It is Good to Give Thanks to the Lord

MK Avigdor Lieberman after his acquittal:

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This sums up the situation:

Lieberman has been a target of investigation by the State Attorney's Office for about 17 years, causing many to see him as a victim of political persecution by the state's legal system. Suspicions against him have come and gone, he has been questioned by police, and so have his relatives – but nothing "stuck" until last year, when charges were finally filed in the matter of Ben Aryeh.

One of the witnesses who testified against Lieberman was his former deputy, Danny Ayalon. Ayalon told the court that Lieberman had expressed preference for Ben Aryeh when the tender for ambassador was issued. This alleged fact, combined with Ben Aryeh's admission that he had leaked information about another investigation to Lieberman, were enough for the State Attorney to charge Lieberman with criminal behavior.

The judges found "problems" with Ayalon's testimony, which was given after Lieberman fired him as deputy minister.

Jerusalem Municipal Election Thoughts

His prayers were answered:

Nir Barkat was reelected. It was a tough race. Arye Deri and Avigdor Lieberman banded together to unseat Barkat. They thought that they found the man for the job: Moshe Lion. The idea was that all of the ultra-Orthodox community will unite behind the kippah-clad Lion. Many in the national religious camp would vote for him too, as he is "one of them". All that was needed was to convince enough seculars to desert Barkat, and the election would be in the bag.

The plan almost worked. However, the ultra-Orthodox public did not unite 100% for Lion. Some large Hasidic courts did not endorse him. The Bnei Torah faction even ran a candidate of their own for mayor. The final result is five more years of Barkat. Personally, I think that he has been a decent mayor and I hope that he will continue to be fair to all of the different sectors in Jerusalem.

In the council, it is interesting to note that the "United Jerusalem" faction got more mandates (2) than the Jewish Home (1). I hope that Naftali Bennett is paying attention: his attempt to force his cronies on the national religious public here was unsuccessful. I also have a feeling that many voted against the Jewish Home to protest the covenant on the national level with "Yesh Atid".

Rabbi Shmuel Orbach's Bnei Torah faction got a seat in the council which is no small feat. The Tov party, which is just a reincarnation of Po'alei Agudat Yisrael, did not get a seat. Too bad, I was rooting for them even thought I did not vote for them.

Jerusalem Municipal Elections

It;s election time again. Next Tuesday Jerusalem residents will have the opportunity to vote for the mayor and city council.

Unlike the last time around, I'm not to emotionally involved in these elections. I am not excited about voting for or against somebody. Nir Barkat turned out to be a pretty good mayor. As far as I can tell, he has dealt fairly with the various different population sectors here in Jerusalem.

Barkat's main rival in these elections is Moshe Leon. It has been said that politics makes strange bedfellows. Here in Israel, political arch-enemies Arye Deri and Avigdor Lieberman joined forces to run Moshe Leon against Barkat. Leon seems to be a decent guy, but he is an outsider (from Givatayim) who only recently moved here. It is hard for me to get excited about such a candidate, even if he wears a kippah on his head.

The elections for the council also leave very little to be excited about. The National Religious public is running under (at least) two parties. One party is the Bayit Yehudi. The other is the United Jerusalem list headed by Shmuel Shekedi and Arye King. United Torah Judaism has splintered into three different parties: UTJ, Bnei Torah and Tov. Shas remains united and I expect them to do well in the elections. Unity usually pays off.

Secular Coercion Will Fail (part 4)

The "draft drama" continues.

Yohanan Plesner and company did not get their way, so Kadima left the coalition:

The Kadima party has approved party head MK Shaul Mofaz’s proposal to leave the coalition. Three MKs voted against leaving.

Likud MKs accused Mofaz of leaving for political reasons. Mofaz said his party had to leave over disagreements with Likud over enlisting hareidi men to the IDF. However, Likud MKs said, Likud offered several proposals in the matter, and Mofaz rejected them all.

In the meantime, the ultra-Orthodox press revealed information about Plesner that was not known to the general public:

The Merkaz Inyanim newspaper did some checking into the background of Plesner, the man behind the committee, the champion of the “share the burden camp” and reports that the MKs father was not a Jew, but a Catholic from Denmark, a descendent of priests and bishops. The paper reports the MKs parents were married in a church.

You can see Yohanan's father, Ulrik, here.

The son of a gentile is hardly the man to decide the fate of Torah learning in Israel, according to the aforementioned press.

Then came Avigdor Lieberman's turn. He wants to draft everybody, including the Arabs. His bill took a whacking:

The Knesset on Wednesday killed a bill that would have mandated universal military service for all Israelis at age 18 – including Arabs and Hareidi-religious – by a vote of 74 to 22.

The bill from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu party would have made those who refuse to serve in the army or perform national service ineligible for funding from the State.

After the Knesset voted down the bill, Lieberman said "reality will do what the bill didn't. Right now were focusing on August 1 (the expiration of Tal Law)."

Indeed, August is less than two weeks away. Will the Knesset pass a bill which is acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox, or will we face chaos in less than two weeks? Time will tell.

Gilad Shalit Deal is a Criminal Mistake

Very bad news:

The Israeli cabinet voted late Tuesday night on the deal to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The vote came following a stormy meeting.

26 ministers supported the deal with only three – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau, and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon – voting against the deal.

First of all, kudos to Avigdor Lieberman, Uzi Landau, and Moshe Ya'alon for opposing the deal.

What happened to all the other ministers? Are they unaware of the fact that terrorists from past "exchanges" have murdered again?:

The former IDF chief rabbi claimed that Palestinian terrorists released since the 90's have, over the years murdered over a thousand Israelis in a long line of terror attacks and the defense establishment is aware of the possibility that "within just a few months the Shalit deal might blow up in our face in certain terror attacks, there is no 'maybe' about it.

He added that this wasn't his stance; rather it was the opinion of professionals in the field – including some with a left-wing outlook that is "very far from his own"

As to the question of whether there would not be a huge blow to morale among the troops on the Israeli side when soldiers know that the IDF won't necessarily do everything to rescue them from captivity, Ronsky said: "Just the opposite. They don't want to be exchanged for terrorists; they want to be rescued through a military operation."

This is truly a mistake of criminal proportions.

I would write more about this but Sukkot is on the way. I would not be surprised if the timing of this decision was intentional: Most of the nation is busy preparing for the holidays and we do not have time to protest this folly.

May God save us from the stupidity of our leaders. Chag Sameach!

Exit Poll Results

[Source]

Channel 1:

Likud: 28
Kadima: 30
Yisrael Beiteinu: 14
HaAvoda: 13
Shas: 9
HaIchud HaLeumi: 3
HaBayit HaYehudi: 4
Yahadut HaTorah: 5
Meretz :5
Arab Parties: 9

Channel 2:

Likud: 27
Kadima: 29
Yisrael Beiteinu: 15
HaAvoda: 13
Shas: 10
HaIchud HaLeumi: 3
HaBayit HaYehudi: 4
Yahadut HaTorah: 5
Meretz : 4
Arab Parties: 10

Channel 10:

Likud: 28
Kadima: 30
Yisrael Beiteinu: 15
HaAvoda: 13
Shas: 9
HaIchud HaLeumi: 3
HaBayit HaYehudi: 3
Yahadut HaTorah: 5
Meretz : 4
Arab Parties: 10

The bottom line is that Avigdor Lieberman will decide who will be the next Prime Minister.

Here is the current Knesset for comparison:

Current Knesset:

Likud: 12
Kadima: 29
Yisrael Beiteinu: 11
HaAvoda: 18
Shas: 12
HaIchud HaLeumi: 2
HaBayit HaYehudi: 5
Achi: 2
Agudat Yisrael: 4
Degel HaTorah: 2
Meretz : 4
Arab Parties: 10
Pensioners: 6
Meimad: 1
The Right Way: 1