MK? Minister? Deputy Minister? Matan Kahane is still politically homeless for the upcoming elections. It looks like he wont be in Yamina due to disagreements with Ayelet Shaked, and he has yet to find a party to take him in. Some wont touch him with a ten feet pole because the Haredi parties have basically vetoed him and have insinuated they wont join a coalition with any party that Kahane serves in as MK/Minister.

Former news anchor Gadi Sukenik said today that the Likud representatives are at a low level, much lower than the representatives of Yesh Atid. They are a low level of intelligence, of culture and of level of discourse.

There is a stigma that we are against the Haredim. It has never been true, not in Yesh Atid and not in Kachol Lavan. In the government of Lapid some mistakes were made, and Lapid himself has also admitted to that.

  -- MK Yael Gherman (Kachol Lavan)

hmmmm

election ads are getting started with a bang!

Yair Lapid started off with a clip showing what laws have been passed by the recent government that he will get rid of when he will be elected prime minister inn the upcoming elections by putting them in the shredder..




The Likud spoofed that video with a clip showing Lapid shredding documentation of things he has done wrong, when compared top what Netanyahu is being investigated for, to no public criticism



and another Likud clip against all the efforts by the Left against Netanyahu

lol.. this makes it even weirder..

MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and some activists went to protest and have a press conference at the Tel Aviv train station against the draft law the Haredi parties are trying to push through.

The following photograph from the event has sent the Haredi internet into a tizzy:



Everyone was trying to figure out who Lapid's Haredi activist is. It turns out, after some research was done, that this is not a Haredi person an activist of Yesh Atid that dressed up as Haredi just for the imagery. Yesh Atid had to release a clarification that the activist dressed up as a Haredi as an act of protest against the draft bill, and he did so on his own accord. Yesh Atid is looking pretty silly.

I just don't get what he was thinking. Does he not know how the internet works? For someone who is supposed to be such a social media maven, this was really a fashla

while responding to his attack on Yesh Atid for not passing a law encouraging organ donation while they were in the government, Gherman attacks him for being so popular and a great Health Minister, yet continuously attacks them and talks badly against them ... I am trying to imagine Litzman as Popeye.

You hit the Haredim in order to gather mandates, you've pushed the Haredim outside of the camp. Learn from me: when you approach the Haredim as friends, you can reach achievements. The Haredim by you are second class. Why, for God's sake, did Yair Lapid say that a 6 year old Haredi child can't go to day camp because he does not learn core curriculum? What is the connection?
My policy regarding the core curriculum is ... the bulldozer approach does not work. I will tell you a secret - before you came around, there were increasingly more haredi students joining [academic studies] each year. Suddenly Yesh Atid shows up and that decreases.
You love to use the brute-force method against the Haredim. My approach is, I am not canceling the core curriculum requirements...I am dealing with it together with my beloved deputy minister and each year you see more Haredim. I believe in dialogue and not with beatings..


  -- Minister of Education, directed at Yesh Atid

he really dislikes her (and everyone else in Yesh Atid)

It looks like Yesh Atid might get the rare passage of a law proposal in an anti-Yesh Atid coalition..

MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) has proposed a law that would allow secular people and traditional people to refuse to work on Shabbos, and it would be illegal to fire them for their refusal.

Currently the law requires anyone refusing to work on Shabbos to base the refusal on religious belief and to submit an affidavit stating his religious opposition. This means only actively religious people are legally able to refuse to work on Shabbos without risking getting fired.
source: Kikar

This is surprising considering that for the most part it is illegal to operate businesses on Shabbos, with exception. So a business owner can illegally make his employees work, illegally, and they cannot refuse to work, illegally, because they are not religious.

Even in a business that is operating legally on Shabbos, the current proposal, if it passes, will do away with such discrimination on religious basis and allow people to equally benefit from the day off and not be forced to work.

This law has agreement from both sides of the bench and MKs from the coalition are signed on it as well.

Interestingly, the law was prepared for Lavie by the "Reform Center for Religion and State". I would expect, based on history, the Haredi parties to reject the proposal, despite what looks like a law they should/would agree with, just to prevent the Reform from gaining a victory of sorts with a successful law proposal on a religious issue. I don't know what they will do, but it will be interesting to see if they cooperate on this because of the law itself being in line with their ideals, or if they will reject it because of where it came from.

Reports have it that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wants to bring Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, into the coalition. To that end, Netanyahu has asked his coalition members for their approval. UTJ has refused to agree. According to Yaakov Litzman, Lapid is a red line for them because of the damage he tried to do intentionally and specifically to the Haredim.
source: INN, Behadrei and Jewish press

I wonder what positions Netanyahu would have been able to give Yesh Atid in return for their entry into the government. Bringing in another party would require a reshuffle of government positions, with 2-3 ministries going to Yesh Atid along with other positions. I cannot imagine the Haredi parties being willing to give anything up so that Yesh Atid could get them, and no party would agree to a reshuffle that was not proportionately divided among all the parties. I also imagine Yesh Atid would not agree to join the government for new ministries that would be created for them, as the number of ministries and deputy ministers was a big issue for them.

I don't know if Litzman's intransigence on Yesh Atid joining the government is right or wrong. I know Litzman considers Yesh Atid to be supremely evil, far more so and more vociferously than any of the other members of UTJ and Shas.

On the one hand, the hand that Litzman holds, they are evil, they tried to harm us, we cannot partner with them.

On the other hand, and I am surprised that Litzman does not even consider this, bringing Yesh Atid into the government would obviously mean that yesh Atid has to accept the government's basic positions and guidelines (like any member of the coalition does). This would be the opportunity tp have Yesh Atid, if YA would actually join, go against everything they have stood for in the past - they would be supporting a government that raised child allowances, gave money back to yeshivot wherever YA took it away, has a larger government, repealed the draft law, repealed the changes Yael Gherman had made when she was Minister of Health, and more. Taking Lapid in would really be sticking it in his face.

I don't know which is better. I do have a hard time believing that such an arrangement would have actually worked out. I don't see how Lapid could have justified and rationalized joining the government.

I was going to save this video for tomorrow's roundup of newest election campaign broadcasts, but I have decided that it deserves its own post now (and maybe I will also include it tomorrow in the roundup as well).

the latest from Yesh Atid:


Shmuel Chaim Peppenheim is unique in many ways. It surely took a lot of courage for him to be willing to make a campaign video for Yesh Atid.

And the funniest part of it is - Shmuel Chaim Peppenheim does not even vote in the elections.

so, will this mini-scandal MK Rav Shai Piron is involved in hurt the Yesh Atid campaign? Will the other parties, and the press, play it up to counter Lapid's anti-corruption, we-are-so-clean, campaign?

I expect it will just go away and be ignored, with the story disappearing quickly, but let's see.

I don't even understand it. If Piron has a donor that is giving him a lot of money, and then Piron gives the donor's school a lot of money, why doesn't the donor just give his own school the money directly? why do it though a middle-man like Piron?

These guys just pass around money like it is popcorn

Yair Lapid has announced the party list for the coming Knesset.

The list has mostly stayed the same as the list from the last Knesset, with some minor changes -a few MKs have left politics, and a few others moved up slightly with a few moving down slightly.

While it seems the list is not yet 100% final, as of Lapid's announcement last night, Dov Lipman is placed in the #14 list, a boost from last elections slot at 19.
source: NRG

Based on current polls 14 is not realistic, but they have recently been improving in the polls, and it may become realistic before you know it. Last time Lipman was slated at 17 and it was thought to be unrealistic, and yet he made it in despite the polls.

As a friend, even though I am not a supporter of Yesh Atid, I with Rabbi Lipman the best and hope he gets in (though, despite it being contradictory, I don't necessarily want them to get 14 seats, but I would like to see Lipman get back in).

One of the main focuses of Yesh Atid in this last Knesset was to get the Haredi community more out into the workplace than they previously were.

The Central Bureau of Statistics released today some new numbers.

According to the CBS, in 2013 the percentage of Haredi men (between the ages of 25-64) in the workplace went up to 56%. Previously it had fluctuated between 40% and 50% in the ten years prior.

The percentage of Haredi women went up to 68% when it has previously been at about 50%.

So, do we give credit for this to Yesh Atid or was it a natural movement and change that was already in process anyway?

Prior to the last elections, the Yair Lapid people were asked to explain how come the party list was being decided "old style", with one person, Lapid himself, deciding who would be included and who would not be, and where on the list each candidate would be placed, rather than using a system of primaries.

The explanation given then was that as a new party they don't have a membership and therefore don't have the ability to conduct primaries. It can only be chosen and decided in this way, but in the future they would definitely move to primaries.

So, I'd like to see now if Yesh Atid is going to be a prime example of a democratic party, as they promised it would be, or if it will continue to be administered via the will and whim of just one person, without a chance of him being replaced with a different leader by his voters.

Yesterday the news broke about the outlandish spending by ministries controlled by Yesh Atid people.

One of the items was 148,000 NIS spent on white thread. (they have tried to explain that this is a special thread that is used as security in passports to prevent forgery and is used by many countries).

They should have spent the money on red thread for bendels and then nobody would be asking questions...

I am very disappointed in Yesh Atid.. not because of the law they passed regarding the draft, despite my not agreeing with some aspects of it (and probably not even understanding much of it - it is a very major and complex bill), but for another reason. The law is something they had campaigned on, they had promised their voters, they had spoken loudly about - they did their job. They don't need my agreement or approval - they have the power now and they cashed in with their supporters.

The reason I am disappointed in Yesh Atid is because of their reaction to it passing.

Even though the residents of Gush Katif were basically trampled during the Disengagement process and could do very little - everything was imposed on them - the government at least, at least publicly that is, spoke of taking painful steps to do what was necessary, and kept promising that it had to be done but would be done with sensitivity. Even if it was not really all that sensitive, at least there was no gloating. People felt bad for them and sympathized with their plight, even if they felt the "settlers" needed to be evacuated.

Yesh Atid felt this was the solution to a number of ills in Israeli society. They felt this is what needed to be done to fix the problem. Ok. I can handle that, even if I disagree. But at least sympathize a bit with the people whose lives you are changing. All these people, thousands of people, a community comprising hundreds of thousands of people, are now going to be going through a lot of turbulence as their lives change. At least sympathize, while saying this needs to be done. Be sensitive to their concerns.

Celebrating the victory by passing out towelettes that say "when the Haredim go out to work you will have to sweat less", is just gloating. It is insensitive. It is unnecessary. It is downright nasty.

Also, I am not sure why people will work less once other people are working more. Will the work day be shortened to 6 or 7 hours? Are people's mortgages and expenses going to be easier to pay off? I am no economist but I never heard that taking some people off welfare allows for drastic cuts in taxes hat will allow other people to work less. It isn't even true, so why take that approach?

You passed the law. Mazel tov. Now be sensitive, even just a bit, to the people who will be affected and go through some trying times because of it.

And here is today's Tweet of the Day..

הצעת חוק: מי שהצביע 'יש עתיד' יהיה זה שקונה את האלכוהול בכל חבורה
— Jen (@valoo87) July 1, 2013

it means:
New Law Proposal: Whoever voted Yesh Atid will be the one who has to buy the alcohol in any group...

due to the sharp increase in taxes on alcohol...