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Friday, Mar. 10 '17, י"ב באדר תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. POLL: NETANYAHU EASILY WINS ADDITIONAL TERM AS PM
2. DAVID FRIEDMAN APPROVED BY SENATE COMMITTEE
3. THE GAZA STRIP'S SURPRISING EXPORT
4. BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY TO END DECADES-LONG BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL
5. GEERT WILDERS GAINS SUPPORT AMONG DUTCH JEWS
6. WATCH: ANTI-ISRAEL, PRO-SHARIA ACTIVIST ARRESTED IN NYC
7. NYPD: ONE MAN BEHIND BOMB THREATS
8. WATCH: WOMAN SAVED FROM ONCOMING TRAIN
1. POLL: NETANYAHU EASILY WINS ADDITIONAL TERM AS PM
by David Rosenberg
A new poll of Israeli voters suggests that despite a series of investigations against the Prime Minister and First Lady, Binyamin Netanyahu would easily secure another term as premier if elections were held today.
The survey, conducted by pollster Rafi Smith on behalf of Israel Radio, shows Netanyahu's Likud party defeating its closest competitor, former Finance Minister Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party by a 4-mandate margin, 26 to 22.
That's a marked improvement for the Likud, which in late January was trailing Yesh Atid by four seats.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party, which currently holds 8 seats, would become the third largest party in the Knesset with 13 if elections were held today.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu inches up from the six it won in 2015 to seven, while Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu drops from 10 to 7.
Among the two haredi parties, Shas remains stable at seven mandates, while United Torah Judaism rises slightly, from six to seven.
Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union – a joint list of Labor and Tzipi Livni's Hatnua – loses half of its mandates, plummeting from 24 to just 12 seats.
The far-left Meretz party gains a mandate, rising from 5 to 6, while the Arab Joint List maintains its 13 mandates.
The Yahad party, a joint list including former Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Hevron activist Baruch Marzel, was included in the poll but failed to pass the 3.25% minimum electoral threshold.
According to the survey, Netanyahu's present coalition with retain its current electoral strength of 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats, enabling the formation of a new government, while effectively blocking an alternative government by Lapid.
The Smith poll also surveyed voters with former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon's new party included in the list.
When included in the poll, Yaalon's as of yet unnamed faction won six seats, but would do little to change the overall outcome of elections, with Netanyahu's Likud widening its margin over Yesh Atid by one mandate.
In this scenario, Likud lost a single seat to Yaalon's party, slipping from 26 to 25. Yesh Atid fell by two to 20 seats, while the Zionist Union lost one seat, dropping to 11.
The Joint List remained stable with 13, as did the Jewish Home.
Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party lost one seat, falling to six, while Yisrael Beytenu held on to its seven mandates. Shas and United Torah Judaism remained unchanged.
The Meretz party in this scenario won only five seats, rather than six without Yaalon included in the poll.
2. DAVID FRIEDMAN APPROVED BY SENATE COMMITTEE
by David Rosenberg
President Trump's choice for Ambassador to Israel appears poised to be confirmed, after a Senate committee approved his nomination, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate.
David Friedman, the Ambassador-Designate to Israel, won approval of the Senates Foreign Relations Committee on a nearly party-line vote Thursday, passing the 21-member committee with 12 votes to 9. All 11 of the committee's Republicans backed Friedman, while just one Democrat, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez broke ranks to support Trump's nominee. The remaining nine Democrats voted against the nomination.
Friedman's nomination now goes to the full Senate, where he must win a simple majority. While no date for the confirmation vote has been announced, Friedman is widely expected to be confirmed, with Republicans holding 52 of the chamber's 100 seats. With Senator Menendez's support, Friedman could lose the backing of three Republican senators and still win with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the 50-50 tie.
The Yesha Council praised the development, calling Friedman "a true friend of Israel," adding that he will be a great asset to Israeli-American relations."
3. THE GAZA STRIP'S SURPRISING EXPORT
by AFP
In the heart of the Gaza Strip's Shati refugee camp, machines buzz as Mohammed Abu Shanab's
employees sew small, round pieces of cloth: Jewish kippot for export to Israel.
It may seem an unlikely product to be made in the Palestinian Authority enclave run
by the Hamas terror movement, but with unemployment rampant, some in Gaza will take any business they can get.
"The Israelis appreciate our products for their quality and our proximity to their market," Abu Shanab said.
"On the other hand, they fear the crossings will be closed and the delivery of goods will be delayed."
Israel controls all crossings into and out of the Gaza Strip, apart from one bordering Egypt. One terminal on the Israeli border -- Kerem Shalom – is designated for goods.
With about a dozen sewing machines, Abu Shanab's small textile factory, located near the home of Hamas's former leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya, produces other products such as shirts and trousers as well.
Business, not politics
Hassan Shehadeh, who employs some 50 workers in a textile factory, says he exports between 5,000 and 10,000 pairs of pants to Israel each month.
"The local market is weak, while trade with Israel is very good," he said.
For Abdel Nasser Awad, director general in the Gaza economy ministry, exporting to Israel is "a purely commercial affair".
"All that we are interested in is boosting our economy and fighting unemployment," he said.
Shehadeh puts it much more bluntly.
"Politics and business are not the same thing," he said. "You can be an enemy in politics, but not in business."
4. BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY TO END DECADES-LONG BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL
by JTA
JTA - The British Royal House will "likely" send a member of the family to Israel on an official visit, senior diplomats said, indicating a decision to end a decades-long silent boycott of the Jewish state.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told Israeli President Reuven Rivlin he would ask the Royal House to arrange a visit this year during Johnson's visit to Israel this week, The Times of London reported Thursday. Senior diplomats then told the Daily Express such a visit was "likely" to occur this year, the centennial anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Signed on Nov. 2, 1917, by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the Balfour Declaration stated that the British government "views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and would use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object."
The declaration, issued while the area that is now Israel was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire, represented a pivotal victory for Zionists and has been credited with helping pave the way for the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
But relations between the Zionist movements and Great Britain deteriorated after the British were given the Mandate on Palestine – an area comprising modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority – by the League of Nations in 1918. Amid violent uprisings by local Arabs, the British severely limited Jewish immigration to the area they controlled, including when Nazis murdered 6 million Jews in Europe.
By the late 1940s, all the major Jewish Zionist movements in pre-state Israel were engaged in armed insurrection designed to drive out the British, who regarded these actions – and especially the deadly King David Bombing in 1946 – as terrorism.
Whereas members of the British Royal Family, including Queen Elizabeth, have visited Kenya and other countries where acts perceived as terrorism were committed against Britain and its citizens by anti-colonialist combatants, they have stayed away from Israel in their official capacity since the country's establishment.
Neither Elizabeth nor Prince Charles are expected to visit Israel. Instead, a more junior member of the family — perhaps Princess Anne or Prince Edward — will be called upon to visit Israel, according to the Daily Express.
5. GEERT WILDERS GAINS SUPPORT AMONG DUTCH JEWS
by JTA
JTA - The party of Geert Wilders, a Dutch nationalist lawmaker, is the third-most popular choice among local Jews ahead of next week's election, according to a pre-elections poll of community members.
With 814 respondents, the poll, whose results the Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad Jewish weekly published Thursday ahead of the March 15 general elections, comprised nearly 2 percent of the Jewish population of the Netherlands. It is one of the most comprehensive polls conducted in recent years among members of that community, which is widely believed to be left-leaning.
Despite the Dutch Jewish community's perceived partisan leanings, Wilders' right-wing populist Party for Freedom has the vote of an estimated 10% of the Jewish population. The party enjoys a 15% approval rate in the general population, according to other polls, and is in a neck and neck race for the lead with the ruling, center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.
Among Dutch Jews polled, the ruling party was the most popular with 17 percent, followed by the center-left Labor Party, which received 11 percent of the vote among those polled.
The deeply conservative Reformed Political Party and the more liberal conservative Christian Union received together another 17 percent of the Jewish vote – a vastly higher proportion than their support in the general population that likely owes to the stridently pro-Israel and pro-Jewish policies of both parties.
The Socialist Party, which is distrusted by many Dutch Jews for its support for anti-Israel causes, received 1.2 percent of the vote. NIW conducted the survey with help from the Crescas Jewish cultural group and other organizations.
Overall, right-wing and center-right parties garnered 55 percent of the vote in the poll.
Approximately 75 percent of the Jews polled in the survey said they viewed "Muslim values as a threat to Europe." The same proportion of those polled said Muslim culture is more violent than others. But approximately 40 percent of respondents also said Islam belongs in Europe, whereas another 40 percent said it does not.
Wilders, who in his youth lived for two years on an Israeli moshav in the Jordan Valley, has called Israel "a place where I feel home" and said it was "close to his heart." He has also called Israel a "canary in the coalmine" and "the West's first line of defense against Islam," including to his many visits to the Jewish state. He has repeatedly said he was arguing for "Judeo-Christian values," which he said are threatened by Islam in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
6. WATCH: ANTI-ISRAEL, PRO-SHARIA ACTIVIST ARRESTED IN NYC
by Gary Willig
[twittervideo:2025746]
The four main organizers of the "A Day Without a Woman" protests in New York City were arrested for disorderly conduct Wednesday.
Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Bob Bland were arrested for blocking traffic near the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan. Police had instructed the protesters to disperse and warned them that they faced arrest if they did not comply.
The protesters were released Wednesday night.
Sarsour, one of the leaders of the feminist anti-Trump Women's March, is the daughter of Palestinian Arab immigrants, and is a long-time anti-Israel activist and Sharia law apologist. Sarsour praised stone-throwing terrorists targeting Jews, calling such attacks "the definition of courage", and decried Zionism as "creepy".
In 2011, Sarsour blasted author Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, both critics of Islam, musing that she wished she could remove their reproductive organs because they "don't deserve to be women."
A year later, Sarsour admitted that several of her relatives in Israel were arrested for alleged ties to the Hamas terror group.
Another leader of the Women's March is Rasmea Odeh, an Arab terrorist who was convicted of taking part in a terrorist bombing in which two Hebrew University students were murdered and nine others injured.
7. NYPD: ONE MAN BEHIND BOMB THREATS
by Elad Benari
John Miller, the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counter-terrorism of the New York Police Department, said on Thursday that investigators believe one man using a voice changer and phone spoofing device is behind a large number of the bomb threats made against Jewish institutions.
Miller described the attacks as coordinated. The spoofing device makes it appear the call is not coming from the number the man is using, and makes it appear it's coming from within the institution, he said, according to NBC News.
"We have an offender with some technical prowess here," Miller added.
The Anti-Defamation League says 148 threats targeting Jewish institutions have been received across the country since January.
On Thursday, a Jewish children's museum in Brooklyn was evacuated for a few hours after police investigated an emailed bomb threat.
On Wednesday, bomb threats were emailed to four Jewish community centers in Colorado, Delaware, Connecticut, and western Canada.
Those emails came a day after a wave of threats targeted 16 Jewish institutions.
The threats to the JCCs continue even after the FBI last week arrested a man in St Louis suspected of being behind at least eight of more than 100 threats made in recent weeks to Jewish schools, community centers and other institutions.
Miller said on Thursday the NYPD is working with federal officials who are the lead investigators on the case. He added that he is working with institutions in New York to help them manage responses to the threats.
"Most of the time, the person who's legitimately trying to do harm doesn't call ahead to diminish the amount of harm he or she is doing," he added.
8. WATCH: WOMAN SAVED FROM ONCOMING TRAIN
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[twittervideo:2025745]
A woman in Saddle Brook, New Jersey was saved from an oncoming train when two passersby helped her off the tracks.
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