LFI Key Issues: Israel's new government takes shape

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Analysis: Israel's new government takes shape
LFI News and Campaigns: LFI chair welcomes Israeli-Palestinian cooperation to fight pandemic; LFI chair calls for new chapter in Labour's internationalist tradition; Watch our video about LFI's work
This Week: Pompeo drops few hints on annexation during brief Israel trip; Israel agrees to advance cash to PA to assist coronavirus fallout; Coronavirus cases fall in Israel, recoveries include two Holocaust survivors
Essential Reading: How How Keir Starmer can forge a new chapter in Labour’s internationalist tradition; Let us be social democrats. There is a way back for the Israeli Labour party; Why Netanyahu will never annex West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley; The real victims of the International Criminal Court's obsession With Israel; Doctors and nurses suffered as Iran ignored virus concerns; "You’re my only son, I have nothing," fallen soldier’s father weeps; BICOM staffers book and film lockdown recommendations
Tweet of the Week: Remembering John Smith

Analysis
Israel's new government takes shape

The painstaking process of assembling a new Israeli government is due to culminate in its swearing-in tomorrow.

Israel has had a caretaker government since late 2018 when the first of three closely fought, inconclusive elections was triggered.

The third of those elections in early March eventually led to a “unity government” coalition deal between Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of the centrist Blue and White alliance, Benny Gantz. That agreement triggered fury and the splintering of Blue and White, although Gantz will be joined in the new government by the Israeli Labor party, which has secured two key portfolios: the economy and social welfare ministries.

The coalition agreement will see the premiership rotate between Netanyahu and Gantz, with the prime minister remaining in office until next autumn when he will hand the reins to the former IDF chief. Netanyahu will, however, go on trial later this month on multiple corruption charges, having abandoned his previous attempts to pass legislation which would have granted him immunity from prosecution. Gantz had previously insisted he would not serve in government alongside an indicted Netanyahu, however after March’s deadlocked election he softened his stance and demanded only that the prime minister not attempt again to stop the trial going ahead.

The new agreement will, however, allow Netanyahu to bring a vote to the cabinet and Knesset any time after 1 July to begin the process of annexing parts of the West Bank assigned to Israel by Donald Trump’s “peace plan”. It is not yet clear, though, whether the US will demand that the annexation of settlements and the Jordan Valley – which will total roughly 30 percent of the West Bank – be accompanied, as the plan requires, by Israeli agreement to begin negotiating an independent Palestinian state on the remaining territory.

Some commentators have suggested that, despite his seeming enthusiasm for annexation, Netanyahu primarily sees the issue in terms of shoring up his right-wing voter base and won’t have the time or inclination to pursue it. Polls show that fewer than half of Israelis support annexation and less than one-third believe it will go ahead in the next year.

Breaking on the right

The new Israeli government is likely to be less right wing than that Netanyahu has led over the past five years. The pro-settler Yamina alliance – which includes the Jewish Home party which has anchored the right-wing of Netanyahu’s previous governments – now looks set to move to the opposition benches. Fearing being outflanked on the right, Netanyahu had been keen to keep the party – which is led by defence minister Naftali Bennett – in the government.

However, Yamina rejected his offer of the education and Jerusalem ministries, provoking a public spat between it and Likud. “Yamina decided to resign from the right-wing bloc,” Likud said in a statement on Tuesday which accused the alliance of demanding cabinet posts “which have no connection to his party’s electoral size, or to the priorities of religious Zionism”.

Yamina, in turn, has launched a broadside against Netanyahu which prefigures what is likely to be constant right-wing sniping from the opposition. “Due to the make-up of the government and its likely policy as a left-wing government headed by Netanyahu, and in light of the prime minister's outright disdain towards Yamina and its voters, [we] have decided to serve the public from the opposition,” the alliance said. Yamina had provided a number of highly controversial ministers in Netanyahu’s previous government, including education minister Rafi Peretz and transport minister Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich assailed Netanyahu on Monday evening as showing a “patronising, condescending and disrespectful” attitude toward the religious right. Highlighting Yamina’s future likely lines of attack, he called Likud’s right-wing policies “mediocre,” its diplomacy “acquiescent,” its attitude toward the justice system “weak and submissive,” and its positions on issues of Jewish identity “dithering”.

Divvying up the jobs

In the run-up to the swearing-in of the government, the parties entering the new administration have been divvying up posts and ministries. The task is particularly complex for Netanyahu: Likud had 15 ministers in the outgoing government but will have only 10 in the new one. Moreover, despite its greater strength in the Knesset, the government’s right-wing parties – Likud and his ultra-Orthodox allies – will have equal representation with its centrist and left-wing members. Thus, in line with the coalition agreement, half the cabinet will come from the 53-seat right-wing bloc. The remaining 50 percent of posts, however, will be shared between parties with 19 seats; 16 Blue and White MKs, two from Derech Eretz – a break-away from Blue and White – and two from Labor. This has made Gantz’s task considerably easier. The former opposition leader will become defence minister and deputy prime minister and his close ally Gabi Ashkenazi will become foreign minister. Gantz has also secured the key “democracy” ministries – justice, communications and culture – which many on the Israeli left believe Likud and its right-wing allies had sought to manipulate for their own ends.

On Netanyahu’s side, Likud will receive the finance ministry (which will be taken by outgoing foreign minister Yirsael Katz), transportation, energy and environmental affairs. This gives the prime minister control over the energy and infrastructure sectors. Crucially, this allows Likud to hold sway over ministries that affect business and the unions. But the transportation and energy ministries are also responsible for a relatively large number of state-owned companies, providing ample opportunity for political patronage. As Haaretz noted, transport and energy also offer the chance for Netanyahu to associate himself with politically popular new infrastructure projects such as the Tel Aviv Light Rail and the Jerusalem railroad electrification. Likud also has strong links to workers at Israel’s ports, airports and railways – as well as taxi drivers – and the prime minister will be keen to ensure that their voices are heard in the new government.

As he seeks to keep Likud’s big beasts in order and reduce his party’s share of top government ministries, Netanyahu is also looking overseas. On Monday, he announced that public security minister Gilad Erdan would be appointed Israel’s new ambassador to the US and the United Nations. It is the first time since Abba Eban’s tenure in the 1970s that Israel has rolled the two high-profile postings together. Netanyahu will also get to appoint ambassadors to the UK, France and Australia for the duration of the government’s time in office, raising speculation that he will seek to move former Likud ministers into Israel’s most prestigious embassies abroad. Gantz will, however, appoint his own ambassador to the US once he becomes prime minister.

Netanyahu's position will be strengthened by the news that Likud MK and former tourist minister Yariv Levin will become speaker of the Knesset. The post was held on an interim basis by Gantz as a means to exercise leverage over Netanyahu. As speaker, Gantz had the power to allow legislation to proceed which would have effectively barred Netanyahu from the premiership by preventing an indicted individual from forming a government. Former speaker Yuli Edelstein, who was engaged in a fierce constitutional clash with Israel's Supreme Court in late March, will become health minister. Despite pressure from Likud, Gantz vetoed Edelstein's return to the post of speaker.

Supreme Court green light

Netanyahu and Gantz cleared the last remaining major hurdle to the formation of the government last week when Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a series of petitions designed to frustrate it. After two days of hearings, the court ruled that Netanyahu’s indictment did not disqualify him from forming a government (all other government ministers in Israel have to stand down if they are indicted). The court’s verdict effectively said it was not for the judiciary to step in and override the will of the Knesset and, through it, the voters. “An indictment pending against an MK does not preclude assigning him the task of forming a government and, deriving from that, his appointment as the prime minister,” the court ruled. “The decision to ask the president to assign the task of forming the government on a member of Knesset is a decision that involves the use of broad political judgment. It is designed to translate the voters’ wishes into support for one of the members of Knesset to serve as prime minister. That is at the heart of the democratic process. External intervention in that process constitutes a substantive blow to the principle of majority rule, which is at the foundation of our system of government.”

The court also unanimously ruled that while, in the words of chief justice Esther Hayut, the coalition agreement was “highly unusual” and some of its elements “raise serious difficulties,” there currently were no grounds to justify the court’s intervention in any of its provisions. That decision followed partial revisions to the agreement, and the clarifications that were provided by the Blue and White and the Likud, after the two-day hearing. Principal among the changes was extending the term of the next government from three to four years (the normal term of an Israeli government). This will mean that Netanyahu and Gantz will serve for another six months each after their original 18 months rotation.

This, of course, assumes the government lasts four years. But with many Israelis convinced that Netanyahu will attempt to wriggle out of handing over the premiership to Gantz next autumn, that itself remains highly doubtful.

LFI News and Campaigns

LFI chair welcomes Israeli-Palestinian cooperation to fight pandemic

LFI's chair Steve McCabe welcomed cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to fight the coronavirus pandemic during Foreign Office questions in parliament this week. Addressing Foreign Office minister James Cleverly, McCabe said: "Will he join me in welcoming the news that Israel has approved a $230 million advance payment to the Palestinian Authority, alongside coronavirus test kits, intensive care beds, ventilators, drugs and protective equipment? Is that not exactly the kind of behaviour we should welcome and encourage?"

LFI chair calls for new chapter in Labour's internationalist tradition

LFI chair Steve McCabe has called for Keir Starmer to "open a new chapter in Labour’s internationalist tradition". Writing for the Progress website, McCabe outlines five steps to tackle anti-Zionist antisemitism and "move on from the stark, binary and divisive debates which have characterised Labour’s approach over the past five years". Read the full article here.

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.

This Week

Pompeo drops few hints on annexation during brief Israel trip
Mike Pompeo gave away little during a brief visit to Jerusalem today about whether the Trump administration will insist that Israel opens talks on the establishment of a Palestinian state in returning for annexing parts of the West Bank. "We’ll get a chance also to talk about the 'Vision for Peace'," he told Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the administration’s peace plan unveiled in January. "There remains work yet to do, and we need to make progress on that. I am looking forward to it," he said before the two men began their meeting. US media last week reported that the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman told aides of the Israeli prime minister at a recent meeting "the US wants to implement a peace plan, not an annexation plan". Donald Trump' plan, published in January, says in return for annexing settlements and the Jordan Valley, Israel must agree to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state on 70 percent of the West Bank. The coalition deal negotiated by Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz last month allows the prime minister to bring a vote on annexation to the cabinet and Knesset any time after 1 July. Israel's Channel 13 reported a senior US official issuing a warning to the Palestinians, saying: "If the Palestinians continue to sit on the sidelines and don’t come to negotiate, that is going to have negative repercussions from their perspective and will make it easier for us to make decisions vis-à-vis Israeli annexation."
Read full article

Israel agrees to advance cash to PA to assist coronavirus fallout
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed a deal this week aimed at easing pressure on the Palestinian economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Israel will loan the PA up to $230m, an advance on the taxes it collects on behalf of Ramallah. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel collects taxes on Palestinian imports and exports, and then transfers the cash to the PA each month. These transfers cover a sizeable chunk of the Palestinian government’s budget. However, the PA is expecting a sharp fall in tax revenue due to the lockdown. Under the agreement, starting in June and for the next four months, Israel will top up any shortfall in the taxes it transfers to the PA. The total sum advanced will be deducted from later tax transfers once the Palestinian economy has recovered from the effects of the pandemic and the PA's revenue streams revive. The PA had lost over 50 percent of its revenue and has been unable to pay the full salaries of its public sector employees. Last month, the World Bank warned that the Palestinian economy could contract by 2.5 percent in 2020 if the outbreak was brought under control within four months. If not, it predicted, Palestinian GDP could shrink by more than seven percent this year. Israel and the PA have been coordinating their response to the pandemic closely. Israel has also given the PA coronavirus test kits and swabs from its own stockpiles and has held training sessions for PA medical staff.
Read full article

Coronavirus cases fall in Israel, recoveries include two Holocaust survivors
Israel today recorded its lowest increase in new coronavirus cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in early March. The Health Ministry said the total number of cases was 16,539, up 10 from Tuesday night’s figure. The death toll in Israel is now 262. Sixty-one people are still in a serious condition, 51 of whom are on ventilators. The number of Israelis reported to have recovered from the virus also continues to grow, reaching 12,173 on Wednesday morning, an increase of 43. Among those who have recovered were Holocaust survivor Feige Leibovitz, who turns 97 tomorrow. Sara Itzinger, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor, also recovered from the virus this week and was sent home from hospital. There are, however, fears of a spike in infections after thousands of ultra-Orthodox men gathered on Monday night and Tuesday in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh and Mount Meron to celebrate the Jewish religious holiday of Lag B’Omer. The men has gathered in violation of guidelines. Over 200 people were arrested by police at an illegal gathering in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening. Yesterday, the Palestinian Authority announced that, for the fifth day in a row, there have been no new coronavirus diagnoses in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The recovery rate is close to 70 percent, the PA said. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 547 people tested positive; two people have died. In the Gaza Strip, 20 people were diagnosed, 14 of which recovered.
Read full article

Essential Reading

How Keir Starmer can forge a new chapter in Labour’s internationalist tradition
Steve McCabe

Let us be social democrats. There is a way back for the Israeli Labour party
Tal Harris

Why Netanyahu will never annex West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley
Anshel Pfeffer

The real victims of the International Criminal Court's obsession With Israel
Justice Professor Elyakim Rubinstein and Brandon Silver

Doctors and nurses suffered as Iran ignored virus concerns
Maggie Michael

"You’re my only son, I have nothing," fallen soldier’s father weeps
Times of Israel

BICOM staffers book and film lockdown recommendations
Fathom

And don't forget ...

LFI’s #StayHomeSaveLives Recommendations

Since the start of the lockdown, we've been tweeting recommendations of some brilliant Israeli books, TV shows and films to keep you entertained whilst we #StayHomeSaveLives. Follow the recommendations as they’re released on our twitter account.

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