In Israel, COVID-19 has hit ultra-Orthodox Jews particularly hard. Now the country’s Ultra-Orthodox health minister Yaakov Litzman has infected himself, likely due to not complying with his own regulations.

Israel’s Battle Against Coronavirus

In some parts of Israel, coronavirus contagion has become quite severe. Recently, the Israeli government quarantined the mostly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, which serves as a prime example of why the country’s most religious have become the most likely and at-risk COVID-19 victims. Neighborhoods and cities with a high proportion of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have a far above-average infection rate compared to the rest of the country. In fact, the ultra-Orthodox currently represent half of all those infected with the virus in hospitals, even though the group only makes up twelve percent of Israel’s total population.

Ultra-Orthodox Told to Stay Away from Services

The Ultra-Orthodox themselves are not blameless in this situation. Synagogues and religious educational institutions remained open for a very long time, also at the request of rabbis in charge of deciding that. Meanwhile, other churches and even schools had already closed in the rest of the country. Only after the pressure from the authorities became too severe health minister Litzman called on his fellow Orthodox Jews to stay away from services.

Now, with a few exceptions, most of Israel’s Orthodox are adhering to the guidelines. Accordingly, synagogues and even the quorum, which is otherwise a must for Orthodox believers, are now all closed down.

Calls for Litzman to Resign: ‘Endangering the Health of All Citizens of Israel’

Litzman himself was nevertheless heavily criticized and was even asked to resign by many in the secular media. Also, the leader of the opposition nationalist party Yisrael Beitenu Avigdor Lieberman accused the ultra-Orthodox leadership and Litzman of acting irresponsibly and “endangering the health of all citizens of Israel.” The reason for the criticism of Litzman is not least due to the fact that he infected himself. Contrary to his own provisions, he continued to pray in a synagogue, where he was exposed to the virus.

Meanwhile, both Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have backed the Ultra-Orthodox. Netanyahu demanded that citizens respect their beliefs and said there should be no agitation against them. However, Netanyahu’s call is also clearly self-interested, since Litzman and his United Torah Judaism party are, after all, an important coalition partner of Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc in the Knesset.

It is not the first time that special treatment has been applied, however. Israel was quick to close its borders after the start of the pandemic, but there were still special regulations within the country for the Ultra-Orthodox ⁠— primarily through Litzman’s influence and policies to ensure that their tight-knit community life and worship services did not further spread the disease.

Netanyahu Puts in Place Tougher Restrictions

On Monday, April 6, Netanyahu announced tighter restrictions for all Israelis prior to the Jewish Passover festival that began on Wednesday. Travel between cities was banned and Israelis have not been allowed to leave their homes since last Wednesday. With these actions, it is not only the Ultra-Orthodox who have restricted their activities and freedom of movement but the whole of Israel. As the Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri explained it: everyone should be celebrating the festival “at home with the immediate family.”

According to Lieberman, on the other hand, the expansion of the measures from the Ultra-Orthodox to the entire country was simply a way of “appeasing” the group by indicating that a measure directed primarily against Ultra-Orthodox was now applied to the entire country.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff Aviv Kochavi has tried to convince Netanyahu to hand responsibility for dealing with the pandemic to the Israeli military. The military and its leadership appear to be dissatisfied with the government’s actions to date. A decision in this regard is still pending, however, and rather unlikely, at least until a new Israeli government has been formed. To date, more than eleven thousand people have been infected in Israel, 113 of whom have died and 1,689 of whom have recovered.

L'articolo Israel’s Orthodox Community is Struggling With COVID-19 proviene da InsideOver.

Israel’s Blue and White party was formed in the run up to the April 2019 Knesset elections with the aim of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Its formation was necessitated by the need to present a united front in the election by bringing together the centrist parties, primarily Benny Gantz’s Resilience Party, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’lon’s Telem.

Blue and White’s Core Mission

At its inauguration the alliance described itself as a pluralistic party alliance representing all citizens on the political and religious spectrum of Israeli society. Its name Blue and White is derived from Israel’s national colors, and is colloquially used to portray patriotism.

A manifesto released after Blue and White’s inauguration promised to address “all the essential issues facing the State of Israel and the citizens of Israel … embodying the right of Israeli citizens to live in dignity, security, prosperity and freedom.”

Prior to and after the March 2020 elections Blue and White’s leaders vowed not to serve in the same government as Netanyahu because of the criminal charges facing him. When Netanyahu was indicted Gantz declared, “Netanyahu goes to trial, and we must move forward. Israel’s citizens have a clear choice: a prime minister who will work for them or a prime minister who is preoccupied with himself.”

“No one can run a state and at the same time manage three serious criminal cases for bribery fraud and breach of trust,” Gantz added.

The Pressure to Compromise in the Midst of Electoral Chaos

However, with Israel’s recent third election also ending up in a stalemate, there has been pressure for the leaders to compromise in order to save Israel from another election. Ever since the impasse began in April last year the Israeli government has been unable to carry out key factions as the national parliament — the Knesset — remained dysfunctional.

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic also compounded the need for a substantive government to tackle the situation. Since Gantz had the support of most political parties, he was entrusted with trying to form a government by president Reuven Rivlin.

However,  any attempts by Gantz to form a minority government were bound to fail for most of parties supporting him resented the participation of the Arab Joint List in any unity government. Gantz himself knew that trying to form a minority government with the support of the Joint List was likely to attract anger among conservatives.

This coupled with the coronavirus emergency, necessitated the need of a unity government that would also involve Netanyahu and his Likud party. But this is was going to be a tough balancing act for the former leader of Israel Defense Forces. He had always promised his supporters not to work with Netanyahu but now the prevailing situation was forcing him to reconsider his stand. To most of his political supporters he would appear as a traitor and a man with no principles

Gantz Denies First Reports of Collaboration to Buy Time

Last week when Netanyahu leaked details about a deal that had been agreed between the Likud and Blue and White, Gantz chose to dismiss it by blaming Netanyahu for dangerous leaks and using threats. It appears that some of his supporters were not aware that the negotiations were at an advanced stage and that Gantz’s denial was only a face-saving tactic.

Most Blue and White members had been strategizing on how to block Netanyahu from participating in a unity government through legislation in the Knesset. To this effect a bill had been brought to parliament to bar anybody facing criminal charges from forming a government. In order to achieve they compelled the pro-Netanyahu Speaker to call for the election for his replacement.

With 61 Knesset members, the pro-Gantz bloc was assured of taking the Speaker’s position and also passing the bill into law. These efforts were being led by Gantz’s running mate in the Blue and White Yair Lapid of the Yesh Taid.

Gantz’s Surprise Move to Become Speaker

But in a surprising twist Gantz submitted his candidature for the position of the speaker, a move that shocked his partners in the Blue and White. Apparently according to sources this was part of the secret agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz as part of the discussion which he had previously denied were taking place.

The initial agreement within the Blue and White was that the speaker should come from the Yesh Atid wing of the alliance. However when the name of Meir Cohen was submitted during negotiations, the Likud rejected it on the grounds that the party was opposed to any government led by Netanyahu.

It was under these circumstances that Gantz found himself as speaker supported by the Likud and his Resilience Party. As speaker he is expected to use his position to continue with negotiations to push legislations that would protect Netanyahu. According to Haaretz he is already in the process of instigating legislation that would allow Netanyahu to serve in government as minister despite his trial.

Indicted Prime Ministers are Barred From Serving

While prime ministers are allowed to continue serving until found guilty, they cannot serve when indicted. Under the new deal that is yet to be finalized, Netanyahu would serve as prime minister while Gantz would serve in the cabinet possibly as deputy prime and Minister of Defense.

After 18 months they would be expected to rotate, with Gantz becoming prime minister and Netanyahu serving as deputy PM and Defense Minister. This is where the challenge lies for Netanyahu who is facing criminal charges and would therefore be barred from serving as deputy prime minister.

It is for this reason that plans to sidestep High Court rulings that bar indicted ministers from serving by redefining the positions of deputy prime minister are at the center of the negotiations. According to Haaretz, Netanyahu and Gantz will promote the legislation in the coming days.

End Result: Bye Bye Blue and White

The result of all these moves is that the Blue and White has now disintegrated. The Yesh Atid and Telem have split away from Gantz’s Isreal Resillience, although Gantz will still technically retain the name Blue and White.

“We formed Blue and White to offer an alternative to the Isreali people. Benny Gntz decided today to break apart Blue and White and crawl into Netanyahu’s government. It’s a disappointing decision,” said Yair Lapid. “What is being formed today isn’t a unity government or an emergency government. It’s another Netanyahu government. Benny Gantz surrendered without a fight and crawled into Netanyahu’s government,” Lapid added.

Moshe Ya’lon the leader of Telem accused Gantz of committing political suicide.

The new government that is expected to be formed by Gantz and Netanyahu is modeled on the unity government between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir between 1984 and 1988 when the two leaders rotated as prime ministers.

L'articolo Is Israel’s Blue and White Party Finished? proviene da InsideOver.

The Bundestag commemorates the Holocaust 75 years after Auschwitz. In his speech, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin describes Germany as a “beacon” for the protection of liberal values while urging Europe to fight against nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism.

It has been many years since an Israeli state guest spoke in the German parliament on this date. In his speech to the Bundestag, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on the European Union to defend its core values. Nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism were hovering across Europe. Europe today was haunted by the ghosts of the past, Rivlin said in Parliament’s commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust in Berlin on Wednesday.

Rivlin said the continent was not in the 1930s and was, therefore, not on the precipice of a new Shoah. Nevertheless, the warning signs should not be overlooked. Germany, in particular, had a special responsibility. During his speech, Rivlin recalled that he once demonstrated that Germany was re-establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. He himself protested against payments to make amends to Israel, as he believed Germany attempted to buy away its guilt. Now, however, it was evident to him that Israel and Germany were “true partners.”

The same nation that had become the horror of the world through National Socialism had now become a “beacon” for the protection of liberal values while Chancellor Merkel had become the “leader of the free world.”

If Jews were not living in Germany freely today, they could not live anywhere else in the world, the President said, while reaffirming that the responsibility that rests on Germany’s shoulders was “enormous.”

However, Rivlin’s admonition was not only directed towards politicians that favor nationalist agendas. He stated that his views differed from the German government’s one on a particular issue, while nonetheless admitting that differences in opinion amongst friends were common; however, he criticized the German government for looking in the wrong direction regarding Iran and the attempts to maintain a nuclear deal that, according to Rivlin, Iran had rejected ab initio.

Most importantly, in the context of remembering that Jews once were supposed to be annihilated in Nazi Germany, Rivlin recalled that this plan is also currently part of Iran’s state doctrine. For the Jews, Rivlin proceeded, the threat emanating from Iran was not a theoretical question, but an existential one. Teheran was a risk to world peace, and Iran must be isolated from the international community, Rivlin said in front of Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who continues to claim how crucial the Iran deal was. Rivlin, on the other hand, is rightfully puzzled about the fact that Germany, with its past, is not taking a tough stance against a state that has vowed to destroy the state of Israel.

In his speech, Rivlin had praise for President Trump’s Middle East peace plan that was unveiled yesterday. The plan had the potential to reopen the conversation channel with the Palestinians, Rivlin said.

Meanwhile, Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also commemorated in his speech today at the Bundestag and warned against the return of authoritarian thinking in Germany and called for a decisive fight against anti-Semitism and racism. “Let us rise against the old spirit in the new times,” Steinmeier said. “We thought the nonsense of the past had faded over time. But no: the evil spirits of the past are now in a new guise.”

Every year the Bundestag commemorates the victims of National Socialism. In the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Poland, occupied by the Wehrmacht, the SS murdered at least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews. The few survivors were liberated by soldiers of the Red Army 75 years ago, on January 27, 1945. Around six million Jews fell victim to the Holocaust across Europe.

L'articolo Israel’s President Rivlin speaks to German Bundestag proviene da InsideOver.

“There won’t be anything, because there wasn’t anything,” he said time and again. But in a bombshell intervention last week, Benjamin Netanyahu’s hand-picked attorney general begged to differ. Indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, Israel’s longest-serving premier is fighting for his political life. And fight he will – despite mounting calls for his resignation to clear the nation’s chronic electoral impasse, ‘Bibi’ has sworn to battle on. 

Thursday’s shock announcement has inflamed the political crisis gripping Israel. For months the country has been without a government, with two successive elections failing to break the deadlock. Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main rival, had hoped his centrist Blue and White party might form the elusive majority – but he too conceded defeat last week. Israel’s Knesset parliament now has three weeks to find a way forward, lest voters return to the polls for a third time. 

Netanyahu’s indictment – the first against a sitting Israeli prime minister – has only fanned the political flames. But he’s in no mood to back down. Denying all allegations in a blistering response video, Bibi attacked the judiciary’s apparent political motivations, accusing judges of an “attempted coup”. The charges range from more minor infractions – receiving luxury gifts from wealthy individuals – to the utmost serious: bribery in return for favourable media coverage.

Yet, despite the gravity of the indictment, Netanyahu faces no legal obligation to step down, and could, in theory, still strive to form a government over the next 21 days. He’s failed in that endeavour twice already, and now facing criminal prosecution, the 70-year-old’s coalition-building credibility is frailer than ever. Public opinion seems to be turning against the prime minister too, with 56% of Israelis believing he must now resign.

But among the Likud party faithful, Netanyahu’s unassailable stature appears intact. His strengths in security and economic policy outweigh any allegations of malfeasance, most on Israel’s Right will reason. One government minister, Amir Ohana, expressed his pride in all Likud parliamentarians for standing by their man – “except for two,” he added pointedly. 

Gideon Sa’ar is doubtless one of these. A rising star in the party, the 52-year-old has made no secret of his lofty ambitions, calling on Netanyahu to face him in a leadership contest (a challenge the prime minister has, in principle, acceded to). Untarnished by decades in office, Sa’ar believes he can offer Likud lawmakers what Bibi demonstrably cannot: a reasonable chance at bridging the political divide and forming a government. 

Even if Sa’ar were to lose a primary race, his card would be marked for the future, experts believe. “He is calculating that a strong showing would allow him to position himself as the natural successor to lead the party,” says Natan Sachs of The Brookings Institution, a research group. 

But with Netanyahu’s grip on power unyielding, succession may be years away. Fighting yet another election seems an extraordinary enterprise – even without the baggage of a serious indictment. But the other option, bowing out, is not in Bibi’s playbook. He wants to prove that the system is flawed, that Israel’s judicial institutions have overstepped the mark. Doing so will involve an ugly, internecine battle; but so be it. 

And he has another more practical reason to fight on: the prospect of immunity. As prime minister, he is significantly more likely to receive legal protection from the Knesset during his prosecution. Given the 10 year sentence he faces if found guilty, that is a lifeline Netanyahu cannot afford to lose.

But the charges against him will be easy game for Gantz and others should a third election be called. And even if Netanyahu triumphed in another public poll, it remains unclear whether he could take office while on trial. Who takes up the mantle of assembling a government is in the gift of President Reuven Rivlin, who could well baulk at selecting a suspected criminal. Bibi would, of course, challenge such a ruling, ultimately pushing the final decision to the courts – setting the stage for an even greater constitutional showdown.

So, all told, Israel’s political future is far from clear. Netanyahu will fight on, that’s for certain, but the forces of opposition are amassing.

L'articolo Netanyahu Indicted For Bribery And Fraud – But He Pledges To Fight On proviene da InsideOver.