A7News: Poll: Left-wing alliance would net 40 seats

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Monday, Jan. 28 '19, כ"ב בשבט תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. POLL: LEFT-WING ALLIANCE WOULD NET 40 SEATS
2. MIAMI COP FILMED TRASHING JEWISH TEXT FIRED
3. 'SILENCE OF GREEK CHURCHES ON ANTI-SEMITISM IS DISTURBING'
4. TRUMP TO EUROPE: DON'T EVEN THINK OF EVADING IRAN SANCTIONS
5. WATCH: MK YEHUDA GLICK VISITS TEMPLE MOUNT AHEAD OF WEDDING
6. "THEY YELLED 'SLAUGHTER THE JEW' AND STABBED ME"
7. ARAB KILLED AFTER LYNCH ATTEMPT WAS CONVICTED TERRORIST
8. BRITISH LABOUR REINSTATES MP SUSPENDED OVER ANTI-SEMITISM


1. POLL: LEFT-WING ALLIANCE WOULD NET 40 SEATS
by David Rosenberg

Could a grand alliance of left-wing and center-left parties deny Binyamin Netanyahu an unprecedented fifth term as prime minister?

Since the Knesset voted to dissolve itself early and head to new elections, slated for April 9th, incumbent premier Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud has led the polls with a comfortable, double-digit lead.

While Netanyahu has led with an average of 29 to 30 seats in polls conducted this month, the Likud's nearest competitors, by comparison, have averaged just 12 to 13 seats.

But a new poll shows that if the center-left and left-wing parties were to form an alliance, the new list would easily defeat the Likud and would be well-positioned to form the next governing coalition.

The poll, conducted by TNS Teleseker last week and published Sunday evening by Saloona, shows the Likud leading the pack with 28 seats – down from its present 30 mandates.

In a distant second is former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party (Hason Yisrael) with 15, followed by Yeshat Atid with 13 seats and the predominantly Arab Joint List and break-away Ta'al parties with a combined 12 mandates.

The New Right faction of Education Minister Naftali Bennett would win nine seats, while Labor would plummet from 18 seats to just eight.

Among the haredi factions, United Torah Judaism would rise if new elections were held today, growing from six mandates to seven, while Shas would fall from seven seats to five.

The far-left Meretz party would win five seats, as would former Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levy's new Gesher faction, and the Kulanu party. Yisrael Beytenu would sink to just four seats, barely crossing the electoral threshold, as would the Jewish Home. Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah, formerly a partner in the Zionist Union alliance with Labor, would fail to cross the threshold.

If Yesh Atid and Israel Resilience ran on a joint list along with former IDF Chief of Staff Gabby Asheknazi, however, the poll found, the alliance would defeat the Likud, winning 34 seats to just 26 for the Likud. The New Right would lose one seat in this scenario, winning eight rather than nine seats, while Labor would win seven instead of eight mandates. Kulanu would sink to four mandates, as would Gesher.

Should Labor, former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon's Telem party, Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah, and former premier Ehud Barak also join the grand alliance, the new list would net a whopping 40 seats.

Under such a scenario, the Likud would win 29 mandates, while the Joint List and Ta'al factions would fall to just 11 seats total, the New Right would win nine seats, while Kulanu, Shas, Meretz, Yisrael Beytenu, Gesher, and the Jewish Home would win four each.

Netanyahu's current coalition partners – which now hold a combined 61 seats for a razor-thin Knesset majority – would win just 57 seats in this scenario.


2. MIAMI COP FILMED TRASHING JEWISH TEXT FIRED
by Marcy Oster, JTA

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/258206

A Miami police sergeant was fired over a video showing him throwing a wooden box engraved with a Star of David and a copy of the Tanach in the back of a pickup truck calling them trash.

Sgt. Roberto Destephan, a 13-year veteran of the force, had been suspended for the last two months over the cellphone video. He was fired on Thursday, the Miami Herald reported.

"We don't need this s— either, man. This crap? F— this. Takin' out the trash, dog," Destephan says on the video after turning the camera on his face. Destephan also had served as the vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police when the video surfaced.

Destephan and supporters say police officers were clearing out old, moldy items from the office and that the cellphone video had been heavily edited. He said it was being used to prevent him from running in an upcoming union election. The office reportedly was located in a former Jewish funeral home and the items belonged to the previous owners.

Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina told the newspaper that he was concerned about the officer's character and credibility coming into question if he has to testify in court over an arrest. "It isn't just what he said, but what are the consequences of that. Do we lose the public's trust?" Colina said.

Destephan has 15 days to appeal his firing.


3. 'SILENCE OF GREEK CHURCHES ON ANTI-SEMITISM IS DISTURBING'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

President Reuven Rivlin spoke with Greek President Prokopis Pavapoulos Monday to condemn the destruction of the monument to the Jewish community in Thessaloniki.

The monument, which was vandalized last Friday by unknown perpetrators, was erected in memory of the the Jewish community in the city who were massacred during the Holocaust. It is located at the University of Aristotle in Thessaloniki.

The marble slabs that were erected in the monument, which were taken from an old Jewish cemetery that was destroyed by the Nazis in 1942, were smashed.

This is the third time that unknown vandals have damaged the monument in the last six months, and the 16th time that a Jewish site in Greece has been vandalized since the beginning of 2018.

"This case proves that anti-Semitism is still alive and kicking and that it is still necessary to fight against it," Rivlin said in his conversation with the Greek president. "Internal political disagreements must not lead to such expressions of hatred, and we must concentrate efforts on an uncompromising war against this phenomenon."

The President thanked the President of Greece for his unequivocal condemnation of the incident last night at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Thessaloniki, but emphasized that "the silence of the heads of the churches in Greece is very disturbing."

"Unfortunately, all the church's religious institutions in Greece are silent in the face of manifestations of anti-Semitism, as we saw yesterday," the president said, stressing that it is very important that the Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece make a public statement against anti-Semitism.


4. TRUMP TO EUROPE: DON'T EVEN THINK OF EVADING IRAN SANCTIONS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The US is prepared to punish any attempt to circumvent the Trump administration's sanctions against the Iranian regime – including Europe. That's the message White House officials are conveying to European allies, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The Bush administration, with the help of European allies, built a comprehensive sanctions regime against Tehran over Iran's nuclear program.

As part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, however, the signatories offered Tehran sanctions relief, allowing much-needed foreign currency into inflation-ravaged Iran.

Last May, President Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal, reimposing wide-ranging economic sanctions on Iran in November, despite protests from the deal's European signatories.

The European Union has vowed to circumvent the American sanctions, and is currently in the process of establishing a back-door channel for businesses to conduct transactions with Iran while evading the US sanctions regime.

"I hope that we can announce the launch very soon," said European Union spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Maja Kocijancic last week.

But the White House is warning the EU that the US will not tolerate efforts to evade sanctions on Iran, and will not hesitate to punish violators.

A senior Trump administration official told AP that the US is determined to enforce the Iranian sanctions regime, and will hold any individuals or entities involved in circumventing them responsible.


5. WATCH: MK YEHUDA GLICK VISITS TEMPLE MOUNT AHEAD OF WEDDING
by Hezki Baruch

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/258246

MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) ascended the Temple Mount Monday morning in honor of his upcoming wedding, which is scheduled to take place Monday evening.

During his visit to the Temple Mount Monday, Glick met with his bride-to-be, Hadas Disin, the founder of the Amitzim organization, which provides support for widows, widowers, and orphans. Disin was widowed at the age of 29 by the sudden death of her first husband.

On January 1st, Glick, 53, announced that he was engaged to Disin, 46, a resident of Talmon in the Binyamin district of Samaria. The engagement announcement came one year to the day after Glick's first wife, Yaffa, has passed away.


6. "THEY YELLED 'SLAUGHTER THE JEW' AND STABBED ME"
by Eliran Aharon

M., the young man who was attacked this past Shabbat near the Israeli town of Adei Ad in Samaria, recalled the harrowing moments of the attack in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

"I went down from Adei Ad towards a [nearby] hill, where I passed by children who were playing, and when I reached to the hill, there were three Arabs waiting for me, shouting 'Itbah al Yahud' (Arabic for 'slaughter the Jew'). They tried to harm me in many different ways," he recalled.

"God gave me strength, and I managed to break free and escape. I ran past the kids [he had seen earlier] and shouted at them that there are terrorists approaching and that they need to run. At that point I saw that my hands were bleeding after they had stabbed me with a knife, and I ran to Adei Ad and called the security officer, who notified the emergency squad.

But the emergency squad was ambushed, in much the same way M. had been.

"When I was in the army ambulance I heard that the emergency squad members were reporting that they were in mortal danger and were calling for help, and they were in an ambush surrounded by some 300 Arabs who threw stones and pieces of metal at them."

"There are those who will say that I came to the ​​Arabs' territory and provoked them ... It's clear to me that it's just an invention. I was in an area which belongs to Adei Ad, very far from the Arabs' area," he added.

"We're in a bizarre situation here, where Jews are afraid to speak, because the media tries to make everything look like a 'price tag' incident." So-called 'Price Tag' incidents are acts of vandalism or arson committed by Jewish youths against Arab property.

"The Arabs are the aggressors, and the people who are causing most of the mess here are left-wing activists who are fomenting chaos in the entire area."


7. ARAB KILLED AFTER LYNCH ATTEMPT WAS CONVICTED TERRORIST
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The Arab who was killed during the events near the Samaria community of Adei Ad over the weekend, Hamdi Nussan, was a convicted terrorist who sat in prison for a number of terror attacks.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva on Sunday, a spokesman for the community of Adei Ad said that the Arab man who was killed was not a mere "demonstrator but a terrorist. A convicted terrorist who sat in Israeli jail. The 'father of four' described in the media had a past of serious offenses of shooting and placing bombs."

"We are talking about a Hamas terrorist. By the way, that entire village is a Hamas village. It's a village in which arrests are carried out by security forces almost every night," the spokesman noted.

Samaria Council head Yossi Dagan said in response, "The defense establishment must operate within the village of Al-Mu'ayyir, to catch the terrorists who organized the lynching attempt yesterday."

"We expect the defense establishment, and I call upon the defense minister, to act decisively against the terror hotbeds," the council head added.

"This picture is not much different from the situation in which children on a bar mitzvah hike found themselves when they toured the town of Migdalim only a year ago. They defended themselves and prevented a severe disaster when one of the accompanying parents fired in the air, stopping the Palestinian rioters from lynching the children."

"I expect the defense establishment, in the clearest way possible, to procure the arrest capture of the terrorists and carry out operations inside the terror hotbeds, so that the motivation to carry out attacks will be reduced, and the security of the residents is preserved," Dagan stressed.



8. BRITISH LABOUR REINSTATES MP SUSPENDED OVER ANTI-SEMITISM
by Ben Ariel

A former MP from the British Labour Party, who was suspended from the party last August over comments made online about the Jewish community, has been reinstated following an investigation, The Independent reports.

Jim Sheridan, a former Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP who is now a councillor in Renfrewshire, said he is "delighted" with the decision and his support for Labour will continue.

The party launched an investigation against Sheridan following a complaint related to a social media post in which he spoke about his loss of "respect and empathy" for the community amid the anti-Semitism row.

In a statement issued on Friday, he reiterated his apology while calling his accusers "misguided".

"Today I was notified that my suspension from the Labour Party has been lifted with no further action to be taken by the party," said Sheridan.

"Whilst I am delighted with this decision, I remain of the view that my accusers were misguided and overreacted to what was intended to highlight my personal frustration and criticism of those intent on undermining our leadership in Scotland and the UK."

"I would also like to reiterate my sincere apologies to the Jewish community whose historic struggle I have supported all my political life," added Sheridan.

A Labour Party spokesman said, according to The Independent, "The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms."

"All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken."

The British Labour party has been embroiled in a series of controversies related to anti-Semitism in recent years. Dozens of Labour members have been suspended over their anti-Semitic statements.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn himself has been accused of holding anti-Semitic views by senior UK Jewish leaders. Corbyn has also been criticized for calling Hamas and Hezbollah his "friends" and for outright refusing to condemn those two terrorist organizations despite being urged to do so by local Jewish groups.

Corbyn insists he is not an anti-Semite. In a recent interview with the BBC he described anti-Semitism "as a scourge in any society, I have opposed it all my life…I have spent my whole life opposing racism in any form and I will die fighting racism."