MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), spent the morning in Bet Shemesh at a ceremony for the opening of a new school building. Interestingly, despite the visit by Gafni, a lot of the schools (I think specifically seminaries) in Bet Shemesh did not open due to some tens of young women who were not being allowed to attend school. I dont know the exact story but it seems some of these young ladies were left out, as is unfortunately not uncommon. The municipality placed them all in varying existing schools, but those schools refuse to accept them due to ostensibly, overcrowding, and maybe other reasons. This is happening in Jerusalem as well with about 400 young ladies, and maybe in other places as well. Because of the situation, many of the seminaries are not opening as scheduled, or they are opening for all grades not including 9th grade.

MK Gafni commented calling on Shas to open more schools for the sefardi young ladies. Gafni said Shas should open more schools so your girls will have a place to study without needing to crowd into "our institutions" that are growing and do not have enough space for everyone.

Shas retorted back saying Shas's objective has always been  establish educational institutions for the glory of the Sefardi community, and thank you to Rav Gafni who clarified how important it is that Shas continue to be strong and independent and how they cannot rely on any other party to take care of them.

Besides for the general disgrace of politicized education due to educational institutions being party affiliated and controlled by political parties, this back and forth is describing clear and blatant segregation and institutionalized discrimination. 

In this exchange I think Gafni actually has the upper hand in his comments, sadly, because the exchange shows that Shas has not created enough institutions for its people, or they are creating the institutions but the people are still trying to send their kids to ashkenazi schools, so either Shas has done a poor job of it or the people just dont want to buy the segregation Shas is continuing to sell.

Shas and UTJ both need this as they both build themselves on the backs of segregation and differentation. While one can argue that today it makes no difference if one is sefardi or ashkenazi, we are all Israeli, they need that old distinction. Today there is no difference. The kids today did not grow up in Poland's shtetls or in Yemen or Algeria or in Germany or Lithuania. They all grew up in Israel learning more or less the same or very similar curriculums, living and playing together in mixed communities. Those distinctions perhaps made more sense two and three generations ago when when people were getting off the boats from different parts of the world.  Distinguishing today between people whose grandparents and great-grandparents were born in Lodz or Fez is simply blatant racism and segregation.

Perhaps we need a civil rights movement to desegregate schools like the USA in the '60s...  

They are understandably upset as they were basically forced, because of their own rhetoric, to resign when they clearly didnt want to.

What they are doing right now is called burning bridges. They may be forgiven, they may not. If they are not going to reconsider their positions, they should simply take the high road and not burn bridges. Considering their positions they don't have too many alternative options and they seem to be trying to become pariahs among those who are their only potential partners. Take the high road, keep it ideological, take the proud position of having resigned to protect the yeshiva bochurim, if you really believe that's what you were doing, and don't spew hatred.

When Ben Gvir pulled his party out, Smotritch decided to punish them by resigning from his ministerial position, thus kicking out MK Kroizer from the Knesset, and then Smotritch would take his position back. Taking back the ministerial position would not put Kroizer back in as MK - the Norwegian Law can only be applied once per MK (per Knesset), and Smotritch would have to resign from the Knesset, which he would not do for Kroizer even if he could.. 

They ended up not playing this game because Ben Gvir wanted to keep his guy in despite not being part of the coalition. He negotiated with Smotritch and they worked out a deal by which Smotritch would not resign, thus leaving Kroizer in. Kroizer would commit to voting with the coalition. On any vote he plans to vote against the coalition he would give 48 hours notice, enabling Smotritch to decide whether or not to resign and kick Kroizer out. And additionally Almog Cohen would be left in place as he was not following Otzma decisions anyway and was voting with the coalition even when Otzma decided not to.

Games. 

Others can play games too. 

It is being reported that Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf (of UTJ) is considering resigning from his ministerial position, go back to the Knesset, then take back his ministerial position while keeping his Knesset seat. This would kick his "Norwegian MK", Yitzchak Pindrus from Degel Hatorah, out of the Knesset but Goldknopf is more concerned with getting himself more power in his fight over the Draft Law and taking back his Knesset seat will give him back his Knesset vote.

To that end, his aide, Motti Bebchik, has been checking within UTJ what the ramifications of such a move would be. Bebchik reportedly checked in With Uri Maklev to see if Goldknopf resigns and does this shtick if Maklev (from Degel) would retaliate and also resign his [deputy] ministerial position to kick out Moshe Roth (from Agudath Israel) from the Knesset being his Norwegian MK. And if they do this, Meir Porush (from Agudath Israel) might also resign to kick out his Norwegian MK Yaakov Asher (from Degel Hatorah).

And Degel has warned that if Goldknopf resigns and pulls this shtick leading to the removal of two Degel MKs, they may vote against approving him as minister when he tries to take back his ministerial position. 

That being said, while Netanyahu is kind of stuck and is letting Ben Gvir make a fool of him. He should have fired Ben Gvir last time Ben Gvir voted against a budget vote a couple weeks back, but he didn't, and so far he hasn't after this vote yesterday that went down to the wire and required Netanyahu himself to leave his hospital bed and shlep down from the hospital to vote, and Netanyahu is too weak to fire him because he is afraid of losing his coalition.

The coalition is large enough now that he can technically afford to kick out Ben Gvir, but then he will barely have a majority again and will be at other people's whims without Ben Gvir to bail him out. Keeping Ben Gvir in the coalition makes Netanyahu look weak but it keeps his coalition alive, even if they arent voting in tune with the coalition.

UTJ is more complicated. They too should be fired but won't be. the politicians always quip that UTJ is one party but acts like 7 parties. Each MK represents a different community and each MK acts and behaves like he is his own party and nobody is beholden to any party decisions. When the coalition needs something, the head of the coalition needs to go to each MK from UTJ to make a separate deal rather than just talk it out and deal with the one head of the party. This played out precisely yesterday. The Degel faction voted with the coalition. Goldknopf voted against, and Netanyahu worked out a deal with Eichler and Porush and Tessler and Rot to have enough abstentions instead of votes against so the budget vote could succeed. Masterful on Netanyahu's part to work that all out, but dysfunctional of UTJ.

How can UTJ continue to function properly and efficiently and reliably when none of the MKs follow the instructions of the head of UTJ? How can the head of UTJ make decisions without working it out with the members factions and MKS - did he expect them to be beholden to the Gerrer Rebbe's decision, when the entire essence of the party is that it is made up of different factions each beholden only to his own rebbe? What good is being head of the party if he has no control over the MKs within? In any other party they would sanction the MKs who did not follow the decisions of the party (like Otzma might do for ALmog Cohen who voted with the coalition instead of with Otzma), but he cant punish Degel and he cant sanction the others either. At the same time, how can the head of the coalition work out anything with a party that can't be relied on?

Eichler and Porush were so proud yesterday of going behind Goldknopf's back and working out the deal with Netanyahu, in exchange for a promise of the Draft Law being presented next week. I don't know if the Draft Law will be presented next week or not, but Netanyahu has promised this in the past several times and has not delivered, so I am not sure why they are accepting this promise now, especially Eichler who is fairly militant on this issue.

That being said, if Netanyahu does not follow through with the presentation of the Draft Law next week, Eichler will have egg all over his face. I wonder what he will do then.

The article says the MIK Moshe Saada (Likud proposed a law to grant additional special benefits and whatnot to reservists. One of the clauses int he proposal states that any institution whose students do not draft to the IDF will not get any government allocations/budgets.

UTJ found this clause and says that this clause presents an existential danger to the yeshivas.

According to Yated, UTJ has let the Likud know that if this clause remains included in the law to be presented UTJ will see itself as not obligated to vote on other laws presented by the Likud demanding coalition support.

A few points:

1. Didnt the UTJ gedolim recently plan for decoupling the yeshivas from the government budgets and went out and raised $110 million (plus)? Why would this be such a serious problem for the yeshivas if this was already planned for?

2. Again, like what I pointed out yesterday, interestingly the threat is not to leave the government but to not vote on Likud law proposals in line with the coalition. A law proposal that UTJ is considering to be a serious threat against the yeshivas and UTJ isnt even bluffing with threats to leave the coalition!

I must say, it does seem that even though PM Netanyahu and some others in the Likud might not be on board yet, many in the Likud have had enough with the situation. They all know and recognize the crisis they would be causing when they say they won't support this or that by other coalition members, including the Haredi parties, and they are causing the crises anyway.. 

The Haredi parties, especially UTJ, have not really threatened the government with any of the issues they consider red lines, despite saying they would. none of the passed deadlines or the various proposals for the Draft Law have caused the Haredi parties to bolt, despite them having said they would. Chilul shabbos of government officials and their offices have gone largely ignored, despite them being the impetus for crises in the past. They have always used the excuse that the Leftists just want to bring down the government and they wont be a part of it, or they would say this is the best government they can hope for so they wont bring it down to bring in a worse one. 

And now suddenly MK Moshe Gafni goes into Netanyahu's office and threatens that if money for Haredi educational institutions isnt cleared by Friday he will resign. In his wake have followed, so far, MKs Asher and Eichler, and Eichler said the others would follow along as well. 

This looks like a serious threat, though I am confident Netanyahu will solve it before they need to follow through.

The question in my head is why now. Is this really a bigger issue than all those other issues they havent been willing to turn into a crisis? Is it a matter of timing because Benny Gantz might be pulling out soon so they want to stay ahead of the curve or maybe they can take advantage of the instability?

1. regarding municipal elections, they are in favor of postponing the elections until the end of February because of the war

2. Regarding the issue of taxing the sugary drinks - they are in favor of an educational campaign to teach people about the dangers of consuming too much sugar, but they are against doing it via a tax which is only damaging (ie costs people money)

Thoughts:

 Regarding #1 - interesting. I wonder why. At most they should not care or take a position,  and at least they should be in favor of keeping it as scheduled by law as it seemingly helps them. I wonder why they are in favor of postponing.

Regarding #2 - this morning it was reported that the Aguda faction of UTJ led by Minister Goldknopf is against the tax. Yesterday it was reported that Gafni was ok with it. Now UTJ is saying no tax. I wonder if Gafni wasnt really in favor and the report yesterday was premature or if Goldknopf's veto is simply overriding. Additionally, it will be interesting to see what happens next - my assumption is that if UTJ doesnt get on board this idea will be dropped as per coalition agreements rather than making a coalition crisis. It was be especially interesting if Smotritch tries to keep it alive for a while, strengthening my initial thought I mentioned yesterday that this might be revenge for Arbel's insistence on keeping the election date for the end of January

They are seemingly considering this primarily because they are upset at PM Netanyahu over his backtracking on several promises, primarily the promise to pass the Draft Law in tandem with the budget. In addition to that they see an opportunity to attach themselves to the Gantz bandwagon, and they think they can help him form a government without Yair Lapid and the other more left-wing parties. Additionally, this would be relieved of partnering with the extremist Ben Gvir, they would be rid of Amir Ohana, the current Speaker of the Knesset who is openly homosexual and while they have lived with it until now they don't like it, and it would temper the anti-haredi sentiments around the country while at the same time achieving the budgets they want and need for the yeshivas and kollelim as opposition to their budget demands would almost disappear if they help Gantz form a government.

Personally I think this is bogus. Whether they should do this or not, I do not see it happening. I see them floating this possibility purely to pressure Netanyahu to cave on some of the issues he has been backtracking on. Unless the next government is Gantz, Likud and the Haredi parties, which isnt likely to happen, I dont see how they think they can help Gantz form a government with Gantz while leaving Lapid out. The numbers arent there. Even if Gantz gets the 30+ seats he is polling at, adding the 18 or so Haredi seats to that (between Shas and UTJ, assuming they all agree to this), still leaves them far short of 61, and they need Lapid or some other parties to complete that. Smotritch and Ben Gvir wont make up that shortfall because they are too extreme for a Benny Gantz led government. of course it is possible a dark horse might appear and do that, something like a successful Naftali Bennett return, but I dont think that is something they can count on.

As I have said many times before, I do not expect people like Yair Laid or Benjamin Netanyahu or Miri Regev or most other politicians to keep Shabbos, to eat only kosher food or to do anything else according to halacha. They are not religious (some are at best "traditional" in some sense or another, but most traditional people have nice sentiment to religion and have faith but they are not strict adherents to most halachot, though keeping kosher is more common than some other halachot and is observed more widely among many traditional people and should maybe be kept off the list above). It is neither a shock nor a surprise when they are not keeping halacha but more in line with their behavior and beliefs. It is more of a surprise when they do keep halacha in some way, and usually, at least publicly, it is because they have to for political considerations.

Activities from this past Shabbos raised some interesting questions.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu was spotted, with his wife Sara Netanyahu, dining with others at a Gordon Ramsey owned, Michelin rated, treif restaurant with alle guten zachen such as lobster and shrimp. A video from the restaurant was leaked to the public. While it is not known what the Netanyahus were eating, and it is possible they only ordered a salad (without sliced onions) or maybe mehadrin kosher tv din
ners, their presence in a completely treif restaurant is circumspect. 

While again, I dont expect Netanyahus to eat only kosher food, I failed to hear the outcry of the Haredi members of his coalition who were quick to denounce Yair Lapid for eating treif in public. As a matter of fact they even have denounced Netanyahu himself on previous occasions in which he was seen in a treif restaurant while serving as Prime Minister.

Now, there is also the additional problem of him going to a restaurant on Shabbos, but being that he almost definitely did not pay for his own meal, as he generally does not, so the chilul shabbos factor might be less important here. That being said, MK Yair Lapid did criticize the Prime Minister for eating treif in a restaurant while his coalition is advancing a bill to prevent people from eating chametz in hospitals on Pesach. I am not sure Lapid's comparison of the two is perfect, but his point was made. I would point something else out - Netanyahu went to a restaurant on Shabbos (treif as it was) yet his coalition refuses to allow kosher restaurants in Israel to open on Shabbos (even if the customers pay in advance, like in a hotel). Hey - maybe that is why he went to a treif restaurant! No kosher restaurant was open, so he just had to eat treif - it was his only option!

Now that we got PM Netanyahu out of the way, let's touch on the other interesting thing that happened on Shabbos.

Reporters have been pointing out regularly on Saturday nights, as they have been for many years, the various work being done on Shabbos - such as work on the rail lines, among others. This Shabbos, in addition to work on the train lines, there was also work done on the light rail line in Ramat Gan, as reported by Channel 14 journalist Kobi Bornshtein. This has been going on for many weeks. Initially Deputy Minister Maklev raised the issue urgently with Minister of Housing Yitzchak Goldknopf (who used to head the lobby against chilul shabbos, or whatever it was called) and with Transportation Minister Miri Regev who is the authority under which much of the chilul shabbos happens. Bornshtein says he asked the various Haredi MKs and government members about this and they did not even bother responding. You can see the various tweets about it in Bornshteins Twitter feed, with specifics of which Haredi MKs/Ministers he reached out to. Let's not forget, UTJ and Shas always made governmental chilul shabbos a massive issue and even brought down governments over it. 

One can only assume that knowing they have no other option of being in an alternate government and advancing their needs they have chosen to make chilul shabbos a lower priority than ever before. If so, perhaps at least UTJ should remove the word "Shabbos" from their party name, which technically is Yahadut Hatorah V'HaShabbat.

But to give them the benefit of the doubt I actually came up with another explanation why they have not said anything about the governmental chilul shabbos happening under their watch (for two months now!).

UTJ, and seemingly Shas (though it was always a much more acute issue for UTJ), have possibly turned over a new leaf. New beginnings. They no longer want to force secular, or at least not religious, members of the government and Knesset, and those under them, to keep halacha. They have moved more into the Live and Let Live camp! Shabbos is still surely important to them, but they know it is between each person and God and not for us religious people to force on everyone else! Same as the lack of comment on the tarfus in public issue - what Netanyahu eats, even in public, is between the Prime Minister and God, and not for us to get involved in.

So either this is terrible hypocrisy or the beginnings of a new approach of live and let live even about Shabbos and treifus to be taken by the Haredi parties (and the Dati parties, but it was never their primary issue in the past either) moving forward....

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Earlier today Minister Ben Gvir said his party, Otzma Yehudit, would not participate in the session today. They are upset that Netanyahu has ignored their demands, even demands that were agreed to in coalition agreements, and has basically gone it alone ignoring them. A delegation was sent to some conference yesterday in Jordan to discuss regional peace and calming of the high tension, and Ben Gvir only heard about it from the news. Additionally, Netanyahu's representative at this conference agreed to freeze settlement construction to lower the tensions, and Ben Gvir does not agree tot hat. He feels if Netanyahu will not treat them like the senior coalition partners they are, he will not fulfill his obligations in return.

And now, in a further interesting development, UTJ has announced they too will not participate in the session. UTJ is upset over coalition agreements that have not been fulfilled by Netanyahu to them. They are specifically upset about various budget promises that so far Netanyahu has not allowed them to cash in on, even while preparing and voting on the upcoming budget.

For what was meant to be the most homogenous government coalition ever that was supposedly going to work in harmony, this is getting pretty chaotic pretty quickly.

The day of the event, I think was expected. Maybe even the next morning. Now, a couple of days later and this is still one of the top topics of discussion in Israel is a bit surprising, and it makes me wonder if this is going to snowball into something bigger.

Two comments from Coalition members in particular stood out for me. When coalition members, especially in what has been considered the most homogenous coalition ever where they are supposed to be working in harmony and they each already knew each other well, all the detriments and all the good things, so nothing was unexpected, criticize each other, that points to something bigger. Besides for just the discomfort of criticizing people you are supposed to work with hand in hand, this especially sharp criticism is unusual because they breed bad feelings amongst each other and then they can each be less forthcoming on other issues they were supposed to be working together on.

The two comments that struck me as more interesting are from MKs from UTJ.

Deputy Minister Uri Maklev said "there is a prohibition against going up to Har Habayit. Ben Gvir today is not a private Member of Knesset but is the Minister of National Security of the Land of Israel and he represents the entire public and has double responsibility. It is prohibited to provoke the nations, this is not how we show governance.

MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ) said "Ben Gvir going up to Har Habayit was superfluous, there is no benefit and we are taking this very seriously.

First of all, they knew who they were getting into bed with. Ben Gvir going up to Har Habayit should not have shocked anybody. I wonder if they (TUJ and maybe also Shas, as they are the ones most strongly opposed on a day to day basis to what Ben Gvir does) had a meeting before the government was formed to figure out and plan what to do when Ben Gvir does his various "provocations". 

Second, Asher says it was superfluous and sans benefit. Maybe to him who sees no value in going to Har Habayit. Ben Gvir does see value, both from a religious perspective and from a political perspective in taking a stand on the most important place to the Jewish people.

Third, Maklev talks about responsibility and that is all fair enough. I see it differently, but that is a fair position. I suspect Ben Gvir does as well. I think Ben Gvir sees it more of a responsibility to go and make sure Israeli control over Har Habayit gets stronger and the rights of Israelis on the Mount be expanded.

Fourth, I find it interesting, though it might actually be meaningless, that Maklev said Ben Gvir is a minister f Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, rather than saying a Minister of Medinat Yisrael, the State of Israel. It might be meaningless but it jumped out at me.

Fifth, and last, and this is an old dispute, Maklev said provoking the nations is prohibited and is not how to show governance. While perhaps it would be better to not "provoke the nations" but anything we do provokes the nations. Our very existence provokes the nations, or being in Israel, our having a state, our presence, our mere being, all provokes the nations. And I dont think standing down in the face of threats is much of showing governance.

The Likud, UTJ and Shas want to keep their good working relationship with MK Ahmed Tibi (TAAL). To that end they are trying to convince coalition members to support Tibi for the slot of Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, a position held by Tibi for a long time, and traditionally held by a member of the Opposition (in addition to other deputies by coalition members).

Some in the Likud such as Tali Gottleib are opposed to supporting Tibi to continue in this position, as Ministers Smotritch and Ben Gvir (and presumably others in their parties) are also opposed to this.

Were the Likud and Shas and UTJ just selling their voters a bill of goods when they campaigned on the formation of a "full right wing government"? Were their voters largely hoodwinked?

I am pretty sure I am going to get tired of pointing these types of situations out, so I will probably stop pretty soon, but for now, this is immediately after formation of the government and this is when they should be most promoting their full right wing government, not already giving in to outside pressures and taking other considerations into account. Tibi might help the Haredim with some religious legislation as he always has but he wont help with right wing legislation.

First, I get that they are at a bit of a loggerheads with their partners in Agudat Israel. Ok, they disagree on some points, want to share power and influence as equally as possible and have some things to work out. What does all that have to do with Netanyahu and the coalition agreements? work that out between yourselves. Netanyahu agreed to all your demands, for the most part, largely, and now Degel doesnt like that Aguda is doing x, y and z - instead of complaining to Netanyahu and demanding more, creating yet another conflict in demands they should just work it out with Aguda.

Second, for everyone who was looking forward to the coalition of a "full right wing" government, if this goes through and they dont implode before they even begin, dont forget that this is what you wished for. Nobody can seem to keep their mouths shut and before they even get sworn in they are already chasing one crisis with the next. Each MK/Minister-elect is seemingly trying to outdo the one who said something before and be more extreme.

Third, I dont know how this happened. The political parties that swore by Netanyahu and went with him through thick and thin in the Opposition and elections despite some probably pretty attractive offers to defect and support others are now doing nothing b7ut making it difficult to form a government. I think they realize Netanyahu needs them, giving them all the ability to make, sometimes outrageous, demands, but it still looks like they do not yet realize that they need Netanyahu just as much as he needs them. At some point he wont just not be able to continue meeting their ever-increasing demands, but he also wont want to, the way they are making him crazy. Will he go to Lapid and/Gantz at some point? I dont know if he is there just yet, but he has to be regretting the bedfellows he has chosen.

Fourth, I see nothing technically wrong with Goldknopf serving in the security cabinet. he is a politician just like the rest of them and he seems pretty smart and can learn the materials and contribute. I get that Degel doesnt want him in (though it might not be their choice), and I get that he said he only demanded it to show that UTJ is equally deserving as all other parties but he wont fill the slot given to him in the cabinet, but I think he can justifiably take it and fill the position and probably do a decent job of it (though he would probably just be a yes-man for Netanyahu). The moral issue is fair, that he represents a community that mostly does not serve so he should not be involved in making decisions to send other people out to war, when his own community is largely unaffected, but technically he is as worthy as anyone else.

Fifth, and last for now, Degel has once again expressed their opposition to taking ministerial positions so as to not share the responsibility of the government when making decisions that are in opposition to halacha. They brought it up again to criticize Aguda for seemingly planning to take a seat in the security cabinet and adding to the level of responsibility. 

Besides for the fact that Aguda does take ministerial positions now based on the decision of their rabbonim, so they should have no problem with it and Degel should accept this just as they already accepted the ministerial issue, this is a prime example of when there is a halachic will there is a halachic way. I havent understood how they differentiate in the level of responsibility of a full minister and of a deputy minister, especially when they negotiate that the deputy should have the authority to the level of a full minister. They are pulling a scam, and now they are using that scam to fight with Aguda who stopped using that scam a few years ago. I dont care about their fight with Aguda, but the concept of being a member of government and taking authority while supposedly not taking responsibility is a sham and a scam. 

Most of coalition negotiations are boring. The same thing over and over again. Lots of spin, lots of blame and finger pointing, weeding out reports and information from spin but it is days and weeks of the same misinformation all over the place.

As negotiations come to an end, because the deadline approaches, it gets more interesting. They can only spin for so much longer, and at some point have to come to an agreement or not.

The most interesting right now is UTJ negotiations with the Likud. While initially it looked like jobs and appointments was going to be the problem, it seems that has been worked out and now the fundamental issues are what is holding things up. UTJ wants agreements in advance of certain policies. And UTJ themselves arent all in agreemnt on some of these issues. One of the biggest is the draft issue. Agudat Israel wants the Tal Law back and in place. The Tal Law was shot down by the Supreme Court something like a decade ago, but Agudat Yisrael wants it back. Degel says that isnt realistic so they want an agreement as close to it as possible. In the meantime the Likud is saying the Tal Law is impossible, and Agudat Israel is saying without it no government. No compromise at all. This has been reported tonight by Amit Segal. There have been some other issues as well, but this seems to be the big one.

It is still just posturing and I would still be surprised if something isnt worked out at the last minute. I expect the government to be formed. But it is getting down to the last minute. It will be fun to watch who blinks first on these issues, and it will be even funnier if they really cant form a government because of it, after they ran in such sync for so long. I might add, if UTJ really says no government without these specific issues and no compromise, they may have to resign themselves to never being a part of any government again, at least in the near future. If we go back to elections over this, with the Netanyahu bloc really be able to run together again they way they did previously with full coordination and agreement and purpose?

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.

Whether it is true or spin, I have no idea. I am also not commenting on the idea of Yariv Levin being appointed as Minister of Justice. Perhaps he is deserving of the post and qualified for it, perhaps not. I dont know if he would be any better or worse than anyone else in that role, so I am not commenting on it. 

I do find it interesting that UTJ is requesting a specific person from another party appointed to run a specific ministry. If UTJ would put together their appointments and Netanyahu would put himself in the middle of that saying I want you to appoint Porush as Minister of Culture, or Maklev as Minister of Whatever, as deserving, or not, of the appointment that person might be, UTJ would tell Netanyahu to butt out of their business and let them worry about their own appointments. It is interesting to me that UTJ is telling Likud who to appoint where.

That being said, here is what I think should happen (not what I think will happen).

Deri has been super loyal to Netanyahu and was one of the architects of the electoral success, alongside Netanyahu, so you have to assume Netanyahu wont try to pull a fast one over Deri, and even if he wanted to Deri is shrewd enough to not be Netanyahu's pawn. UTJ and Hatzionut Hadatit were also loyal to Netanyahu but they each made trouble along the way and gave Netanyahu some heartache and worry and he had to work hard to keep them in line, so he doesn't "owe" them as much, though obviously he needs them to form his government - this just means that while he might not try to bring Shas down to size and minimize his offer to them, he will try to knock down the demands of UTJ and Hatzionut Hadatit as much as possible. He has had much greater success controlling the Dati Leumi parties in the past (not including Bennett, to a certain extent), so one has to assume his focus will be on working them over as usual.

In my opinion, Aryeh Deri needs to demand for the Finance Ministry, and take it if offered. The Finance Ministry is actually a horrible position for him to be in, but considering his campaign focusing on the economy, cost of living and all that fun stuff, this has to be his direction in the new government. Deri claimed he will fix the economy, he campaigned fabulously on that issue, he pretty much has to take the Finance Ministry. How can he possibly run back to the Ministry of Interior (the other position he is reportedly considering), important as it may be, when he has been focusing on the economy in his campaign.

Smotritch would possibly be decent in the Finance Ministry but his issue in the campaign was not the economy (not mostly at least) but Justice Minister or Defense Minister might be what he needs to take. I have a hard time believing Bibi will give him the Defense Ministry, but that is the rumor right now, but Justice might be appropriate as well.

The Religious Affairs Ministry needs to be fought over between Shas and the Dati Leumi parties as is the custom, as each wants to get jobs for their people. The difference between them is nominal, especially with the Dati Leumi sector represented now by Smotritch being more on the Chardal side, they are awfully close to Shas and UTJ on religion/state issues. So whoever gets it, policy wont be different form the other candidate, for the most part, just the identities of the people running it.

UTJ wont take anything overly significant because Degel is still not taking ministries and they mostly focus on ghelping themselves, while of course they help others along the way - so they take positions that can have more of a direct effect on their communities rather than Israel in general. They might take deputy position in the Public Transportation Ministry, in Housing (unless Aguda takes that as a full ministry), heading some committees, etc - influential positions for them but mostly not top-tier level positions in the government.

This election sign for the UTJ party quotes a passuk in the Torah saying "will your brothers go out to war and you sit here [at home]?", meaning, dont be complacent and choose not to vote while your brothers are out fighting for their lives. The irony and greatness of the troll is that this passuk is actually in context saying that all Jews have to go out battle, real war, for the nation, and it is the UTJ party adherents that do not go out to battle (mostly) but "sit here" and learn in yeshivas and kollels instead of sharing the burden of war that the Torah calls upon us to share.

Rav Edelstein was speaking with a group of yeshiva bochurim working in the UTJ field offices to influence potential voters to vote UTJ. Rav Edelstein said they should keep at it even though the new zman has begun and their work to influence voters is a kiddush hashem, obligated by the Torah. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that he also said that of all the boys working in the offices and headquarters any of them that needs a shidduch will merit from this to a good shidduch quickly.

If my wife starts to volunteer for them I will know something is up! :-)

Goldknopf is always interesting to listen to, and he will almost always say something crazy enough to grab attention.. his take on trying to get the support of the "working haredim" is interesting..

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