Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman listed five conditions on Sunday for his party to join a coalition, of which four out of five relate to matters of religion and state. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz quickly agreed to all the conditions.
Liberman’s conditions are:
1. Stipends and income support for the elderly would be at least 70% of the minimum wage.
2. Public transportation and business activity on Shabbos will be controlled by local authorities rather than government ministries.
3. Legislation for increasing Chareidi enlistment in the IDF which was approved in the 20th Knesset will be passed.
4. Legislation for civil marriage in Israel will be passed.
5. Local rabbanim will be allowed to establish their own courts for giyur to ease the conversion process.
A short while later, Gantz, who is planning on attempting to form a minority government with Labor-Gesher-Meretz with the outside support of Yisrael Beiteinu and the Arab Joint List, accepted all of Liberman’s demands, tweeting: “Agreed. We must move forward.”
מוסכם. חייבים להתקדם.@AvigdorLiberman pic.twitter.com/YRV7plooHX
— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 8, 2020
Meanwhile, Balad, the most extreme party on the Arab Joint List, published a list of its conditions to support Gantz, including a peace process, a change in status for Israel’s Arab population, annulment of discriminatory laws, economic improvements for Israeli Arabs and the annulment of the Nation-State Law and Kaminitz Law [a law passed to enforce violations of building and planning laws, a routine issue in the Arab population.]
The Arab nationalist Balad party was founded by Azmi Bishara, who fled to Qatar after spying for Hezbollah against Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War. Another ex-Balad member is Hanin Zoabi who has called for the dissolution of the state of Israel, was on the Mavi Marmara ship when passengers attacked IDF commandos and expressed support for Hamas during Operation Protective Edge. Basel Ghattas, another ex-Balad MK, was sentenced to prison last year for smuggling contraband to terrorists in Israeli prisons.
The report of Blue and White’s intention to ally with the Arab Joint List in order to oust Netanyahu was condemned by politicians on the right on Sunday, with Netanyahu saying: “This Purim the masks fell even before the chag.”
“Whoever decided to violate all red lines and promises and establish a government dependent on Ahmad Tibi, I wish them luck,” Jerusalem Affair Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said. “This is an astounding decision of Avigdor Liberman, who over many years convinced us that the MKs from the Joint List are a threat to us. Whoever wants to establish a government with the dual outside support of Tibi and Liberman in the current situation that the state is in – I’ll send him to a psychiatrist.”
שרשור פורים מישיבת הממשלה.
אלקין שולח את מי שרוצה להקים ממשלה בתמיכה של טיבי וליברמן לפסיכיאטר pic.twitter.com/tohw3ebsU1— עטרה גרמן Atara German (@ataragerman1) March 8, 2020
“Benny Gantz lacks political and public experience,” Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni said. “He prides himself on striving for unity, and at the same time announces that he is accepting the most difficult divisions in Israeli society and the delusional conditions of Liberman. We are sticking with our position that we won’t join them in any coalition and remain united in the right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
What it comes down to is whether one is for against traditional Judaism. While once Hareidim and Arabs worked together, Hareidim have been supporting anti-Arab legislation, with the result that the majority of Kenesset is now ready to crack down on Yiddishkeit. The concessions needed to get support for the Arab parties, e.g. breaking up the largely non-secular communities in the West Bank, are reasonable to the secular majority.
The religious-nationalist alliance, which was warned against by some gedolim, has proven counter productive. If you at the list list Lieberman produced, none of them will hurt the secular zionists or the Arabs, and in return, they will get access to much patronage. While in the past Lieberman was nationalistic, his supporters knew of his new position that fighting hareidim was to take priority of any other positions.
all I can say is that Hashem rules this world and this nonsense is just that nonsense___someone send Liberman back to where his birth certificate ranges from__
Lieberman will fall….. and hard! Their true colors show, they’ll stop at nothing. Join with the Arab List?! Are they insane?
Not only Leiberman, but all Ukrainian and Russian non-Jews, and also the Christian so-called Jews from Ethiopia need to be shipped back from where they came from ASAP.