Netanyahu Manages to Form New Israeli Government
Source: New York Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel managed to form a new government just ahead of the legal deadline Wednesday night, and will start his fourth term with the slimmest parliamentary majority, made up of right-leaning and religious politicians.
Shortly before 11 p.m., Mr. Netanyahu appeared with the head of the Jewish Home faction, Naftali Bennett, and informed reporters that they had sealed the deal, though it was unclear whether the prime minister had yet informed President Reuven Rivlin, as required by law.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/world/middleeast/likud-jewish-home-party-negotiate-on-forming-israel-coalition.html?emc=edit_na_20150506
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)dballance
(5,756 posts)karynnj
(59,519 posts)This is the first time I seriously followed the coalition building. It seems that Netanyahu led a very nasty process that likely leads to a lot of ill will and he has formed a very right wing ultra orthodox government with many leaders willing to be very public in their dislike for Netanyahu and each other. Hopefully, it will fall very quickly leading to new elections.
He has a 61 member coalition - the minimum possible - and to get it he gave up some real dangerous concessions.
To UTJ, all the concessions to the ultra Orthodox - essentially rolling back all reforms that Yesh Ativ had pushed -- will be hated by the majority secular Jews -- all to get the 6 seats that represented about 5% of the country.
Leaks from the coalition agreement signed last week between Likud and United Torah Judaism, which has yet to be officially publicized, attest to an unprecedented achievement by UTJ of recognition of the ultra-Orthodox education systems both in budgetary and legal terms. In effect, UTJ demanded, and apparently received, complete equality between the Haredi and state education systems, although the Haredim do not teach the core curriculum and administer the mandatory exams, are not subject to supervision, offer no formal teacher training and, of course, discriminate between students. If Likud really did approve their demands, it means that a large percentage of Israels official educational requirements will be emptied of content.
<snip>
Forget about the money, said Piron. The serious problem with the coalition agreement is bringing about a cultural change in the State of Israel by means of a political agreement a change in conversion, burial, marriage, the status of the religious courts, the status of the Haredi schools. By means of a political situation they are changing the face of the nation. I think that in two to three years the Haredi community will realize the extent of the mistake it is now making: This is an exaggerated, almost swinish list of demands, which undermines the Jewish identity of the State of Israel and will therefore cause the secular community to rise up against it. Whats more, all the positive processes that have begun in the Haredi community will be nipped in the bud.
<snip>
An additional demand that was accepted is to require local authorities to carry out construction in ultra-Orthodox schools at their expense (the Nahari Law) once again this overturns the distinction between an official and an unofficial school. Another demand is to resume payment of a guaranteed income to yeshiva students, although the High Court of Justice ruled that this is discrimination since college and university students are not eligible for similar support.
<snip>
The agreement apparently also includes renewed funding for Haredim from abroad studying in Israeli yeshivas. Piron says this is absurd, because the Haredim have begun to bring yeshiva students from abroad to Israel, with full government financing, under the conditions of the Taglit-Birthright project. This amounts to an annual budget of 100 million shekels ($27.5 million), a third of which goes to one yeshiva, the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.654763
And giving to Bennett's far right party the Justice ministry is not a good thing - even if its power is limited by Netanyahu. It is interesting that one of the MOST EXTREME members of the party, Uri Ariel is demanding it for himself ---- or he might leave -- which brings the coalition to 60 -- one short. http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.655178
As an American Jew, I see this as an Israeli government absolutely at odds with liberal diaspora Jews - in having the left most included party being a splinter from Likud! To make things worse, all past gains of the non orthodox community will be reversed. Not good at all -- so I guess the good news is that it is seems unstable and any single member can bring it down.
What I don't know is whether these agreements as written have to be adhered to.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)BillZBubb
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