News Lelemuku

JERUSALEM, LELEMUKU.COM - Israel's president began post-election consultations Monday with political parties that will lead to his appointment of a candidate to form a government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nomination seemed virtually ensured after his right-wing Likud won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the April 9 ballot, and his closest rival, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, conceded defeat.

President Reuven Rivlin said he would announce his choice Wednesday after meeting with all of the parties that captured seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Under Israeli law, after consultations with the parties the president taps a legislator whom he believes has the best chance of forming a government, delegating 28 days, with a two-week extension if necessary, to complete the task.

Netanyahu said he intends to build a coalition with five far-right, right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would give a Likud-led government 65 seats, four more than the outgoing administration he heads.

All of those parties have now said they will back Netanyahu, with the last to hold out, former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, pledging support late Monday.

"The country has decided and we need to honor the decision," Lieberman said in a speech to party supporters. "Tomorrow at the president's, we will recommend Benjamin Netanyahu as the candidate to form the government."

Gantz, a former military chief of staff whose party won 35 parliamentary seats, would likely be next in line to try to put together a government if Netanyahu fails.

For the first time, Rivlin's consultations with the parties were being broadcast live as part of what he described as a display of transparency in what has historically been a closed-door process in Israel.

At the meeting with Likud representatives, Culture Minister Miri Regev noted Netanyahu had won re-election despite Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's announcement in February that he plans to charge the prime minister in three graft cases.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing. He can still argue, at a pre-trial hearing with Mandelblit whose date has not been set, against the filing of bribery and fraud charges against him.

The Israeli leader is under no legal obligation to resign if indicted. (VOA)

JERUSALEM, LELEMUKU.COM - When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has run into political trouble in the past, he has lashed out at the media, the political opposition and Israel's Arab minority with incendiary and divisive language to galvanize his nationalist base.

Ahead of April 9 elections, Netanyahu has zoned in on prominent Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi.

The Israeli leader, slumping in the polls after the dramatic announcement of his pending corruption indictment, is portraying Tibi as a threat to national security in a charged campaign that critics say questions the loyalty of the country's Arab citizens.

Using his own nickname, Netanyahu has been repeating a campaign mantra: “Bibi or Tibi.” The snappy slogan, eagerly parroted by his hard-line allies, highlights Netanyahu's efforts to paint his challengers as weak “leftists” conspiring with Arab Israelis and a hostile media to oust him.

It also shines a spotlight on Tibi — an affable, media-savvy political veteran who speaks fluent Hebrew. Tibi is known for his harsh criticism of government policies toward the country's Arab citizens and toward Palestinians who live under Israeli control in territories Israel captured in 1967.

“Until this week, I didn't know that against my will I was a leading candidate for prime minister,” he said with a smile from his home in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Despite the humor, Tibi said he is concerned about what he views as Netanyahu's attempt to demonize Israel's Arab minority.

“He is delegitimizing the Arab parties, the Arab lawmakers and the Arab public in general,” he said. “He's trying to transmit that it is either me, the supposed patriotic Jewish leader, or the Arabs will take over the country and decide who will be the prime minister. And he portrays this as a nightmare.”

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's 9 million residents. They hold full citizenship rights but have faced decades of discrimination.

The outgoing Netanyahu-led government further stoked tensions by passing a controversial law that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. A parliamentary panel recently recommended banning an Arab party from running in the election, while Netanyahu has courted anti-Arab extremists in hopes of improving his re-election chances.

Part of Netanyahu's typical stump speech these days alleges that his prime challenger, ex-military chief Benny Gantz, will be unable to build a ruling coalition without the backing of Arab parties. Arab parties never sat in an Israeli coalition government, and they say they have no interest in doing so now.

Gantz has been quick to reject the association, flaunting his tough military record of pounding Gaza militants and saying he would not rely on the Arab bloc in parliament to stabilize a future government.

The charge nonetheless is part of the Netanyahu campaign playbook that has worked before.

Fearing a possible loss on election day in 2015, Netanyahu mobilized his supporters by releasing a frantic midday video in which he warned that Arab voters were heading “in droves” to the polls. The move, for which he later apologized, appeared to help turn the tide and secure another term for him.

If he wins again, he's expected to walk back his rhetoric once more, said Yohanan Plesner, president of the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute.

Plesner said Netanyahu tends to speak in two voices about the Arab minority.

He said Netanyahu has earmarked unprecedented budgets to Arab communities to try to close the wide economic gaps between Arabs and Jews.

But during election campaigns, Netanyahu attempts to mobilize his base, Plesner said. Netanyahu “recruits the ultimate `other' of Israeli life, which is the Arab minority,” he said. “It is cynical, and it is effective.”

Such rhetoric will encourage more Arab voters to sit out the election, said Thabet Abu Rass, co-director of the Abraham Fund Initiatives, a non-profit dedicated to promoting equality in Israel.

“A lot of people are now saying we cannot continue to play the game and pretend Israel is a state for all its citizens,” he said. “And they'll say we have to highlight this by boycotting the election.”

At the same time, many Israeli Jews, especially among Netanyahu's right-wing base, consider the Arab minority disloyal for sympathizing with the Palestinians and other Arab adversaries. A decade ago, Arab lawmaker Azmi Bishara fled into exile after he was accused of spying for Hezbollah — a charge he denied.

The 60-year-old Tibi illustrates many of the contradictions faced by Israel's Arabs. He's worked as a gynecologist in Israeli hospitals and served for years as a member of parliament, but also advised Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

For the past two decades, Tibi has advocated for Arab rights in Israel and for a Palestinian state. Hard-line lawmakers frequently brand him a fifth-column in the Israeli legislature.

But he is also considered the most popular Arab lawmaker, even among Israeli Jews. He is a regular on their television screens, known for his witty quips.

In parliament, he's earned praise for his environmental and consumer legislation and for his promotion of Holocaust commemoration that touched many Jews.

In the current election campaign, he has refrained from endorsing any of Netanyahu's challengers, wary of playing into the prime minister's hands. Tibi said he is ill at ease with the leadership of the Blue-and-White party, which includes Gantz and two other former chiefs of what he calls the “occupation army.”

But he makes no qualms about wanting to unseat Netanyahu, whom he accuses of “Arab hatred” and of leading Israel down a dangerous path by deepening control over the occupied West Bank and its millions of Palestinians.

“It's possible that Benjamin Netanyahu is leading us toward a binational state, and then it will either be an apartheid state in which only the Jews can vote or a democratic country in which there is one person, one vote,” he said. “If that happens, tomorrow I will run against Bibi. Then it will really be Bibi or Tibi.” (VOA)

TEHRAN, LELEMUKU.COM - Iran's foreign minister on Sunday accused Israel of looking for war and warned that its actions and those of the United States were increasing the chances of a clash in the region.

Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also criticized the U.S. administration after Vice President Mike Pence this week called on European powers to pullout of the nuclear deal with Iran. Zarif urged France, Germany and Britain to do more to save that accord.

"Certainly, some people are looking for war... Israel," Zarif said. "The risk [of war] is great. The risk will be even greater if you continue to turn a blind eye to severe violations of international law."

Accusing Israel of violating international law after bombing campaigns in Syria, Zarif criticized European powers for not calling out Israel and the United States for their behavior in the region.

"Israeli behavior is putting international law on the shelf, U.S. behavior is putting international law on the shelf," he said.

Speaking to his Cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iranian belligerence was the main destabilising factor in the entire Middle East.

"We must deny Iran nuclear weaponry and block its military entrenchment in Syria. We will continue taking constant action to ensure Israel's security," he said in remarks broadcast on Israeli media.

Europe falling short

Vice President Pence on Friday accused Iran of Nazi-like anti-Semitism, maintaining his harsh rhetoric against Tehran just a day he attacked European powers for trying to undermine U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Zarif said the U.S. had an "unhealthy" and "pathological obsession" with Iran and accused Pence of trying to bully his allies.

"All in the name of containing Iran, the U.S. claims, and some blindly parrot, that it is Iran that is interfering in the region, but has it been asked whose region?" Zarif said.

"Look at the map, the U.S. military has traveled 10,000 kilometers to dot all our borders with its bases. There is a joke that it is Iran that put itself in the middle of U.S. bases."

Zarif, who said Iran was committed to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers for now, also accused France, Britain and Germany of not doing enough to ensure Tehran received the economic benefits of that accord.

These three countries this month set up the Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a new channel for non-dollar trade with Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions. But diplomats say it is unlikely to allow the big transactions that Tehran says it needs to keep a nuclear deal afloat.

Washington's major European allies opposed last year's decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to abandon the deal, which also includes China and Russia, under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for Tehran accepting curbs on its nuclear program.

"INSTEX falls short of commitments by the E3 [France, Germany, Britain] to save the nuclear deal," Zarif said. "Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of U.S. unilateralism." (VOA)

YERUSALEM, LELEMUKU.COM - Israel on Thursday agreed to allow the transfer of $15 million in Qatari aid to the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip, an official said. But Hamas said it was rejecting the much-needed cash to protest Israeli delays on the delivery.

The money is the third in a series of payments provided by Qatar to help ease the grim economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza. The cash transfers, delivered through an Israeli crossing, have been controversial in Israel, where critics accuse the government of rewarding Hamas violence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked the latest transfer on Tuesday after a Palestinian sniper shot an Israeli soldier along the Gaza border, hitting him in the helmet and lightly wounding him.

But the Israeli official said Thursday that security officials had now decided to allow the transfer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Hamas is to use the money to pay thousands of civil servants who have not received full salaries in several years.

As Israel was approving the payment, however, Hamas announced that it would not accept the money.

Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas official, said the group was protesting Israeli delays and "blackmail." Accusing Israel of violating understandings, he said Hamas has informed Qatari mediator Mohammed al-Emadi, who was in Gaza, of its decision.

He also vowed to step up a planned protest along the Israeli border on Friday.

Hamas has staged regular protests along the border since last March to protest an Israeli blockade that has devastated Gaza's economy. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007.

More than 185 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations, while an Israeli soldier was shot dead in July by a Gaza sniper. Israel accuses Hamas of using the large crowds as cover to carry out attacks. (VOA)

JERUSALEM, LELEMUKU.COM - In a rare public admission, Israel confirmed early Monday that it carried out airstrikes on Iranian military targets inside Syria.

"We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory," the military tweeted.

It gave no further details.

But Israel launched the airstrikes after it intercepted a missile over the Golan Heights, hours after what Syria says were missiles fired near the Damascus airport.

Israel rarely makes any comments on military action in Syria. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Chad, "We have a defined policy— to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us."

Israel wants to avoid getting involved in Syria's civil war. It has appealed to Russia— the Syrian government's top ally— to keep Iranian forces away from a zone near the Syrian-Israeli border. (VOA)

N'DJAMENA, LELEMUKU.COM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the central African nation of Chad on Sunday to officially restore relations after nearly 50 years.

The visit and official announcement marked a milestone in Netanyahu's recent policy of seeking out new allies among developing countries that have historically sided with the Palestinians at the United Nations and other international forums.

The visit comes after Chad's President Idriss Deby visited Jerusalem in November during which the leaders discussed cooperation in agriculture, counterterrorism, border protection and technology. Netanyahu hailed what he called a "historic and important breakthrough" with the Muslim-majority country that borders Libya and Sudan.

"Israel is making inroads into the Islamic world. This is the result of considerable effort in recent years. We are making history and we are turning Israel into a rising global power," Netanyahu said from the capital city of N'Djamena, the first ever visit by an Israel prime minister. "We are continuing on, up the mountain, to new heights."

Chad broke off relations with Israel in 1972 amid pressure from the Arab world. Most recently, it has played a key role as a partner of the United States and other North African countries in combatting jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in the Sahara.

The desert country is one of the world's least developed states, according to the World Bank's Human Development Index, and its government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and rigged elections. Deby took power in 1990 and has since been re-elected five times.

Upon departing to Chad Sunday, Netanyahu promised that there would soon be more visits to countries to restore ties.

"This is very disturbing and even causes outrage in Iran and among the Palestinians who are trying to prevent this. They will not succeed," he said. (VOA)