Knesset Victory Caucus Formed by Yisrael Beytenu and Yesh Atid

 

The Knesset Victory Caucus has been formed with the co-chairing being by MKs Oded Forer from Yisrael Beytenu and Yaakov Peri from Yesh Atid. That is a coalition headed by the parties of Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid. Yair Lapid founded Yesh Atid and has been its sole leader. Yisrael Beytenu represents a secularist and right-wing nationalist political party in Israel whose base has traditionally been secular, Russian-speaking Israelis and has been led since 1999 by Avigdor Lieberman. Avigdor Liberman and Yisrael Beytenu have taken on the position of King Makers by often being amongst the second tier parties who jostle for positions and cabinet ministries and, especially in the case of Yisrael Beytenu, have been fairly crucial in most of the coalitions supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu and have reached amicable agreements allowing their leadership to serve often even in the Security Cabinet. Yair Lapid has specific reasons for forming his party, and it is his party, Yesh Atid, which was for the expressed purpose of his running and becoming the next Israeli Prime Minister claiming that Israel is sick and tired of Bibi Netanyahu and as there appears to be nobody who is willing or in a position to challenge him from within his Likud Party, Yair Lapid will challenge him in the national elections and offer the Israeli people a true and meaningful leader, or at least that has been his reading of his future and the future of Israel. Forming a co-managed coalition with a name such as Knesset Victory Caucus resonates with us to be similar to the Labor Party under Isaac ‘Bougie’ Herzog joined with Tzipi Livni and the party she formed, the Hatnuah Party, and the Israel Green Movement which was formed by Eran Ben-Yemini and Alon Tal, all joined together making an alliance in the Knesset they named the ‘Zionist Union,’ as misleading a name as we have seen in politics as the party represented largely post-Zionist membership. We suspect that the ‘Knesset Victory Caucus’ is actually designed by Yair Lapid who has likely either suggested sharing the position of Prime Minister or allowing Avigdor Lieberman to choose three or four top position in such a coalition Ministerial positions such as Foreign Minister, Defense Minister or other top slots should they take the top position due to their running as a single party and adding their votes together in an attempt to take the top position after the next elections. The one Aspect of this group is their connection with Daniel Pipes and the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, of which he is the President. They are holding a conference in Jerusalem, so we will look more deeply into this alliance, this coalition. Some of this and other political moves can be expected in the near future as election fever is being stoked by much of the media. The Labor Party just held elections for their top spots, which were won by Amir Peretz and Avi Gabbay who are set to face each other in a runoff for the Labor Party’s leadership to complete the election process this coming week. Elections fever; yet we have not even felt the slightest jolt of electricity up here in vacationers’ paradise. The next scheduled election for the Knesset is November 5, 2019, a little far off for election excitement to be starting which begs the question why.

 

Avigdor Liberman and Yair Lapid
Against Bibi Netanyahu

 

Well, some will tell you that it is the investigation into Prime Minister Netanyahu and his lawyers. If that is all that is required for elections fever, then we would be having such on a very regular basis as the leftist media and the leftist legal system and security forces seem to thrive only when making headlines in Haaretz calling for, having, or demanding investigations of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Yes, there is another investigation into something, and if past investigations are nay prediction then this just might turn out the same meager rumors such as friends had given Bibi cigars or the Netanyahu’s are eating too much ice cream (sounds eerily like my doctor when viewing my test results) or other items which result in more giggles than actual accusations. Bibi Netanyahu might just be the most investigated leader in all of history since Moses, as reading Torah, it seems that there were others second guessing Moses every step of the Exodus and even before as the Egyptians had to be curious about how Pharos’ sister had a child without having any signs of a pregnancy, but she claimed one of their gods gave her the child as a sign of adorations or something equally believable, yea, right, that’s the ticket. Anyway, this merging of Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beytenu appears to be political with a nice cover of being an investigative group seeking an end to the Palestinian Arab and Israeli conflict through impressing upon the Palestinian Arabs that the Israelis, the Zionists, have won and they have lost. Perhaps they are not aware of the claims by UNESCO that the Temple Mount, Western Wall, East Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs have absolutely no Jewish connection or Christian connection and are purely Islamic. These determinations reason that as Moses was a Muslim and Abram was the father of Islam and Noah was a Muslim and Adam and Eve were Muslims and Sari was the mother of the Muslims then obviously anywhere you care to choose must be an Islamic shrine as everybody is a descendant of Adam and Eve as well as Noah thus everything ever built since Adam and Eve or Noah, take your pick, is of Islamic origins. Obviously, nobody could ever contest such conclusions as it is written in the Quran about these people’s links to historic Islamic world. Oh, by the way, Jesus was also a Muslim prophet and will serve Muhammad and the Mahdi in the final days, according to the Quran and Islamic authorities. After all, according to Jack Engelhard UN to name Yankee Stadium a Palestinian Heritage Site, and he was probably only at the starting point.

 

Anyway, the Knesset Victory Caucus has taken a number of polls of the Israeli people. Their basic findings revealed that the majority of Israelis believe that Israel is the victor in the conflict and that the Palestinian Arabs need to realize this and settle for what they can have now or face being completely vanquished. It has become obvious that the Two State paradigm has come to an end as the obstructionism of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership has ended any hope of reaching a settlement and the Israelis no longer care about so-called fairness that the Europeans and the United Nations are consistently calling for. The Israelis have come to the realization that the world will never be satisfied by anything short of the extermination of the State of Israel. Nations will continue to trade and enjoy the discoveries, inventions and new methods developed by Israeli scientists and researchers while denouncing Israel at every opportunity and at best will abstain while allowing for United Nations institutions to declare Israel belongs to the Arabs and that the Jews have no rights to a life anywhere on Earth except as the underlings being under the thumb of everybody else. UNESCO and UNHRC have been the leaders in denouncing Israel and declaring every locations requested by the PA as an incontestable Islamic Holy Site. The historical preponderance of evidence is that Islam builds or converts other religious sacred sites such that they become Islamic sites such as the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre among others. Add to that and the apparent belief that there is not a single human abuse which Israel is not guilty of committing according to the United Nations such that Israel must be investigated and found guilty of some abuse before any further business can be conducted at one UN agency.

 

The world’s obsession is the simplest proof that the new anti-Semitism in the Twenty First Century is the hatred and demand for the deconstruction of the Jewish State of Israel. The further horrors resulting from this hatred of the Jewish State of Israel has been ever increasing anti-Semitism around the world with much of it driven by Islamic extremists with an increasing and unacceptable amount of support by what are considered to be mainstream Muslims who have accepted Western World’s societies and cultures. Some will claim that the vast majority of Muslims have little if any love of the Western World and Westerners and are simply biding their time until their numbers reach a sufficient percentage and then they will support the institution of Sharia, the strict Islamic Law which erases the rights of non-Muslims and places Muslims above everybody else and eventually the non-Muslims will face the choice of conversion or death. Even should they accept Islam, their lives will be scrutinized looking for the slightest signs of slipping or not sufficiently keeping the laws of Islam. The new converts would be easily found guilty of being apostates, backsliders, heretics or other abhorrent behaviors which would result in torture followed by being executed, very possibly in some horrific manner and publicly as a warning to everyone else. The increasing anti-Semitism which has infected Europe has become far too serious to simply be the acts of the new immigrants or even the entirety of the Islamics residing in these nations, it has reignited the secretive anti-Semites and their hatred is becoming so prevalent that it now is perfectly correct to express such hatred publicly without expecting to be shamed or arrested for hate speech. Say something against Islam and you will be facing hate speech charges. Just ask Bridget Gabriel, Geert Wilders, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and even Brigitte Bardot. Speak against Israel, Jewish individuals, Judaism or the old canards of Jew control of the media, politics, the economy or world affairs and even quoting from the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion are all acceptable and reasonable speech in the Western World. Once again, it has become open season on the Jews of Europe and hopefully this time they will choose to get out before it becomes too late. Their heading for the United States would be a mistake, as that would only perpetuate the coming to face the realization that they will never become acceptable anywhere in the world other than in Israel. Yes, they will be just as despised by the world in Israel, but at least the military and the police will be there to defend them and all who live in Israel.

 

The world is coming around to a precise and predicted point where the only place a Jew can feel accepted and safe from persecution will be Israel. The flow of Jews to live in Israel will continue to increase as anti-Semitism slowly grows and progresses across Europe bursting to a critical point in nation after nation. In the meantime, the leaders will claim that there is little Jew hatred in their nation while promising the Jews in their country protection. The protection will be temporary until they can declare an area safe and retreat back allowing the violence to arise again. Eventually the Jews will take the hint and realize that there is an economic price to their being protected, and that price will be less and less tolerated as time passes. Either way, Jews will slowly take the hint and no matter their initial flight, their eventual target will be to flee to Israel. When the entire flight of the Jewish People has come that they all reside, with a small few outliers as the exception, the anti-Semitism will coalesce with all the hatred pointed to Israel. That will lead to the predicted final war for all mankind where the world unites against Israel and Hashem makes His presence known at the height of the battle and disperses the forces against Israel with great dispatch. This will bring the Messiah and the world will live in peace and finally accept leaving the Jews to reside in Israel with a rebuilt Temple in their Capital City of Jerusalem and the lands promised in the Torah. In the meantime, would it be too much to ask that the world actually fulfill their promises made in the San Remo Conference even if they only recognize the promise made by the British Crown which stated that in response to the Arabs receiving 78% of the British Mandate, the lands west of the Jordan River, the remaining 22% (the same 22% which Mahmoud Abbas consistently claims should be his) was reserved for the Jewish State and would be protected from any further divisions. How about that? We really are not requesting anything that large, we are asking for something about the size of New Jersey, that is all, no huge swath of land, no Greater Israel, just the Promised Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Long Night Births Hard Questions on Israeli Election Results

 

With virtually all the votes counted we have the preliminary picture but the lines are fuzzy and the results produce more questions than answers. Likud is leading the pact with 29 seats with the “Zionist Camp” of Labor and Hatnua following with 24 and the Joint Arab List has 14 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 11, Kulanu with 10, Jewish Home has 8, the Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism tied at 7, Yisrael Beytenu has 6 and Meretz closes out the list with 4 seats and unfortunately Yachad party will be left out. The raw numbers would indicate a huge win for Netanyahu and loss for the “Zionist Camp” falling well behind due to Likud exceeding its lower polling and Labor-Hatnua equaling expectations. A closer look reveals where the Likud came by its higher numbers and it appears that Likud gains came at the expense of largely Jewish Home and potentially prevented Yachad from making threshold. The other obvious change has been that instead of preventing the fragmentation and reducing the number of minor parties the raising of the threshold only served to drive the smaller leftist, anti-Zionist Communist and Post=Modernist parties into a single block under the name of Arab Block and given them two to three additional mandates making Zoabi and Tibi appear all the stronger. These raw results are meaningless until the different parties, unions and blocks make their desires and support clear to President Rivlin producing a clearer picture who should be given first shot at forming a coalition.

 

The raw data would make Likud out to be the victor and to the victor go the spoils, but what spoils? The name of the game is coalition making and hopefully doing so with in kind minds and supporters of your positions. This means that any seats gained by Likud at the expense of Jewish Home makes the resultant total possessed by the two presumed to be allied parties no different and all the Likud gains from Jewish Home losses as simply rearranging the chairs on either a cruise ship or the Titanic. The truth is that Netanyahu does not really want the religious, Zionist, nationalist allied parties to be the base of his support when forming his coalition. Netanyahu wants to have as much political leeway allowing him to go in whatever direction provides him with the easiest path in the new government. By Netanyahu weakening the standing of Jewish Home, when forming any coalition now would make Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu parties more important and carrying a greater influence than Jewish Home and making Naftali Bennett’s voice virtually powerless and squelched while Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon will be the roaring lions in the government and also place them ahead of Jewish Home in choosing the Ministerial position of power in the cabinet. This will give Netanyahu the leftward freedom to ignore the demands of the Religious Zionists as he desired. Netanyahu’s ploy of assailing Jewish Home voters laying any loss he might face to Hertzog and Livni at their feet just as he had done previously except this time he did so with no apparent loss in voter totals that he faced in 2013.

 

So now we wait and see who will be chosen to form a coalition first and then suffer through six weeks of excruciatingly boring power plays which we already see Jewish Home and the Zionist and nationalists being mostly sidelined while the personal aggrandizing Yesh Atid and Kulanu parties empowering Yair Lapid and Moshe Kahlon loudly impressing their demands and thus control over the most critical areas in the next government. Lapid may demand Treasury Minister for himself and two other high position Ministerial position for his main people with Kahlon likely to demand Foreign Minister or Defense Minister and two other major Ministerial positions for his list leaving Jewish Home with second pickings of the scraps for the supporting members and a middle level leftover for Naftali Bennett. The one certainty is that the governing coalition will not be the nationalist, Zionist government that Netanyahu once again ran on but will once again claim he is prevented from pursuing due to the lack of support from, you guessed it, a weakened and ineffectual Jewish Home. As long as the religious Zionists fall for the Netanyahu cry after running a weak campaign making the certainty of his returning to the Prime Ministership a definitive possibility from the polls and then turning to the supporters of Jewish Home and the other ardent Zionist parties to vote Likud to stave off the leftist challenge then Jewish Home will be forever the bridesmaid and never the bride. Eventually the leader, be it Bennett or be it his successor or beyond down the road, assuming there is a down the road, decides to challenge and present Jewish Home as the new leadership for Israel, Netanyahu will continue to utilize this ploy of siphoning off the votes of those more Zionist than Netanyahu desires to govern with and neutering those Zionist parties from where Netanyahu glides to victory with the stolen support, then the real Zionist political power will remain neutered and voiceless in the future Likud Party led governments. For now we must wait and see what develops but be warned that the expectations of the ardent Zionists have once again been sacrificed to the Bibi and thus lower expectations are their feed in the coming government. The other reality is that it appears that Netanyahu will require Yair Lapid and his treasonous backstabbing to permit a coalition to be cobbled together, so expect new elections again in two or so years when Lapid again sees a wounded Netanyahu for his actions such as the silent building freeze or whatever other sacrifices made presumably in response to a powerful United States President Obama in order to salvage continued friendship from the White House. Anybody else notice that it is only Israel who needs to obey and bow to the will of Obama? Can bowing to golden calves or worse be far behind?

 

Beyond the Cusp