A7News: Report: Likud officials turned to US to resolve coalition crisis

Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday



Tuesday, May. 28 '19, כ"ג באייר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. REPORT: LIKUD OFFICIALS TURNED TO US TO RESOLVE COALITION CRISIS
2. MOTHER TO TERRORIST: I HOPE YOUR CHILDREN BURN
3. THE LEMMER BROTHERS: FROM SYNAGOGUES TO BASEBALL STADIUMS
4. SAMARIAN WINE TAKES GOLD AT PRESTIGIOUS INTN'L COMPETITION
5. BILL TO DISSOLVE KNESSET PASSES FIRST READING
6. IDF LAUNCHES AIRSTRIKE ON SYRIA
7. 'THE STRANGE DEATH OF EUROPE' - AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR ISRAEL
8. LIBERMAN: WE'RE NOT LOOKING TO BRING DOWN NETANYAHU


1. REPORT: LIKUD OFFICIALS TURNED TO US TO RESOLVE COALITION CRISIS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Senior Likud officials turned to the Trump administration for help in pressuring Avidgor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, to soften his position and accept a compromise arrangement enabling Binyamin Netanyahu to form a new government before the Wednesday deadline, Maariv reported Tuesday.

The report cited unnamed Israeli political officials, who say they reached out to the Trump administration in a bid to convince the White House to actively intervene on Netanyahu's behalf.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been unable to form a majority coalition government, which requires 61 MKs, amid an ongoing feud between the secular rightist Yisrael Beytenu party and haredi lawmakers over a bill proposed by Yisrael Beytenu which would pressure the haredi community to reach draft quotas.

Haredi lawmakers have accepted a compromise deal put forward by Netanyahu which would back the Yisrael Beytenu law – while giving the government discretion to set the draft quotas – but Liberman has thus far refused to accept the arrangement.

Without Yisrael Beytenu, Netanyahu would be one seat short of a 60-MK majority.

Netanyahu must present a government by Wednesday, or face the possibility of losing his mandate to form the next government.

The Likud has pushed for new elections in the event that no deal can be reached by Wednesday.

Some senior Israeli political officials, however, lobbied the Trump administration Monday, urging the administration to intervene on Netanyahu's behalf. The officials hoped, Maariv reported, to convince the White House to have a senior administration official call Liberman and emphasize the importance of Israel forming a new government now and avoiding repeat elections.

The White House is expected to release half of its upcoming Middle East peace plan next month at a workshop in Bahrain. If Israel returns to the ballot box in September, however, the peace plan's rollout would likely be delayed to the end of 2019, and possibly into 2020.


2. MOTHER TO TERRORIST: I HOPE YOUR CHILDREN BURN
by Hezki Baruch

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263800

The terrorist responsible for a firebomb attack on an Israeli family in October 2015 was brought before an IDF court near Jerusalem Tuesday for a hearing on a plea bargain agreement.

The attack, which took place near the Israeli town of Beit El, north of Jerusalem on October 23rd, 2015, targeted the Sofer family's car, as the family made its way from their home in Nitzan in southern Israel to Beit El for the Sabbath.

En route, a group of terrorists waiting on a hill next to the road hurled firebombs at the Sofer family's car.

One firebomb smashed through a window, landing in the backseat, where the children Tair, 11, Matan, 10, and Tahel, 3, were sitting.

While Tair and Matan were spared injury, the firebomb exploded on three-year-old Tahel, causing serious injuries.

On Tuesday, the Mahane Ofer military court presented a plea bargain deal signed by the terrorist.

Tahel's mother, Sigal Sofer, took part in the hearing, lashing out at the terrorist.

"How evil you are, you disgusting, violent scum," Sigal told the terrorist during the hearing. "I wish that all of your children would be burned, one child after another, slowly, from head to toe. All of your offspring and any other descendants. If you dared to burn a three-year-old girl, you are scum."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263800


3. THE LEMMER BROTHERS: FROM SYNAGOGUES TO BASEBALL STADIUMS
by Yoni Kempinski

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263799

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263799

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263799

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263799


4. SAMARIAN WINE TAKES GOLD AT PRESTIGIOUS INTN'L COMPETITION
by Tal Polon

The Gvaot winery, located in Givat Harel in the Samaria hills, has taken a gold medal at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards in London.

The winery received a score of 95, considered high for the competition, for its "Gofna Cabernet Sauvignon," which the tasting notes called a "brilliant warm-climate Cabernet."

Eliav Miller, CEO of the winery, said in response, "I am excited by the impressive win, and promise my customers in Israel and around the world to continue the good, historic, up-to-date and renewed way of the wine world in Israel in general, and Samaria in particular."

Founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Amnon Weiss and Chief Winemaker Dr. Shivi Drori, an agronomist and researcher in viticulture and oenology at Ariel University, the winery says it "continues an ancient tradition of wine production in this mountainous [Samarian] area" to which "hundreds of antique wine presses scattered around the renewed vineyards bear witness."


5. BILL TO DISSOLVE KNESSET PASSES FIRST READING
by Hezki Baruch

The Knesset plenum on Monday night approved the first reading of the bill to dissolve the Knesset.

66 MKs voted in favor, 44 voted against and five abstained.

The special committee discussing the dissolution of the Knesset is expected to convene on Tuesday morning to prepare the bill for its second and third readings.

Earlier on Monday evening, the committee determined that the elections for the 22nd Knesset will take place on Tuesday, September 17, 2019.

The date, however, is not final and is expected to change ahead of the final vote in the Knesset plenum. Committee chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud) said at the start of the discussion, "Anyone who votes against the bill helps Benny Gantz form a government."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is continuing his efforts to prevent elections and establish a right-wing government. The businessman who is conducting the coalition negotiations on behalf of MK Avigdor Liberman, Shmuel Hayek, is expected to return to Israel overnight Monday and continue with the talks.

Earlier on Monday, Netanyahu instructed Likud ministers and Knesset members to launch an attack against Liberman over his decision to oppose the establishment of a right-wing government.

"I've now informed the Likud ministers and Knesset members: After evaluating a new situation - open season on Liberman," Netanyahu said.

The Prime Minister earlier said that there was still time to form a coalition and avert new elections.

"There's no reason to drag the country to unnecessary elections that will cost a fortune and paralyze us all for another half a year," Netanyahu said.



6. IDF LAUNCHES AIRSTRIKE ON SYRIA
by AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff

The IDF confirmed that it had launched an airstrike on Syrian territory Monday evening following reports of an attack on the province of Quneitra

One Syrian soldier was killed and two others wounded in the Israeli missile strike, the official SANA news agency reported.

"An Israeli missile targeted Tel al-Shaar in Quneitra," the Syrian news agency said, adding a "military vehicle was targeted and there are wounded."

The IDF stated that the strike had targeted a missile launcher following an attack on an Israeli aircraft. The missile did not strike the plane and landed in Syria.

"Earlier today, Syrian anti-aircraft systems fired at an IDF fighter jet during a routine flight in northern Israel.
The anti-air projectile landed in Syrian territory and the mission was completed as planned," the IDF stated.

"In response, a short while ago, the IDF targeted the launcher that had fired. The IDF sees any threat against its aircraft with great severity and takes measures to defend them."


7. 'THE STRANGE DEATH OF EUROPE' - AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR ISRAEL
by Yoni Kempinski

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263741

Mass migration – particularly illegal immigration – has become, perhaps, the defining political crisis for the West.

Concerns over such migrations helped catapult a reality television star into the White House, and have divided the European Union even more than the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and the subsequent austerity programs.

While some have argued that the various crises stemming from the recent waves of mass migration are a temporary aberration, British journalist and commentator Douglas Murray believes the issue is here to stay – and indeed will only grow in importance in the coming years.

"This is going to be the single biggest issue in an age where anyone can move anywhere," Murray said in an interview with Arutz Sheva. Murray came to Israel to participate in the "Israeli Conservatism Conference".

Murray's 2017 book, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam, was recently translated to Hebrew and released in Israel, highlighting growing concerns in Israel over mass migration and its political and security ramifications.

"It is vital that an Israeli readership learns the depth of what is currently Europe's problem, because I think that in the years ahead this is going to get infinitely more complicated. This country [Israel]... has very good reason to worry about Europe," Murray said.

Europe's political establishment, by virtue of its lingering guilt over the Holocaust and a refusal to consider the potential dangers of mass migration, has engaged in a social experiment on the grandest scale, Murray argues.

"Our entire political class in Europe has decided that because it's so complex, we have to all agree that it is going to go fine. And I'm saying, 'What if it's not okay? What if this all goes horribly wrong?' The answer that I tend to get from the political establishment in Europe and even most of the media is 'It can't go wrong. It has to go right. Otherwise we've screwed the whole thing up.'"

"An analogy I like to give on this is: to move this number of people from this far away this fast into a place that didn't actually have populations that wanted this to happen is analogous to trying to find the vaccine for something and not doing any tests before using on your only child. It's a crazy thing to do. We don't have loads of continents to try this on, and I think it's very unwise to try a controlled experiment on the only thing you have."

At its peak, the flow of migrants into Europe saw thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, landing every day on Greek and Italian coasts. Most, Murray notes, were not legal refugees or qualified for asylum – even under the EU's own rules.

"When I was writing the book in 2015-2016 the flow [of immigrants] was at its height. That was seeing thousands of people arriving every day on the Greek and Italian coastlines."

"By 2015-2016, most people had no asylum right. This is the European Union's own figures."

"The figures showed that most of the people coming had 'No more right to be in Europe that anyone else in the rest of the world.'"

While the stream of migrants has slowed since the 2015-2016 peak, this has come at a significant cost to the EU, Murray continued, with Europe funneling large sums of cash to Turkey, in effect a bribe, to encourage the Turkish government to block migrants from setting out for Europe from its territory.

"The reason why the boat landings [in Europe] have slowed is because the European Union is paying a massive bribe - hundreds and hundreds of millions of Euros as a bribe - to President Erdogan in Turkey to stop the flow. We bribe him to stop the boats leaving. He's actually doing what he could have done at any high point of the crisis, which is literally stopping the movement through Turkey that allows them to then leave by boat to the Greek islands."

Despite the obvious difficulties presented by mass immigration – which Murray notes is largely done illegally – the political establishment in much of Europe, particularly Germany, ignores the problems it creates, while some critics of mass immigration polarize the issue by accusing all migrants of violence.

"People who claim that everyone who arrives is going to be violent, are of course, are obviously crazy and it is a deeply dishonest way to portray it."

"You have to look at the big picture, and the big picture is a big mess. Most things happen because of a screw up and this is one the monumental screw ups of all time."

Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the unsustainability of the open-door migration policy, though Murray notes that popular opinion on the issue has been slower to shift in some countries.

"The trajectory in every country in Europe is exactly the same. Everyone is at different stages along the same path, and the path doesn't change. For instance in France, this book did very well, and it wasn't controversial because even the French left agrees with a lot of what I am saying."

"One of the most obvious things we should have learned by now is that if you import the world's people, you also import the world's problems. That means you're going to have start contending with things you just hadn't thought about."

As for the roots of support for – or at least a hesitancy to challenge – open-door immigration policies for mass migration from the Middle East, Murray cited not only residual collective guilt for the Holocaust, but an "existential tiredness", as well as the transformation of traditional religion in the increasingly secular West into a progressive faith advocating "social welfare activism".

"The guilt, the tiredness - the existential tiredness - and the sense that the story has run out. There's a reason for it. Only by understanding these deeper conundrums can you understand the depth of the problem. Europe's post-Holocaust history is everywhere. It is why you see people at train stations in 2015 in Munich and elsewhere welcoming the migrants coming off the trains as if they were heroes returning from war or the football team that's just won the World Cup."

"Why? existential guilt. They think that they're alleviating by doing this. This simply doesn't fall out in the ways that people have predicted."

"The lesson we in Britain have learned from the Holocaust of European Jewry is, 'Don't be mean to Islam'."

Murray also pointed out the dangers he saw in certain strains of "secular Judaism" which have been transmogrified into "social welfare activism".

"Judaism can, like Christianity, can devolve into a form of non-believing social welfare activism. That is, people who are not very devout anymore say that basically, Jewish means being a social care activist."

"These are the sort of people who push mass migration most readily. They say 'Why not? Share with the world. And the Swedish churches, the Scandinavian churches, the Protestant churches, and to a great extent the Catholic church as well, including the Pope, they also push this."


8. LIBERMAN: WE'RE NOT LOOKING TO BRING DOWN NETANYAHU
by Hezki Baruch

MK Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, referred to the failure of coalition negotiations and attacked the Likud, which represents the haredi MKs as having been "flexible" for the draft law.

"I heard Likud spokesmen speaking this morning about the 'amazing flexibility' of the haredi parties that are willing to pass the draft law, but with one little reservation, that the issue of recruitment targets and the expiry of the law will be decided by the government and not in primary legislation. That's not flexibility, it's deceit," Liberman said.

"The draft law is only a symptom of haredi extremism, which includes, among other things, the closure of supermarkets on Shabbat, the Yehudit bridge, a consumer boycott of the Phenicia plant in Yeruham and an attempt to stop the sale of tickets on Shabbat at the Biblical Zoo."

"The sole motive of Yisrael Beytenu is to uphold the principles and commitments given to the public before the elections, during the elections and after the elections. We are not looking to bring down Netanyahu and we are not looking for an alternative candidate, but we will not give up our principles and promises to the citizens of the State of Israel," Liberman said.