A7News: Poll: Israeli right regains majority, Zehut crosses threshold

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Wednesday, Mar. 06 '19, כ"ט באדר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. POLL: ISRAELI RIGHT REGAINS MAJORITY, ZEHUT CROSSES THRESHOLD
2. HAREDI MK: WE WON'T SIT IN GANTZ-LED GOVERNMENT
3. OTZMA CANDIDATE CLASHES WITH LEFTIST MKS AT ELECTION COMMITTEE
4. TERRORIST WHO MURDERED HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SHOT AFTER STANDOFF
5. OTZMA CANDIDATE LIKELY TO BE PERMITTED TO RUN FOR KNESSET
6. FIRST PHOTOS FROM ISRAELI SPACECRAFT
7. ATTEMPTED TERROR ATTACK IN LONDON
8. BELGIAN MAYOR DEFENDS ANTI-SEMITIC CARNIVAL FLOAT


1. POLL: ISRAELI RIGHT REGAINS MAJORITY, ZEHUT CROSSES THRESHOLD
by David Rosenberg

The right-wing – religious bloc would win a majority of seats in the 21st Knesset if elections were held today, a new poll shows, as the Likud gains ground on the Blue and White party.

According to the poll, which was conducted Tuesday by the firm TNS and published on Kan Wednesday, the left-wing – Arab bloc, which was projected to win a 61-seat majority in the previous TNS survey, fell to 59 mandates.

The Blue and White party – a joint ticket of Yesh Atid, the Israel Resilience Party, and the smaller Telem faction – would win 35 seats, down from the 37 the party was projected to win in the previous TNS poll last week.

The Likud, on the other hand, gained one seat, rising from 29 seats in the previous poll to 30 mandates – the same number the party won in 2015.

The two Arab lists – Hadash-Ta'al and the United Arab List-Balad – would win a combined 12 seats, with eight going to Hadash-Ta'al and four to UAL-Balad. Last week's poll showed Hadash-Ta'al with seven seats and UAL-Balad with five. In 2015, the four parties ran on a joint list, winning 13 seats.

The far-left Meretz faction would retain the five seats it currently holds – a decline of one seat compared to last week's poll, while Labor would win seven seats – up one mandate from last week but down from the 19 seats it won in 2015.

Among the haredi factions, United Torah Judaism would win seven seats, an increase of one mandate over its performance in 2015 but the same number last week's poll projected. The Shas party, on the other hand, fell to five mandates – one less than last week and two below its current strength of seven seats.

The New Right, the Union of Right-Wing Parties – a joint list of Jewish Home, Otzma Yehudit, and National Union – and Kulanu would each win five seats if new elections were held today.

Former Likud MK Moshe Feiglin's libertarian-leaning Zehut party would narrowly cross the election threshold, winning four mandates, while Yisrael Beytenu and Gesher would both fail to enter the Knesset.


2. HAREDI MK: WE WON'T SIT IN GANTZ-LED GOVERNMENT
by Arutz Sheva Staff

MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) on Tuesday promised that his faction will not support the "Blue and White" party's Benny Gantz's bid for prime minister, instead promising to support Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The Ashkenazic-haredi UTJ is made up of Litzman's hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction and Gafni's Lithuanian-haredi Degel Hatorah faction.

Gafni's announcement follows Health Minister Yaakov Litzman's (UTJ) and clarifies the party's united stance on the issue.

"Degel Hatorah will go with Bibi," Gafni said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by his popular nickname.

"Like we said from the beginning, we will not sit with [MK Yair] Lapid and we won't support [Benny] Gantz. Any other statements on this issue and any headlines on the topic are baseless. It's not true."

"[Lapid's] shortcomings start being with the fact that he was an awful Finance Minister and damaged the Israeli economy," Gafni continued, emphasizing that, "if Lapid wants to be Foreign Minister, then the foreign policy, which is successful, will be harmed."

"We believe that he is not worthy of being in power - for a thousand and one reasons. He cannot be Finance Minister - which we've already seen -or Foreign Minister."


3. OTZMA CANDIDATE CLASHES WITH LEFTIST MKS AT ELECTION COMMITTEE
by David Rosenberg

A meeting of the Israeli Central Elections Committee descended into chaos Wednesday, as the committee prepares for a vote on petitions to bar a right-wing faction and an Arab nationalist party from running in next month's Knesset election.

The committee, which is made up of lawmakers from each of the parties in the Knesset, kicked off its Wednesday session at 10:30 in the morning with hearings on petitions by Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg and Labor MK Stav Shaffir to bar the Otzma Yehudit faction from running in this year's election.

The two lawmakers argued that former MK Michael Ben-Ari and attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir should be barred from running over comments Shaffir and Zandberg argued constituted racism.

Ben-Ari is running on the fifth slot of the joint Union of Right-Wing Parties list, while Ben-Gvir received the eight spot on the ticket.

In addition, the committee is slated to vote Wednesday on a petition by right-wing lawmakers to bar the Arab nationalist party Balad from running for the 21st Knesset, over its rejection of the State of Israel as a Jewish state and support for terrorism.

The hearing was disrupted as Ben-Ari clashed with left-wing MKs, including Issawi Frej, an Arab lawmaker from the far-left Meretz faction, and Stav Shaffir of Labor.

Frej shouted at Ben-Gvir just outside of the hearing, calling the Otzma candidate a "violent racist".

"They're bringing in supporters of transfer into the Knesset on a red carpet," continued Frej. "If it hadn't been for racism, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust."

In response, Ben-Gvir compared Frej to the pro-Hamas Turkish militants who attempted to break the Israeli security blockade on Gaza in 2010 onboard the MV Mavi Marmara.

MK Issawi Frej at election committee hearing Wednesday
Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90
"Go back to the Marmara," Ben-Gvir told Frej during the encounter.

Inside the hearing, Ben-Gvir confronted MK Stav Shaffir, one of the lawmakers who had recommended Ben-Gvir and Ben-Ari be barred from running, and attempted to serve notice that he is suing Shaffir for calling Otzma's candidates "Nazis".

Shaffir refused to accept the copy of the lawsuit.

Ben-Gvir filed the lawsuit with the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court recently, demanding half a million shekels ($138,251) in compensation after she described the Otzma Yehudit party as "Nazis".

Despite Avichai Mandelblit's support Tuesday for the petition to ban Ben-Ari's candidacy, both Otzma Yehudit candidates are expected to be approved for this year's Knesset election – albeit by narrow margins.

The New Right announced Wednesday morning that it would vote against barring the Otzma candidates. Yisrael Beytenu is also reportedly planning to vote against barring the candidates, while the Kulanu faction is expected to abstain itself from the vote.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259990


4. TERRORIST WHO MURDERED HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SHOT AFTER STANDOFF
by David Rosenberg

A French jihadist who tortured a Jewish Holocaust survivor to death stabbed two prison guards after his wife smuggled in a knife Tuesday, leading to a standoff in a French maximum security prison after the couple barricaded themselves in a visitation room.

The terrorist, 27-year-old Michael Chiolo, converted to Islam, and has been described as a radical "jihadi".

On Tuesday, Chiolo's pregnant wife was allowed to meet privately with her husband for a conjugal visit in one of the family rooms at the Alencon-Conde-sur-Sarthe prison, in Normandy.

After his wife smuggled a ceramic knife into the prison and feigned an illness, Chiolo called prison officials, notifying them that his wife was not feeling well.

When two prison officials entered the family room at approximately 9:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, Chiolo stabbed them, wounding one in the chest, the other in the face and back. During the attack, Chiolo shouted "Allahu Akbar".

The couple then barricaded themselves in the family visitation area, leading to an hours-long standoff with police.

French anti-terrorist RAID teams and even army units were deployed to the Alencon-Conde-sur-Sarthe prison, and at around 6:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, counter-terror forces stormed the family visitation area where Chiolo and his wife were holed up.

Counter-terror units opened fire on the couple as they broke through the door, seriously wounding Chiolo and killing his wife.

"There were explosions, and gun shots, and then the husband was wounded but arrested," a prison official said, according to The Daily Mail. "His wife died from gunfire wounds."

The French government described the stabbing Tuesday as a terrorist attack.

"The terrorist nature of this attack isn't in doubt," said France's justice minister, Nicole Belloubet.

"The anti-terrorist section of the public prosecutor's office in Paris is involved in the incident, which is ongoing."

Chiolo had been serving a 28-year prison sentence for the brutal murder of a Holocaust survivor in eastern France.

In April 2012, Chiolo and two other men broke into the home of 89-year-old Roger Tarall. During the burglary, Tarall was held at gunpoint, tied up, tortured, and strangled to death.

Tarall had been deported to the Dachau concentration camp during World War II, but managed to survive.

Chiolo was apprehended in the murder, after he bragged to his girlfriend of torturing Tarall to death.


5. OTZMA CANDIDATE LIKELY TO BE PERMITTED TO RUN FOR KNESSET
by David Rosenberg

Education Minister Naftali Bennett's New Right party will vote against a petition to bar Otzma Yehudit Knesset candidate Michael Ben-Ari from running in next month's election, a spokesperson for the New Right said Wednesday.

"We are tired of the hypocrisy and the inclusion in the Israeli Knesset of parties which seek to undermine the State of Israel," the New Right said.

In addition, the New Right said it would back a proposal to ban the controversial Balad party, an Arab nationalist faction which ran as part of the Joint Arab List in 2015.

Lawmakers from the left-wing Labor and far-left Meretz factions had submitted petitions to bar Ben-Ari from running for the 21st Knesset, citing Facebook videos in which Ben-Ari called to confront Arab terrorism and 'recognize' Israel's enemies as such.

"You must call a dog by its name," Ben-Ari said in one such video named in the petition.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit rejected a petition to ban fellow Otzma Yehudit candidate Itamar Ben-Gvir, but endorsed the petition against Ben-Ari.

Mandelblit also expressed opposition to a petition against the Arab nationalist Balad party, citing a "lack of evidence".

Balad is currently running on a joint ticket with the United Arab List.

Along with the New Right, the Yisrael Beytenu party is also reportedly planning to vote against the petition to bar Michael Ben-Ari from running for the Knesset, according to Hadashot 2. Kulanu is said to be planning to abstain, leaving a small majority against barring Ben-Ari.

Michael Ben-Ari is widely seen as the Otzma party's "safe" seat in the next Knesset, placed fifth on the joint Union of Right-Wing Parties list, which also includes the Jewish Home and National Union. Itamar Ben-Gvir, placed eight on the joint list, is viewed as a realistic, but long-shot for entering the Knesset.

The Israeli Central Elections Committee is set to vote Wednesday on the petitions to ban the Otzma Yehudit candidates and the Balad party.

The committee, which is made up of Knesset members and is chaired by a Supreme Court justice – currently Salim Joubran – is now expected to support Ben-Ari's candidacy, albeit by a narrow margin.


6. FIRST PHOTOS FROM ISRAELI SPACECRAFT
by Arutz Sheva Staff

At a distance of 37,600 k"m from Earth, Beresheet's selfie camera took a picture of Earth.

Australia can be clearly seen in the picture.

The photo was taken during a slow spin of the spacecraft.

In it, one can see for the first time the plaque installed on the spacecraft with the Israeli flag and the inscriptions "Am Israel Hai" (the nation of Israel lives - ed.) and "Small country Big dreams."

Science Minister Ofir Akunis commented, "Despite the small size of the Beresheet spacecraft, it brings us great pride."

"The spacecraft is a testament to Israel's strength and technological power, and its successes also convey an important educational message for the children of Israel: You may and must dream big.

"I am proud of my office's decision to be a partner in the spacecraft project, a project whose fruits we are beginning to witness."

Beresheet selfie
SpaceIL



7. ATTEMPTED TERROR ATTACK IN LONDON
by Gary Willig

Three suspicious packages were found at different transit hubs in London Tuesday.

Improvised explosive devices (IED) were found at Waterloo Station, Heathrow Airport, and London City Airport.

The devices are "igniting a small fire when opened," according to police.

"The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command has launched an investigation after three suspicious packages were received at buildings in London today, Tuesday, 5 March," the police said in a statement.

"The packages - all A4-sized white postal bags containing yellow Jiffy bags - have been assessed by specialist officers to be small improvised explosive devices.

"These devices, at this early stage of the investigation, appear capable of igniting an initially small fire when opened.

"The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is treating the incidents as a linked series and is keeping an open mind regarding motives."

Operations at Waterloo Station will be reduced Tuesday evening as a result of the attempted bombing.


8. BELGIAN MAYOR DEFENDS ANTI-SEMITIC CARNIVAL FLOAT
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The mayor of the Belgian city where the annual parade featured puppets of Jews and a rat atop money bags defended the display on Tuesday, telling the local media that "in Aalst it should be allowed", JTA reported.

Mayor Christoph D'Haese defended Sunday's float at the Aalst Carnival from passionate condemnations by Jewish groups and disapproval by international organizations, including the European Commission.

"It is unthinkable that such imagery is being paraded on European streets, 70 years after the Holocaust," a spokesperson from the Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union, told reporters on Tuesday, according to Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper.

Also Tuesday, B'nai B'rith International issued a statement saying the organization "is disgusted with the anti-Semitic puppets" that were on display Sunday. The Simon Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, wrote to a Belgian cabinet minister a letter stating that his group is "sickened" by the display.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, blasted the organizers of the carnival in Aalst and asked the mayor to provide a full explanation of how this was allowed to happen.

But Mayor D'Haese told Het Laatste Nieuws that "it's not up to the mayor to forbid" such displays, and that "the carnival participants had no sinister intentions."

The float in questions is titled "Shabbat Year" and was prepared by the Vismooil'n carnival group. It featured two giant puppets with sidelocks and streimels in pink suits. One is grinning while smoking a cigar. That puppet has a white rat on his right shoulder. Both puppets are standing on gold coins and have money bags at their feet.

On a wheeled platform directly behind the float were several dozen people dressed like the puppets, dancing to a song about full coffers that are "Jewishly beautiful" and about "getting extra fat."

A spokesperson for the carnival group told a blogger last month that the display was meant to address how "everything has become so expensive", according to JTA.

The carnival group's president did not immediately reply to a request for comment by JTA.