April 6, 2020: Ottawa Jewish Bulletin to temporarily suspend print edition

By Michael Regenstreif

Paraphrasing the beginning of the Four Questions in the Haggadah, we all might be asking, “Ma nishtanah ha-Pesach ha-zeh, mi-kol ha-Pesachim – Why is this Passover different from all other Passovers?”

The answer, as everyone knows, is the COVID-19 pandemic which has gripped the entire planet sending virtually all of us into social-distancing mode and, for many of us, some degree of self-isolation, for weeks now.

The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, of course, has been affected. With our office at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (SJCC) closed since March 13, this Passover edition of the paper was produced under difficult circumstances with everyone working from our homes – sharing files electronically as we received submissions, wrote and edited the paper, collected the ads, did the layout and proofreading, made corrections, had online meetings, etc., all without any direct in-person contact. Much of that would have been impossible not that many years ago before we had highspeed internet connections with sufficient bandwidth to handle the load.

You will, no doubt, also notice that this Passover edition of the Bulletin is much smaller than in years past. The size of the paper always reflects the number of ads that are generated and this spring so many of the events that would normally be advertised are just not taking place, and most of the retail businesses that might have advertised are temporarily closed. As well, many of the organizations that would have normally used the opportunity of the Passover edition to submit articles about their spring activities did not submit such articles, or asked us to withdraw them, because their plans have been put on hold or cancelled.

All of this leads me to announce that we are regretfully suspending the scheduled print editions of the Bulletin until we are back in our office at the SJCC and the community begins to return to normal activity. All subscriptions will be extended for however many issues we are unable to publish.

However, while the print edition is suspended, we will continue to post articles and columns on the Bulletin website and will continue to report on important community initiatives. Many of our columnists will continue to submit their columns on a regular – perhaps even more than regular – basis.

We also welcome your letters, guest columns and articles to share with the community. We particularly welcome articles that will tell the community about how organizations, groups, families and individuals, friends and neighbours, are rising to the occasion of these circumstances. Already, in this edition of the Bulletin, we’ve published some of those stories about how we and our agencies – although practicing safe social-distancing – have been coming together as a community to help each other, and, especially the vulnerable among us, during the COVID-19 pandemic; and of how classes and discussions, and even some prayer services, are taking place online. I’ve no doubt there will be more stories to tell in the weeks ahead.

It’s ironic, I suppose, that this year as we observe Passover, a holiday that celebrates freedom, we are adhering to needed measures that restrict our freedom to gather and celebrate as we are used to doing, and as we would like to be doing. Congregations cannot hold their usual communal seders. Friends and extended families cannot gather together for seders as they normally would. For the first time since we moved to Ottawa, my wife Sylvie and I are unable to return to gather around my mother’s table in Montreal on the seder nights. Most of us will spend the seder nights with just those in our immediate households. This will be difficult for all of us – but especially difficult for the many among us who live alone.

While we might talk with physically distant family and friends on the phone, and using apps like Zoom, Skype, Messenger or FaceTime, or keep in touch over Facebook, the holiday this year, just won’t be the same.

But while me must keep our physical distance from each other right now, we also know that great challenges can also bring us closer together in our communal solidarity – and we’ve already seen so much evidence of that.

Israel

Meanwhile, some commentators in Israel are pointing to needed stability during the COVID-19 crisis for Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz finally – after three inconclusive elections in less than a year – seeming to agree to form a unity government in Israel.

As I write, on March 27, the negotiations are still ongoing but reports are that Netanyahu will remain Israeli prime minister for the next 18 months and then hand the office over to Gantz. (Of course, anyone following Israeli politics knows that no deal is done until it’s really done – and even then, you can’t always be sure it will hold from one day to the next.)

It appears, though, that Gantz is paying a price for his pact with Netanyahu as the Blue and White factions led by his now-former allies Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon will sit in the opposition benches in the Knesset.

Bear in mind, nothing is simple in Israeli politics and a big what-if are the three corruption indictments facing Netanyahu. The prime minister had done all that he could to avoid going to trial on the charges and was scheduled to be in court last month to finally face them. However, his trial had to be postponed due to COVID-19.

March 4, 2019: Campaign wheeling and dealing in Israel

By Michael Regenstreif

With Israel’s system of proportional representation and its many political parties – many of which are focused on a single issue or represent a specific cultural or religious community, and many of which come and go – it’s virtually impossible for any party to form a majority government without bringing together a coalition.

For example, Benjamin Netanyahu put together a governing coalition with the support of other parties in 2015 – mostly by promising control of certain cabinet ministries to other parties – after his Likud Party received 23.4 per cent of the vote to win 30 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Two deals between parties announced late last month could have major effects on the outcome of the April 9 Israeli election, and on the wheeling and dealing between parties that will take place after the votes are counted in order to assemble a governing coalition.

The first deal merges three centrist parties – two of them newly-formed – under prominent military and political figures to create the new Blue and White Party (named for the colours of the Israeli flag). Combining to form what could be the most significant new political force in Israel in many years were Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience Party (a former general, Gantz was chief of the Israel Defense Forces’ general staff from 2011 to 2015); Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party (a former journalist, Lapid served as Israel’s finance minister from 2013 to 2014); and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem Party (Ya’alon is also a former general and chief of the Israel Defense Forces’ general staff who served as Netanyahu’s minister of defence from 2013 to 2016).

Gabi Ashkenazi, another former general and chief of the Israel Defense Forces’ general staff, is also part of the Blue and White Party’s leadership team.

Under terms of the merger Gantz and Lapid would rotate the prime-minister-ship after two-and-a-half years.

The Jerusalem Post reported that polling immediately after the merger was announced suggested that the Blue and White Party could overtake Netanyahu’s Likud and perhaps win 36 seats to become the leading party in the race to form a governing coalition.

The other deal brings together two parties on the right and extreme right: Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit. Jewish Home was part of Netanyahu’s 2015 coalition but its two most prominent members – Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – recently split off to form the New Right Party.

Otzma Yehudit (Jewish power) is an extremist party which advocates the relocation of West Bank Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to Arab countries – in other words, ethnic cleansing. The party is the successor to Meir Kahane’s Kach Party – a party that has been banned from running for the Knesset due to its racist ideology since 1988 and banned outright since 1994.

The electoral threshold for a party to obtain seats in the Knesset is 3.25 per cent of the popular vote – which would mean four seats. Polling has suggested that neither the current version of Jewish Home or Otzma Yehudit would crack the threshold on its own – but jointly they may win four or five seats.

And as the leading parties scramble to assemble a governing coalition after the election, those four or five seats would be crucial for Netanyahu’s chances. Knowing this, it was Netanyahu himself who reportedly brokered the deal by apparently promising two seats at his cabinet table to the joint ticket.

While it’s highly unlikely that a cabinet position would go to one of the Otzma Yehudit candidates, it’s frankly appalling that Netanyahu would broker a deal that would lend political legitimacy to a group that should never have moved beyond the fringe.

And there is still another wild card which could affect the outcome of the election as Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is widely expected to announce this month whether he will accept police recommendations that Netanyahu be indicted on several corruption charges. Although the prime minister denies the validity of the allegations against him and has said he will not stand down if indicted, it remains to be seen if his support will weaken significantly enough if he is indicted to change the outcome of the election. Some Israeli analysts suggest that it would.

May 30, 2016: Netanyahu says hello Liberman, goodbye Ya’alon

By Michael Regenstreif

As I write – on May 20 just before we go to press – Israel’s governing coalition under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a state of flux. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is on his way out with former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman his presumptive replacement.

This turn of events in Israeli politics – indications of which began to surface on May 18 – came as a surprise because there had been reports over the past several weeks that Netanyahu and Israel’s opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, chair of the centre-left Zionist Union (a joint electoral list bringing together Herzog’s Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Party), were close to an agreement that would have brought the Zionist Union into the coalition with Herzog becoming foreign minister (a post that Netanyahu has held onto himself since 2015).

Bringing Herzog into the coalition was seen as a move that would signal Netanyahu’s seriousness about his desire for direct negotiations with the Palestinians that would hopefully lead to a two-state solution. It would also have stabilized Netanyahu’s coalition whose razor-thin majority has stood at just 61 of the Knesset’s120 seats.

However, it appears that at the same time it was openly acknowledged he was negotiating with Herzog, he was also secretly talking with Liberman whose right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party – with its six Knesset seats – has sat on the opposition benches since the 2015 election.

Liberman brought several demands to the table. Among them was instituting capital punishment for convicted terrorists. In the State of Israel’s 68-year history there have only been two executions: army officer Meir Tobianski on June 30, 1948 by firing squad after he was convicted of treason by court-martial during the War of Independence, and Adolf Eichmann on May 31, 1962 by hanging after he was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his central role in perpetrating the Holocaust.

Tobianski, it must be noted, was executed quickly with no right to appeal. A year later, evidence revealed he was not guilty and he was exonerated.

Liberman’s other main demand was that he replace Ya’alon as defense minister; a demand that Netanyahu accepted. With that acceptance, Ya’alon resigned from cabinet and from his seat in the Knesset.

Netanyahu said he regretted Ya’alon’s resignation and said he had offered to appoint him foreign minister.

In resigning, Ya’alon cited Netanyahu’s conduct during “recent developments” (presumably the negotiations that brought in Liberman), which demonstrated the prime minister’s “lack of trust” in him.

It would be hard – if not impossible – to make the case that Liberman is more qualified than Ya’alon to be defense minister. With rare exceptions, Israel’s defense ministers have enjoyed the confidence of Israel’s military because they have had distinguished military careers serving in the highest ranks of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Ya’alon, for example, rose to be the IDF chief-of-staff. Liberman, in contrast, served briefly in the IDF, attaining the rank of corporal, and has often been highly critical of the restraint shown by Israel’s military in difficult circumstances.

While it’s still much too early to know what all of the consequences of these developments will be, a few questions are obvious.

Will Herzog’s tenure as chair of the Zionist Union come to an end? His move toward joining Netanyahu’s coalition was not supported by many of the Zionist Union Knesset members and the result could only have embarrassed him.

As defense minister, Liberman assumes tremendous power in the West Bank. While Ya’alon was pragmatic and somewhat conciliatory with the Palestinians, Liberman has been seen to be much more hardline. Will the Palestinian Authority be able to work with him, for example, on day-to-day security cooperation?

And will there be an impact on Israel’s current negotiations with the U.S. for long-term defense aid? Ya’alon enjoyed generally good relations with the U.S. while Liberman, as foreign minister, did not.

What about Ya’alon’s political future? Will he be a formidable challenger to Netanyahu’s leadership within Likud? Or to Likud as the leader of a new, more moderate centre-right party?

“I have no intention of [permanently] leaving public life, and in the future, I will return as a candidate for national leadership,” he said in his resignation speech.