Schlaglicht Number 2/23, Latest News from the Israeli Press, January 16-31, 2023

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Main topics covered in this Publication:

1. The Supreme Court v. Ariyeh Deri
2. Again demonstrations against the government of Netanyahu
3. Deaths in Raids and Terrorist Attacks
4. Selection of Articles

1. The Supreme Court v. Ariyeh Deri

Aryeh Deri Needs to Go

(…) Unfortunately, Deri didn’t learn the lesson and mend his ways. In 2018 he found himself once again accused of similar crimes, and managed to get away in a plea bargain with having committed a tax offense by failing to report the true value of a property he sold to his brother. One remembers how Yitzhak Rabin resigned as prime minister in 1977 when it was revealed that he and his wife had held a foreign bank account, which was illegal at the time. However, Deri has no shame. (…) His supporters have argued that 400,000 people voted for Shas, but as Justice Alex Stein rightly pointed out, that may entitle Deri to be a member of Knesset, but does not mean that he is necessarily fit to be a government minister. Aryeh Deri is doing a disservice to himself, his party, the government, the Torah, Jewish values and Israel’s international standing as a country of law and order by remaining in office. (…)

Michael Boyden, TOI, 18.01.23

The court has spoken, Netanyahu must listen

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Health Minister Aryeh Deri (…), he must have told him that there was no other option but to have him fired, despite their shared displeasure with the Supreme Court ruling striking down his appointment as cabinet minister. (…) 10 justices (…) handed down a ruling that Deri's appointment was severely flawed and unreasonable and therefore must be nullified. (…) Deri misled the justice system by telling the lower court when requesting a plea bargain that he would no longer be involved in public life, only to later tell the higher instances that this was not the case. The justices slammed him for this, noting that he cannot credibly claim that 400,000 people who voted for his party wanted him to be a minister. The justices did not change any basic law with their ruling, they only addressed the disparity – or even the lies – in Deri's statements. (…) it is safe to say that the ruling (…) was a landmark decision when it comes to the relations between the executive and judiciary branches, with the legislative branch now in the position of having to resolve this crisis without setting our house ablaze. (…)

Nechama Duek, IHY, 19.01.23

High Court of Justice exposed its bias by dismissing Deri from government

Following the High Court of Justice ruling (…), which disqualified Shas leader Aryeh Deri from serving as minister in the new government due to his tax fraud conviction, one person was left victorious - Justice Minister Yariv Levin. Now that the right-wing has been put on the defense, the chances of Levin's controversial judiciary reforms being passed have only increased. (…) Deri’s appointment as minister in the new government was always deemed unreasonable, backed by very legitimate claims. The man was convicted twice - once on bribery, and once on tax evasion charges. He is not supposed to fill a position of an MK, let alone a minister. (…) You can argue the decision to disqualify Deri was just, but wasn't wise, because these sort of decisions are ties to politics. We are already in the midst of a public battle over the judiciary – perhaps the most serious of its kind in the history of the state. Reforms are needed, everyone agrees on that. But, not the ones proposed by Levin - which present a constitutional hijacking that harms democracy. And here lies the problem. Opponents of the reform have no reason to celebrate the decision, because Levin's claims just got a boost of legitimacy.

Levin can give himself a pat on the back. The High Court? Not so much.

Ben-Dror Yemini, YED, 19.01.23

Netanyahu Will Pay the Price for Dery's Sins

For a good quarter century now, Arye Dery has been shaking up Israel’s political and legal systems, as well as the country’s citizens. It started with the Bar-On Hebron affair in 1997 and the investigation into Dery, followed by his conviction on bribery offenses, his jail term, his release and his return to the head of the Shas party and to government, and continued with his most recent conviction a year ago, the false pretense he presented to the judge in the Magistrate's Court (judicial estoppel), his evasion of a ruling of moral turpitude and the law passed in an expedited process specifically to address his criminal record on the eve of the new government’s formation. (…) Once again, a coalition in Israel less than three weeks old has found itself in dire straits that could escalate into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. (…) The High Court put Netanyahu and his gang, who sinned by becoming intoxicated by power and arrogance, in their place. The judges stated the obvious: the 400,000 people who voted for Shas did not absolve Dery of all his sins and did not grant him immunity from a moral turpitude finding but simply advanced him and 10 other MKs into the Knesset. That’s all. (…) Netanyahu will have to fire Dery if he doesn't want to risk the disgrace of the High Court and worldwide condemnation. (…)

Yossi Verter, HAA, 19.01.23

Democracy, Reasonableness, and the Courts

(…) To claim that the ruling that disqualified of a leader of a party that received slightly more than 8% of the ballots (….) from serving as a government minister represents a repudiation of the entire election process reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the democratic process. (…) Israeli voters elect parties to the parliament. (…) As first on his party’s list, Aryeh Deri was indeed duly elected to the Knesset. The Supreme Court did not dispute that fact, nor did it rescind his election. (…) the overwhelming number of voters (over 90%) neither voted for the Shas party nor were they necessarily even interested in its party-leader Aryeh Deri having any control over their lives or the government. (…) The November 2022 vote was not an election that could serve as a referendum over whether the leader of the Shas party should be part of the government. If it were, then we would have to conclude that over 90 % of the voters made clear they wanted neither the Shas party nor Aryeh Deri to have a place in the Knesset. In that sense, one could actually argue that the elevation by Netanyahu of a party leader that garnered slightly less than 400,000 votes out of the 4.8 million cast to a head two powerful ministries demonstrates that elections are meaningless. It is precisely the courts that must serve as the arbiters of what constitutes the legal and reasonable in order help this country navigate the complexities and paradoxes of the confused and dysfunctional electoral system we have created. (…)

Samuel Heilman, TOI, 22.01.23

2. Again demonstrations against the government of Netanyahu

Only Real Arab-Jewish Partnership Will Ensure Protest Success

(…) a joint Jewish-Arab struggle is a cornerstone of my political and ideological thinking. But (…) Was there even a single senior leader who called for Arabs to attend the demonstrations? Did the organizers of the main demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday night even hint that they wanted Arabs to attend the protest? Moreover, was even a single Arab invited to speak at it? (…) The message was: “Arabs, stay away; you’ll spoil it, because we want a pure Jewish struggle.” (…) The first statement made by the one Arab who was invited to participate in the main demonstration was that “waving Palestinian flags shouldn’t dominate the demonstrations.” If so, why weren’t members of the LGBTQ community asked to set aside their flags? Quite simply, because they are Jews.

Consequently, the message is clear: Dear Arabs, come without any identifying symbols; just be vague figures who will swell our numbers. (…) why did the Balfour protests fail despite the enormous enthusiasm they generated? It’s very simple. The protesters focused on Benjamin Netanyahu and forgot that monsters grow in the garden of the occupation and racism, so the energy was aimed at the effect rather than the causes. What a waste. (…)

Odeh Bisharat, HAA,16.01.23

Judicial reform is reasonable and right

The reform of Israel's legal system – proposed by Justice Minister Yair Levin – does not only not threaten democracy, but is reasonable and necessary as it will restore the balance of power between the judiciary, legislature and government. What made this reform necessary was the politicized Supreme Court, imperious office of attorney general, and a legal clique in every government ministry that have policymaking in a chokehold at the expense of lawmakers in Knesset and government. (…) It is the judicial system that threatens Israeli democracy, not Levin's reforms. As such, it is sensible to change the way justices are selected, and to circumscribe their ability to strike down Knesset legislation as they idiosyncratically see fit. (…) The court has developed a series of pliant concepts with which to carry out its self-declared "judicial revolution." (…) the court has ruled in recent years with a liberal fist on allocation of Jewish National Fund land, Palestinian residency rights in Israel, the operation of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Jerusalem, rights of foreign converts to citizenship, ultra-Orthodox draft deferments and stipends to yeshiva students, commerce on Shabbat, and so much more. There was little hard-core law involved in these cases. You could guess the court's decision in advance simply by looking at the composition of the panel of justices. The more progressive the panel, the more drawn-out-of-thin-air sermonizing there was likely to be in the decision. Essentially, the court made political decisions, "values" decisions, camouflaged as law. (…) Levin's level-headed legislation will (…) allow the Supreme Court to overrule Knesset legislation only when sitting with a full bench and with a large majority of justices (…). This is not "the end of democracy," but rather a long-overdue fix to Israeli democracy. It behooves opposition parliamentarians to relate to Levin's proposals with the serious attention they deserve. Instead of instead of climbing up the ramparts with ominous threats and intemperate sloganeering, lawmakers should debate and negotiate the terms of the legal reform.

David Weinberg, IHY, 17.01.23

Zionist Protesters in Tel Aviv Forgot Their Palestinian Neighbors

(…) A demonstration covered in a sea of blue-and-white flags, as if to prove itself and to protect its participants, while the flags of the other people that live in this land are prohibited or gathered into a narrow ghetto on a mound of dirt at the edge of the square, as in the previous demonstration, cannot be my demonstration. An all-Jewish, one-nation demonstration in a clearly binational state cannot be a demonstration for anyone who seeks equality or justice, which are among the key words of this protest but remain hollow within it. Hollow is the talk of “freedom, equality and quality government” by the organizers of one demonstration in Tel Aviv; no less hollow is the talk of “fighting for democracy” by those of the other. There is not and will never be “freedom, equality and quality government” in an apartheid state, nor is there “fighting for democracy” when a blind eye is turned to apartheid. (…) Participation in these demonstrations of hypocrisy and double standards is unacceptable. (…) There is not and cannot be a demonstration on democracy and equality, on freedom and even on quality government, in an apartheid format in an apartheid state, while ignoring apartheid’s existence. (…) what is the point of this protest? To enable us to revel once more in being “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Gideon Levy, HAA, 22.01.23

Israel preventing Palestinians from flying their flag is hypocritical

(…) the same Israel that encourages Jews around the world to wave its flag in parades, synagogues and Jewish community houses is waging a war of attrition with another flag, the national flag of the Palestinian Arab minority within it. The same country that so wants to see its flag proudly raised by Jews around the world rips the Palestinian flag from the hands of its Palestinian Arab citizens and declares it as a non-grata flag in its territory.

(…) preventing the public waving of the Palestinian flag expresses a lack of national security from those who fear any sign of national or religious identity that is not theirs. It is the hysterical populist leadership that refuses to accept here what it encourages in other countries: that national attachment to one country is not opposed to civil loyalty to another. (…) The flag of Palestine is not only the flag of the Palestinian Authority but also the flag of the Palestinian minority in Israel. Even if we rip and tear it, the identity it symbolizes will not disappear. Instead of fighting it, the government would do well to strengthen the economic, civil and social assimilation of the Palestinian minority into Israeli society. (…) The flag of Palestine can and should fly alongside the flag of Israel as the flags of two neighboring countries. Until then, all attempts to fight it will fail because national pride is stronger than any legislation or instruction of a minister.

Nadav Tamir, JPO, 22.01.23

The demonstrations in Israel

The demonstrations all over the country are not exclusively anti-Netanyahu. He has succeeded in creating a majority in the Knesset by selling his soul, even more, to the devil by making his coalition with such extreme right wing parties that are the antithesis of democracy (…) introducing ‘so-called’ reforms that will critically change the judicial system, reducing the power of the judiciary and creating a situation (…) in which the government will have the power to override supreme court decisions such as allowing a convicted felon to hold a ministerial position – Arieh Deri (…) equality between the sexes and races, equal rights of representation in government – Netanyahu himself is in the middle of a criminal trial and the fact that he has given ministries to 2 racist bigots – Ben Gvir and Smotrich – and leaving this country exposed and in jeopardy – he has infected Israel with a ‘trojan horse virus’ that, if not neutralised will literally destroy everything that has been built up here over the last 75 years.The democratic State of Israel’ is in the hands of the worst possible leadership in the history of the State.

Howard Burns, TOI, 29.01.23

3. Deaths in Raids and Terrorist Attacks

Return to Jenin

(…) the Palestinian Authority (…) described last Thursday's fighting as a "massacre" while accusing the international community of behaving like bystanders. (…) The PA also announced that it was suspending security cooperation with Israel – a measure it has taken in the past during its fits of pique. (…) Last Thursday's death toll was the most extreme since the UN began maintaining records in 2005, a fact the PA and its acolytes will exploit to the hilt. The Iranians, too, are eager to push the narrative of Palestinian suffering, so as to distract attention from the continued repression of the anti-regime protests that have rocked the ruling mullahs, along with their military alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And because in western circles, the Palestinian cause is seen more as a humanitarian imperative, and much less as an insidious political campaign to strip away Israel's sovereignty, it isn't guaranteed that western governments will offer the uncomplicated defense of Israel that it deserves. Thus, will the myths continue.

Ben Cohen, IHY, 27.01.23

Jerusalem terror attacks made Ben-Gvir's nightmare a reality

When confronting a 13-year-old Palestinian who decided to step out of his east Jerusalem home and shoot Jews, or a 21-year-old wanna-be-martyr whose grandfather was himself a victim of Jewish terror - measures such as razing homes or revoking rights will not be enough to stop the next attack. (…) the options before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's full-right-wing government range between bad and worse. (…) Ben-Gvir and his political partner Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich do not want the PA as a partner, but are also not advocating for re-capture of West Bank cities. A full-scale military assault on the Palestinian population is irrelevant when terrorist organizations have virtually no infrastructure in place. (…) The government, and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now have to decide how to stabilize the Palestinian arena, because Israel's security forces' attention should be focused elsewhere. Iran already has sufficient amounts of enriched uranium to produce a number of nuclear devices (according to the IAEA), and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror group continues to receive weapons through Syria. In order to deal with the Palestinian violence, Israel must make considerable economic, tactical, and political gestures toward those the government has already branded as enemies, and that is unlikely to happen. So, the reality we face on a daily basis will only get worse. (…)

Avi Issacharoff, YED, 29.01.23

Israel needs a national guard right now

The latest terror attacks in Jerusalem are exposing a fatal flaw in Israel’s armor that needs to be addressed immediately (…). A national guard of trained volunteers, deployed in city centers under the Israeli Police, can prevent the next attack. (…) during the past year and a half, more than 20 Israeli civilians have been killed in terror attacks inside Israel, attacks that the vaunted Israeli security establishment all failed to stop. The common denominator of all these last fatal attacks was that the perpetrators were not affiliated with any significant organization and acted alone or almost alone. In doing so, they were able to evade detection while moving freely, using their Israeli identification papers. (…) The majority of the attackers were Israeli Arabs, who benefited from the liberties of life in Israel, but were radicalized at home or in Palestinian Authority schools in East Jerusalem. And, significantly, all of those terrorists were subdued on-site by armed Israeli civilians or police officers who happened to be nearby at the time, saving countless other civilians. It is time for the Israeli defense establishment to adapt to this growing phenomenon of so-called “lone-wolf” attackers and field immediate and effective countermeasures. (…) With each successful attack against Israeli civilians, a new Palestinian attacker is born, and the sense of security of Israelis erodes. We should strive for the opposite. (…) The national guard will promote security at all times. (…)

Amir Avivi, TOI, 29.01.23

Israel’s Right and Left Are Missing the Point: It’s Poverty, Dummies, Not Nationalism

(…) Life in East Jerusalem is unbearable. From the time they reach a certain age, the residents of the neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city begin to feel that “there’s nothing to lose.” These are people who are born directly into oppression and grow up in physical and psychological ghettos. They are born, live and die inside a bubble of frustration, helplessness and hopelessness: unemployment, occupation, discrimination, oppression, brigades of settlers and soldiers who ride on their backs at every moment and push them into a life of misery in their weakened neighborhoods, along with a daily experience of theft, humiliation and provocations. (…) These are not terror attacks in the classic, familiar sense of the term, but rather desperate attempts by desperate people to do something with their lives that they consider beneficial, to cut loose, and perhaps even to try to commit suicide and thereby gain respect and fame that they probably could never hope to achieve in their miserable lives. (…) In the eyes of the Israelis, Palestinians are not human beings with feelings, independent thought and reactions, but rather pawns with only a single mission: to harm the Zionist state until its final collapse. If a Palestinian behaves in a certain way, he is immediately suspected of ultranationalist motives, while the complex human entity on the one hand, and individual independence on the other, are totally ignored.  (…) People are not motivated – or at least not solely motivated – by nationalist goals. People are motivated by emotion, anger, frustration and personal needs that may be expressed as nationalism or interpreted as part of a national struggle. But they are fundamentally no more than a very basic human outcry.

Janan Bsoul, HAA, 30.01.23

It's normal to demand immediate response, but we need to act wisely

(…) When we see (…) a Palestinian terrorist destroying innocent (…) we want to lash out and demand action, punishment and even revenge. (…) The cabinet (…) ordered the immediate sealing of the family home of the terrorists involved in the Neveh Ya’acov attack and in the City of David. In addition, some of the more right-wing members of the cabinet called for the immediate legalization of West Bank outposts. (…) building new settlements or authorizing illegal outposts are not the appropriate answers to terrorism, because they transmit the idea that settlements are punishments; a wrong message to send to the world. (…) Regarding the immediate sealing of the homes of terrorists and their families, (…) top Israeli defense experts found that house demolitions, rather than deterring future terrorism, generally inflamed hatred and increased motivation for future attacks by Palestinians against Israel. (…) Ben-Gvir’s call to ease the process for Israeli citizens to obtain firearms licenses could indeed prevent terrorist attacks from unfolding. (…) And enabling people who have served in the IDF and know their way around a gun could be helpful. (…) However (…) it would increase the chances of a lethal weapon ending up in the wrong hands, as Hagit Pe’er, chairperson of the women’s rights organization Na’amat, warned (…).

Editorial, JPO, 30.01.23

Palestinian incitement to terror is another front for Israel

(…) The banality of evil is repeated again and again. (…) This terrorist was not born a murderer. He may have begun life as a productive and positive member of society. But once he was caught in the fire of incitement, his 'heroic' death was determined. Incitement is a one-way street and the terrorist was a product of systematic brainwashing that produces such murderers. (…) The 13-year-old boy who carried out the shooting attack, which severely wounded two Israelis, at the entrance to the City of David in Jerusalem just a day after the synagogue shooting, was also a victim of the same social experiment. He had been exposed to the Palestinian education system from a young age. A system that embodies a well-oiled incitement machine and promotes murderous values with the same ferocity it teaches math and reading. It glorifies bloodshed and the use of arms, leaving him with few options. Palestinian society must ask itself how it was able to raise such monsters. It must wonder if, in the name of a national struggle, it had lost its humanity. (…) Perhaps only new legislation would free law enforcement to act against incitement online. (…) Incitement is the most effective mechanism to produce murderers out of women and children. We must stop and observe it for what it is: the greatest strategic threat to the security of Israel.

Moshe Lion, YED, 30.01.23

The Ben-Gvir Method: Hit Them Harder

(…) In our Orwellian situation, in which black is white and an evil person is a righteous man, it makes no difference how many more attacks there are (…) and how many Jews are murdered – the left will always be at fault and the right will always be the savior. (…) Ben-Gvir looked nervous. He didn’t think that one day he would be forced to deal with such a difficult and bloody situation. After all, he’s good at talking, at demonstrations, at incitement, but he knows nothing about police work. Nor does he have operational or administrative experience (…). After all, he didn’t serve in the Israel Defense Forces for a single day. (…) anyone who says that the attacks are only a result of “incitement” doesn’t understand the experiences of the young people in these neighborhoods, who live in poverty, oppression, under occupation, without a future, without hope and without dignity. But Ben-Gvir wants to hit them harder. His method is to constantly demand more extreme, crazier steps, and then to blame those who didn’t let him run wild. After the next attacks he will demand a total closure, a ban on entry to Israel for all the workers, the death penalty, revocation of citizenship, expulsion and the demolition of all the homes of the relatives. And the moment that is not approved, because it means a terrible intifada, he’ll have an alibi: I made a proposal, I wanted to act, but you didn’t let me and therefore you’re to blame. (…)

Nehemia Shtrasler, HAA, 31.01.23

4.  Selection of Articles

Drone Attack on Iranian Military Facility

Unusual attack on Iran — a stern warning from Jerusalem?

(…) The attack on Isfahan apparently ended with a roaring success (…). The targets hit are located deep within the Islamic Republic of Iran, hundreds of kilometers from the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, and other borders with its neighboring countries. Therefore, these suicide drones were likely launched from Iranian soil. (…) U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal (…) that Israel carried out the nightly attack, and in light of the aforementioned, there is no reason to doubt this statement. It is likely that the operation was initiated and carried out by Mossad, perhaps in cooperation with other actors. The targeted facility could as well have been linked to Iran's nuclear program, and its operations could have posed a great risk to Israel. But this attack could have targeted another weapon system that might serve only the Iranian nuclear program indirectly, all the rage in precision-guided munitions — hypersonic missiles. (…) only Russia and China possess hypersonic weapons, with the former making use of such munitions in its war in Ukraine. The U.S. is developing such missiles at an accelerated pace, but it is still falling behind. (…) In any case, the unusual attack was apparently intended to signal to Iran — whether it was a hypersonic weapon or not, Israel is monitoring its every move and won't stand idly by.

Ron Ben-Yishai, YES, 29.01.23

HAA = Haaretz

YED = Yedioth Ahronoth / Ynetnews

JPO = Jerusalem Post

IHY = Israel HaYom

TOI = Times of Israel

GLO = Globes

Published: February 2023.

Responsible:

Dr. Paul Pasch,

Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel

Editors:

Susanne Knaul

Judith Stelmach

Homepage: israel.fes.de

Email: fes(at)fes.org.il