A Vibrant Public Debate Around the Demand of the Future Members of the Coalition To Enact a Law that Enables the Knesset to Over Rule A Supreme Court Ruling: The members of the parties of the right wing bloc demand that the new coalition led by Netanyahu, will legislate a new law that will strengthen their ability to rule without interference by the courts. In the Israeli system, the high court of justice can cancel a law, if it finds that it violates values that are listed in the basic laws. Since Israel doesn’t have a constitution, there is a list of basic laws that are considered to be the foundation of a future constitution and they protect basic human and civil rights. If the new law is enacted, there will be no legal protection for human and civil rights, politicians will be able to legislate at their whims and Israeli democracy will be history. Many jurists are worried by that trend and argue that it will be the end of Israeli democracy.
Netanyahu Is Expected to Be Granted the Mandate to Establish the New Government of Israel: According to the law, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, invites all parties to ask who they recommend to compose the new government and then he calls on the party that has a majority of the votes to ask him to do so. Netanyahu has a solid bloc of 64 seats out of 120 and he has already started negotiations with leaders of the other three parties in addition to his own party Likud. If he will compose such a government it will be very conservative and hawkish, and the demands have already started to mount. For example, one party leader demands the cancellation of the ban on psychological conversion “treatments” for homosexuals. Another one demands the cancellation of the tax on sweet beverages that are detrimental to health, others demand new subsidies for Yeshiva students who don’t join the work force etc. Negotiations will continue in the coming weeks until the new coalition is finalized. The alarming option is the demand of the extreme right-wing party, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir from Otsma Yehudit (Jewish Power). He is considered to be a racist with regard to Arabs, and demands he be the minister for homeland security. He promised in his election campaign to “take care” of the Beduins in southern Israel, the Negev, and strongly maintain order by use of the police forces on them. Ben-Gvir participated in a memorial ceremony for Meir Kahane, who was a member of Knesset in the 80s’ and called for transfer of all Arabs from the state of Israel. His movement was later declared unlawful and he himself was murdered in New York City.
A Scandal at The Rabin Annual Memorial Day: The head of the Religious Zionist party, Betzalel Smotritch, delivered a speech to the Knesset at its annual meeting for the Rabin memorial Day. PM Rabin was assassinated 27 years ago, in November 1995, after and because he signed the Oslo Accords, which recognized the PLO (Palestinian Libration Organization) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and agreed to the partition of the land. Smotritch said that the Shin Bet (Israeli secret service) is responsible for the murder of Rabin, since it encouraged Yigal Amir (the convicted assassin) to pull the trigger. He added that the right- wing supporters and the religious zionists are not responsible. Smotritch was promoting a conspiracy theory, according to which the Shin Bet was involved in the murder, and was encouraging and pushing for action among Rabin opponents, and the accusations against leaders of the religious zionist community that were leading a vocal demonstrations against Rabin.
This conspiracy theory was disproved shortly after the murder, by a state investigative committee. But leaders from the far right and the religious zionists refuse to take any responsibility for the intense incitement prior to the murder of Rabin. Some of them called him a traitor and almost encouraged and enabled his assassination. Some of them are still holding senior positions or status in the religious zionist community who may be a member of the new coalition.
PM Lapid Decided Not to Travel to the Global Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm al-Sheik Egypt: PM Yair Lapid, who did not manage to keep his position in the elections decided not to join other world leaders who were meeting earlier this week in the southern Sinai desert in Egypt for the climate change summit. President Herzog was the head of the Israeli delegation. It is important to mention that the climate change crisis is barely visible in the public debate in Israel and the state is hardly meeting its own international responsibilities.
Israeli Media is Intensively Covering The Mid-Term Elections in the US: All Israeli news outlets are broadly covering the mid-term elections in the US for the House and Senate and other key position in the states. As a close ally of the US Israel is almost directly affected not only by who sits in the White House, but also by which party controls the House of Representatives.
For further reading:
The Supreme Court overruling: Here, here, here
New Government: Here, here, here, here
Rabin Memorial Day: Here, here, here