JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Israel elects new mayors

By Uriel Heilman · November 11, 2008

Israelis went to the polls today to elect mayors and city councils around the country.

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The coming winter

By Uriel Heilman · October 17, 2008

What does the U.S. economic crisis mean for Israel? Mainly, that the government in Jerusalem won’t be able to bug a distracted Washington too much about threats to Israel’s security, writes Aluf Benn in Ha’aretz:

In the long run, a resilient America will be of greater help than anything else to Israel’s security-related and international standing. Obama will aspire to improve the status and image of the U.S. internationally, after the nadir reached under Bush’s eight years in office. That effort will oblige him to take an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, if only to placate those who supported him in his run for the presidency. Israel will have to be careful not to give the impression that it is hampering Obama’s foreign policy, like a kind of vestige from the Bush period. Accordingly, Jerusalem will have to shy away from moves that will look like provocations in the international arena, such as authorizing extensive building in the settlements, at least until it becomes clear who Obama is and how he is going about the business of being president.

Obama will not have time on his hands to mediate between Israel and the Arabs. He will have to decide whether to appoint a special presidential emissary to the region. Perhaps someone like Richard Holbrooke, who mediated between the factions in former Yugoslavia, with rich experience, a broad mandate and an open line to the White House. The Israelis and Palestinians have neutralized quite a few such mediators in the past, and can succeed in doing the same with the next emissary, but, as in the case of Rice, they will have to go about it very carefully, without offending the new president.

Livni will find it difficult to depend on the Jewish establishment in the U.S., which for the most part worked against Obama. She will need a close liaison with the president. Perhaps Lester Crown, the 82-year-old Chicago billionaire, who was one of Obama’s first Jewish supporters in the primaries against Hillary Clinton. Crown is closely connected to Israel, takes an interest in its strategic problems, and will undoubtedly be able to intervene at moments of crisis.

And crises there will be. Israel’s strategic arena is fraught with points of friction that are liable to erupt at any moment: Hezbollah’s threatened revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the renewal of rocket fire from Gaza, a third intifada in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians and much more. How the new leaders here and in Washington handle these problems will determine their place in history.

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Livni’s mandate

By Uriel Heilman · September 18, 2008

As Israeli pundits are falling over themselves to point out, Tzipi Livni’s mandate to serve as Israel’s next prime minister came solely from the mere 17,000 people who voted for her in yesterday’s primary.

Here are some of the different ways they are illustrating this point:

More people will arrive at the Yarkon Park to see Paul McCartney perform than the number of people who bothered to show up at poling stations in order to elect the person who may become Israel’s next prime minister. This is the bothersome fact that emerged from the Kadima primaries, which ended up culminating in a tight race. A total of 0.5% percent of the public – this is the mandate received by a leader during one of the most fateful and complex periods in the State of Israel’s history.  – Sima Kadmon, Ynet

A decade ago, she was a fairly anonymous public sector official, at the helm of the Government Companies’ Authority, a post to which she was appointed - ironically, given the challenge she now presents to his ambitions - by Likud leader and then-prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. She barely scraped into the Knesset for the first time in 1999 - 18th of the 19 Likud members who made it. Rapidly promoted all the way to foreign minister, she was truly tested only during the Second Lebanon War two years ago; her ostensible diplomatic achievements have proved significantly less than compelling. And now look at her, a mere Olmertian resignation away from the prime ministership.  – David Horovitz, Jerusalem Post

She began nine years ago as head of the Government Corporations Authority, and now she is a step away from being head of the government. All her previous posts came to her because of a rare combination of circumstances. A junior minister under Sharon, she was promoted to justice minister after Shinui left the cabinet, and, eventually, foreign minister after Ariel Sharon fell ill. On Wednesday, she was elected Kadima chairman by some 20,000 voters. Ninet Tayeb needed ten times that to win the “A Star is Born” television talent show.  – Yossi Verter, Ha’aretz

If the Israeli punditry has a problem with the size of Livni’s mandate, why did they set the Kadima winner up for this scenario by excoriating Ehud Olmert in the press until he resigned, thereby forcing this strange election? Olmert may well prove to be guilty of corruption, but Israeli media didn’t bother to wait for evidence.

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Talansky’s tale

By Uriel Heilman · September 17, 2008

New York magazine’s feature story on how Morris Talansky, a macher from the Five Towns of Long Island, brought down the prime minister of Israel, is called “Morris and Udi: A Story of Unrequited Love.”

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Israel votes (well, some Israelis)

By Uriel Heilman · September 17, 2008

Israelis (actually, just Kadima members) went to the polls Wednesday to choose the man (or woman) who will be the next prime minister of Israel (or not, depending on whether the winner can put together a coalition government), finally ending the Ehud Olmert era (though not exactly, since Olmert will stay on as caretaker prime minister until someone can put together a coalition government).

In any case, on this big day for Israel (sort of), here’s what the Israeli papers are saying (the ones that publish in English, that is):

• Aluf Benn in Ha’aretz: The question for the winner isn’t so much how s/he will deal with the reality of Israeli politics and the challenges of coalition partners, but how the new prime minister will deal with international friends and foes.
• The Jerusalem Post editorialists: Can Kadima really provide a third-way alternative to Likud and Labor? It’s a lot easier to explain where Kadima came from than what it stands for. Attila Somfalvi of Ynet adds: In order to survive, Kadima must prove that it truly wants to change Israeli politics.
• Guy Bechor in Ynet: The Arab world is fascinated by the Israeli people’s ability to topple its leader, since that’s impossible in the Arab world without a bloody revolution that leaves society in tatters.
• Gil Hoffman in the Jerusalem Post: What would Ariel Sharon think?



Results should be in the wee hours of Thursday morning Israel time (Wednesday evening in New York).

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The Olmert indictment recommendation

By Uriel Heilman · September 8, 2008

The recommendation by Israeli police that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted doesn’t come as a great surprise.

Leaks last week suggested the recommendation was coming, and the myriad police investigations of alleged Olmert corruption virtually guaranteed the police would recommend an indictment on one charge or another. After all, it would look very bad for the police not to do so after months-long probes that resulted in Olmert’s resignation.

Now it’s up to Israel’s attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, to decide whether or not actually to indict Olmert – for wrongdoing, it should be noted, allegedly committed before Olmert became prime minister.

This wouldn’t be the first time Israeli police recommended indicting a sitting Israeli prime minister; that happened as recently as 1997 to Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, state prosecutors rejected the police recommendation, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Netanyahu for influence-peddling.

In this case, there are few political ramifications to this news, since Olmert already declared he is resigning his post.

But there has been plenty of reaction in the Israeli press – most focusing on the way the news broke:

• Yossi Verter wrote a colorful account in Ha’aretz of the day’s back-and-forth.
  
• Judge Eliyahu Winograd (of the Winograd Commission that investigated the 2006 Lebanon war) said investigators over-stepped their bounds against Olmert, particularly in timing their announcement to maximize coverage on the evening’s nightly news broadcasts, Ynet reports.
• A source told The Jerusalem Post that Olmert will stay on as prime minister even if he’s indicted.

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Huckabee on Jerusalem

By Uriel Heilman · August 19, 2008

JTA Israel correspondent Dina Kraft interviews former Gov. Mike Huckabee during his two-day visit to Israel.

The former GOP presidential candidate is visiting Israel courtesy of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, the U.S. fund-raising arm for Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish organization that buys Arab properties in eastern Jerusalem to boost the Jewish presence in Arab neighborhoods of the city.

Critics say organizations like Ateret Cohanim are an obstacle to peace, making it more difficult for the Israeli and Palestinians to divide sovereignty over Jerusalem.

But Huckabee says bringing Jews into Arab neighborhoods is good for eastern Jerusalem. He also says he doubts a two-state solution ever will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Star spangled tangle

By Daniel Sieradski · August 6, 2008

We just received a call here at JTA’s marketing department about an ad for the Jewish Chaplains Council, depicted at right, which runs in our Daily Briefing email newsletter. The caller, who identified herself only as a “well-connected Republican,” took umbrage with the display of the American flag upon the soldier’s uniform, which she claimed was “backwards,” and demanded that we explain our purported desecration of the flag.

After my co-worker politely explained that we were not responsible for the content of the advertisement and that there was no harm intended on JTA’s part, the issue was brought to my attention.

I quickly noted that as a long-time volunteer in my father’s Jewish War Veterans post and, therefore as someone who, in his day, has hung his fair share of American flags, I know quite well that the U.S. flag, when displayed on the right shoulder of a soldier’s uniform, is intentionally worn in reverse.

As explained on the Web site of military uniform retailer Marlow White:

The blue field of stars should always be in the highest position of honor. When viewing the flag on a wall, the highest position of honor is the upper left when displayed horizontally, and at the top (upper left) when displayed vertically. When displayed on a “moving object” like a person or vehicle, the highest position of honor is the front, and not the rear; so the field of blue should be displayed to the front.

Though another co-worker, JTA managing editor Uriel Heilman, has urged me to temper my snarkiness, I must insist that if you are going to call into question the patriotism of our news organization over such trivialities, at least know the protocols that you accuse us of violating. Oh, and of course, also make sure that we’re the ones supposedly violating them. In this case, it was a coalition of American Jewish military chaplains, who we all know hate America.

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The campaign begins

By Uriel Heilman · August 1, 2008

Hardly a day passed after Olmert’s resignation announcement Wednesday and Israel already was entering the thick of an election campaign.

Benjamin Netanyahu called for immediate general elections, Ehud Barak touted his own credentials and Kadima’s Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz prepared to do battle to succeed Olmert (with consultants Eyal Arad helping Livni and Arthur Finkelstein on Mofaz’s team).

• Is the Sephardic Mofaz the Barack Obama of Israel, and Livni the Hillary Clinton? Hardly, writes Amir Oren of Ha’aretz.
  
• Will this election again be just about national security, or will the candidates also offer a domestic vision for Israel, asks columnist Amotz Asa-el in his open letter to Livni, published in the Jerusalem Post.
• The malaise in Israel’s leadership extends far beyond Ehud Olmert, writes David Kimche in the Jerusalem Post.
• And Ha’aretz’s Yoel Marcus warns against rushing to new general elections: “This country needs early elections like a hole in the head.”

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Iran’s ‘praposel’

By Uriel Heilman · July 22, 2008

Here’s the proposal Iran offered at nuclear talks in Geneva: A lot more talking.

The Iranian proposal, ”The Modality for Comrehensive Negotiations (None paper),” was riddled with spelling errors, elicited laughs from the Russian deputy foreign minister and dismay from the U.S. secretary of state, according to The New York Times.

The paper proposed seven more meetings, but no talk of halting uranium enrichment.

“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran on Monday that it could not continue to ‘stall’ and she warned of more sanctions if it defied a two-week deadline to accept the proposal,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the Times’ Helene Cooper suggests that the White House’s approach to Iran, a member of the so-called axis of evil, is schizophrenic:

A senior administration official described the Iran policy as “erratic,” while a European diplomat said, “It does seem a bit schizophrenic.”

Abbas Milani, an Iran expert at Stanford University who has advised the Bush administration, echoed the sentiment. “I don’t understand what they’re doing,” Mr. Milani said. Ms. Rice’s “provocative acts and words” on Monday could derail any chance that Iran’s leaders might reward the Bush concession on talks by suspending uranium enrichment, he said…

Some national security hawks have been sharply critical of the latest moves toward Iran and North Korea.

“The metaphor to look at is intellectual collapse,” said John R. Bolton, the Bush administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations. “It’s not even a carefully staged retreat. Instead, it’s just a sign to the Iranians that toward the end of the administration, they’re desperate to sign deals.”

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