Channel 12 News’ political reporter Amit Segal on Monday night exposed some disturbing details about the new Lapid-Bennett coalition agreements which make it look more like a honey trap than a victory for the Yamina chairman (?????: ??????? ????????????? ?????? ?? ????? ???-????). Segal reported: “This is the best-kept political secret in the country, Bennett and Lapid hoped to keep these coalition agreements close to the chest until a day before the inauguration.”
Banning Netanyahu from the Knesset
According to the agreement, the coalition government will push a bill that bans any politician who has served for eight consecutive years as prime minister (they could have simply written anyone named Bibi or anyone with a bad comb-over) from running in the Knesset as an MK for four years.
Strangely, this would mean that Netanyahu would have an interest in preserving the 24th Knesset to term since he would be disqualified from leading the Likud should his stint out of office be less than the prerequisite four years. If Netanyahu is forced out for one term, someone else in the Likud would the party’s candidate for prime minister, and Bibi would be 77 by the time he is qualified again.
A Prenup for Bennett with Handcuffs and no Key
The agreements stipulate that Bennett will not be able to hold any other ministerial position, not even that of a deputy minister, should the new government be replaced as a result of a no-confidence vote in the Knesset.
It makes it look more like a prenuptial agreement between some billionaire and his former housekeeper than a political deal. In essence, Bennett, who was counting on the coming two years to rebuild and expand his base, which at the moment is circling the bottom of the sink, will be prevented from serving in any government other than this one.
Chariedim? Just Say No
Another Bennett plan was dashed by the deal – his hope to talk United Torah Judaism chairman Moshe Gafni into joining, and adding seven more right-wing votes to the coalition mix. The deal determines that the addition of new parties to the coalition will be done only with the approval of Israel Beiteinu chairman Liberman, Labor chairman Michaeli, and Meretz chairman Horowitz.
In other words – not gonna’ happen.
Divide and Conquer
Another bill the new government will be pushing according to Segal will require only four MKs to band together to jump ship from any given Knesset faction, instead of the current 1/3 requirement (which in Likud’s case means 10 MKs out of 30). This would obviously make it easier for Lapid-Bennett to seek out Likud defectors. Yes, karma rhymes with rich – Netanyahu spent the past two months trying to recruit Yamina and New Hope defectors, now he would have to defend against his own people turning coats.
It’s good to be the new king.
Negev Highway Robbery
On the other hand, the Islamist party Ra’am is getting a sweet deal in exchange for its willingness to support the Zionist occupation: Bennett and Lapid have pledged to instruct the AG to lift all fines and sanctions on illegal construction in the Arab sector. Meanwhile, enforcement of construction regulations will be frozen for almost four years, as will be the case of all the illegal houses in the Negev that were built before 2021 and received demolition orders. Also, Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas, who will serve as a minister in the prime minister’s office, will appoint for himself a deputy minister and will receive half a billion shekels ($154 million) for distribution at his discretion.
Gay Marriage, Shabbat Transportation and Supposed Vetoes
But Bennett is given a lot of power within the new coalition government. For instance, while the Lapid agreement with Meretz includes, for the first time in the country’s history, the promotion of gay marriage legislation and public transportation on Shabbat, the binding agreement between Lapid and Bennett requires that all the coalition partners agree to legislation that changes the status quo in matters of state and religion.
Of course if the government were to fall over those religion & state issues, then Bennett’s Handcuff agreement might discourage him from using that veto.
Reform Judaism Welcome
However, the new government will re-authorize the agreement with the Reform movement to allow it a special section in the central Kotel plaza, on an equal par with the Orthodox.
Labor also gets a new department for “Jewish Renewal” within the diaspora ministry, which is code for budgets for the Reform in Israel, seeing as the coming diaspora minister will be Labor MK Gilad Kariv who is both a Reform clergy and the executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.
Defending Area C with no Coalition Backing
New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar will be the deputy prime minister, and his two signature issues have been approved: splitting the AG’s office in two—government counsel and head of the country’s law enforcement agencies; and his plan to prevent the PA’s takeover of Area C lands.
However, the leftist parties and Lapid are not obligated to vote in favor of either reform, which means Sa’ar would have to rely on his former buddies from the right for help. Awkward…
There’s Going to Be a Lot of New Taxes to Pay For It All
Economics pundit Sever Plotzker said in his Yediothm column Tuesday that the newly revealed coalition agreements have been forged “as if there was no corona, as if the government has not spent tens of billions on benefits for businesses and the unemployed over the past year.
Now comes the new coalition and doles out a collection of expensive gifts.
The cost of these agreements is estimated at NIS 100 billion ($31 billion). Only one thing is missing from all the agreements – who will pay and how they will pay for all these gifts.
here’s not a word in there about the need to gradually reduce the budget deficit, not a word about the possibility of raising tax rates or imposing additional taxes – they’re mum. There is no mention at all of the budgetary resources necessary for the implementation of these promised gifts. Everything that was revealed yesterday is neither serious nor realistic. This is not the way to start rebuilding public trust.”
Whatever Happened to Lapid’s Promise About Limiting Ministerial Positions?
On Monday night, Lapid was asked at his press conference regarding the fact that despite his promise to limit his next government to 18 portfolios, this one will probably have at least 26, if not 28 – not as big as Netanyahu’s, which included a ministry for water and higher education, but bigger by a third compared to Lapid’s promises. The victorious Yesh Atid chairman responded sadly that this was his failure and that he was ashamed of it.
Ah, well, at least he gets to kick out and keep out Netanyahu. Right?
What’s Next?
On Tuesday morning, Speaker of the Knesset MK Yariv Levin (Likud), announced that the debate and the plenum vote of confidence in the new government would be held at a special session of the Knesset on Sunday, June 13, 2021 (which also happens to be the third of Tamuz, the 27th yahrzeit of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe – DI). The same session will also elect the new Speaker of the House.
Earlier this week, Levin was recorded saying that he would pick the best possible date for the confidence vote in terms of the interests of his Likud party.
The date he picked means that all the above coalition agreements would be open for the country to read and mull over and debate in shuls and porch dinners and around the bar the entire Friday-Shabbat weekend. This could be a much more effective coalition killer than yelling in the middle of the night outside Ayelet Shaked’s house.
@ PeloniI HAVE noticed those boxes in passing but not enough tofind outwhat they waerw. However I will follow your insructions, as I will with Reders instructions
We’ll see what happens. On ting stand outm your immediately coming to my aid., showing a kind of comradship.. I thank you both
@ Reader, I know you’,ll laught at me and deservedt so, but I have no idea what a Word Fiie is, nor how tu save it, not how to proeced as you instruct., I must thank you fory our aid, and will try to puzzle it out.
@Edgar G.
Save your comments in a Word file BEFORE you click
and remember to click “save” on the Word file before you exit it.
@Edgar
Edgar, just above the text box where you type your content, there is the following
b i link quote
Each of these will be in a small shadow box. The b stands for bold and if you place the cursor to the left of the first word you want bolded and hit the b above the text box. Then place the cursor just to the right of the last word you want bolded and hit the b above the text box again. This will place the word strong within the characters, , and when you post the comment the word strong will be absent, but the line you want bolded will be bolded. The i above the text box is for italicizing, and you probably know about the link and quote options.
A second way to achieve the bolding feature is to highlight a word or a series of words and hit the b above the text box just once and it will place the strong inside the characters on either side of the phrase you highlighted. Hope that helps. Curious how difficult I find it to describe how to do very simple tasks that I do easily, so if my decription is not clear do let me know and I will try again.
I am sorry to hear of your difficulties with your computer. I find there is nothing more anoying than having technology slow you down which happens more often than I like to admit. But it is a real crime when once I have written something, and it gets wiped, usually due to a creative action of my computer’s desire to frustrate my day, I am never able to recreate the thing I had written to a satisfactory degree – that is very disturbing to me. So I can relate to your fun you are having with your computer. I am sorry that you lost your analysis of Bennet’s interview. Your perceptive thoughts and witty phrases are very engaging – by the way,
This may be the most perfect description of Rivlin as I have seen yet, so bravo!
And I agree with your opinion on the unfair legal persecution of Netanyahu, but they are likely not to do anything unless they are able to permanently excommunicate him from the political theater. He may yet turn this ship about, but as I have said for some time, now, I believe the chance is remote.
@ Adam
@ Peloni
In my opinion a “pardon” is a grievous insult and chutzpah. This, for imaginary , invented for a single person, charges.
Annulment would be far more suitable. Withdrawn would be even better.
Ny the way Peloni how do you highlight ? Ihave seen that you know how. If it is cut and Paste, I don’t know how to do that, but if you have a different method please share it. Thank you.
I wrote a scorching criticism of Bennett’s old interview on BBC, all ready to press ‘Comment”, and found I had no internet connection. That was about 2.p.m. I contacted Microsoft help. My ordeal lasted until about 6.20, and in the “fixing”, I lost several important other computer functions. They really “fixed” them. I finally contacted them again, this time got a different “expert… ”
After about an hour, he was able to put my computer back to where it had been before I contacted them at all….MINUS my very detailed and accurate comment on Bennett’s excruciating old BBC interview, where he had every chance to point out Israel’s rights, from San Remo, British Mandate UN founding Document et all, so that Is raelalreasy had sovereignty over YESHA, but hadn’t yet claimed it .
Also, the rockets that would kill thousands of Israelis but for Iron Dome, and a strong refutation of the “2000 civilians”, of whom most were proven terrorists, and the many children , who were lining roof tops, the failed Gaza rockets that killed more civilians in Gaza than Israel, the roof knock-knocks, the phone call warnings……… to constant food and medical flow thought the gates, even when they are targeted by Hamas rockets, the Israeli hospital visits by Gazans and MUCH, MUCH, more.
I lost all that. It still Krenks me…. By the way..Rivlin is a super-dogsbody, always was.
One religious change coming to Israel via the new coalition is:
This has angered the UTJ who like their monopoly on the business of religion.
Lieberman has proposals that would really anger the Haredi such as Civil Marriage to name one. So if the Haredi do not join the coalition what reason would the Coalition have to modify their potential changes to some of these areas. Assuming all of the Yamina’s members agree to the proposed changes in state – religious issues.
@adamdalgliesh
Rivlin and Netanyahu have a history of trouble between them going back a long time. Recently, it is said that Netanyahu attempted to stop Rivlin’s election in 2014 as President – something Rivlin had sought since Peres became president six yrs earlier. Some time prior to Covid, Rivlin stated that he would pardon Netanyahu, but only if he resigned and confessed first. I am pretty confident Netanyahu will not confess, and he looks to not be interested in resigning. It seems the entire political establishment is moving against him, but I suspect, if a 5th election were held, he would do very well should he hold on that long(however long or short that would be).
So far I have not seen any denials of these claims in the English-language Israeli press by any of the politicians in the proposed coalition government. One of these claims–that the coalition agreement calls for the legalization of illegal established Bedouin settlements in the Negev–I have seen in all of the major English-language Israelli newspapers.
The obvious solution to israel’s problems is for President Rivlin to pardon Netanyahu of all the charges against him and spare him a criminal trial. This would remove Netanyahu as an issue of in Israeli politics and make it possible for the nationalist-Zionist parties to get together to form a government. It would spare not only Netanyahu but the entire country a trial that could go on for years, and distract the nation from other and more important matters.
It is surprising to me that no one in the Israeli political establishment or press seems to have suggested this action to Rivlin.
I think this would be justified because a Netanyahu has rendered great services to Israel as its leader over many years that greatly outweigh in importance whatever wrong he may have done.
The crimes he is accused of are not so serious as to make a pardon morally wrong . Two of the counts in the indictment are based on a novel expanded interpretation of the bribery statutes that is not supported by any past precedents in Israeli law or the laws of other democratic states, The third accusation, that he acccepted valuable gifts from a businessman who wanted his assistance in obtaining government decisions favorable to him in both Israel in the United States, (although there was no explicit quid pro quo) does have some merit. But it did not harm the public interest sufficiently to make it necessary for him to be subjected to trial, conviction and jail time.
Richard Nixon was guilty of more serious crimes than Netanyahu , such as obstruction of justice. Yet his successor Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon him proved to be justified, for all the reasons that I have given in Netanyahu”s case.
Ted,you are right to be horror strikes by these two articles from the Jewish Press. And the third one as well. If even some of what David Israel says is true, Israel is in deep s___t.
Me too!!
Alone the description of these details brings up the picture of infighting within the coalition: if you don’t agree to my condition, you will not be able to get your’s passed. On top of that is the uncomfortable situation that the new laws and agreements will not all be voted on at once, which means, undoubtedly, that some of them will not become law. The only good part of the story is that the coalition will not survive for very long. Even if they manage to pass the law to keep Bibi out of government, it will be contested immediately due to its obvious nature of discriminating against one particular person. On the other hand, those that voted for Bibi will be paying attention and switch their alliance to some other party. After the coalition collapses, there will be new elections with a very different outcome.
I just received new intelligence that explained what is happening. If true, don’t worry about what’s in the agreements.
@Ted, some of things in this article previously reported by Channel 12 are flat NOT true. So I suggest wait and see a few days to pass judgment and then do it carefully because one will need to first read the Lapid and Bennett deal because it supersedes all the other deals.
@ Bear
I can’t see how it can be made right.
From what is reported, a revolution is taking place.
So Friday we will find out in detail what is ACTUALLY is in the coalition deals and we can judge from there.
What has been reported is the deal between Yamina and Yesh Atid will be binding and supersede any coalition deals made between Yesh Atid and other Coalition members (it will also be incorporated by attachment to the other coalition deals). If true hopefully things will be tolerable to us nationalists.
This will also allow any reporter who wants to take things out of context by taking a negative part of a deal between say Meretz and Yesh Atid as a horror story. The reporter may ignore an overriding clause in the Yamina Yesh Atid agreement.
There will be conflicting clauses. So I am sure I will read in many papers and on the pages of Blogs horror stories that are not valid.
Likud and the about to be new opposition and their staunch supporters will be trying to exploit this.
I AM HORROR STRICKEN BY THESE TWO ARTICLES FROM JEWISH PRESS