LFI Key Issues: LFI meets with Keir Starmer

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LFI News and Campaigns: LFI meets Keir Starmer; Watch our video about LFI's work
Analysis: Bibi faces Israel's summer of discontent
This Week: Shin Bet uncovers Iran-backed terror cell in West Bank; Death toll climbs as Israel reports highest number of new covid cases; Drop the "false distinction" between Hezbollah wings, EU urged
Essential Reading: "Mysterious" incidents in Iran could provoke regime to confront Israel; Data shows where Israelis contract the coronavirus; Knesset approves bill to ban conversion therapy; Labour’s reputation cannot be restored simply by saying "sorry"; The "antisemite Ernest Bevin" and the day Britain recognised the State of Israel; Montefiores risked cholera, quarantine for 19th-century Holy Land Jews; Good news: A new international fund for peace-building in Israel and Palestine; Israeli researchers trial new blood filtering cancer treatment
Tweet of the Week: Labour is getting its house in order

LFI News and Campaigns
LFI meets Keir Starmer

Labour Friends of Israel today met with Keir Starmer for the first time since his election as leader of the Labour party. LFI chair Steve McCabe said he was “delighted to chair a meeting between LFI and Labour leader Keir Starmer”, adding that “since his election, we have already seen the start of real progress in tackling the scourge of antisemitism in the party and rebuilding our relationship with the Jewish community.”

Keir Starmer thanked LFI "for the crucial role they play in the Labour party, for contributing to a balanced debate on the Middle East and for their work in supporting initiatives to promote a peaceful two-state solution for the people of Israel and Palestine."

The meeting - which took place on Zoom - was chaired by Mr McCabe. The other LFI participants were Baroness Meta Ramsay (LFI chair in the Lords); Adrian Cohen (LFI lay chair); Dame Louise Ellman (LFI board); Sir Trevor Chinn (LFI supporter); Jennifer Gerber (LFI director); and Michael Rubin (LFI political director).

Topics discussed included tackling antisemitism in the Labour party; combatting Israel obsession and hatred; Israel’s security; the BDS movement; annexation; and coexistence projects.

Mr McCabe pledged that LFI “will play a full and constructive role in supporting Keir”.

Commenting after the meeting, Keir Starmer said:
"I was delighted to meet with Labour Friends of Israel today to put on record my thanks for the crucial role they play in the Labour party, for contributing to a balanced debate on the Middle East and for their work in supporting initiatives to promote a peaceful two-state solution for the people of Israel and Palestine.

“I also wanted to make clear that I understand the past few years have been difficult for members of LFI as far too often the debate on the Middle East and Israel has descended into hateful anti-semitism. As Labour leader I am determined to confront this, rid our party of anti-semitism and ensure we conduct our political debate in a respectful and constructive manner."

Mr McCabe said: “I was delighted to chair a meeting between LFI and Labour leader Keir Starmer. Since his election, we have already seen the start of real progress in tackling the scourge of antisemitism in the party and rebuilding our relationship with the Jewish community.

“It was encouraging to hear from Keir that under his leadership Labour will once again be an honest-broker on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our Labour values require us to support those progressives in the region who are working for peace and a two-state solution.

“Ending the disproportionate obsession with Israel is also vital to making our party a safe and welcoming space for Jewish members once again, as well as winning back the trust of the Jewish community.

"I made it clear that in relation to Labour's current policy position the LFI does not support any form of boycott or sanctions against the Jewish state.

“It is extremely positive that he has agreed to visit Israel with LFI as soon as is possible. We will play a full and constructive role in supporting Keir and I look forward to working with him to rebuild our party.”

Watch our video about LFI's work

We've produced a short video about LFI. It showcases our work
in promoting a two-state solution, fighting the delegitimisation of Israel and campaigning for peaceful coexistence.

Analysis
Bibi faces Israel's summer of discontent

Benjamin Netanyahu is facing mounting public pressure as Israel is rocked by the country’s largest demonstrations since the 2011 social justice protests.

Thousands of people took part in demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at the weekend, protesting against both the prime minister and his government’s bungled handling of a second wave of coronavirus cases.

There were further large protests in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, with demonstrators marching from Netanyahu's official residence to the Knesset and back. Media reports suggest there had been a “largely carnival mood” at the demonstration. However, there were later 34 arrests for breach of the police and attacks on police officers.

Saturday evening’s protest in Jerusalem was the fourth time in a week that demonstrators had gathered outside Netanyahu’s home calling for the prime minister to resign.

Twenty-eight people were arrested in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Saturday after a minority of demonstrators clashed with the police. Water cannons were deployed to disperse some protesters, who blocked roads and attempted to break through crash barriers.

The demonstrations came as Netanyahu’s lawyers failed in their bid on Sunday to once again delay the opening of his trial on multiple corruption charges.

The protests are not being organised by a single organisation, but instead bring together a variety of groups. But, in a sign of potential danger for Netanyahu, self-employed people, who are angry at the lack of government support to help them cope with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, are linking up with the so-called “Black Flag” protests which are focused on the corruption charges faced by the prime minister.

A Facebook post advertising the Tel Aviv protests on Saturday read: “We are just tired of not being seen, not being heard, not being cared about...The time has come for you [the government] to get it together, get up in the morning and work for the citizens, instead of dealing with nonsense. Because without us, there is no country.”

Observers have noted that the long-standing protests against Netanyahu in Jerusalem had mostly been attended by older activists, but the last week has seen an infusion of support from young people in their 20s and 30s, which have seen the number of attendees triple in size.

The anger on the streets appears to reflect growing public frustration with Netanyahu. Last week, a poll found that only 29.5 percent of Israelis trust the prime minister to deal with the coronavirus – down from 57.5 percent in early April and 47 percent last month. Overall, 75 percent of the public had negative comments on the government’s handling of the virus. Other surveys have also registered the prime minister’s plummeting ratings.

Israel’s initial handling of the pandemic – with a tight and early lockdown – was widely praised as one of the world’s best. But, after restrictions began to be lifted in May, cases have surged again in recent weeks, reaching close to 2,000 a day, with 400 deaths.

“Israel’s resurgent coronavirus pandemic is shaking the foundations of Israeli society and politics as we’ve come to know them,” Haaretz columnist Chemi Shalev argued on Sunday. “Fear of the returning plague and anxiety over its dire economic impact are undermining the Israeli public’s long-held sense of security and wellbeing. Pent-up rage and frustrations are spilling out into angry street protests, with Benjamin Netanyahu increasingly singled out for blame."

As Shalev noted, the focus on Netanyahu reflects the long-serving prime minister’s increasingly centralised and autocratic style of governing. “Netanyahu is encountering the downside of his decade-long personal domination of Israeli governance and politics,” he wrote. “Alone at the top, Netanyahu is bearing the brunt of Israel’s summer of fear, loathing and discontent.”

Corruption allegations

To add to the prime minister’s woes, the judges at Netanyahu’s corruption trial decided on Sunday that witnesses will begin giving testimony up to three times a week starting in January. Netanyahu is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust – allegations he vehemently denies – in three cases. Commentators suggest the ruling, which will see Netanyahu spend much of the working week in a court room, casts further doubt on his claims that he can continue to run the country and clear his name of the charges against him. Netanyahu is the first sitting prime minister to go on trial.

The procedural hearing saw the prime minister’s defence lawyers ask for the case to be postponed for six months to prepare its strategy. Netanyahu’s team also argued that coronavirus restrictions could harm his defence. One of Netanyahu’s lawyers, Yossi Segev, said: “It will be hard for me to face a masked witness and see if he’s telling the truth”. He added: “I came here today when I am not ready. I suggest we meet here again in six months, after the coronavirus, when we will be smarter.”

The three-judge panel rejected the request, however, and made clear that the trial will go forward on schedule, even in the case of lockdown. Netanyahu is also involved in an increasingly fraught wrangle over the payment of his lawyers. Two weeks ago, the State Comptroller Committee denied the prime minister’s request to pay his lawyers from donations from wealthy friends and relatives and told him to return funds he has already received. The committee’s ruling came after it sought a legal opinion from attorney general Avichai Mandelblit, a former Netanyahu ally who brought the indictments against the prime minister. Unpaid fees have seen several lawyers quit Netanyahu’s legal team over the past year.

The judges’ determination to press on with the trial received the implicit backing of the new justice minister, Blue and White’s Avi Nissenkorn, who said that court activity would not be limited even if the country returned to a full lockdown. The former Likud justice minister, Amir Ohana, was sharply criticised when he effectively delayed the formal start of Netanyahu’s case earlier this year under the cover of the coronavirus. It eventually began two month’s late in May.

U-turns galore

The return of Netanyahu’s legal difficulties to the headlines this week will add to growing criticism that the prime minister has been distracted by his own personal affairs at a time of national crisis, and that the government wasted vital time after Israel’s initial success in containing the virus.

“Where the government should have spent those hard-won weeks of a ‘flattened curve’ building out an epidemiological ‘tweezers’ capability — the ability to mass-test the population, pluck infected individuals out of the general population and into isolation, and allow the general economy to remain open without repeated waves of shutdowns – Netanyahu instead was focused elsewhere,” suggested the Times of Israel senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur on Sunday.

This impression has been reinforced by the fact that the Knesset Finance Committee spent a full day last month discussing retroactive tax breaks on state funding for his villa in Caesarea. Amid a public outcry, Netanyahu later admitted that, while his request for the tax break was justified, “the timing was wrong and that I regret”.

The prime minister also spent much of last month focused on the issue of West Bank annexation – despite polling showing that a majority of Israelis do not support the step and only 3.5 percent view it as a priority as the country wrestles with a second wave of coronavirus cases and the economic fallout from the pandemic.

As he battles that second wave and the country’s increasing economic distress – while also attempting to restore his public standing – Netanyahu and his government have appeared anything but a steady hand on the tiller.

Last week, the prime minister suddenly announced a huge government handout to all Israelis. The payments, which ranged from $219 for individuals to up to $875 for families with three or more children, followed a new package for the self-employed, in addition to a payout of $29 billion in aid previously pledged by the state.

But Netanyahu’s move swiftly backfired, with criticism focused on the fact that the costly handouts would go to all Israelis regardless of their income or need. Ministers and Finance Ministry officials, who had not been consulted on the plan, soon raised their concerns, with Netanyahu’s Labor and Blue and White coalition partners publicly raising their objections. “The question is not whether we should give money to the public — we should give even more — but rather to whom it should go,” Itzik Shmuli, the Labor social welfare minister, said in an interview with Army Radio. “A distribution mechanism that gives everyone the same, gives too little to those who need while those who don’t need get too much. There are billions here that must be divided differently, in a just and economically sensible way.”

Earlier this week, Netanyahu’s office reversed course and announced that wealthy individuals and senior civil servants would no longer receive the payments, while higher amounts would be given to the sick, people with disabilities, struggling immigrants, the unemployed and certain categories of the elderly.

Attempts by ministers to tighten coronavirus restrictions have also seen a series of embarrassing u-turns in recent days. Late on Thursday night, the cabinet attempted to reimpose a partial lockdown, restricting the size of gatherings; closing beaches, malls, museums, tourist sites and other public spaces on weekends; and ordering restaurants to only serve takeout and delivery. The announcement provoked a wave of criticism, including from senior doctors who questioned the scientific basis for a weekend lockdown. Angry restauranteurs, who had already bought food for the weekend, threatened to defy the order, leading the government to backtrack and delay the restriction coming in until Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, however, there was further confusion as a Knesset committee overruled ministers and allowed restaurants to immediately reopen.

Budget bust-up

The sense of crisis has been compounded by a growing political spat between Netanyahu and deputy prime minister Benny Gantz over budget negotiations. Under Israeli law, a new government is required to pass a budget within 100 days meaning the current coalition has until the end of August to reach a deal. But Netanyahu and Gantz are now reportedly at logger-heads over the prime minister’s desire to pass a budget for 2020 only. Under the coalition agreement, the government is supposed to negotiate a two-year budget covering 2020 and 2021. The dispute could have important political ramifications. The Knesset will be dissolved, and an election will be held in the summer, if a 2021 budget is not approved by 31 March. Crucially, however, Netanyahu would remain as caretaker prime minister. If, however, the government collapses for any other reason, Gantz – who under, the coalition deal, is due to take the helm from Netanyahu next autumn – would be caretaker prime minister.

The budget row will fuel suspicion that Netanyahu, who used the coronavirus crisis to force Gantz into coalition with him less than three months ago, is already planning his next political move. That suspicion, however, is likely to simply increase the growing public discontent with a leader whose prime concern amid a pandemic appears to be clinging to power.

This Week

Shin Bet uncovers Iran-backed terror cell in West Bank
Israel's security forces announced this week they had foiled a West Bank terror plot backed by Iran and Hezbollah. Shin Bet said it had uncovered a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine cell which planned to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. "The investigation revealed intelligence regarding the deep involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in promoting terrorist activity against Israel," a statement from Shin Bet said. The cell operated under the cover of a Palestinian youth organisation, Arab Nationalist Youth, and was financed and trained by Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah. It was uncovered after the arrest of activist Yazan Abu Salah in a raid on a village near Jenin on 20 April. Abu Salah later told investigators about the planning of numerous terror attacks, including one on the northern Israeli town of Harish, as well as a plot to abduct an Israeli soldier in order to secure the release of jailed Palestinian terrorists. Abu Salah was also discovered to have purchased weapons and recruited activists for two cells, one in Ramallah and the other in the West Bank's Samaria region. Shin Bet later arrested Abu Salah's cousin, Mahmud Abu Salah, a resident of the West Bank town of Bir Zeit. He revealed to the security services that Arab Nationalist Youth's military wing conducts joining training exercises with Iranian operatives and Hezbollah. In a separate development, five militiamen from an Iranian-backed base in Syria were reportedly killed after what are widely believed to be Israeli strikes on Monday night. Hezbollah later said one of its members was killed in the strikes, which targetted weapons depots and military positions belonging to Syrian regime forces and Iran-backed militia fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Read full article

Death toll climbs as Israel reports highest number of new covid cases
The number of Israelis and Palestinians who have died from the coronavirus continues to rise as a second wave hits the Jewish state and the West Bank. In Israeli, 430 people have died, while 58 have died in the West Bank. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry said the number of new cases had risen by 1,997 in the previous 24 hours - the highest since the crisis began. Nine new deaths were reported and there are 259 people in a serious condition in hospital. On Wednesday, the Knesset debated a controversial new law granting the government sweeping powers to impose restrictions to tackle the pandemic until June 2021. After a late-night debate, the government partially revised its proposals, giving the Knesset a narrow 24-hour window to approve or reject new restrictions which would otherwise come into effect automatically. Earlier this month, the Knesset passed a time-limited measure allowing the government to impose measures and then seek retroactive approval from the Israeli parliament. However, the law has proved chaotic, with the Knesset coronavirus committee this week rescinding the government's attempt to close restaurants, beaches and swimming pools as the number of cases in the county climbs. The new law will allow the government to introduce emergency measures for up to 28 days at a time. The government won't be allowed to ban demonstrations or religious ceremonies, although it will be able to attach conditions to them. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced a loosening of rules around quarantine for those infected with the virus. Patients will now be considered recovered after three consecutive days without symptoms and at least 10 days since they tested positive or began showing symptoms. Read full article

Drop the "false distinction" between Hezbollah wings, EU urged
LFI chair Steve McCabe has joined more than 200 fellow politicians in calling for the European Union to drop its "false distinction" between Hezbollah's military and political wings. The letter was organised by the recently formed group Transatlantic Friends of Israel which brings together European and American politicians. David Schwammenthal of the American Jewish Committee, who is TFI’s secretary-general, said: "We applaud the growing consensus among European lawmakers on this crucial issue." He added: "Europe’s commitments to Israel’s security and to combating antisemitism ring hollow when it continues to allow a deeply antisemitic organisation dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state to use Europe as an operational hub." After a Hezbollah terrorist attack in Bulgaria in 2012 in which seven Israeli tourists were killed, and the arrest of a Hezbollah operative in Cyprus, the EU added Hezbollah’s so-called "military wing" to its terrorism list in 2013. But the distinction between Hezbollah's political and military wings - one the terror group itself denies exists - enables Hezbollah to continue operating in Europe and leaves room for countries to consider the group a "legitimate" political party in Lebanon. LFI and our former chairs Joan Ryan and Louise Ellman led the campaign in the UK calling for the British government to fully proscribe Hezbollah. Proscription was also supported by London mayor Sadiq Khan. Last February, former home secretary Sajid Javid banned Hezbollah's political wing. The military wing had previously been proscribed by the last Labour government. In April, Germany followed suit and announced it was fully proscribing Hezbollah. The Netherlands is the only other EU country to ban Hezbollah in its entirety. Read full article

Essential Reading

"Mysterious" incidents in Iran could provoke regime to confront Israel
Amos Harel

Data shows where Israelis contract the coronavirus
Jonathan Lis

Knesset approves bill to ban conversion therapy
Tzvi Joffre

Labour’s reputation cannot be restored simply by saying "sorry"
Mike Creighton

The "antisemite Ernest Bevin" and the day Britain recognised the State of Israel
Ronnie Fraser

Montefiores risked cholera, quarantine for 19th-century Holy Land Jews
Sally Style

Good news: A new international fund for peace-building in Israel and Palestine
Ron Kronish

Israeli researchers trial new blood filtering cancer treatment
Mathilde Frot

Tweet of the Week

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