Media Summary
Reuters reports that “Iran’s clerical rulers are likely to survive protests sweeping the country and could stay in power for years, the chief analyst for Israeli military intelligence said on Monday”
Reuters also reports that Israel’s NewMed Energy said on Tuesday it had signed a deal with Morocco’s energy and mining ministry and Adarco Energy for offshore natural gas exploration and production in Morocco. “For a long time now we have recognised a huge potential in Morocco for collaborations in both the natural gas and renewable energy sectors,” NewMed CEO Yossi Abu said.
The Times publishes a piece saying British Jews will be “horrified by the new Israeli Government” but that “with neighbours from hell, it’s little wonder Israelis elect hawks like Benjamin Netanyahu — who is set to be sworn in as prime minister for an unprecedented sixth time. Yet even Bibi’s razor beak looks blunt compared to the predators he’s given top jobs to.”
The Independent publishes a similar piece, saying Jewish American organisations have “expressed alarm over the far-right character of the presumptive government led by conservative Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Given American Jews’ predominantly liberal political views and affinity for the Democratic Party, these misgivings could have a ripple effect in Washington and further widen what has become a partisan divide over support for Israel”.
The BBC reports on Ammar Mefleh, who was killed at close range in the occupied West Bank last Friday. Video of the shooting drew a massive reaction online and sparked a diplomatic rebuke by Israel to a top UN official who said he was “horrified” at the killing. Israeli officials praised the officer involved saying he responded after the Palestinian stabbed a policeman in the face, and his actions prevented a “mass terror attack”.
The Financial Times reports that Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group is betting that the electoral victory of longtime ally Benjamin Netanyahu will restore its fortunes, banking on the returning Israeli premier’s desire to step up his pursuit of Gulf alliances. NSO has cut staff and reined in costs this year, as the Israeli company struggles to service more than $400mn in debt and is barred from the lucrative US intelligence market by a commerce department blacklisting.
The Economist recommends an Israeli’s book, Maror by Lavie Tidhar, in its best books of 2022, saying “corruption, drugs and assassination feature in this wildly ambitious saga set over four decades in Israel from the early 1970s. It is loosely organised around a series of murders on a coastal road and the career of a crooked cop, but takes detours to Lebanon, Los Angeles, Colombia and Cancún. A caustic alternative history of the dream and development of Israel”.
The Guardian report that the Al Jazeera television network has filed a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli forces over the killing of the veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Some of the investigations alleged that the reporter was deliberately targeted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and that no Palestinian militants representing targets were present at the scene. After changing its stance several times, Israel now says there is a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh was killed by an IDF soldier during an exchange of fire but that the shooting was accidental and therefore does not warrant a criminal investigation.
The Guardian also releases a podcast on Itamar Ben-Gvir with Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan and Michael Safi, saying “Itamar Ben-Gvir has spent a lifetime on the fringes of Israeli politics. He was once considered so dangerous, and so extreme, that he wasn’t allowed to serve in the Israeli army. He’s been convicted of racism towards Arabs, and of supporting terrorist groups. Now he is Israel’s minister for national security, after his party, Jewish Power, made considerable gains in last month’s poll”.
Channel 12 reports on potential developments in relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It cites the Saudi Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir as saying, in a recent meeting with American Jewish organisations: “The direction of Saudi-Israeli relations is normalisation, but it will take more time and we must not put the cart before the horse.” The channel also reports that this process is likely to depend on the United States acceding to Saudi demands, including “an affirmation of the U.S.-Saudi alliance, a commitment to follow through on weapon supplies as though Saudi Arabia were a NATO-like country, and an agreement that will allow the Saudis to exploit their extensive uranium reserves for a restricted civil nuclear program.”
Haaretz’s Alon Pinkas predicts slow progress on the Saudi front, in a wide-ranging opinion piece on the likely foreign policy of the incoming government. Pinkas also argues that despite positive noises from the Biden administration about working with a Netanyahu government, “Israeli policies will inevitably create tensions and exacerbate an already fraught relationship between Democrats and Israel, between a majority of American Jewry and Israel, and between a U.S. administration with foreign policy priorities that diverge sharply from Israel’s… If Israel is viewed as veering away from liberal democracy, there will be consequences in US support. They may be incremental, but the cracks are already there.” Ynet also argues that such a cooling of US-Israeli relations, were it to occur, may well be echoed by large segments of the American Jewish community, some of whose senior figures have already voiced concern about the right-wing nature of the incoming government.
Maariv’s Anna Barsky speculates on the likely fate of key unallocated cabinet and Knesset roles by Prime Minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu. With individual senior Likud figures simultaneously candidates for multiple roles, the precise configuration remains difficult to predict. A vote on the next Knesset speaker is due on Monday, with the role crucial in the passage of legislation allowing Shas leader Aryeh Deri to assume a cabinet post. Barsky considers six Likud MKs to be in the frame: David Amsalem, Yariv Levin, Ofir Akunis, Yoav Kisch, Amir Ohana and Danny Danon. She argues that Amsalem is the frontrunner, due in part to his popularity with Netanyahu’s son Yair. Levin and Ohana are considered likelier candidates for the Justice and Foreign ministries, respectively. Barsky reports that Netanyahu will only announce a choice for speaker once cabinet positions for his Likud colleagues are agreed, and that this can only be finalised once final negotiations on ministerial portfolios with other coalition parties are concluded. Maariv reports criticism of this Netanyahu strategy from senior Likud figures Danny Danon and David Bitan.
On the same topic, Israel Hayom reports that Netanyahu has reached an agreement with United Torah Judaism, which will see its leader Yitzchak Goldknopf run the Housing and Construction Ministry and MK Moshe Gafni chair the Knesset Finance Committee. UTJ figures are also set to control the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry as well as other deputy minister positions and senior roles in several Knesset committees. Kan Radio reports UTJ’s likely deputy ministerships as including “one in the Prime Minister’s Office, another in the Transport Ministry and a third in another ministry.” Army Radio adds that this progress does not include resolution on the crucial issue of military service for religious students, and cites UTJ’s Avremi Yustman as promising to push back on any attempt to pass legislation including draft targets for the Haredi community and the punishment of Yeshivas (religious seminaries) failing to fulfil them.
Ynet, meanwhile, reports that Itamar Ben Gvir, whose Jewish Power party was said to have already successfully concluded negotiations with Netanyahu, has this week added a fresh demand: authority over the ministerial committee for legislation.
Yediot Ahronot reports on opposition parties’ holding of an emergency conference. The event, entitled “Stopping the education system’s destructive sale”, was a response to last week’s appointment of Noam Party leader Avi Moaz to an influential educational role in the Prime Minister’s Office. Outgoing Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton is reported as telling the conference: “They’re selling the education system… They’re transferring [control over] substantive parts [of the education system] to extremists with benighted views.” Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, meanwhile, indicated a view that despite a formally junior education position, Moaz will be the real framer of Israel’s educational policy: “The next education minister won’t run the education system. They’ve dismantled it into pieces for the wrong reasons. Netanyahu is so very weak, so very dependent on them, that anyone who wants something gets it.”
Israel Hayom’s Matti Tuchfeld responded critically to the tone of the conference: “If there was ever anyone to give the entire political establishment a breath-taking lesson in the meaning of governmental imperiousness, partisan politics and agenda coercion without even a smidgen of consideration for the people who were forced temporarily into the opposition, it was that very same [outgoing government] camp.”
Channel 12 reports on Commanders for Israel’s Security Director Maj. Gen. (res.) Matan Vilnai sending a letter to Netanyahu, signed by 412 members, including former Mossad directors Tamir Pardo, Shabtai Shavit and Danny Yatom, calling on Netanyahu to condemn and halt recent criticism of senior military personnel by members of the incoming coalition. “We expect and demand of you to take urgent action that will make clear the existential vitalness of that unity for Israel’s security and the IDF’s fortitude as all the people’s army that belongs to all of us”, the letter stated.
Yediot Ahronot notes that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is considering its cooperation with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the light of perceived bias of the organisation against Israel.