A7News: 'United Right can't make it into the Knesset if it runs alone'

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Monday, Jul. 15 '19, י"ב בתמוז תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. 'UNITED RIGHT CAN'T MAKE IT INTO THE KNESSET IF IT RUNS ALONE'
2. ACTRESS COMPARES PENCE TO HOLOCAUST ARCHITECT, SPARKING OUTRAGE
3. BE'ER SHEVA: SUSPECTS CHARGED FOR STEALING FROM SYNAGOGUES
4. HUCKABEE: BDS IS LEFT-WING HATRED OF ISRAEL
5. ELIZABETH WARREN TAKES AIM AT THE PRO-ISRAEL COMMUNITY?
6. NETANYAHU OFFERS TO APPOINT BENNETT AMBASSADOR TO UN
7. LEVIATHAN NATURAL GAS PLATFORM ON ITS WAY TO ISRAEL
8. ORTHODOX RABBI BLASTS GAY CONVERSION THERAPY


1. 'UNITED RIGHT CAN'T MAKE IT INTO THE KNESSET IF IT RUNS ALONE'
by David Rosenberg

The United Right party will be hard-pressed to cross the electoral threshold and enter the 22nd Knesset if runs alone with Education Minister Rafi Peretz at the helm, a senior official from a right-wing party warned Monday.

Speaking with Maariv on condition of anonymity, the official said that the recent split between the United Right and the Otzma Yehudit faction, coupled with Peretz's recent comments backing conversion therapy for gays and lesbians have left the party with a diminished electoral base which impair its ability to secure the 3.25% of the vote needed to enter the Knesset, roughly equivalent to 140,000 votes. In the April 2019 election, the United Right, running with Otzma Yehudit, received 159,468 votes.

"Who will vote for him?" the right-wing official asked rhetorically. "He's lost the liberal Orthodox, along with the few secular or traditional voters who backed the Jewish Home during Bennett's tenure."

The official added that without Otzma Yehudit, the United Right would be outflanked to its right, and would be unable to carry enough 'Hardal' voters – or haredi-dati leumi (haredi national religious).

"If they're looking just to the 'hardal' electorate there's no guarantee they'll pass the threshold, especially if you don't have Otzma Yehudit with you."

The official went on to say that without an alliance with the New Right, Peretz would be unable to lead the United Right into the next Knesset.

Peretz has thus far refused to vacate the top spot on the United Right ticket to former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, with party officials also rejecting a broader alliance between the United Right and the New Right party of Naftali Bennett, who bolted the Jewish Home faction, along with Shaked, in December of last year.

But polls of right-wing voters and the Religious Zionist public show Shaked consistently leading Peretz – and all other potential candidates – as the favorite to lead the United Right joint ticket.

A poll published Sunday by Channel 13 found that 46.3% of Religious Zionist voters preferred Shaked at the top of the United Right, compared to just 16.6% who favored Peretz, with Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich at 13.6% and Naftali Bennett at 12.1%.


2. ACTRESS COMPARES PENCE TO HOLOCAUST ARCHITECT, SPARKING OUTRAGE
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Actress Alyssa Milano drew criticism over the weekend after she compared Vice President Mike Pence to one of the primary architects of the Holocaust.

On Saturday, the 46-year-old actress and progressive activist tweeted an image juxtaposing a recent photo of Pence during a recent visit to a detention center for illegal immigrants in Texas, with a photograph of Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the Nazi SS and an architect of the Holocaust, as he visited a prisoner camp holding Allied soldiers.

The picture of Pence visiting the detention facility in McAllen, Texas on Friday was changed to black and white to better fit the side-by-side comparison with the World War II-era photograph of Himmler.

Milano's tweet drew support from some followers, but also sparked criticism from users who called the comparison with a key Holocaust figure offensive.

"You're an idiot," Fox News contributor David Webb responded.

"How many Jews walked hundreds of miles to break into a concentration camp? It's an idiotic analogy and I'd say the same thing to her face."

Another Twitter user called Milano's tweet "absolutely insane". "Go educate yourself on the Holocaust and the American immigration laws."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265980

Last month, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also drew criticism when she compared federal detention facilities for illegal immigrants to Nazi concentration camps.

"The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are," said Ocasio-Cortez.

"The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing, and we need to do something about it," she added, denouncing what she called the "authoritarian and fascist presidency" of Donald Trump.

"I don't use those words lightly," she added. "I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is."

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum later blasted the congresswoman's comments in a statement which read in part: "The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum unequivocally rejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary. That position has repeatedly and unambiguously been made clear in the Museum's official statement on the matter – a statement that is reiterated and reaffirmed now."

"The Museum further reiterates that a statement ascribed to a Museum staff historian regarding recent attempts to analogize the situation on the United States southern border to concentration camps in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s does not reflect the position of the Museum."


3. BE'ER SHEVA: SUSPECTS CHARGED FOR STEALING FROM SYNAGOGUES
by Ben Shaul

Indictments were filed Sunday against two individuals suspected of breaking into a synagogue and apartment in the southern city of Be'er Sheva.

Investigations showed that the suspects, aged 19 and 28, entered a synagogue on Be'er Sheva's Heshin Street when it was open to worshipers and remained hidden in one of the synagogue's rooms until prayer services had ended and the synagogue was locked.

At the chosen hour, the suspects broke the synagogue's wooden charity box, stole an unknown sum of money from it, removed a safe from the wall, and left the synagogue via one of its windows.

In another incident, the two broke into a synagogue on Be'er Sheva's David Alro'i Street.

In that incident, the two entered via the door to the women's section, and from there they climbed through a window in the wall separating the women from the men and into the synagogue's hall. There, they opened a safe which held thousands of shekels, stealing the contents.

During the investigation, a suspicion came up that in addition to breaking and entering and stealing from the synagogues, the suspects also broke into a home in Be'er Sheva's Nahal Ashan neighborhood after noticing a key left in the lock. The two copied the key, returning the original to the lock, and later broke into the house by using their copied key, stealing valuable jewelry and other items.

Following the investigations, Israel Police filed an indictment against them and requested their arrest be extended until conclusion of the proceedings against them.


4. HUCKABEE: BDS IS LEFT-WING HATRED OF ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265984

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee lambasted the Palestinian Authority's refusal to consider the Trump administration's Mideast peace plan, dubbing the blanket refusal an "act of a tantrum," during his visit to Jerusalem Monday morning with Dr. Joe Frager.

"Israel can't have a peace process – no one can…[when] one of the supposed partners in a peace process saying 'no' to everything. It is the act of a tantrum, rather than a negotiation."

The former governor also assailed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), calling it a "great example" of the hatred some on the far-left have for the Jewish state.

"What I've observed over the years… speaking as an observer, in many cases the Palestinians have taken positions – and so have people on the Left who really hate Israel, even though they claim they don't; the BDS is a great example. I would say that they're in the same league as some of the Palestinians who reject any sense of a peace process."

"When you see industries that employ Palestinians and they make four times what they ever made in their lives under the PA, and they have jobs, outstanding pay, benefits, healthcare, paid vacation – their families are doing better than they've ever done. But the BDS movement and the Palestinian government put so much pressure that those industries, SodaStream being an example" are forced to close or relocate.


5. ELIZABETH WARREN TAKES AIM AT THE PRO-ISRAEL COMMUNITY?
by Sara Rubenstein

Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) appears ready to continue a dangerous new precedent in politics - the explicit targeting of political rivals through the Department of Justice under the guise of government transparency. Her latest actions target major Republican donor Elliott Broidy.

"I called for an investigation into Elliott Broidy's actions surrounding President Trump's inauguration last year. Now a real investigation is happening. This is exactly why I'm fighting to end corruption in Washington," Warren tweeted Monday.

Red State points out that Mr. Broidy has not been charged, let alone convicted, of any crime related to the democratic senator's allegations. Moreover, Broidy, an American citizen who is actively engaged in foreign policy, is a staunch supporter of the state of Israel. It seems that Warren, on the other hand, has become a staunch advocate for policies that harm Israel.

It appears that Broidy and Sen. Warren's most influential backer, democratic mega-donor Paul Egerman and are at great odds over Israel policy. Egerman, who is also the senator's 2020 campaign treasurer, is an advisory council member to the controversial leftwing group J Street, which claims to be "pro-Israel, pro-Peace," yet the group provided cover for the Obama Administration's agenda, considered by many as anti-Israel.

Pro-Israel actvists and organizations say that in addition to the Democratic anti-Israel mega-donor controlling her campaign coffers, Warren has hired a Hamas apologist and anti-Israel fanatic on her campaign staff. Max Berger, is the co-founder of a group that endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks an end game that results in the destruction of the Jewish state.

The latest Warren hire has sent shockwaves across the Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy world. "Anyone who wants to be friendly with Hamas has no business being in a presidential campaign," Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the nonpartisan Simon Wiesenthal Center told the Washington Free Beacon in comments this week.

"If that's the message that Elizabeth Warren wants to send to Jewish progressives and the rest of the American Jewish community, that the person she put in charge of outreach wants to be friends with Hamas, no way," Rabbi Cooper added.

Some are of the opinion that the situation draws parallels to the Obama Administration using extrajudicial means through the U.S. intelligence community to illegally spy on then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates. Former intelligence officials have justified their extreme behavior by pointing to the president's supposedly alarming foreign policy posture as if that alone was enough to justify their espionage campaign. Would a President Elizabeth Warren use the same rationale if her seemingly politically-motivated investigation against Broidy were to come up empty?

Sen. Warren insists that she is "fighting to end corruption in Washington," but the rhetoric and policy proposals coming from the Democratic presidential candidate tells a very different story. Many believe that Warren has effectively moved the political goalposts to such an extent that it appears she is openly pursuing political witch hunts against her ideological and policy rivals.


6. NETANYAHU OFFERS TO APPOINT BENNETT AMBASSADOR TO UN
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have turned to New Right chairman Naftali Bennett, proposing that he be appointed ambassador to the United Nations in return for giving up his participation in the upcoming elections, Ma'ariv reported.

This comes as the end of the term of current Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon approaches. With the proposal, Netanyahu seeks to prevent the New Right from running as an independent party, a situation which would make it easier for Ayelet Shaked to opt for integration into the United Right list.

Bennett's party responded to the report, saying, "The New Right movement headed by Naftali Bennett brings a unique vision of a true, value-based and liberal right, and of Israeli Judaism without coercion, and will run in the elections with all its might in order to be a great and strong force in the next government."

"Every other proposal is irrelevant."

It should be noted that Netanyahu also proposed the role of Israel's ambassador to the United Nations to Minister Gilad Erdan, who has so far not made a decision on whether or not to accept the position.


7. LEVIATHAN NATURAL GAS PLATFORM ON ITS WAY TO ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The largest energy project in the history of the State of Israel is reaching its final stages of completion and remains on schedule to deliver first commercial gas sales to the Israel domestic market and regional markets before the end of the year.

In recent weeks the Leviathan partnership –comprised of Noble Energy, Delek Drilling and Ratio – completed the construction and testing of the production units (topsides) of the Leviathan Platform that will process natural gas from the reservoir and transport it to Israel's national gas pipeline.

The first of five operational units that comprise the topsides set sail from Texas. In the coming weeks, the remaining units will set sail for Israel.The topside units, built during the past 26 months by Noble Energy experts and subcontractors specializing in complex offshore projects, will cross the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in Israeli waters at the end of the Summer.

Considerable activity will take place in the Leviathan Platform area offshore after the topside units arrive on large barges. They will be accompanied by a fleet of vessels that will enable a team of workers to assemble the five topside units on top of the platform jacket into a complete operational structure in September. The hoisting and assembly work will be performed by the largest offshore crane in the world.The area will be closed to maritime traffic. The entire process will take approximately four weeks, after which the crane and barges will leave the area. Crew vessels and supply boats will continue to serve the platform over the life of the platform.

The Leviathan Platform will be set at a water depth of 86 meters, and the height of the topsides from sea level to the top level is 47 meters. The platform boom, which reaches a height of 130 meters above sea level, is part of the platform safety system.

The platform topside decks, which are 102 meters long, 80 meters wide and weigh 38,000 tons, will be located approximately 10 kilometers from the shore.

The topsides will house the platform's gas processing facilities, accommodations for the team of workers, work areas and helipad. The flare located at the tip of the platform boom is part of the platform's safety systems and is designed to prevent hydrocarbon emissions into the atmosphere. In addition, the topsides will contain all of the utilities required to operate the platform including power generation, water desalination and waste treatment. In essence, the platform is not dependent on onshore facilites for any of its utility needs.

After connecting and assembling the topside units of the platform, Noble Energy will start a series of commissioning tests before initiating commercial gas flow to the domestic market before the end of 2019.

For the first time in history, Israel will also become a significant energy exporter when flow of Leviathan natural gas to Israel's neighbors begins.

Connecting the Leviathan pipeline will make it possible for the Israeli energy sector to be based almost exclusively on electricity generated by natural gas, leading to a significant reduction in pollution and improved air quality in Israel.

Noble Energy has discovered 40 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable natural gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. The 22-Tcf Leviathan reservoir discovered in December 2010, 125 kilometers west of Haifa, was one of the largest natural gas finds in the world in the last decade.The Leviathan Partnership invested $3.75 billion in development of the reservoir.

The first phase of the Leviathan development included drilling four production wells at an average depth of 5 kilometers below sea level. Each well has a production capacity of 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcf/d), with a total annual production capacity of around 12 billion cubic meters (Bcm) – more than doubling the quantity of natural gas produced in Israel today.

Natural gas from the reservoir will be transmitted through two 120-kilometer sub-sea pipelines directly to the Leviathan Platform. Natural gas will be processed at the platform before the treated gas and stabilized condensate flow from the platform through a northern entry pipeline connected to the INGL (Israel Natural Gas Lines) national gas transmission system, as defined in the National Outline Plan.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265933


8. ORTHODOX RABBI BLASTS GAY CONVERSION THERAPY
by Arutz Sheva Staff

A prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi and former vice president of Yeshiva University publicly condemned treatments aimed at changing the sexual orientation of gays and lesbians, calling the conversion therapies a life-threatening danger.

In a series of tweets, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander, dean of the Ohr Torah Stone school network, lambasted conversion therapy, saying such treatments 'peddle false promises', while creating an elevated risk of suicide.

"As an Orthodox rabbi and educator fully committed to halacha and responsible for the well-being of thousands of students, I'm compelled to speak out against 'therapies' that endanger our children. Conversion therapy does not work," wrote Rabbi Brander.

"Conversion therapy peddles false promises & is associated with higher levels of depression & suicide. This is a real issue of pikuach nefesh. We must educate in ways to ensure that all our children have a safe and welcoming place in our community."

The former YU vice president's tweets came following the controversial comments of Education Minister and United Right chairman Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who voiced support during a recent interview for conversion therapy.

In the interview aired on Channel 12 Saturday night, Rabbi Peretz, in response to a question by the interviewer, said he believed that conversion therapy could help young people, citing his own experience as an educator.

"People who have such a tendency can be converted." Peretz said, "I think that it's possible, I can tell you that I have a very deep knowledge of education, and I've also done it."

When Peretz was asked what he would advise a student who told him about his sexual inclinations, the minister replied: "First of all, I would hug and speak to him warmly. I would tell him, 'Let's think, let's learn, let's look into it.' The goal is that he should first get to know himself well. I would give him the information and he needs to decide."