A7News: Netanyahu delays Moscow trip to meet with Jewish Home leaders

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Thursday, Feb. 21 '19, ט"ז באדר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. NETANYAHU DELAYS MOSCOW TRIP TO MEET WITH JEWISH HOME LEADERS
2. ELI YISHAI EXPECTED TO BE PLACED 6TH ON UNITED RIGHT-WING LIST
3. 'WE'RE THE REAL RIGHT-WING OF ISRAEL - NOT THE LIKUD'
4. RABBI DRUCKMAN URGES JEWISH HOME TO SIGN DEAL WITH OTZMA
5. OTZMA YEHUDIT AGREES TO JOINT TICKET WITH JEWISH HOME
6. THE INCREDIBLE HYPOCRISY OF JEFF BEZOS
7. LIVNI ANNOUNCES END OF POLITICAL CAREER
8. WATCH: ARUTZ SHEVA PRE-ELECTION CONFERENCE


1. NETANYAHU DELAYS MOSCOW TRIP TO MEET WITH JEWISH HOME LEADERS
by Hezki Baruch

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu scheduled a meeting with Jewish Home leaders for 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, in a final bid to secure a united ticket for a number of smaller right-wing parties.

Netanyahu had been scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday, but has pushed off the meeting for several days, amid political developments in Israel's upcoming election.

The Prime Minister called the meeting with Jewish Home chairman Rabbi Rafi Peretz and MK Moti Yogev, to press the party to finalize a deal with the Otzma Yehudit party.

Last week, the Jewish Home inked a deal with the National Union faction for a joint ticket.

Since then, the Jewish Home-National Union alliance has negotiated with Otzma, a small right-wing party led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, for a technical bloc, allowing Otzma to enter the Knesset on the joint ticket, but without obligations to remain united with the other factions.

While the talks had been deadlocked for several days, on Wednesday morning, Otzma Yehudit announced that it had accepted the Jewish Home's offer of the 5th and 8th slots on the candidate list, essentially giving the party one "safe" seat and a second realistic seat. Polls have shown an alliance of Otzma, Jewish Home, and National Union winning anywhere from seven to nine seats.

Jewish Home leaders are set to convene Wednesday night to discuss the possible run with Otzma, ahead of the deadline Thursday for all party lists.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly pressed the two sides to come to an agreement for a joint run, concerned that separate bids could lead to a massive loss of votes to the right-wing bloc, with Otzma and possibly even the Jewish Home-National Union lists failing to clear the electoral threshold.

A fourth faction, Yahad, led by former Shas chief Eli Yishai, remains in consideration for the united right-wing ticket, though it remains unclear whether the two sides are close to reaching an agreement.


2. ELI YISHAI EXPECTED TO BE PLACED 6TH ON UNITED RIGHT-WING LIST
by Eliran Aharon

Talks towards a united right-wing ticket bringing together four smaller factions continue Wednesday, with Yahad chairman and former Interior Minister Eli Yishai expected to receive the sixth spot on a joint ticket.

Earlier on Wednesday, Otzma Yehudit, led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, agreed to a compromise deal offered by the Jewish Home, clearing the main obstacles to a joint run.

Under the arrangement, Otzma would receive the fifth and eight spots of a technical bloc, with no obligations to remain with the Jewish Home-National Union after election day.

It now appears that Yishai, who ran in a joint list with Otzma in 2015, will be given the sixth spot on the united list with the Jewish Home, National Union, and Otzma.

In addition, Yishai has received guarantees from Prime Minister Netanyahu that he will be appointed a minister in the next government in exchange for not running an independent campaign. This assurance was made without connection to Yishai's talks with the Jewish Home-National Union.

The National Union and Jewish Home, however, said such an arrangement was not "on the table", while refusing to share details of the outline of a tentative deal with Yahad.

"This offer is not on the table. Eli Yishai was given another very generous offer, and since we respect him, we won't try to negotiate via the media."


3. 'WE'RE THE REAL RIGHT-WING OF ISRAEL - NOT THE LIKUD'
by Yoni Kempinski

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259340

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (New Right) blasted the ruling Likud party Tuesday night, accusing the Likud of permitting the judiciary to seize control of the functions of the Israeli government.

Bennett, who broke away from the Jewish Home party he headed until last December to form the New Right, called his faction the "real right-wing of Israel", touting its hawkish positions on territorial issues, the release of terrorists, and its advocacy for judicial reform.

Speaking at the joint Arutz Sheva – National Council of Young Israel pre-election conference Tuesday night, Bennett alluded to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked's (New Right) efforts over the last term to curtail the Supreme Court's use of judicial review and to restore the balance between the branches of government.

The New Right "is the real right-wing of Israel," said Bennett, "in the sense that we're very clear about everything. We will never give up one centimeter of Land of the State of Israel, period. We oppose releasing terrorists, we are very strong on judicial conservatism. After 40 years of the Likud rein, which allowed the judicial system to… run the country and government, our thesis is very simple: the government needs to govern and the judges need to judge."

Bennett also ripped the Likud over its 1997 Hebron Protocol Agreement, surrendering most of the city to the Palestinian Authority, and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement plan.

"The Likud gave up land in Israel in, Hevron, in the [Gaza] Disengagement – it was the Likud. It was the Likud who recognized the demand for a Palestinian state in the Bar-Ilan speech. It was the Likud that released over a thousand murderers in the Shalit deal."

"We're the real right, the real McCoy."

Turning to Israel Resilience chairman and former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Bennett chided Gantz's attempts to portray himself – and his party – as centrist.

"He's a mensch, loves Israel no less then I, but he's a left-wing Zionist. Which is okay. But he's left-wing and is sort of trying to pretend he's not, which is pathetic. I believe that one should say what he believes in and one should do what he says. [Israel Resilience] is sort of a mish-mash."

"Just give me an answer: are you going to give up the Land of Israel or not? Are you going to release terrorists, or not?"


4. RABBI DRUCKMAN URGES JEWISH HOME TO SIGN DEAL WITH OTZMA
by Hezki Baruch

Following the announcement Wednesday morning that Otzma Yehudit has accepted the terms laid out by the Jewish Home for a joint run, one of the most prominent rabbis in the Religious Zionist community has called on the Jewish Home and National Union leaders to finalize and sign the deal Wednesday night.

Rabbi Chaim Druckman, dean of the Ohr Etzion yeshiva and chairman of the Center for Bnei Akiva Yeshivot and a former lawmaker for the National Religious Party – a forerunner of the Jewish Home – warned that failure to create a joint ticket between the Jewish Home, National Union, and Otzma Yehudit would endanger the Israeli right.

"I understand that, based on polls I've been shown, without an alliance we're very much in danger of not even winning four seats," said Rabbi Druckman. "Given that, anyone who doesn't understand that we need to unite is endangering the right-wing bloc."

Earlier on Wednesday, Otzma Yehudit announced that it would drop its demands that it receive either the fourth and eighth spots on a joint list, or the fifth and seventh – removing the primary barrier to forming a joint ticket with the Jewish Home and National Union.

The alliance, Otzma Yehudit officials emphasized, would be a technical bloc, limited to the election itself, with no obligations to remain united after the list enters the Knesset.

Polls have shown the Otzma Yehudit faction, which is associated with the legacy of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the banned Kach movement, receiving two to three percent of the vote – enough for several seats, but below the 3.25% minimum threshold required to enter the Knesset.

The Jewish Home and National Union bloc, which recently renewed its alliance, has been polling at around the threshold, winning four to five seats in some polls, while failing to cross the threshold in others.

Party officials are slated to meet Wednesday night at a Jewish Home committee event to discuss finalizing a deal with Otzma.

The meeting comes a day ahead of the Thursday deadline for submitting party lists to the Knesset elections committee.


5. OTZMA YEHUDIT AGREES TO JOINT TICKET WITH JEWISH HOME
by David Rosenberg

After weeks of negotiations, the Otzma Yehudit party has agreed Wednesday morning to a joint run with the Jewish Home and National Union factions for the 21st Knesset.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Otzma Yehudit announced that it had accepted a compromise deal with the Jewish Home-National Union alliance for a technical bloc, placing the three factions on a single list in the elections, but not obliging Otzma to remain with the Jewish Home and National Union in the Knesset.

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."

The announcement on the breakthrough is expected to be followed by the signing of an election agreement between the three factions.

Earlier, talks between Otzma and the Jewish Home had reached an impasse after Jewish Home representatives refused Otzma's demands for either the fourth and eight spots, or the fifth and seventh.

Rabbis advising Otzma, including former Hevron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, and Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer, Mitzpeh Yericho Chief Rabbi and dean of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea (the yeshiva founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane), said Otzma should accept the Jewish Home's demands, even as they called the terms "unfair".

"Despite the fact that the offer made by Jewish Home and National Union representatives is unfair, it should be accepted for the sake of the future of the Land of Israel."


6. THE INCREDIBLE HYPOCRISY OF JEFF BEZOS
by Daniel Greenfield

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did not pay $250 million for the Washington Post because it was a good deal. In his own words, "It is the newspaper in the capital city of the most important country in the world. The Washington Post has an incredibly important role to play in this democracy."

Clear away the PR euphemisms and the world's richest man was saying that he bought the Post because it sets the agenda in Washington D.C. and helps determine the outcome of elections.

Bezos isn't the first tycoon to buy influence by buying an influential paper. The power he wields with the Washington Post is a pale shadow of the Hearst empire. Dot com billionaires keep buying up media white elephants. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is buying Time. The Atlantic is in the hands of Steve Jobs' widow. The New Republic is being run into the ground by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

But the media also changed. What used to be straightforward bias and agendas has become a shadowy underworld of fixers, brokers, leakers and hackers that has more in common with the spy world.

Bezos paid $250 million for the Post, but it may end up costing him as much as $68 billion.

At least if you listen to Bezos, who claimed, at first in a series of trial balloons through intermediaries, and then more openly in a Medium post, that his affair had been made public in retaliation for his ownership of the Washington Post. Bezos suggested that the Saudis and Trump might be at fault. Others of the billionaire's intermediaries, including the Post, have blamed his mistress' pro-Trump brother.

The two conspiracy theories, one involving Saudi hackers and the other his mistress' brother, leaking intimate texts and photos, are contradictory. But conspiracy theories usually are. The insistence of the Amazon boss that a foreign government and Trump supporters are responsible for his private messages leaking online is really no different than the Clinton conspiracy theory about Russia and Trump.

Hillary Clinton tried to shift the blame to Trump and the Russians after wasting $1.2 billion on her failed campaign. A divorce may cost Bezos as much as $68 billion and undermine confidence in Amazon and his leadership. Blaming Trump, Russia and the Saudis redeems acts of otherwise unforgivable stupidity. It transforms abusers like Hillary Clinton and Bezos into victims by blaming their folly on a conspiracy.

But if the Saudis did hack Bezos, it would be because his ownership of the Washington Post had put him at the nexus of a shadowy underworld of information operations. The first shot was fired when the Post gave Qatari lobbyist, Jamal Khashoggi, a former terrorist propagandist and old friend of Osama bin Laden, column space. The Qataris, beyond backing Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran, also sought regime change in Saudi Arabia by mobilizing an effort to overthrow its current monarch.

While Bezos had paid top dollar for the Post, the Qataris and other interests were also using the Post for their own agenda. And the Amazon CEO either did not understand what was going on or approved of it. The Washington Post is a clearinghouse for special interests looking to set the agenda in Washington D.C. Many of those interests, like the Qataris are foreign, malicious and extremely ruthless.

Bezos and the Washington Post had no objection when Qatari hackers passed on the emails of Elliott Broidy, a deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, to reporters revealing his own private life. Instead the Post gleefully featured some of these hacked emails. When Bezos demands sympathy as the innocent victim of foreign hackers, he is guilty of the worst sort of entitled hypocrisy.

The Broidy hack was one of a series of Qatari operations targeting Americans seen as being allied with the Saudis and the UAE. The media mandarins cheering Bezos showed no sympathy for those victims.

If the Saudis had struck back at Bezos, it's hard to see him as anything more than fair game. And the media outlets fulminating at the National Enquirer should be asked how it was any different when Qatari lobbyists were carefully feeding them the private emails of Broidy and their other victims.

The only answer is that it's okay when Qatar hacks Republicans, but it's out of line when the Saudis hack Democrats. There's no comparing the New York Times or the Associated Press gleefully airing the prurient details of Broidy's sex life with the Enquirer airing the prurient details of Bezos' sex life.

That's not journalism. It's the calculated hypocrisy of political informational warfare.

The Washington Post weaponized allegations of sexual misconduct in political warfare. Bezos whines that his affair, which did happen, was wrongly made public. Meanwhile the Post falsely accused Justice Kavanaugh (among other Republicans) of sexual misconduct that never happened. And it did cover up rape allegations against Justin Fairfax, the Democrat Lt. Governor, which appear to have happened.

This was the "incredibly important role" that the Washington Post played "in this democracy." And these were the rules by which it played it. Republicans were accused of sexual assault and child abuse, and Republican officials had their private affairs revealed and private emails published. Meanwhile Democrats had their rape accusations buried deep down in the Washington Post's deepest basement.

This was how the Washington Post played its political influence game. And Bezos had no problem with that because it helped him achieve his political goals, defeating Republicans and electing Democrats.

The media is singing the Amazon CEO's tune and bemoaning his misfortune. But the only reason the Qataris, the Russians, the Saudis and the North Koreans began hacking and leaking emails is because of media collusion. When the son of a Democrat official hacked into Sarah Palin's email, the media gleefully searched through her inbox for any damaging material without caring about the ethics of it.

When Sony was preparing to release The Interview, a comedy about the assassination of Kim Jong-un, North Korean hackers leaked the emails of Sony employees. Instead of boycotting the hackers, the media republished many of the stolen emails, and destroyed the career of studio head, Amy Pascal.

The media claims that foreign governments hacking into the emails of Americans and then leaking them to the media represents a "democratic emergency". But there would be no "emergency" if the media just stopped reporting on and publishing stolen emails. Instead the media calls for all sorts of emergency measures, for a crisis it claims is worse than Pearl Harbor, but won't stop running the stolen emails.

Bezos may just be collateral damage in the complete lack of ethics shown by his media investment.

The Democrats backed the Qatari Islamic terror state as part of their alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood. The red-green alliance manifested as the Washington Post was allowing Qatar to use its pages to promote the overthrow of the Saudi regime. And the Post's dirty deal may have backfired on Bezos as the shadowy underworld of internet information operations bit the biggest internet billionaire around.

This doesn't make Bezos a victim.

Victims don't own papers that gleefully publish other people's hacked emails and affairs, but whine when it happens to them. Bezos didn't just betray his wife, he betrayed every basic principle of ethics. His Medium post and his spin doctors claim the ultimate privilege, that of the abuser from retaliation.

Jeff Bezos thought that the Washington Post's collusion with Qatar, that the hacks and smears of Republicans, served his economic interests. His greed and megalomania may have cost him $68 billion.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.


7. LIVNI ANNOUNCES END OF POLITICAL CAREER
by David Rosenberg

Hatnuah chairwoman, MK Tzipi Livni, announced Monday morning that the party would not run in the coming legislative elections, and that she is leaving politics.

After a twenty-year career in politics, the former Opposition Leader, who also served as Justice Minister and Foreign Minister, cited concerns that her party could weaken the left-wing bloc, taking thousands of votes while having little chance of passing the threshold.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Livni, who fought back tears during her address, referenced the recently dissolved alliance between Hatnuah and Labor, saying that while she had sought to bring about a united left-wing bloc, her efforts had failed this time around.

"There should have been a single bloc to bring a political revolution, but that didn't happen," Livni said.

"I worked to make a [left-wing] alliance. This time, it didn't happen."

In 2015, Livni's party ran on a joint list with Labor, netting 24 seats.

The two factions remained together until last month, when Labor chief Avi Gabbay terminated the alliance.

The Zionist Union had fallen in the polls since the 2015 election, and had been projected to win just seven to eleven seats. Without its alliance with Labor, Hatnuah struggled to clear the electoral threshold, leading to concerns that the party would cost the left-wing bloc thousands of votes.

Livni cited these concerns in her address Monday, saying she would not let Hatnuah harm the left's chances to form a viable alternative to the Netanyahu government.

"I always said that the state comes first, then the party, and then myself. Now I'm reaffirming that, putting myself second – and announcing that my faction, Hatnuah, will not be running [in this year's election]. We don't have enough backing to run alone. I could never forgive myself if we cost [the left] wasted votes."

The 60-year-old political veteran first launched her career as a lawmaker with the Likud, but joined then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he bolted the party to form Kadima.

Livni won control of Kadima in 2008, and the party became the Knesset's largest faction in 2009. Four years later, however, Kadima was in decline, and prior to the 2013 elections, Livni formed the new Hatnuah faction, winning six seats. The faction joined with Labor to form the Zionist Union in 2015, netting a total of 24 mandates, before the alliance was dissolved early this January.

The former opposition leader said during her address Monday that she was concerned by the turn of Israeli politics away from the idea of separating from the Palestinian population – an idea advanced by Kadima and the policy of unilateral disengagement – with calls for annexation of Judea and Samaria.

"I worked to preserve the Jewish majority in Israel and to anchor recognition of the State of Israel in [recognition] of it as the state of the Jewish people. A peaceful separation from the Palestinians is necessary to preserve the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. That is the platform, the vision, the path."

"That should have been obvious in Israel, but today it is not. The attempts to disengage have been replaced with ideas about annexation which will lead to an Arab majority."

"I'm leaving politics, but I won't let our dream of peace disappear from Israel."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259227


8. WATCH: ARUTZ SHEVA PRE-ELECTION CONFERENCE
by Arutz Sheva Staff

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259301

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