Table Of Contents:
Netanyahu’s Win Decisive for Likud, Less So for Coming Third Election in March: Frederick Krantz, Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
Johnson’s Brexit Victory and Defeat of Corbyn and Labour in UK Augurs Well for 2020 Victory by Trump Over Left-Leaning Dems: Frederick Krantz, Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
Concern Spreading over Rising Tempo of Antisemitic Attacks in the U.S.: Frederick Krantz, Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
The Impeachment Impasse: Steve Frank, Washington Examiner, Dec. 30, 2019
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Netanyahu’s Win Decisive for Likud, Less So for Coming Third Election in March
Frederick Krantz
Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s long-time Prime Minister, has decisively won a Likud party primary against his only internal party competitor, Gideon Sa’ar, by a land-slide 73% victory (80% in Jerusalem) of the 116,000 votes polled. But while the vote certainly strengthens Netanyahu’s hand within Likud (which he thanked for its “trust, support and love”), it does not necessarily translate into increased strength in the upcoming March 2 national election, the third this year.
Sa’ar, a 53-year-old former Cabinet member, had argued he was better suited to win the election against the Benny Gantz-led Blue and White coalition, which he argued is unified only by its distaste for “Bibi”. As leader, he claimed he could hold onto Likud’s nationalist and ultra-Orthodox coalition base, and appeal to Blue and White drop-outs. Conceding defeat after the vote, he said the result “was clear” and congratulated the Prime Minister “on his victory’”, pledging to support him and Likud on March 2nd.
On the other hand, Netanyahu’s win may strengthen him, in two respects. First, were he to be re-elected Prime Minister, he could legally hold office without being brought to trial on his three indictments for fraud, breach of trust and bribery, all of which he denies. Secondly, his massive win, and his remarkable political record, domestically, regionally, and internationally, including his close ties with American President Donald Trump, might move the needle among the electorate sufficiently in his direction to enable him, this time around, to build the minimally-61 seat ruling coalition which eluded him in this year’s past two contests.
Netanyahu has led the nationalist Likud since 2005, and has become the Jewish state’s longest-serving Prime Minister. In recent years he has overseen Israel’s remarkable economic and technological development, negotiated Israel’s warming relations with its Sunni Arab neighbors, and pulled off the remarkable feat of maintaining close and direct relations with both Donald Trump (recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol, and legitimation of Israeli control of the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria communities) and Russia’s Vladimir Putin (acting as a brake on Hezbollah and Iranian activities in Syria).
Whether he will prevail the third time around, in March, is moot—but given his record, the current primary vote, Israel’s evident need for an ongoing government, and the Middle East’s repeated ability to create unforeseen crises, the odds may well favor him once again, despite his debilities.
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Johnson’s Brexit Victory and Defeat of Corbyn and Labour in UK Augurs Well for 2020 Victory by Trump Over Left-Leaning Dems
Frederick Krantz
Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
Boris Johnson’s smashing defeat of Labour in the recent British Parliamentary election has not only resolved the three-year impasse over Brexit and installed the Conservatives at the helm for at least another five years. It also augurs well for a Donald Trump victory in 2020, should the Democrats choose an extreme-leftist Labour-like candidates as their standard-bearer.
Johnson won 365 seats to Labour’s 203, in the latter’s worst defeat since 1935 and the Conservatives best performance since the advent of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Labour dissidents, calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s immediate resignation as Party leader, blamed him and his extreme leftist policies and refusal to distance himself from accusations of anti-Semitism, for the defeat.
Calling for the implementation of socialism, including the nationalization of banks and major corporations, and criticizing “billionaires, and the millionaires who work” for them, Corbyn also waffled confusedly on the Brexit issue. In what former Labour PM Tony Blair called “comic indecision”, he refused to commit himself one way or the other, calling instead for a second referendum if elected, without saying which way he’d vote.
Johnson, adopting the motto “Let’s Get Brexit Done”, and pledging to address social issues and improve the National Health Service by better funding, but without invoking the fantastic sums, and taxes, implied by Labour’s programs, stole Labour’s traditional working-class vote. Conservative candidates were elected in town after town behind the usually pro-Labour “Red Wall” stretching from coast to coast across the north-east, with 27 traditionally “red” constituencies going Conservative.
Talking already of a major free-trade deal with the United States, Johnson is moving ahead quickly on leaving the EU, with the new Parliament already having voted to do so by January 31st. While the anti-Brexit Liberal Democratic Party vote shrank (even its leader lost her seat), somewhat muddying the Conservatives’ victory was the overwhelming vote for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, and in Northern Ireland, increased seats for nationalist parties fearing Brexit’s break with the EU will mean restoration of the politically-fraught border with the Irish Republic.
In both cases, holding Great Britain together against Scottish and Irish nationalist sentiment means Johnson will have his work cut out for him.
In terms of the now-looming American 2020 election, most commentators agree that basic structural parallels reinforce Donald Trump’s Republican candidacy for reelection, Johnson’s Conservatives appealed to English working people who felt increasingly marginalized by Labour’s radical socialist program and strategy of appealing to the young, urban voters, ecologists and immigrants. His strident internationalism flew in the face of nationalist-populist support for Brexit, and his softness on antisemitism (and on Sinn Fein), lost him votes at large and within the Labour Party itself.
The decisive defeat of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s radical socialist program in the British vote strengthens Democratic moderates’ growing conviction that “progressive socialist” policies are politically suicidal. This would seem to lie behind waning support for Elizabeth Warren (if not, yet, for Bernie Sanders) and for Joe Biden’s continuing strength in the polls. It may also help explain polls indicating increasing support for Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, as well as millionaire Michael Bloomberg’s recent entry into the race.
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Concern Spreading over Rising Tempo of Antisemitic Attacks in the U.S.
Frederick Krantz
Isranet.org, Dec. 31, 2019
Amid rising concerns about the spread of antisemitic incidents in the United States, the tenth episode of a wave of attacks hit New York City, where anti-Jewish hate-crime incidents (214 as of Sunday) are up 18% in 2019.
Grafton E. Thomas, 37, was arrested in Harlem after allegedly fleeing from the scene of a machete attack on a Hanukkah party in a rabbi’s home, in the ultra-Orthodox community of Monsey, Rockland County, which wounded five people, one critically.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday termed the attack “domestic terrorism”, by someone intending “to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, color, creed”. It follows a week of antisemitic incidents and attacks in Manhattan and Brooklyn, several in and around the Crown Heights Hasidic community center associated with the late Lubavitch rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson.
These incidents have created a growing demand on the part of Jewish community spokespersons for enhanced police surveillance and protection. They follow the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, in which 11 worshippers were killed (the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history), the death of the female rabbi and wounding of three people at Congregation Chabad in Poway, California (near San Diego), and the recent New Jersey kosher grocery store rampage , carried out by two assailants with alleged links to the antisemitic “Black Hebrew Israelites” movement, which killed six people.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who had been criticized for insufficient attention to earlier antisemitic incidents, announced enhanced NYPD foot and car patrols in three high-density Brooklyn Jewish neighborhoods, Crown Heights, Borough Park and Williamsburgh. “Anti-Semitism”, he said, “is an attack on the values of our city—and we will attack it head on”.
In Washington, President Donald J, Trump, who recently extended Title Six civil-rights protections against rising campus anti-Semitism, tweeted that “The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night, is horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery”. And from Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned “recent displays of anti-Semitism, including the vicious attack at the home of a rabbi in Monsey”.
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The Impeachment Impasse
Steve Frank
Washington Examiner, Dec. 30, 2019
The Constitution of the United States provides in Article I that the “House of Representatives shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” and that the “Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
By passing articles of impeachment, the House has impeached the President. The Senate trial is being held up because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to send the articles of impeachment formally to the Senate and to name House managers to begin the process. She may withhold the articles until she is assured that the rules of a Senate trial are, in her view, fair — that they will include, among other things, an opportunity for Senate Democrats to call witnesses of their choosing and introduce documents they consider relevant to the proceedings.
However, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives has no role to play in the trial proceedings in the Senate. It cannot dictate procedures in the Senate any more than the Senate could dictate the rules of impeachment in the House. The Constitution makes it clear that the House has the “sole power of impeachment,” and the Senate has the “sole power to try all impeachments.” Indeed, in the Walter Nixon case (1993), the Supreme Court made it clear that not even federal courts can review Senate impeachment procedures.
So, where does the generally accepted notion arise that a Senate trial may not commence until Pelosi sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate and names House managers to prosecute the case for impeachment in the Senate? It isn’t in the Constitution, nor are any such procedures required by the House’s rules. Instead, these particular processes are found in the Senate rules on impeachment. The first Senate rule on impeachment provides as follows: … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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For Further Reference:
Israel Elections:
Israel’s Winner Takes All Election: Caroline B. Glick, Israel Hayom, Dec. 20, 2019 — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a revolutionary. Since he entered politics 32 years ago, Netanyahu has upheld an integrated vision for Israel comprised of diplomatic, security and economic components
Waiting in the Wings: Gideon Sa’ar and the Challenges to Netanyahu’s Dominance: CIJR Staff, Isranet, Dec. 16, 2019 — As Israel heads to elections for the third time in less than a year, the spotlight is centered squarely on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the pending indictments against him in three separate criminal cases.
The Charges Against Benjamin Netanyahu, Explained: Pesach Benson, Honest Reporting, Nov. 24, 2019 – Until November 2019, no Israeli prime minister has ever been indicted while in office. The charges against Benjamin Netanyahu are serious: bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Defeat:
Corbynism, Not Just Jeremy Corbyn, is Labour’s Problem: Owen Smith, Financial Times, Dec. 17, 2019 — In modern politics, as in business, good leaders know that reputations can take decades to establish yet be destroyed in an instant.
Did Corbyn’s Antisemitism Cost Labour the Elections?: Hannah Gal, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 27, 2019 — The question above is the one many in Britain have been trying to answer – but is this the right question to ask in the first place?
A Boris Bear Hug Against British anti-Semitism: Melanie Phillips, JNS, Dec. 26, 2019 — Is the British government beginning to change its century-old attitude of ambiguity towards Israel and come out instead as its unequivocal friend? Don’t get too excited just yet.
US Antisemitism:
WATCH: ADL CEO Greenblatt: You Can’t Read the Headlines Without Seeing Anti-Semitic Slander from Politicians, Mainstreaming Of Conspiracy Theories, Realclear Politics, Dec. 30, 2019 — Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt joined CNN Monday morning to talk about the recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks, saying the time for thoughts and prayers is “over” and Congress needs to act by passing the “Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.”
Our Culture of Apathy has Normalized Anti-Semitism: Kaylee McGhee, Washington Examiner, Dec. 30, 2019 — As dozens of Jewish New Yorkers gathered in Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg’s home to celebrate the seventh day of Hanukkah, a passerby spotted the Menorah, stopped, and walked toward the front door.
Anti-Semitism: Once Upon a Time(s): Steven Hayward, Powerlines, Dec. 30, 2019 — There has been a noted reluctance of the media, not to mention the cowardly political class in New York, to note the racial angle of the wave of anti-Semitic violence erupting recently in New York.
Impeachment of President Trump:
Are Thought Crimes Impeachable?: Victor Davis Hanson, RealClear Politics, Nov. 26, 2019 — During special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, his legal “dream team” tried to make a secondary case that Donald Trump also obstructed efforts to prove Trump-Russian “collusion.”
LISTEN: Conrad Black on Trump Impeachment and What Might be Next: John Oakley Show, Dec. 20, 2019 — Conrad Black, Author, Commentator & Historian talks about Donald Trump impeachment and what might be next.
Pelosi’s Rolling Impeachment: Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, Dec. 26, 2019 — Republicans dismiss Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to transmit the impeachment articles to the Senate as a weak stunt.
CIJR wishes its friends and supporters a Happy New Year! The Isranet Daily Briefing will return on Thur., January 2, 2020.