with the official stamp of approval are allowed to visit Haredi schools and perform publicity stunts with the Haredi schools in the backdrop.

Gafni sent a letter to the school administration expressing his shock at hearing that an MK from a secular party , whose goal is to hurt everything holy and valuable to the Jewish nation, visited, and was received with great honor by the school administration. Shameful, Gafni says. Also, Rav Sharansky zt"l would never have allowed such a thing.

It seems that Gafni is worried that despite the campaigns and the using Rav Chaim Kanievsky and other gedolim to ensure that everyone in the Haredi community votes only UTJ, still perhaps someone in the school might appreciate MK Yankelevitch's help, help that was not offered by the UTJ MKs, and get confused by her Haredi appearance and by calling herself Haredi and think Kachol Lavan is not so bad and is even a somewhat Haredi party and might vote for them, God forbid!

By the way, a simple search about the Sharansky school brings up a notice about a visit 3 years ago aid by then Minister of Education Naftali Bennett to the Sharansky school. With pictures. There was no mention of any protest from Gafni at the time. I guess nobody would confuse Bennett as Haredi and think he can be voted for.






sources; Behadrei and Kikar and Charedim.org

I was not going to post anything today - between a shortage of time and some personal issues that is filling the time I have, I figured I would just take the time off from blogging today. But then I saw something that deserves mention.

While Netanyanyahu was doing everything possible and trying everything under the sun last night to come to a last minute arrangement to get enough support for a government coalition without going to new elections, one of the issues was trying to apply heavy pressure on MK Omer Yankelevitch (Kachol Lavan) to support the government from the opposition or even to abandon Kachol Lavan and join Likud or some other arrangement. The reports had heavy pressure being put on her, as has been tried before. In the end it did not work, but personally I found this a bit reprehensible.

Anyways, MK Yitzchak Pindrus (UTJ) just said something interesting about this, and I found it noteworthy. Pindrus said that had MK Yankelevitch abandoned her party and joined the coalition, he would have been disappointed by the decision. Pindrus said a person needs to be faithful to his supporters and voters. The pressure placed on her [to switch parties] was not appropriate.

That is a respectable and honorable position, and I appreciate it. I was tired of hearing how she is stabbing the haredi community in the back, how perhaps she achieved her position just for this moment to be in a position to save the haredi community, and the like. First of all, I dont know her opinion on these matters, and maybe she does not consider that saving the community. Maybe she does not support those positions anyway (or maybe she does). Second, she did not run as a haredi candidate representing the haredi community, running on haredi issues. Omer Yankelevitch ran on general social issues and for whatever reason chose that party to run with (she spoke about a broad base, a diverse party, etc). To adopt her, forcefully, as part of a haredi party that would never even have her and host her, left a really bad taste in my mouth. Chew them up and spit them out when they are no longer useful Do our bidding so it helps us, and then go home. Ichsa, as my little kids would say. The position expressed by MK Pindrus is honorable and I appreciate that.

This hurts every Haredi Jew. When Omer Yankelovitch will run by himself in his own party - let's see if he gets in then, if he did anything

  -- Deputy Minister Meir Porush, when asked in a Kikar interview about Omer Yankelevitch running in a non-Haredi party

pretty much anybody running in his own party by himself will not get in. That is the purpose of the 3.25% minimum threshold. Porush also would not get in if he ran by himself in his own party. Neither would Gafni or Litzman or Deri or most MKs. Yankelevitch also would not get in on her own, but so what? That's why she is running as part of a larger party, just like every other hopeful MK.

The main interesting part of the quote is how Porush refers to Yankelevitch as a male. Either he just made a grammatical mistake, or he does not even know who Yankelevitch is and is assuming Yankelevitch is male. The name "Omer" is not common or gender specific, so perhaps he just does not know but was told about a Haredi person running in a non-Haredi party....

A Haredi woman who goes to a non-Haredi political party and is active for a party that will do damage to Shabbos observance and will advance homosexual marriage, even if she is given freedom to vote her conscience on those issues she is still helping that party, that is damaging.

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), about Haredi lawyer Omer Yankelevitch running as a candidate for Chosen l'Yisrael (Benny Gantz's party)...

as I have said before, when you give people no opportunity for advancement in their own political home, they will go elsewhere..