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Netanyahu Still Working To Form Government, Granted An Extension

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

Israeli President Isaac Herzog granted Benjamin Netanyahu another 10 days on Friday to form a government, giving him until December 21 to solidify his plans.

While the Prime Minister-designate has enough Knesset members between his coalition and his party, Likud, to take the reins, he has yet to get all the parties, one of which is extremely right-wing, to agree on certain ministerial roles and a guiding ideology for the new government.

Netanyahu has only managed to get a temporary new Speaker of the Knesset in place, although that has been enough to raise concerns about the future of the balance of power between Israel’s legislative and judicial branches and sounding the alarm that Israel may become a democracy in “name only.”

Netanyahu asked Herzog for a two-week extension due to “many and complex issues of principle.” He said he “will need all the days of extension which are within your authority to give me according to law in order for me to form the government.” Herzog only granted him 10 days.

The President did not elaborate on why he only granted the shorter extension—until December 21—but he urged Netanyahu to “work for the entire public of Israel” and to “maintain a respectful and responsible dialogue between the authorities”—possibly a reference to concerns that Netanyahu’s coalition does not represent the views of many Israelis.

Netanyahu has made progress in the formation of his new government. He has reached an agreement with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and their roles. Many other roles are also settled.

Some in the opposition parties believe that Netanyahu is stalling for time to secure the passage of legislation his partners want to be passed.

This week, Netanyahu hinted at a possible peace deal with Saudi Arabia once he is prime minister as a path to peace with the Palestinians, calling diplomatic normalization with Riyadh a “quantum leap” for peace.

If Netanyahu does not formalize his government by the new deadline, Israel will head into its 6th election cycle in four years.

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Yair Lapid Prime Minister of Israel
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Israel Has a New Prime Minister

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

Many years ago (I won’t go into the circumstances right now), I had the opportunity to meet our new Prime Minister Yair Lapid on a few different occasions. At the time, he hosted probably the most popular talk show in Israel. A few years later, he would trade in his trademark black T-shirt for a coat and tie and take over as host of Israel’s most watched news program, the 8 PM Friday night Channel 12 news.

Many Israelis suspected that he would eventually go into politics. In 2012, he announced the formation of a new political party called Yesh Atid—“there is a future”—and today, it is our second largest party. For the next several years after he got into politics, I lived about 200 meters from him. That’s the thing about Israel; it’s not uncommon for a significant politician or entertainer to be your neighbor. We’re a small country.

Lapid’s father, Joseph “Tommy” Lapid, survived the Holocaust with his mother. One of the best books I have ever read is the “autobiography” that Yair Lapid wrote in his father’s voice. Meaning, the son wrote it as if he was the father. Memories After My Death will give you a front-row seat to one of Israel’s most iconic figures, from the Holocaust to the house of the Knesset.

This afternoon, Lapid met with the president of Israel (a ceremonial position) and was declared Israel’s 14th Prime Minister. I was talking with Youval Yannay, who leads the Revive Israel discipling community, at around 5 PM, when several SUVs with sirens zoomed past him on Israel’s Highway 1. No doubt, this was the new Prime Minister heading home to the Tel Aviv area from Jerusalem.

“We’ll do the best we can for a Jewish, democratic state, good and strong and thriving, because that is the job, and it’s bigger than all of us,” declared the new prime minister at the handover ceremony yesterday.

For the past year, Lapid has been our foreign minister. Despite serving in a fragile government, he quickly became one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, foreign minister in Israel’s history. He wasted no time traveling around the world, meeting with other foreign ministers and heads of state.

One of the most significant things that he accomplished in his short time as foreign minister was to torpedo the reaffirmation of the Iran nuclear deal. Several Arab foreign ministers came to Israel’s Negev desert to meet with Lapid and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. There, Lapid is credited with convincing Blinken, along with the other four ministers, to nix the Iran deal.

Lapid has just a few months to convince Israelis that he is Israeli Prime Minister material. New elections will be held on November 1st. And Benjamin Netanyahu has wasted no time in hammering Lapid, as well as outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. In what I can only call a horribly divisive speech today, he labeled their government as friendly to terrorists and the Islamic brotherhood because they included an Arab party in their government.

What Netanyahu forgot to mention is that he was the one who first sought to woo this Arab party into his government. And truth be told, there have been no significant negative repercussions in Israel by having the Ra’am party in the government. No one would be surprised if Netanyahu invites the same people into his next government should he be given the opportunity to form one.

But getting back to Lapid, his four-month stint as Prime Minister will begin at midnight tonight (Thursday). Of course, if no one can form a government after the fall election, as we have seen in several of the last elections, he will continue as prime minister until elections produce a functioning government. Stay tuned…

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PM Bennett: Goal Of Bahrain Trip Is To Provide ‘Energy For The Peace Between The Two Countries’

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Bahrain on Monday afternoon for a historic visit to the country at the invitation of its Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. The surprise trip, which was not publicly announced ahead of time, marks the first time that a serving Israeli prime minister is visiting Bahrain.

Before his plane took off, Bennett said a few words about the trip, calling it “a moving event.”

He spoke about the meetings that will be held with the King and Crown Prince, saying that the goal is to provide “content and energy for the peace between the two countries.”

Bennett said that he thinks that these are especially tumultuous times. As such, it is important for the nations of the region, the Middle East, to collectively send a message of goodwill, cooperation and of standing together against “common challenges and of building bridges to the future.”

It is no secret to whom Bennett was referring when he said “common challenges.” He, and the entire Israeli political establishment, has been sounding the alarm around the world as to the threat posed by the possibility of a nuclear powered Iran. The Prime Minister, and others, have warned that the continuation of the current nuclear talks with the Iranians is only providing the country with more time to work on the enrichment of its uranium for weapons purposes.

However, the two nations are also working together to deal with the growing problems caused by climate change.

Bennett also said a few words about the current situation in the Shim’on HaTsadik Neighborhood of Jerusalem, known as Sheikh Jarrah in Arabic. Local Arabs have escalated the level of violence as they attempt to push Jewish residents out of the area. Since Friday a home owned by Jews there was firebombed with a Molotov Cocktail, some people were rammed by a car driven by an Arab (he was later arrested) and fireworks were launched at Jewish families’ homes.

“The situation in which Jewish homes are set alight in Israel’s capital city is intolerable,” said Bennett. “Therefore, I can tell you that right now the Israel Police are increasing the level of security and will see to providing security for all residents of the city including in sensitive neighborhoods.”

The Prime Minister, however, went on to cast blame on both Jews and Arabs alike for the escalation of the situation. He referred to Chairman of the opposition Otzma Yehudit Party – part of Religious Zionist Knesset coalition- MK Itamar Ben Gvir, as well as Arab opposition MKs from the Joint List, Ofer Cassif and Ahmed Tibi, who both visited the area Sunday night.

Naftali Bennett called all of the MKs provocateurs who “set the area ablaze just for political goals.”

“We need neither Ofer Kasif, nor Ben-Gvir, nor Tibi,” he said, “to run Jerusalem for us. We will deal with it and we will bring stability and security for the residents of the city. This is the responsibility of the Government of Israel and nobody else.”

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PM Bennett Talks ‘Regional Security’ With Russian President Putin

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, in a conversation described by Bennett’s office as “good.”

The two discussed “a number of issues, primarily matters of regional security,” as well as “security challenges in the global arena,” and “agreed on continued close cooperation in this area,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Against the backdrop of the nuclear talks in Vienna between China, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia and Iran on the resolution of a nuclear deal, Bennett “stressed the importance of a strong and determined stance against Iran’s progress in the nuclear project.”

Russia maintains close ties with Tehran and could influence the outcome of the talks.

Putin invited Bennett and his wife to visit St. Petersburg.

Bennett met in October with Putin in Sochi, Russia, the first meeting between the two that focused on Iran’s presence in Syria and its quest for nuclear weapons.

Israel’s leadership has been engaged in a flurry of diplomacy in recent weeks in an attempt to ensure that the deal that emerges from the Vienna talks is the least damaging to Israel.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid held a conversation Saturday night with French President Emmanuel Macron on the “regional challenges, the nuclear talks and Israel’s demand to put pressure on Iran, and relations between Israel and the European Union.”

On the Wednesday before that, he spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about “regional and global challenges, and the importance of putting pressure on Iran to stop its race to a nuclear weapon.”

Israel fears that the Western powers will reengage Iran in a deal that enables it to eventually develop a nuclear bomb while removing sanctions on the country and thawing Tehran’s assets, enabling it to boost its global terror network.

Lapid has stated that Israel is “not against any agreement. A good deal is a good thing. There is an intense discussion of what a good deal entails.”

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Right, Judea And Samaria Leaders, Launch Campaign Against Bennett

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Leaders of municipalities in Judea and Samaria and right-wing organizations launched on Thursday a political campaign against Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and his government.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, declared that “we have come here to a protest encampment in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, in front of Naftali Bennett, in front of this whole government, because there is an injustice here that no decent person, from the right or left, can ignore.”

He accused Bennett’s government of “losing direction, it is losing it in Samaria, it is losing it in the Negev.”

“I hereby inform Naftali Bennett, and all members of the government, starting on Sunday, from here in the protest tent, a series of demonstrations by the entire national camp against the government, against the lawlessness in both Samaria and the Negev. The national camp has ended being silent,” he declared.

Bennet, former head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of municipalities in Judea and Samaria, is accused of acting against the Israelis in Judea and Samaria while kowtowing to his left-wing and Islamic coalition members.

Head of the Binyamin Regional Council Yisrael Ganz announced during the press conference that “we will start a series of actions until this government comes to its senses.”

The leaders did not say which measures they would employ in the protests.

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PA Prime Minister: ‘Consulate In Jerusalem Will Be Nucleus For US Embassy In Palestine’

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

“The reopening of the American Consulate in Jerusalem is the most important issue for the Palestinians,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh declared Monday in a meeting with activists in Tulkarm, after the cabinet meeting.

“We are focusing on the consulate because we want an American address that will take care of Palestinian affairs and form the nucleus of an American embassy in Palestine and express the recognition that Jerusalem is occupied Arab land,” Shtayyeh said.

“There is a great deal of anger in the Palestinian Authority over the lukewarm American stance on the Palestinian issue,” a senior PA official told TPS, adding that “the chances of resuming the diplomatic process are slim as things stand now.”

Shtayyeh said that “the only issue the US has committed to so far is the renewal of funding for UNRWA” and added that “the political vacuum continues due to the fact that the current US administration has so far not appointed a special representative for the peace process. It seems that the Middle East is not a priority for the current administration.”

Along with the pessimism at the top of the PA following the understanding that the United States is not working to renew the political process vis-à-vis Israel, the PA prime minister is still pushing the consulate in Jerusalem, despite strong Israeli opposition.

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PM Bennett Flies To NY For UN GA: “We Do Not Define Ourselves According To Others.”

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Israel, spoke with the press before leaving for the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

While on route, he commented on the killing and capture of a number of Hamas terrorists last night by Israeli security forces. At least four were killed and another four were arrested Saturday night during the IDF’s multi-pronged counter-terrorism operation at several locations in Judea and Samara.

“The security forces took action overnight in Judea and Samaria against Hamas terrorists who were about to carry out terrorist attacks in real-time,” said Bennett. “The soldiers and commanders in the field acted as expected; they engaged the enemy and we back them completely.”

On his departure, Bennett told the press that speaking before the U.N., “is an important international stage and I am very pleased for the opportunity to bring the voice of Israel, of Israelis, to this important stage. This will be an opportunity to tell our story, about Israel’s place in the world and about the special spirit of Israelis and our contribution to the world.”

On the American Congress’ vote to authorize the continued funding of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, he said, “Recently there have been several important moments, especially the sweeping victory in the vote in the US House of Representatives. At the moment of truth, we saw the representatives of the American people overwhelmingly support Israel, 420 to 9, in the vote on rearming Iron Dome. There is a small anti-Israeli group that makes a lot of noise but these people failed.”

Bennett was referring to a small group of American Congressional representatives who had been highly vocal in their opposition to continued aid to Israel.

‘We do not define ourselves according to others, not according to Iran and not the Palestinians,” he added. “I suggest that their leaders deal with their people, in improving their situation, and stop this obsession with the State of Israel.”

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Elad Tena Appointed New Head Of Israel National Information System

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett today, Sunday, announced the appointment of Elad Tena to lead Israel’s National Information System. Israel’s information system is called “Hasbara” in Hebrew, which comes from the word for “explanation.”

His appointment came after a six year period in which the position was not filled.

The National Information System is a department in the Prime Minister’s Office that is responsible for Israel’s information activities and for the spokespersons of the Prime Minister’s Office. It was officially established on July 8, 2007. The head of the information system also serves as the media adviser to the Israeli prime minister.

The information system is responsible for working with the media in Israel and around the world, as well as with pro-Israel organizations around the world. It also operates websites and the social networking system of the Prime Minister’s Office. It is not a political arm of the Prime Minister’s Office. It only deals with defending Israel.

The Israeli Hasbara department was established to provide a counter to negative international press reporting about the country, by offering not only Israel’s side of the story but also by promoting more traditional news stories. These include reports on the positive activities of the IDF, how Israel offers aid to other countries in need like it did after the condominium tower recently collapsed in Florida and following earthquakes in countries like Haiti.

The Hasbara department also promotes true stories about Israeli Arab communities and how many Arabs take part in the day to day life of Israeli society.

Tena, 49, is a major in the IDF Spokesman’s Unit and a resident of Modi’in. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications and political science from Bar Ilan University, and currently serves as vice president and head of the digital division at Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation.

In the past, Tena has held various positions in the field of journalism, including serving as deputy editor of Maariv, editor of the NRG website and deputy editor of Makor Rishon. In 2000, he was a partner in the founding of the Ynet website, and served in various editorial positions on the site, including head of the news desk for five years. At the end of 2010, he established the youth supplement Motsash in the Makor Rishon newspaper.

While working for Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation, Tena set up its digital division and managed it for 6 years.

Prime Minister Bennett said that he decided to appoint Tena to the position of head of the national information system In light of his many years of experience and his in-depth knowledge of the traditional and digital media in Israel.

His appointment will is set to be approved by the government of Israel at one of its upcoming meetings.

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PM Deals With Prison Escape, Meets Combat Soldiers Before Rosh Hashana Starts

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, this morning (Friday, 6 September 2021), spoke with Public Security Minister Omer Barlev following the escape of security prisoners from Gilboa Prison. In the conversation, Bennett emphasized that this was a serious event that required a comprehensive effort by all of the security services.

The six made their escape from Gilboa Prison in the north of Israel last night, Monday night, by way of a tunnel that they dug.

Naftali Bennett also visited the IDF post at Tzufim in Samaria, where visited soldiers from the Paratroop Brigade, the Golani Brigade, the Duvdevan unit, Home Front Command, the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, the Border Police and the Military Police. The visit was made just before the start of the Rosh Hashana holiday and was made with soldiers who were not able to go home for the holiday.

Prime Minister Bennett spoke with the soldiers and heard from them about their responsibilities and the preparations at the base for the holiday. He wished the soldiers a good and blessed year and said that because of them, as well as the many other soldiers who are serving on the holiday, that the State of Israel is safe and that its citizens can celebrate peacefully.

“When I meet you soldiers, it inspires me with great confidence that we have someone we can rely on,” Bennett told the troops. “Over the coming holidays, very many hikers will come from around the country because fewer people are going abroad [due to Covid] and this is most welcome. Your responsibility will be to safeguard them during the holidays because there are many threats and we must continue to be on guard.”

Bennett also mentioned how the soldiers must be on especially high alert due to the escape from Gilboa prison.

“I hope that as you wake up every morning, you understand that by your being here you are saving lives,” he added. “I am proud of you, rely on you, and wish you a good, sweet and healthy year.”

Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Bennett received a short security briefing on the area from GOC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yehudah Fox and Efraim Brigade Commander Col. Mordechai Weiss and toasted the New Year with them and with Kedem Battalion Commander Lt.-Col. Asher Benisti, Golani Brigade Reconaissance Battalion Commander Lt.-Col. Matan Feldman and other commanders.

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Bennett Govt. Slammed For Canceling Funding Of Main Route In Judea

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government is facing criticism following reports that his government has halted the funding for the expansion of Route 60 in the Gush Etzion area, the main artery connecting the area to Jerusalem.

According to a report by the Makor Rishon daily, Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli and Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman have frozen the funding for a significant segment of the road, which is already under the early stages of construction.

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman stated Tuesday that “we heard with astonishment the intention of the Ministry of Transportation not to allow the immediate continuation of the tunnel widening work that is already in progress.”

“The road is the main artery of Gush Etzion and the surrounding area to ​​our capital Jerusalem. Our residents suffer terrible traffic jams when a short drive becomes a long stand in endless traffic jams, and there is hardly a day that there is not at least one car accident on the short section of the tunnel road that has long since become a transport disaster,” he noted.

“Do we once again find ourselves held hostage by politicians on the way to receiving basic service from the state, in which we are equal citizens? The people of Gush Etzion find it difficult to believe that such a decision was indeed made, but if so, it must be reversed immediately and the opposite done: to allow the continuation of the works, which have already cost the state many millions,” he said.

Oded Revivi, the Mayor of Efrat, said he had sent a missive to Michaeli explaining the significance of the road works, which are benefiting both Israelis and Arabs in the area.

Both ministries said they were aiming on transferring the funds, possibly in the 2022 budget.

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