Israel general discussion

[Silent Hunter]

Energy infrastructure is something that doesn't change very quickly after all.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If the Israeli "energy" portfolio is anything like the American one, then at a minimum he could tell the Iranians how much fissile materiel the Israelis had in 1995 and how much they could make per year. Knowing how much they need to defend against if they ever got into a potential nuclear exchange with Israel is not entirely useless knowledge as it lets them know how good of an air and missile defense system they would need before considering the use of nukes themselves.

Probably some other more immediately useful info as well.

[Hnv1]

If the Israeli "energy" portfolio is anything like the American one, then at a minimum he could tell the Iranians how much fissile materiel the Israelis had in 1995 and how much they could make per year. Knowing how much they need to defend against if they ever got into a potential nuclear exchange with Israel is not entirely useless knowledge as it lets them know how good of an air and missile defense system they would need before considering the use of nukes themselves.

Probably some other more immediately useful info as well.

You're miles of the mark on what interests the Iranian here. But I can't go further.

anyway, nuclear energy is governed by the a council which seats under the PM, not the energy ministry, and I doubt Segev memorized it for so long even if he had the knowledge (which I also think a oood intelligence agency could get a crude assessment by looking at over evidence)

[Hnv1]

Herzog is now out of official politics as he's being appointed as the head of the Jewish Agency (to the annoyance of Big Brother).
As he was the leader of the opposition in the house the job is now vacant, I suppose Gabay will give it to Livni to appease her

[DavidB.]

Herzog is now out of official politics as he's being appointed as the head of the Jewish Agency (to the annoyance of Big Brother).
As he was the leader of the opposition in the house the job is now vacant, I suppose Gabay will give it to Livni to appease her

So their alliance is really going to remain a thing?

[Hnv1]

Herzog is now out of official politics as he's being appointed as the head of the Jewish Agency (to the annoyance of Big Brother).
As he was the leader of the opposition in the house the job is now vacant, I suppose Gabay will give it to Livni to appease her

So their alliance is really going to remain a thing?

Do they really have a choice? She'll probably agree to another joint run in exchange to the job. Meretz will probably vote with them so they'll have the votes needed

[Silent Hunter]

What does the Jewish Agency do these days?

[Hnv1]

What does the Jewish Agency do these days?

Raise funds, ceremonial roles, maintain links with the Jewish world. A comfortable job basically

[Silent Hunter]

Thanks.

[SATW]

Yair Lapid spoke in D.C. today at the Brookings Institution. Was impressed by some of his comments. I think he is finally starting to grasp on how to talk about foreign affairs. Still needs some work, though.

Also, I like the decision to put Herzog at the Jewish Agency, despite me being a Likudnik and Bibi supporter. That being said, I'll miss Natan Sharansky deeply.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Yair Lapid spoke in D.C. today at the Brookings Institution. Was impressed by some of his comments. I think he is finally starting to grasp on how to talk about foreign affairs. Still needs some work, though.

Also, I like the decision to put Herzog at the Jewish Agency, despite me being a Likudnik and Bibi supporter. That being said, I'll miss Natan Sharansky deeply.

Yeah, Herzog has a great profile for that and it's about time people realized the right doesn't have a monopoly on zionism. It's also time American Jews showed Netanyahu that his alliance with the Haredi parties, who deny that most of them are even Jews, and the heavy discrimination against Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel is unacceptable to them. There's no reason the Jewish Agency supports a government that hates many of their members.

[danny]

Replacing Herzog in the Knesset will be Robert Tiviaev who has previously been part of Israel Beitenu Kadima and The Movement, before running in the Labour primaries before the last elections. However, his party switches haven't ended as he left the Labour party a few months ago and was planning on rejoining Beitenu before he realised that he will get in under the ZU list. It seems Tiviaev plans to become a ZU MK anyway but does say that he wouldn't vote for the ZU if the elections were today.

[Silent Hunter]

Question - would the Joint List parties be up for being part of a Labour-led coalition government?

[danny]

Question - would the Joint List parties be up for being part of a Labour-led coalition government?

No

[Hnv1]

Question - would the Joint List parties be up for being part of a Labour-led coalition government?

confidence and supply if the government would be in some substantial peace negotiation and would be willing to move on some local palestinian issues. as neither is likely (as is a Labour government) it's purely theoretical.

* in that case I suppose Balad would drop out of the list

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any party willing to guarantee spots to candidates according to identity deserves this.

[Hnv1]

The ZU is all but dead atm, Livni doesn’t want to run under Gabay and unless Ganz steps in I can’t see how it lasts. Labour itself is on the verge of collapse, Herzog jumped ship and Nachman Shay will soon follow. Shaffir is checking her options by running in a new list. And reports today say the leftist MKs in Yona, Baalol, Svetlova, and Ben-Reuven are contemplating splitting and joining Meretz (the law says you need 1/3 of a party to split, meaning they’ll need more defectors).
Peretz and Cabel are fighting him on internal politics. So basically it’s all falling apart there.

Goodbye and good riddance

[dead0man]

UAE officials in Israel to look at F35s...like, "officially" and stuff.  Good news, yes?

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[DavidB.]

Panels poll (current seats in brackets):

35 [30] Likud
17 [11] Yesh Atid
12 [13] The Joint (Arab) List
11 [24] Zionist Union
10 [08] Bayit Yehudi
08 [06] Yahadut Hatorah/UTJ
07 [05] Meretz
06 [10] Kulanu
05 [05] Yisrael Beitenu
05 [01] Orly Levy
04 [07] Shas
00 [–-] Yachad, Yaalon, Zehut (as other) under threshold

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

UAE officials in Israel to look at F35s...like, "officially" and stuff.  Good news, yes?

The problem with the adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is that such friendships rarely last once the common enemy has been dealt with.  Then there's the fact that the UAE is a demographic time bomb even worse than Israel with almost 90% of the population being foreign workers.  The Emirates are not stable in the long-term. Forging ties with the Emirs might help Israel a little in the short term vis-a-vis Iran but it certainly doesn't do anything to advance the cause of Arab-Israeli peace.

[Silent Hunter]

Panels poll (current seats in brackets):

35 [30] Likud
17 [11] Yesh Atid
12 [13] The Joint (Arab) List
11 [24] Zionist Union
10 [08] Bayit Yehudi
08 [06] Yahadut Hatorah/UTJ
07 [05] Meretz
06 [10] Kulanu
05 [05] Yisrael Beitenu
05 [01] Orly Levy
04 [07] Shas
00 [–-] Yachad, Yaalon, Zehut (as other) under threshold

Can you highlight the current government parties please?

[danny]

Can you highlight the current government parties please?

35 [30] Likud
17 [11] Yesh Atid
12 [13] The Joint (Arab) List
11 [24] Zionist Union
10 [08] Bayit Yehudi
08 [06] Yahadut Hatorah/UTJ
07 [05] Meretz
06 [10] Kulanu
05 [05] Yisrael Beitenu
05 [01] Orly Levy
04 [07] Shas
00 [–-] Yachad, Yaalon, Zehut (as other) under threshold

[EPG]

(the law says you need 1/3 of a party to split, meaning they’ll need more defectors).

What does this mean? Can they quit, join the party and keep the seats? I know these splits were widespread earlier in Israel's history when the parties were often incredibly general and undifferentiated by policy.

[Famous Mortimer]

(the law says you need 1/3 of a party to split, meaning they’ll need more defectors).

What does this mean? Can they quit, join the party and keep the seats? I know these splits were widespread earlier in Israel's history when the parties were often incredibly general and undifferentiated by policy.

If less than 1/3 of the MKs leave the party, they lose their Knesset seats and get replaced by the next people on their old party's list.

Yes, this isn't how it used to be. They passed a law in the last decade to prevent the constant party switching/fracturing.

[Tintrlvr]

(the law says you need 1/3 of a party to split, meaning they’ll need more defectors).

What does this mean? Can they quit, join the party and keep the seats? I know these splits were widespread earlier in Israel's history when the parties were often incredibly general and undifferentiated by policy.

If less than 1/3 of the MKs leave the party, they lose their Knesset seats and get replaced by the next people on their old party's list.

Yes, this isn't how it used to be. They passed a law in the last decade to prevent the constant party switching/fracturing.

Couldn't they instead just sit as independents and then run as a new party at the next election? Isn't that what Orly Levy did?

[Hnv1]

(the law says you need 1/3 of a party to split, meaning they’ll need more defectors).

What does this mean? Can they quit, join the party and keep the seats? I know these splits were widespread earlier in Israel's history when the parties were often incredibly general and undifferentiated by policy.

If less than 1/3 of the MKs leave the party, they lose their Knesset seats and get replaced by the next people on their old party's list.

Yes, this isn't how it used to be. They passed a law in the last decade to prevent the constant party switching/fracturing.

Couldn't they instead just sit as independents and then run as a new party at the next election? Isn't that what Orly Levy did?

You can but there’s a sanction, you don’t get funding and you can’t run in any existing party (that’s why she has to form a party and run solo until the end).

I would also point that the phenomena of floor crossing was widespread between the 70’s and the 90’s during the mini political realignment and due to the absurdity of the low threshold