A7News: Lapid-Gantz-Ya'alon list: 'Blue and White'

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Thursday, Feb. 21 '19, ט"ז באדר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. LAPID-GANTZ-YA'ALON LIST: 'BLUE AND WHITE'
2. WILL ELI YISHAI'S YAHAD GO IT ALONE?
3. FOUNDER OF JEWISH HOME WOMEN'S FORUM RESIGNS
4. OTZMAPHOBIC HYPOCRISY ON THE RIGHT
5. GANTZ AND LAPID TO RUN TOGETHER
6. POLL: RIGHT-RELIGIOUS BLOC LOSES MAJORITY
7. JEWISH HOME RECEIVES 2 MINISTRIES, REP ON LIKUD LIST
8. JEWISH HOME'S NUMBER 3 RESIGNS


1. LAPID-GANTZ-YA'ALON LIST: 'BLUE AND WHITE'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

New details have been published about the alliance signed Thursday morning between Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon and Gabi Ashkenazi.

The new list will not be composed of the names of the lists that comprise it, as many have predicted, and will be called "Blue and White" ("Kahol Lavan").

The first 30 places will be divided according to the following system: 13 seats for the Yesh Atid party headed by Yair Lapid, 12 seats for Israel Resilience headed by Benny Gantz, and 4 seats for the Telem party headed by Moshe Ya'alon, while former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi will also be placed on the list.

According to the agreement, Gantz and Lapid will jointly run the premiership and, if they win and form the coalition, Gantz will be appointed to the post after the elections and Lapid will replace him two and a half years later. It was also agreed that Lapid would be foreign minister until then, and Ya'alon would be defense minister.

Tonight, at 8:00 pm, the heads of the alliance will hold a press conference during which they will launch the new list to be submitted today to the Central Elections Committee.

The joint ticket's candidate list for the Knesset runs as follows:

1. Benny Gantz
2. Yair Lapid
3. Moshe Bogie Ya'alon
4. Gabi Ashkenazi
5. Avi Nissenkorn
6. Meir Cohen
7. Miki Haimovich
8. Ofer Shelah
9. Yoaz Hendel
10. Orna Barbivai
11. Michael Biton
12. Chili Tropper
13. Yael German
14. Zvi Hauser
15. Orit Farkash-Hacohen
16. Karin Elharar
17. Meirav Cohen
18. Yoel Razvozov
19. Asaf Zamir
20. Izhar Shay
21. Elazar Stern
22. Mickey Levy
23. Omer Yankelevich
24. Pnina Tamano-Shata
25. Gadeer Mreeh
26. Ram Ben Barak
27. Alon Shuster
28. Yoav Segalovich
29. Ram Shefa
30. Boaz Toporovsky
31. Orly Fruman
32. Eitan Ginzburg
33. Gadi Yevarkan
34. Idan Roll
35. Yorai Lahav Hertzano
36. Moshe "Mutz" Matalon
37. Einav Kabla
38. Aliza Lavie
39. Itzhak Ilan
40. Tehila Friedman
41. Hila Shay Vazan
42. Moshe Kinley Tur Paz
43. Ruth Wasserman Lande
44. Zehorit Sorek
45. Alon Tal
46. Michal Cotler Wunsh
47. Anat Knafo
48. Yair Farjun
49. Deborah Biton
50. Idit Wexler
51. Vladimir Beliak
52. Keren Gonen


2. WILL ELI YISHAI'S YAHAD GO IT ALONE?
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Yahad, the political party founded by former Shas chief and ex-interior minister Eli Yishai following his departure from Shas, may be forced to run alone in this year's Knesset election, with Thursday night's deadline for submitting candidate lists approaching and no deals finalized with larger factions.

Yishai, who led the Shas party from 1999 to 2013, bolted from the faction in 2014, ahead he lost control of the party to former chief Aryeh Deri.

In 2015, Yishai founded the Yahad party, bringing on Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun. The faction ran on a joint list with the smaller right-wing party Otzma Yehudit, led by Hevron activist Baruch Marzel. Despite polls suggesting the alliance could win four to five seats, the joint ticket narrowly failed to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, winning just 2.97% of the vote and failing to enter the Knesset.

In recent weeks, Yishai had sought to run in a technical bloc with the Jewish Home and National Union.

Despite indications Wednesday that Yishai would receive the sixth place on a joint right-wing ticket spanning the Jewish Home, National Union, and Otzma, by Thursday afternoon, no deals had been reached with the Jewish Home.

Candidate lists for the Knesset must be submitted by Thursday night, leaving Yahad with just hours to reach an 11th hour agreement with another party.

Yahad has engaged in talks with the Shas party for a technical bloc – allowing the two factions to split immediately after the election – though the talks between Yahad's spiritual leader, Rabbi Meir Mazuz and Shas' Rabbi David Yosef have reportedly reached an impasse, with Shas calling for the inclusion of a Yahad candidate other than Yishai on the joint list.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has expressed concerns that the multiplicity of small right-wing parties failing to cross the threshold could hand a victory to the left-wing bloc, offered Yishai a ministry in the 35th government in exchange for Yishai not running an independent campaign.

Recent polls show Yishai's list coming in far below the 3.25% minimum threshold if it does run independently, with some polls showing Yahad failing to receive even 1% of the vote.


3. FOUNDER OF JEWISH HOME WOMEN'S FORUM RESIGNS
by Mordechai Sones

Jewish Home Women's Forum founder Ya'ara Yeshurun announced she was resigning from the party and transferring support to the party of Bennett and Shaked, the New Right.

"Take a minute before the painful analyses and accusations about bringing Otzma Yehudit into the Jewish Home party and try a moment to concentrate on the sorrow of many members of the religious Zionist movement who lost their political home tonight," Yeshurun ​​said in her Twitter account the night after approval of the agreement with Otzma.

"Maybe it didn't happen to you, but there are many who always knew who to vote for and today they stand confused. A hug instead of a slap might help," she added.

After her announcing joining the New Right, Bennett tweeted, "Welcome, Ya'ara, to the New Right!"

A series of party activists resigned last night following approval of the agreement with Otzma Yehudit for running in a joint technical block in the elections to the 21st Knesset.


4. OTZMAPHOBIC HYPOCRISY ON THE RIGHT
by Mordechai Sones

While many prominent Jewish leaders have expressed praise and encouragement for the union between Jewish Home-National Union and the Otzma Yehudit "Jewish Power" parties, many in the religious-Zionist camp are openly lamenting the alignment, some going so far as to quit the party rather than be tainted by association with "extremists".

Jewish Home Women's Forum founder Ya'ara Yeshurun announced she was resigning from the party and transferring support to the party of Bennett and Shaked, the New Right, tweeting about "the sorrow of many members of the religious Zionist movement who lost their political home tonight."

Why is the Otzma Yehudit party considered such anathema in some circles? National Union Chairman Betzalel Smotrich called the union an "unnatural" one, actually apologizing to followers and assuring them of a speedy separation immediately after the elections. Sounds pretty Otzmaphobic if you ask me.

The ideology some religious Zionists find so objectionable can be encapsulated in a video Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Kahane, ideological father of Otzma Yehudit, recorded from his Knesset office:

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259403

"How many Arabs will sit in the Knesset in another ten years? After all, we're a democracy. All of us, Jews and Arabs, have rights. How many Arabs will sit in the Knesset?

"Today I have the privilege of sitting together with Tawfiq Toubi, Tawfiq Ziad; how many Tawfiqs will there be in another ten years?

"And in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee: How many Arabs will sit and hear a classified report form the Chief of Staff? Maybe the Chief of Staff will be an Arab; why not? Democracy!

"There is an absolute contradiction between Western democracy and Zionism. I'm for democracy - for every Jew. But not for Arabs. The only solution is population exchange. We already moved 800,000 Jews from the Arab countries to Zion; now we've arrived at Phase II - Arabs to Arabia.

"I declare it is ethical, and imperative, and Zionist, and halachic, and logical. I do not hate the Arabs. I love the Jewish People. They have 22 lands, we have one, and it is ours, only ours. Arabs to Arabia, Jews to Zion, and peace to the Middle East."

Kahane's point, "I'm for democracy - for every Jew. But not for Arabs," is not an acrobatic feat of sophistry concocted by Meir Kahane; it is ingrained within the very tenets of Western democratic thought and happens to be embraced heartily by right-wing "democracy" advocates whenever it suits them. Pretending that democracy is anything more than a human contrivance even violates the Socratic manner that, as Plato taught in several of his dialogues, does not admit all members. They have to have a preconditioned appetite to further a discussion. This is why calling a "Palestinian" a "peace-partner" is an absolute travesty of the entire exchange.

When does it suit our right-wing democracy advocates to suspend democracy? Take for example October 18, 1988, when Israel's Supreme Court upheld a Knesset Central Elections Committee ban on the Kach Movement running in the Knesset elections. Kach at the time was already sitting in the Knesset and polls were predicting anywhere from 6-12 seats, severely cutting into the other "right-wing" parties' voter bases and threatening to become the third largest party in the Knesset.

At the time, newspaper Hadashot commented: "Kahane lies deep in every part of the country. He is the only one of all the smaller parties who retains a stable and strong nucleus in every segment of the population. In 12 different ballots, over two-and-a-half months of polling, Kahane does not drop below five percent of the voters, no matter where you put the ballot box."

Without that background in may be difficult to understand the Auguat 23, 1988 Hadashot headline: Peres and Shamir will work together to ban Kahane's list.

So apparently, it's our right-wing leadership's prerogative to inform We the People, to whom they have barred our choice of representatives, that we must accept being limited to the choices they find acceptable.

So please spare us your hypocritical Puritan religious-Zionist moralizing about ideological hygiene, and answer any one of the Rabbi's points. Or could it be it's not the ideology part that's irritating you, after all?

Documentary on Phase I of the population exchange (three parts): 📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259403

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259403

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259403

Religious-Zionist fastidiousness
iStock



5. GANTZ AND LAPID TO RUN TOGETHER
by Elad Benari

Israel Resilience chairman Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid announced on Thursday morning that they had reached an agreement on a joint Knesset run.

Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has also joined the united party.

Gantz and Lapid agreed, among other things, on a rotation in the post of prime minister. Gantz will serve first in the post and Lapid will replace him after two and a half years.

The first four spots on the united list will be:

1. Benny Gantz
2. Yair Lapid
3. Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon
4. Gabi Ashkenazi

The rest of the list will be put together using the "zipper" method between the two parties – one spot for a candidate from Israel Resilience, followed by one spot for a candidate from Yesh Atid and so on.

"Motivated by national responsibility, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, and Bogie Ya'alon have decided to establish a joint list that will constitute the new Israeli ruling party," the parties said in a joint statement.

"The new ruling party will bring forth a cadre of security and social leaders to ensure Israel's security and to reconnect its people and heal the divide within Israeli society."

"Recognizing this pivotal moment and the national task at hand LTG (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi has also decided to join the new party," the statement said.

Party leaders will make an official announcement later on Thursday.

Earlier this week, as he officially introduced his list of candidates, Gantz made clear that the door to a joint run with Yesh Atid had not yet been closed. "Immediately after the event, I will call Lapid and propose that he meet again tonight," he said.


6. POLL: RIGHT-RELIGIOUS BLOC LOSES MAJORITY
by David Rosenberg

A new poll shows the right-wing, religious bloc losing its majority in the Knesset, even as the Israel Resilience party shows signs of decline.

According to the poll, conducted by Panels Politics and published by Walla! on Wednesday, the parties which made up Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition during most of the 34th government would win just 59 seats if new elections were held today, compared to 67 seats in 2015.

That eight-seat decline would deprive the right-wing, religious bloc of the majority needed to guarantee Netanyahu's reelection as Prime Minister, enabling him to block the formation of an alternative government.

The poll still shows Netanyahu's Likud the clear favorite to win the election, with 31 seats to 19 for former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience party. That's down from 22 seats Gantz's party was projected to win by another Panels Politics poll earlier this month.

Yesh Atid would gain two mandates if new elections were held today, the poll finds, rising from 11 to 13 mandates.

Orly Levy's Gesher faction would win four seats, the same number as the Kulanu party and the haredi Shas faction.

Labor would plummet to just nine seats, down from the 24 it won in a joint list with Hatnuah in 2015. Hatnuah will not be running in the election.

The far-left Meretz faction would win five seats, the same number it currently has, while the two Arab factions, Ta'al and the Joint List, would fall from a combined 13 seats to 11.

The United Torah Judaism faction, which won six seats in 2015, would rise to seven seats, while Yisrael Beytenu would fail to clear the threshold.

Naftali Bennett's New Right would win eight seats, while the Jewish Home-National Union ticket would win eight seats.

The poll was conducted prior to today's announcement that Otzma Yehudit has accepted the Jewish Home's offer for a joint ticket.

According to the poll, Otzma would receive 2.8% of the vote, but fail to cross the threshold on its own.


7. JEWISH HOME RECEIVES 2 MINISTRIES, REP ON LIKUD LIST
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with the chairman of the Jewish Home Party, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, and the two agreed on the conditions that would lead to the inclusion of Otzma Yehudit in the joint list of the Jewish Home and the National Union.

As part of the agreement, the Jewish Home-National Union faction will receive two significant ministerial positions, with the two sides already talking about the education portfolio.

In addition, Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to secure the 28th place on the Likud list for a representative of the Jewish Home-National Union, and after the elections the representative would be transferred to the united party.

Netanyahu also agreed to enact the expanded 'Norwegian Law,' which would allow additional representatives from the list to serve as Knesset members.

The two also agreed during the election campaign that the parties would not attack each other but would strengthen each other to secure a right-wing victory.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the end of the meeting that "the next elections are between a left-wing government headed by Lapid and Gantz and a right-wing government headed by me. I congratulate the representatives of the Jewish Home and the National Union for their responsibility for the Land of Israel that caused their success in uniting the ranks to ensure that the voices of the right are not lost."

Jewish Home Chairman Rabbi Rafi Peretz stated that "the preachers of the left cannot be crowned as leaders of the state. At the end of the process everyone will see that we were right. I will make a decision during the day and request the approval of the party's central committee for the agreement."

The Jewish Home central committee will convene this evening to vote on the agreement to run on a joint list with Otzma Yehudit.

Prime Minister Netanyahu postponed his visit to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin by several days to meet with the leaders of the Jewish Home and National Union to press them to run on a joint list with Otzma Yehudit.

The arrangement offered by the Jewish Home and accepted by Otzma Wednesday morning would give Otzma the fifth and eighth spots on the joint Knesset list.

"The leadership of Otzma Yehudit decided at an emergency meeting to accept the demand of Otzma rabbis, and to join a technical bloc with the National Union and Jewish Home on the fifth and eighth spots"

"For the sake of the Land of Israel and the many people in the public who have called for unity on the right so that, God forbid, a left-wing government will not be established, the Otzma Yehudit faction has decided to accept the joint list offer from the Jewish Home and National Union, taking the fifth and eighth spots – despite the fact that based on all the data and in most recent polls, Otzma was guaranteed to bring at least four seats. But when the choice is the Land of Israel or our own honor, we choose the Land, and the establishment of a right-wing government."


8. JEWISH HOME'S NUMBER 3 RESIGNS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Journalist Yifat Erlich, who was third on the Jewish Home list and sixth on the Jewish Home-National Union alliance with Otzma Yehudit, resigned Thursday morning from the list and will not run for the 21st Knesset.

Erlich's move followed the Jewish Home central committee's decision last night to approve the agreement for a joint run with the Otzma Yehudit party.

According to officials in Jewish Home, Erlich quit after Jewish Home Chairman Rafi Peretz refused to place her in the 28th slot on the Likud list, which Netanyahu reserved for a Jewish Home representative.

Following Erlich's decision, the public council of the Jewish Home Party will convene shortly and will elect a new candidate to be placed in the same slot on the list.

Leading candidates for the slot are Chairman of the Shurat HaDin legal organization Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Hagit Moshe and party activist Idit Silman.

"YIfat Erlich, the No. 3 candidate on the Jewish Home list, reached an agreement in mutual understanding with the party chairman, Brig. Gen. (res.) Rabbi Rafi Peretz, about her departure from the list. We are sorry about her departure, but respect her decision," the party said.

"There is room in Jewish Home for all sons and daughters of Religious Zionism, including Druze and secular candidates," the party continued, adding, "Against the unification on the left, the entire right-wing bloc must take responsibility and unite. The time has come for the parties of Bennett, Kahlon and Liberman to unite as well."

Last night, the National Union and the Jewish Home Centers approved an agreement on a technical bloc with Otzma Yehudit.

According to the agreement, Otzma Yehudit candidates will be placed in the 5th and 8th spots on the list. Immediately after the elections, Otzma will split from the Jewish Home-National Union faction and will function in the Knesset as an independent faction.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259391