Israel media review

Waiting for the end to come: 6 things to know for October 15

The Knesset session is expected to end at any time with new elections called, and Khan al-Ahmar nervously awaits Israeli bulldozers that will spell the Bedouin hamlet’s doom

By Joshua Davidovich 15 October 2018, 1:48 pm
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Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor

An Israeli army bulldozer passes by protesters flying Palestinian flags and chant anti Israel slogans while they try to block the traffic on the highway passing near the West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar on September 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
An Israeli army bulldozer passes by protesters flying Palestinian flags and chant anti Israel slogans while they try to block the traffic on the highway passing near the West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar on September 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

1. Snap poll decision: The Knesset’s winter session kicks off Monday, but most analysts expect it to last a few weeks at most, with the parliament being quickly disbanded and early elections called in time for them to take place in the early spring.

  • The most likely culprit for bringing down the coalition was expected to be the law regulating the military draft among the ultra-Orthodox community, but on Sunday the ultra-Orthodox UTJ faction said it would not make it a hill to die on, underlining jitters among some coalition partners over what new elections could do to their chances of remaining in power.
  • The dispute over the law was seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s way of calling new elections without being seen as dismantling the government for personal reasons. “By all assessments, the prime minister is interested in moving up elections — because of his strong standings in the polls and his chance to be elected to a fresh term before he is indicted — but is not interested in making himself out to be the one who takes apart the government,” Yedioth Ahronoth notes.
  • Israel Hayom writes that with the Haredi party choosing to go the direction of compromise, the “ball is back in Netanyahu’s court.” In language blunt given the fact that the paper is seen as a Netanyahu mouthpiece, columnist Moti Tochfeld writes that the prime minister is being told “he’ll need to find another excuse for early elections.”
  • It doesn’t mean early elections won’t happen, though. MK David Bitan, a close Netanyahu ally, tells Army Radio Monday that the coalition will not last until November 2019, guessing elections will take place in March or April. “We can’t hold the coalition like this,” he says. (More on that interview lower down.)

2. Khan al-Ahmar sees another sunrise: The coalition isn’t the only thing expected to be dismantled at any moment. Many had thought Monday would be judgment day for the Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar, but the bulldozers had not shown up by the time the sun rose on October 15.

  • Monday morning did see one bulldozer show up there, leading to low-level clashes and four people arrested, a likely preview of the larger evacuation and demolition set to come at any time.
  • It’s unclear if the equipment was just being set up for later or was there to destroy some sort of water structure or help fix a sewage leak, but pictures show people trying to stop it as it rolls through dirty water.

3. Thank goodness it’s not Friday: Surprisingly, Netanyahu’s threat of “powerful blows” against Gaza if cross-border violence doesn’t cease hasn’t brought much confidence that Israel’s troubles with the Strip have ended.

  • Haaretz reports that the military is reluctantly gearing up for a wide conflict with the Strip.
  • A senior defense official tells the paper that the army fears the government will order a wide-scale offensive before an underground system to detect and block tunnels is completed, something they would prefer to avoid. Given the terrible humanitarian situation there right now, the army also thinks a war now would bring an unprecedented amount of international criticism on Jerusalem.
  • They have until Friday to get their ducks in a row. “The IDF understands that there is pressure from politicians to do something and that events at the border fence are escalating, which is why there will be a situation assessment before Friday, when thousands of demonstrators are once again expected at the border. The Southern Command is preparing for soldiers to respond more forcefully at the border and will set clearer boundaries for those who approach the fence. It’s possible that the no-entry area near the border will be enlarged or that more care will be taken to prevent breaches of the type that occurred this past Friday,” the paper’s Yaniv Kubovich reports.
  • Reflecting the frustrations driving those politicians to push the army into war, Yedioth’s Yossi Yehoshua writes frustratingly of the weekend chaos/ weekday calm cycle on the Gaza border, chiding Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman for talking tough and then giving Hamas another chance to prove it can keep calm.
  • “And you wonder why Hamas and the Israeli public don’t believe you. Anyone who really wanted to attack Hamas would have done so last Friday against present and legitimate targets and would not wait until Sunday morning to threaten and then fold on Sunday evening,” he writes.

4. Netanyahu/Bitan v. the IDF: The dispute between the army and the government regarding Gaza came into even sharper focus thanks to comments by Bitan, often seen as Netanyahu’s attack dog, blaming IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot for the troubles with Gaza.

  • Bitan tells Army Radio Monday morning that Eisenkot is to blame for Israel losing its deterrent power against Hamas, and says the army is tying the government’s hands by refusing to recommend a military option.
  • “The army could give a military solution but it doesn’t want to. If it’s not possible to have an arrangement we need to find other ways.”
  • Haaretz’s Kubovich notes on Twitter that Bitan made similar comments the night before, confirming that this was not an off-the-cuff rant but a planned attack.
  • Hadashot news notes that Bitan has come under attack over the comments against Eisenkot from both the coalition and opposition. Notably, some in the opposition go straight past Bitan to Netanyahu.
  • “There is no greater chutzpah,” Yesh Atid’s Ofer Shelah is quoted saying. “The one who determines the targets and tells the army what to do is the politicians and the scared and idea-less politicians cannot hide behind the army. That’s been clear from the start of the state, but not to Bibi, for whom there is no person or institution he won’t put down in order to avoid responsibility.”

5. Women under fire: Both major tabloids Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom splash an incident in which a policeman apparently murdered his wife in Netanya on their front pages, playing up the policeman’s call to an emergency number, telling them “I killed my wife.”

  • The murder is the second time a husband is suspected of killing his wife in Netanya in under a week, and galvanizes activists for gun control and protecting women from domestic abuse.
  • “We are uniting and fighting for our lives,” actress Yael Abekasis tells Yedioth. “Because the blood of women is not worthless and because we’ve crossed every possible boundary. [The two murders] should worry all of us.”
  • The paper reports that Abekasis is one of three women pushing a campaign for women to stop what they are doing at 11 a.m. on Thursday and dedicate their thoughts and actions to victims of domestic abuse.
  • On gun control, Israel Hayom quotes the activist group Gun In the Kitchen, which calls for fewer weapons in the public sphere: “This murder, in which a service gun was used, proves what we have been saying for a long time already — more guns in the public space is a real threat to the lives of women and a cause of death.”

6. Finking on the stoolies: Haaretz reports on some new details about Canary Mission, the shady outfit that tattles on anti-Israel activists or left-wingers, though the “expose” exposes little more than the fact that another far-right Jew is connected to it, and that the main guy already exposed as running the shell corporation that keeps everything hidden also has another company.

  • The paper reports that Ben Packer, a pro-Kahane rabbi who runs the Jerusalem Heritage House, is a shareholder in Megamot Shalom, a body run by Jonathan Bash that funnels funds to Canary Mission.
  • Heritage House is maybe best known recently for its bizarre blacklist that banned not only The Times of Israel from its hallowed Jerusalem hostel, but also Bette Midler, Jon Stewart, CNN and the head of the ADL.
  • The paper also notes that Bash also runs a company called Royal Research, which provides “research, data collection and website preparation services,” according to the paper, but is pretty much not active.
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