T. Belman. Bibi suckered Bennett and his party by promising that he would form a right wing government and that they would be the first party he would call. It appears now they are the last and even Zionist Union is being considered. Bibi also promised on eve of elections to build in Har Homa then cancelled plans for 1500 units there immediately after. He also promised an undivided Jerusalem yet won’t buil;d in Har Homa or E1 which would make that certain. Bibi’s policy in last government was to freeze settlement construction as Obama and Hillary demanded. I see no change in that basic policy in this government.
Kulanu said to receive finance, housing and environment ministries
Kahlon’s party reportedly forgoes demand for chairmanship of Knesset Finance Committee, inching closer to coalition deal
BY RAHEL JASKOW, TIMES OF ISRAEL, April 13, 2015, 11:27 am 3
A four-hour meeting Sunday night between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Kahlon reportedly culminated in a decision that Kahlon’s Kulanu party will receive the finance, housing and environmental protection ministries in the next governing coalition.
The meeting focused on resolving Kulanu’s demands with an emphasis on the “professional tools” that Kahlon has been seeking in order to carry out his promised economic reforms, particularly in housing, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday.
Netanyahu is already on record pledging that he will name Kulanu finance minister. The leading candidate for a second ministership in the party is retired IDF general Yoav Galant, No. 2 on Kulanu’s Knesset list.
Likud officials were quoted by Yedioth as saying that Kulanu would not receive the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee, one of the key “professional tools” demanded by Kahlon, since that position had already been promised to MK Moshe Gafni of the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism.
But while Kulanu has given up its demand for the leadership of the committee, Kahlon has held to his demand for the Interior Ministry’s Planning Administration, Israel Radio reported.
After his meeting with Kahlon, Netanyahu met with Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, who is also vying for control over the Planning Administration, and will likely be named interior minister in the next cabinet.
Netanyahu is reportedly close to signing coalition agreements with Shas and United Torah Judaism.
The prime minister’s focus on talks with the ultra-Orthodox parties and Kulanu has irked the leaders of the right-wing Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu parties, who have been complaining that negotiations with them have been put on the back burner.
“It’s not at all clear to me what the prime minister wants,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, the leader of Yisrael Beytenu, told Israel Radio on Sunday.
“Our negotiating team met with Likud’s negotiating team, and we felt like we were being strung along,” he said. “They are really drawing things out. We want to be part of the government, but not at any price.”
Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked told the radio station of her dismay over reports that Netanyahu has reached across the aisle in an effort to form a unity government with the left-wing Zionist Union faction.
Shaked, who was placed second on the party’s election slate, said that if Netanyahu “is thinking of establishing a unity government, it would be politically corrupt, and against all the promises he gave to those who voted for him.”
MK Yariv Levin, who is part of the Likud coalition negotiating team, painted a sobering picture of the talks in an interview with Israel National News radio.
“There are still significant gaps and it is not certain that it will be possible to bridge them in coming days,” he said. “We need to speed up the negotiations. I hope that we will discover among our partners willingness to reach a compromise because so far we have just seen a hunkering down behind demands that don’t enable an end to the negotiations as should have happened.”
Under Israel’s electoral system, Netanyahu must cobble together a coalition comprising smaller parties by offering cabinet positions — including, possibly, some of the most senior posts in government — to factions whose support he requires if he is to cement a Knesset majority of at least 61 seats. Meanwhile, lawmakers within his own Likud party have also demanded top jobs, citing the party’s strong 30-seat showing, which makes the party the largest by far in the 20th Knesset.
Netanyahu has until May 7 to present his coalition to President Reuven Rivlin.
Stuart Winer contributed to this report.
yamit82 Said:
yes you did.
As I said there may be more to this than simple bad character and fraud. if my speculatiions are correct about “understandings”, and for the last couple of years that model has provided rational explanations for many of BB’s strange actions, then those understandings would require more “giving”. Note: arab houses in jerusalem, Pal police allowed near Jerusalem, pal cars allowed into Israel…. 3 things within last couple of weeks. These are the type of under the table things that occur with no fanfare.
BB may genuinely believe that an accommodation and deal with the arab nations is best for Israel and that the under the table deals will preserve the unfolding of the understandings over a longer term in a peaceful way so that the 2 populations can get used to it. He may also feel that wrt Iran that these understandings are important. We can see that it has been successful in the egypt hamas sphere.
Yet if Herzog and Livni backed by Obama had won the election Israel would now be in a totally different situation.
Herzog and Livni would not now be contemplating a Unity Government in Israel to face off against the Iran Nuclear threat.
They were in the pocket of Obama and once they were there would have found it very hard indeed to make any opposition against the Iranian Bomb plans.
They would have created at best a climate in Israel of total paralysis.
There is this reluctance to give Netanyahu his due in respect to what he achieved on March 8 in Congress.
Now that tells me a lot about these kinds of people like Yamit82 and like SHmuel.
I am convinced their politics are scurvy and not principled.
Unless you can accept what Netanyahu achieved on March 8 then there is no basis or platform to move forward upon.
Is it conceivable that there are two strands in Israeli politics that are traitorous to Israel and the Jewish people? The ones we know like Herzog and Livni? And the ones who I could refer to as “Zionists on steroids”? I certainly like the Zionist part but they have left their brains at the door!
This is also a test for Bennett. If he is a patriot he will be backing Netanyahu in a Unity against Iran and Obama.
Present a united face to the enemy!
Felix Quigley Said:
It was so boring without my favorite commie and christian missionary to crap on here. You two have enticed me to return like a junky in need of a fix.
In the just over nine years as PM, BB has had 2 mandates from his electorate to preserve our positions in Y&S AND TO STOP Iran from getting the bomb. Israel has spent in those 9 years some $3 billion each year to prepare for our attack on Iran. Wasted Treasury wasted planning wasted everything but it was spent instead of other vital needs of the country and the military.. BB has allowed our enemies in the North AND SOUTH TO ARM AND REARM. He should be tried and hung as a corrupt cowardly traitor for allowing us to be put in such a precarious situation.
The rest of you stupid comment does not merit a response.
@ bernard ross:
There is a long held axiom in Israel that only the left can make ‘War’ and only the right can make ‘Peace’ (Euphemism for giving up land)
@ bernard ross:
I told ya and I was right on BB again a tiger and Zebra don’t change their stripes and neither has that lying shit BB either. Bennett should have known better and I said he should have locked it up iron clad for the endorsement of BB to form coalition. Bennett let him screw him twice by allowing BB to steal votes by not attacking the likud and BB and by trusting BB to keep his word and promise…. Politics is a dirty business BB is a scoundrel and a weasel liar. Told ya so many times.
Felix Quigley Said:
😛 😛 😛
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
True, you did.
The mark of BB’s contempt is that he credits the public with no memory, and rightly so…. as it is only a couple of weeks ago he swore that he would not form with ZU in order to get votes from the right. I submit that the reason to get votes from the right and to be elected as a “right wing” PM is that it dilutes the real power of the right wing vote and only a supposed right wing PM could agree to give away Israel… like Begin in sinai
@ Ted Belman:Correct Ted, they are in the tank for Likud and that is why they are playing the pressure via the press game to get Bayit HaYehudi to back off the ministerial positions they demand. It is the political game and we only see part of it.
The forces ranged against the Jews are even more formidable than they were in the case of the Nazis and this time nothing wil be left of the Jewish nation. of course even as the darkness descends and the last Jew disappears there will be a cry of “hashem will provide”!!!
But the main ideologue seems to have taken his scurvy politics into some hole and disappeared again (Yamit82)
When I look at some of the offerings here I do understand better the back stabbing types that Netanyahu has to put up with.
What a bloody bunch! What a traitorous lot you find on Israpundit! They cannot even face up to any of their past!
Memo to SHmuel…Netyanyahu WON! That is really what is sticking in your reactionary craw.
Now if it is possible listen to Curious American and form a Unity Government.
Yesterday Israel Hayom published an article by Dan Margolit in which he argues for bringing ZU into the Government. And we know that Israel Hayom is in the tank for Bibi.
@ bernard ross:
Moments ago Netanyahu sent one of his peons, minister Erdan, to pipe into the most anti-Jewish radio operation purportedly under military command, Galei Tzahal, that Netanyahu will not hesitate to offer Hertzog special coalition privileges.
I warned for years, more than a decade about the treacherous sold out item that Netanyahu is. One that trusts that viper does so at his or her own risk.
BS to Iran special intent on his part. He has had over a decade and intentionally avoided doing a thing. He will not do anything either other than using Iran as pretext to destroy Jewish life in Jerusalem and Y & S and probably the Negev while at it.
Those that bought Netanyahu’s pre-election lies will now find out how much he deceived.
That is right. Believe it or not, he is doing a good job of it. Congress is about ready to stop Obama.
Settlements are secondary to Iran.
Bear Klein Said:
not much to crow about
YS is even on the radar, now they are haggling over construction in Jerusalem which is supposed to be part of Israel since annexation.
NormanF Said:
Everyone forgets that when BB, a few weeks ago, campaigned he swore that HE WOULD NOT form a coalition with the ZU. He did this specifically and intentionally to siphon votes from the right. He immediately turned around after the elections to pursue a “unity gov” using Iran as the justification. As he can no longer stave off demand for a rightist agenda from the right who elect him he must now pull a sharon. If BB did not so blatantly and fruaudilently lie, misrepresent and did not have a record of ZERO for a right wing agenda I could think otherwise, as I did say before the election, but as I predicted then and hold to now, if he forms with the left, Iran is a fig leaf. I am not saying this from any ideological point of view as I have repeatedly pointed out how BB decisions demonstrate other influences and namely understandings with the GCC over the last couple of years. If that is true he cannot maintain any longer a right wing position. The payment for GCC cooperation must be a work out with the pals. Not that the saudis care about the pals and BB might get a better deal with them.
@ Ted Belman:
Ted, I agree with you. If Israel is going to move to a war footing, this is why everyone thinks, despite all the denials, that a unity government could yet be in the picture.
@ bernard ross:
Its highly unlikely there will be a good deal with Iran – or even progress with the Palestinian Arabs. If Iran gets what it wants – Israel will have to decide how to stop it. And this is where a national consensus would be quite helpful.
@ bernard ross:
If Israel is going to take military action, Netanyahu wants as wide a coalition as possible. There is precedent for it in the formation of a unity government preceding the Six Day War.
@ Ted Belman:
Ted: On that subject the Jerusalem Post just carried a report that Netanyahu and Herzog had a secret meeting about a unity government. Their spokesmen were quick to deny it – but the denials only appear to lend credence to the fact Netanyahu, contrary to his election pledge – wants as wide a government as possible, at least when it comes to Iran.
That’s what its all about.
Ted Belman Said:
He could deal with iran without a leftist coalition.
Are you saying that outside a coalition they will not support him on Iran whereas inside they would?
@ bernard ross:
We know that Bibi doesn’t want to build and also wants to deal with Iran. If he makes a deal with Herzog, I believe that his predominant reason will be to deal with Iran and not to stop building or to make a deal with the PA.
if BB forms a coalition with the left it is a strong sign that he will move to a pal deal. If we see a big change in the iran situation such as a good deal,or a US or Israeli attack,or more cooperation with the GCC THEN I would expect a pal deal to be the trade off, agreed years ago.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/194005#.VSwRv5NGh2A
Ted Belman Said:
on the contrary as I said earlier:
bernard ross Said:
this is a good excuse for asembling a coalltion that will rubber stamp his left wing defacto agenda in the territories as proven by the fact that (as you affirm):Ted Belman Said:
If BB was a PM that had done something to advance the right in his long admin, or even refrained from making false announcements and declarations appearing rightist but never materializing, or had not resorted to intentionally panicking the right to vote for him instead of Bennet knowing full well he would not implement a right wing agenda then perhaps you could be correct n your statement that it is about Iran.
On the other hand:
Ted Belman Said:
what I have noticed is that there has been no daylight between them on the issue of YS and I suspect that the Iran coalition is merely a fig leaf to cover up BB agenda to now move overtly to implement the leftist agenda regarding the territories, which I believe is the result of understandings with the GCC which I have enumerated over a couple of years. If he has such understandings, and he has referred to them, then it is obvious that he would have to move leftward on the Pal issue in order to satisfy those understandings and move them forward.
My view is that if BB forms now a coalition with labor it would be because the time is nigh for moving the pal issue forward under the cover of external threat.
Ted, I am surprised that on the one hand you affirm that BB did nothing for the right, and in a decetful manner, while at the same time buying this narrative that he will form a leftist coalition for Iran reasons as opposed to continuing to operate in the same deceitful manner. he has either been deceitful or he has not.
Unless he forms a right wing coalition I must conclude that he has intentionally been deceitful all along. There would no longer be doubt that he intentionally fooled the right wing and acted intentionally to dilute right wing power by deceit. Sharon and livni did the same. In such a scenario we are all puppets and fools. Why do you buy the story that someone who you beleive deceitful is not still being deceitful. Perhaps the whole Iran issue and his noise is not to go anywhere but to continue to build his false right wing credentials so that when he gives it all away it will appear like Nixon going to china, or like Begin giving up the sinai.
NormanF Said:
I spoke to a friend of mine and a very knowledgeable one at that. He also said that Bibi’s focus is on stopping Iran and to do that he wants a coalition with Zionist Unity. You have noticed no doubt that Herzog has been saying of late that there is no daylight between Bibi and him on this issue and he has not been saying that he won’t join the government. So if it turns out that Bibi forms a coalition with Herzog it will be with this in mind rather than to avoid tension with Bennett over building.
@ NormanF:
I would suggest to the “passionate Iran focused Netanyahu” to actually do something to stop Iran’s plans.
So far he has had the longest PM function since Ben Gurion and has accomplished nothing on the subject.
Speeches do not turn the cockatrice off.
So far he has only bluffed, misled, equivocated and completely missed the opportunity to chop down the Iranian threat.
His attacks on the Jewish rights were on top of his list even during Sharon’s “disengagement”. Nothing to do with Iran at all.
It should be evident that’s not my personal position. But its clear for Israel’s Prime Minister Iran takes priority over everything else. That’s the one issue he cares about passionately and nothing else matters to him as much as stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
bernard ross Said:
Right on.
NormanF Said:
this appears to be BB’s perennial justification for denying and stalling Jewish rights to settle in YS according to international law established in the LON mandate and continued in the UN charter art 80.
The “current international climate” has always been bad for Jews so why is this suddenly an acceptable reason to deny Jewish settlement rights as did Britain and Jordan in their occupations? In fact it was the “current international climate” of the last 2000 years which established the consensus, principles and law which recognized and established Jewish right of settlement in ALL of the mandate territory. Did Jews come so far as to have a “Jewish state” merely to have the pleasure of being denied the same rights for the same reason that Britain denied Jewish immigration and settlement when thousands of Jews died trying to enter Israel from the Shoah only to be denied due to “current international climate”?
It s a scandal and a sin for a state of the Jews to deny or obstruct the settlement rights of Jews in Israel. It is even more despicable when it is done deceptively.
It appears that BB has ne er had a problem giving away the Finance Ministry which in most nations is the big plum. Therefore I surmise that BB’s interest lies elsewhere in terms of having an agenda that he wishes to accomplish. Regarding those ministries which would effect the settlers and the Jewishrights to settle YS it appears that he wishes to keep his appointment of Yaalon as defense under which I beleive the admin of YS rests. Yaalon has also done nothing to advance right wing agendas in YS which I assume to be one reason for his appointment. His last appointment to Justice which also affects Jewish rights in YS was Livni.
Netanyahu regards the settlements as a drag on his efforts to thwart Iran from getting the nuclear bomb. He wants the world’s attention to be focused on Iran, not on Israel’s activities in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.
For him, that is the only issue on the table and that is why he is telling Bayit Yehudi fulfillment of its demands isn’t possible given the current international climate.
They can take it into account or remain in the opposition.
BB suckered Israeli right wing voters by stampeding them in a panic to vote for him and likud instead of the right.
Likud is also to blame as they are his rubber stamp. Right wing likudniks should get out of likud as BB’s defacto left wing policies control Likud. Likud appears to have become a trojan horse.
Can anyone here tell me of one single action that BB took during his long admin that actually and factually advance right wing agendas? ( Rhetoric and announcements not accepted)
conjuring up the threat of Iran can be the fig leaf for a likud coalition with the left.
Even if BB does not form with the left it appears that he wants BY and the right to have a minimal influence in the actons of his gov.
I think that everyone can now stop pretending that BB and Likud are right wing parties. After all, BB has NEVER taken a single action in his admins to advance the cause of the right. His rhetoric and annoncements suggest that he is a lightning rod to attract right wing votes and then to dilute right wing power when in office. Perhaps more went on than imagined in his relations with the CFR. I would be ecstatic to be wrong but facts of his admin and his recent electioneering indicate massive deceit. If he is intentionally playing that deceitful role then it is not coincidence as there would be no need to dilute the power of a minority right wing.
I hope I am wrong but right now he is appearing to apply his fraudulently attained right wing votes towards left wing policies……. again.
Fool me once?????
Negotiations are still going on. I think we should wait and see what happens with the coalition and building plans until least the collation is formed and what happens in the three months or so following its formation.
To me is simply fascinating to see that still there are those that place any credence on Netanyahu. He was, is and will be only for himself at best and will betray, lie, defraud, use and discard one and all.
I did promote him to be selected as “the boot” against Mr. Hussein Obama’s plan to completely assume control here. Not for any other purpose. Never placed any trust on Netanyahu’s used furniture sales pitch before elections at all.
And HE WILL NOT do a thing to stop Iran either.
The best thing that can happen is for him to fail and also Hertzog – Obama to flop and elections to be re run.