Number of Israeli ministers expected to rise in next government
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Despite the decisive victory by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the March 17 Israeli election, the negotiations to build the Jewish state’s next coalition government could take up the entire 42-day time period allotted by Israeli law.
In his victory speech, Netanyahu called on the heads of the parties of Israel’s nationalist camp “to join me and set up a government without delay.”
“Reality does not give us a time-out,” Netanyahu said. “The people of Israel expect us to quickly form a leadership that will work for them, as we promised, in the security, economic and social realms. This is what I will do.”
The prime minister expressed hope that he could form a government within two to three weeks of receiving the mandate to do so. It is likely that Netanyahu will seek to increase the number of ministers in the next government and change the law passed by the last government that limits the number of ministers to 18. If the ratio is increased to one minister for every three Members of Knesset, Likud will likely have 10 ministers. Netanyahu wants MKs Benny Begin and Tzachi Hanegbi to receive portfolios. Other Likud candidates for ministerial positions include Ofir Akunis, Yariv Levin, Ze’ev Elkin, Haim Katz, Danny Danon, Miri Regev, Gila Gamliel, and Tzipi Hotovely. Yuli Edelstein is expected to stay on as Knesset speaker.
Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon will likely be the next finance minister. Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman is demanding the defense portfolio, and if Netanyahu accedes, then Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett will be the next foreign minister. Shas party leader Aryeh Deri wants to be interior minister, and the United Torah Judaism party will seek the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee as well as a deputy ministerial position with no supervising minister, such as in the Ministry of Health.
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Iran says Israeli political parties are ‘all aggressors’
(JNS.org) An Iranian official said the country isn’t moved by the result of the Israeli election, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party soundly defeated Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union.
“For us there is no difference between the Zionist regime’s political parties. They are all aggressors in nature,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marizeh Afkham told reporters in Tehran, Mehr News Agency reported.
Netanyahu has been a vocal critic of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers, arguing that a “bad deal” would threaten Israel’s survival. March 24 marks a deadline for a “political framework agreement” in the nuclear talks.
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Court rules Seattle county had the right to ban anti-Israel ad from buses
(JNS.org) A U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Seattle-based King County officials did not violate free speech by prohibiting local buses from displaying anti-Israel advertisements.
The ruling came in reference to a 2010 advertisement on a bus reading, Israeli War Crimes Your Tax Dollars At Work. Although the county initially approved this ad, a local news broadcast about the campaign caused public uproar and led to photos of injured or dead bus passengers being placed under the door of the local transportation authority service center. As a result, the county decided to reject the ad, while also rejecting a number of other ads proposed by pro-Israel groups.
In response to the rejection of the ad, the county faced a lawsuit from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, a pro-Palestinian initiative. A judge in a lower court eventually ruled in favor of the county. On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco also said that Kings County had the right to bar the advertisement because it created a hazardous environment for bus passengers.
“Because the county simultaneously rejected all of the proposed ads on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—from opposing viewpoints—no reasonable jury could find that it engaged in viewpoint discrimination,” 9th Circuit Judge Paul Watford wrote on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
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Inverted Nazi salute creator Dieudonne found guilty of supporting terrorism
(JNS.org) Controversial French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, who is known for inventing the inverted Nazi salute known as the quenelle, on Wednesday was found guilty of expressing support for terrorism after January’s Islamist attacks at the Charlie Hebdomagazine and Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket.
In the days after the two attacks, Dieudonne wrote on Facebook that he felt “like Charlie Coulibaly,” referencing the perpetrator of the attack on the magazine, and playing on the “I am Charlie” catchphrase that became popular in the wake of that attack.
Dieudonne had already been convicted of hate speech several times, and for the latest remark he was given a suspended sentence of two months in jail. But he will not serve any prison time, and the sentence is much lower than the seven years of incarceration with a 100,000-euro ($106,000) fine he had faced.
France criminalizes the expression of racist views, including on the Internet. “The feeling of hostility towards the Jewish community that Dieudonne kept up in front of a public attracted by his charisma increases his responsibility,” the court wrote in its decision, Reuters reported.
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Palestinians’ Erekat: PA to ‘intensify’ International Criminal Court effort after Likud win
(JNS.org) In the wake of the sweeping win by the Likud party, which is headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Israeli elections on Tuesday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will push forward on war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“It is clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next government, and for that, we say clearly that we will go to the Hague Tribunal, we will accelerate, continue, and intensify [the effort to prosecute Israel],” Erekat told AFP.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas first formally applied for admission to the ICC in January, and the PA is expected to be admitted by April 1. In the meantime, the ICC has already initiated an investigation into Israel’s actions during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
Erekat blamed the international community for the decisive victory by Netanyahu’s Likud party. “Such a result would not have been possible had the international community held Israel to account for its systematic violations of international law,” he said in a statement.
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Swarthmore Hillel drops ‘Hillel’ name after disagreement on pro-BDS speakers
(JNS.org) The Hillel chapter at Swarthmore College voted to drop “Hillel” from its name this week due to a disagreement with Hillel International over a speaker series that includes individuals who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
In 2013, Swarthmore’s Hillel had aligned itself with the “Open Hillel” movement, which calls for a diversity of opinions on Israel at Hillel and has been criticized for promoting anti-Israel views. In December of that year, Hillel International CEO Eric Fingerhut wrote a letter to Hillel’s Swarthmore College chapter that criticized the decision by its student board to disavow the Jewish campus umbrella’s guidelines forbidding engagement with groups or speakers that “delegitimize, demonize or apply a double standard to Israel.”
This February, Swarthmore’s Hillel opened a speaker series on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that included Palestinian activists such as Ali Abu Awwad and Israeli activists such as the co-founder of Israeli Jewish-Arab education center Yad B’Yad (Hand in Hand), Lee Gordon. Another event scheduled for next week will reportedly include civil rights organizers Ira Grupper, Mark Levy, Larry Rubin, and Dorothy Zellner, all of whom openly support BDS.
“If the students or speakers intend for this program to be a discussion in which the speakers present or proselytize their known anti-Israel and pro-BDS agenda,” Hillel International legal counsel Tracy Turoff wrote in a letter to the college that was obtained by the Huffington Post. “This would cross the clear line for programs that violate Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership and could be reason for Hillel International to seek to protect its guidelines, name, and reputation.”
“Hillel International cares about Jewish life on campus at Swarthmore and together with Hillel of Greater Philadelphia will continue to look for opportunities to serve Jewish students on the Swarthmore campus,” Turoff told the Huffington Post.
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