Isaac ‘Bougie’ Herzog is Israel’s 11th president. He was elected in a 87 to 27 vote in the Knesset, the largest number of votes of any previous candidate in the history of the voting.
Herzog, currently the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was previously the head of the Labor Party and nearly won against PM Netanyahu. He was also a cabinet minister and leader of the opposition in various governments. Herzog’s father Chaim Herzog was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and then Israel’s 6th President. Herzog’s grandfather and his name sake Isaac Herzog was Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi. A film on Rav Herzog’s rescue of Jewish children orphaned by the Holocaust and brought to Israel was the subject of an Israeli TV Reshet Prime’s film “Rescue Train.”
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Covid seems to be almost a thing of the past in Israel. For the first time since the days prior to the pandemic, Israel recorded no C-19 cases. As of Sunday, June 6th, Israel had only 230 active cases, down from thousands at the height of the pandemic. 5,137,367 Israelis have received two vaccinations. On June 6, Israel began inoculating adolescents from age 12-15.
But elsewhere the virus is still thriving. Worldwide there are 173,762,953 confirmed cases, with 3, 727,533 deaths, 87,401 critical cases, and 18,334,280 active cases. The USA is still number one in infections with 34,204,374 cases, 612,203 deaths, and 5,488,680 active cases.
Israel has dropped nearly all of
the C-19 restrictions. Restaurants, sporting events and even movie
theaters have reopened. As of Tuesday, masks will no longer required
indoors or outdoors. According to reports, movie-goers or those
visiting restaurants no longer to keep a space between themselves and
those next to them. One observer who was in Tel Aviv over Shabat
reported that hardly anyone anywhere wore a mask. Even so, Health
Authorities still recommended wearing a mask in enclosed venues. Masks
will, however, still be required in grade schools since those children
have not been vaccinated.
Airlines began flying into Israel bringing tour groups. Those non-Israelis with close relatives in Israel could apply to their local Israeli consulate for special permission to visit, provided the visitor has proof they’d been inoculated and take a C-19 test 72-hours before boarding the plane, anything over 72-hours and the traveller is not allowed to board the plane. Normal tourism has not begun. Those traveling to Israel must also fill out a form available on the Israel Ministry of Health’s website and present the form upon check-in at the airport. Another C-19 test is required upon arrival in Israel. Children, since they are not inoculated, are then required to be in quarantine for 10-days upon arrival in Israel.
On the Israeli political front, the arduous negotiations between Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, and potential coalition partners concluded with a razor thin 61 seat agreement between 8 parties in an unusual configuration, ranging from the leftist Meretz party, the Israeli Arab Raam party, to the right-wing Yamina party headed by Neftali Bennet, whose parents, are veteran immigrants from the USA who now live in Haifa.
A majority of 62 seats out of 120 were needed for the coalition that had to be approved by Israel’s current president Ruby Rivlin. Lapid submitted his list to Rivlin and was tasked with forming a government. All that was left was the swearing in of the Knesset members.
That was the rub. Netanyahu and his supporters, and those opposed to Lapid, had only a matter of days to convince some of the coalition to drop out, thus sending the country back to the 5th election in two years.
Some of the hurdles Lapid had to overcome were Bennet’s demand of a rotation agreement between Yesh Atid’s Lapid and Yamina Party’s Neftali Bennet. Lapid, whose party won 24 seats in the 4th election, agreed to allow Bennet, whose Yamina party only won 7 seats, to be first in the rotation, something unheard of in Israeli politics. One of Bennet’s national religious party list, MK Amichai Chikli, dropped out, refusing to agree to the broad coalition, even though his party’s leader Bennet would become Prime Minister. Thus, Bennet’s 7 seats shrunk to 6, giving Lapid only 61 seats, but still enough to form a government.
“Lapid’s a mench,” said one observer. “He believes more in unseating Netanyahu’s 12-year reign as Prime Minister than in being Prime Minister himself.” Another observer said that Bennet is more in the Netanyahu mold, preferring to be in power rather than do what was necessarily good for the country.
One ultra-Orthodox Knesset member said he thought Bennet, a millionaire businessman who made his fortune in hi-tech, was only interested in filling out his CV adding ‘former Prime Minister’ to his ‘Former Defense Minister.’ This, according to the Knesset member, was Bennet’s “exit,” helping him in business, book deals and speaking fees, once he’d finished with politics.
Pitfalls in the coalition agreement were quick to appear. Some quite dangerous. According to pundits, Prime Minister Netanyahu saw this “change government” as a threat to his very freedom. Should this new government take power Netanyahu would be forced to appear in court where he is on trial for three felonies and facing a possible 13-year prison sentence. As long as he is Prime Minister he is excused from attending court due to his important duties for the state. Also, said observers, as long as he is in power he still has a chance to pass laws that will keep him out of prison.
Even as the coalition talks were going on protesters began to appear outside the homes of some of the potential coalition partners. Yamina’s Nir Orbach and Yamina’s Ayelet Shaked found protesters, mostly teenager wearing knit kept from the religious zionist camp, screaming epithets through bullhorns, waving defaced election posters, and even burning some of those posters. Pundits believe that the purpose was to find those who were shaky about joining the coalition and pressure them to reconsider joining the ‘change government.’ Even Tamar Zandberg, of the Meretz party, said she and her infant child had been threatened on social media, forcing her to flee her home for unknown quarters.
Yamina Knesset Member Nir Orbach’s home was beset with protesters. At one point he said he wouldn’t join the coalition, causing the coalition to fall short of a majority and thus the mandate to form a government. But, after meeting with Bennet, he then recanted.
Still, the pressure kept on. So much so that the head of Israel’s Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, issued a statement on Saturday night that the heated posts on social media were inciting anti-‘Change Government’ protesters so much that he feared physical harm against Knesset members involved in the ‘Change Government.’
On Sunday, Rabbi Chaim Druckman, a former politician and a top national religious and settler leader and veteran of the Religious Zionist camp, now head of the Ohr Etzion Yeshiva, issued a statement saying “everything should be done” to stop the ‘Change Government’ from taking power. Social media sources called those in this government “traitors.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu said this new government was a threat to the Land of Israel, a catchword for settlements in the West Bank, the State of Israel, and the IDF (Israel’s army). The latter since there was a rumor the new government would honor the International Court in the Haig’s request to try some Israeli army officers for war crimes.
The heated rhetoric was reminiscent of that seen prior to the assignation of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in 1995. That assassination was carried out by Yigal Amir, a fanatic member of the same religious zionist group lead by Rabbi Druckman. “Any one of those kids with the depot and yelling into the bullhorn could be another Yigal Amir,” said one analyst.
Yamina Knesset Member Yafit Stilman stated in a WhatsApp audio message that her car was being followed. Yamina’s Nir Orbach reportedly received death threats.Bennet was also seen to be in danger. In response to the threats the Shin Bet, Israel’s FBI, set up a security detail around Bennet and the Knesset’s security chief assigned agents to protect Orbach and Stillman.
According to Yesh Atid’s MK Merav Ben Ari’s tweet, “The (incitement to) violence…comes from the Prime Minister’s residence.” Today, however, Netanyahu condemned incitement against the emerging coalition, saying this is “an attempt to frame the right as something dangerous for democracy.” Some analysts see this only as Netanyahu’s way to go on record as being against the incitement.
Then there’s the annual “Flag march,”usually held on Jerusalem Day to mark the day Jerusalem was united, that has been going on for three decades, and always passes along the main street in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter The march is scheduled this year for Thursday, June 10th. The parade of marchers carrying Israel flags has, according to observers, been hijacked in recent years by far right wing groups. Now, the marchers are mostly young religious nationalist Israeli Jews. This year, ultra-nationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir, a follower of Meir Kahane, whose office in East Jerusalem was part of the cause of the riots in May, has said that he’d be happy to march anywhere in Jerusalem, including the old city. Ben Gvir was elected to the knesset during the last election after his Otzama Yehudit party received support from PM Netanyahu.
A member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, former Shin Bet head MK Avi Dichter, told Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet that there was no reason not to hold the march. Israelis should be free to march wherever they wanted, he said. Flags, of any type, are only legally forbidden on the Temple Mount, said Dichter.
According to security sources, the march could “set alight the area.” Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz, whose Blue and White party are members of the ‘change government’ coalition, has said that the march could well spark riots and violence and has called on the route to be changed. The fear is that the march could result in such civil unrest that the coalition swearing in would have to be postponed, just as coalition talks were suspended during the recent 11-day Gaza war when thousands of rockets were fired at Israel, killing 13 Israelis and injuring scores.
Kan Channel 11 news, and Reshet Bet radio, said an unnamed security source told them “any unusual incident can set alight the area and lead to an escalation in both the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and therefore responsibility, sensitivity and common sense are needed to make decision without political interference.” The IDF is reportedly still on high alert according to the source, saying the West Bank and Gaza have “still not calmed down or fully stabilized.”
Hamas Gaza head Yahya Sinwar has threatened Israel with renewed fighting if the parade goes ahead and trouble breaks out. “We managed to launch 130 rockets on Tel Aviv in one barrage and we only launched our old rockets,” Sinwar said on Sunday in an Al Jazeera interview. Sinwar said any future fighting would “reshape” the region and cited the need to “defend” Jerusalem.
According to the Times of Israel, Hamas used violence in the capital as a pretext to launch rockets on Jerusalem last month. The initial barrage was fired by Hamas during the original controversial flag parade in Jerusalem’s old city held on May 10th that marked the beginning of the 11-day war.
Last week, Israel TV’s channel 13 news Arab affairs correspondent, Zvi Yehezkeli, screened a report showing the vast financial disparity between the Hamas leadership and that of the rest of the residents of Gaza. Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and his deputy Ismail Hannniyeh are both billionaires involved in construction projects, according to Yeheskeli’s report. Footage of Hanniyeh’s home in Gaza was shown, a palatial mansion with a lawn and swimming pool. A far cry from the squalor of normal residents who live in one of the most densely populated, and poorest, areas in the world.
Israel’s speaker of the Knesset, Yariv Levin, a fervent Likud/Netanyahu supporter who has said that the emerging government is based on ‘abysmal hatred”, also said on Sunday that he may call a vote on the swearing in of the new government on Wednesday.
Pundits say that Levin probably sees some as yet unclear way to scuttle the coalition with that call. “Perhaps he knows a few in the coalition who are willing to abandon ship and doesn’t want to wait for them to change their minds,” speculated one pundit. According to observers, should Levin not call the vote for Wednesday, it will be held on Sunday, June 14. After that swearing in, a new government will take over. Few expect this fragile government to last, but once voted out of office, Netanyahu will be a regular citizen subject to the laws governing those under indictment.
Whatever the situation, either a new government, riots in the streets incited by the marchers, missiles from Gaza, or all or none of the above, Israel is faced with a rocky few days.
On Sunday night, Bennet addressed the nation in a prime time speech. Looking and sounding very much like a head of state Bennet said he believed firmly in freedom of speech, but that freedom should not be used to incite violence. He called out PM Netanyahu on a few different points and said Netanyahu lied to the public. He also encouraged Netanyahu to step aside and let someone else take over, as is common practice in a democracy.
In the post-speech panel on Channel 13 tv, the discussion turned to Netanyahu and the smooth transfer of power should Bennet and Lapid's change government take over. Some on the panel thought Netanyahu might make the transfer difficult as did Donald Trump after losing the election to Joe Biden. Political correspondent Raviv Drucker, however, said he thought Netanyahu would make an appearance when the office changed hands and not act like Trump.
An example of how Netanyahu's loyalists were thinking leaked when, at a gathering of the Likud party's knesset members in a knesset meeting hall took place. Yariv Levin, speaker of the knesset, was overheard talking in front of a microphone he thought was off but wasn't. Levin talked with Likud stalwart Miri Regev about pensions they'd receive once out of office. Commentators thought this made it clear that Likud loyalists were already thinking of the day after they left office.
What is certain, is Israel is faced with days when the Good, the Bad and the Ugly will all make an appearance.
Who is who, said one analyst, depends entirely on your point of view.
