Posted on 12/28/2014 11:51:40 AM PST by Dave346
The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday rejected an appeal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents in Likud who asked to postpone the Likud leadership and Knesset primary that is set for Wednesday. The decision by Judge Michal Agmon-Gonen means that the race for both the Knesset and Likud leader will be that day, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. Agmon-Gonen wrote in her ruling that the decision to hold both races the same day was "reasonable" and would not cause significant harm to the democratic process inside the party.
A source close to Likud central committee members who filed the appeal said it is unlikely that they will appeal Agmon's decision to the Supreme Court. They said the legal steps they took until now to prove that Netanyahu was running the party unfairly had already made their statement.
There are still appeals in Likud's internal courts challenging a decision by the Likud central committee to permit the leader of the party to select his own candidates for two realistic slots on the party list in the March 17 general election.
The only challenger against Netanyahu for Likud leader will be MK Danny Danon after MK Moshe Feiglin dropped out of the race. Danon said that despite pressure from Likud officials and activists and even his own advisers, he would not drop out of the leadership race.
"I am the only candidate in Israel, maybe the world, running for chairman and for parliament in the same day," he said. "It's not easy. It's a big challenge. But I'm willing to take that risk, because it's important for the party to return to its core values." Danon said he believes that Netanyahu will be able to run for Likud leader and the Knesset despite being disqualified last Wednesday by the party's comptroller, Shai Galili.
Galili said Netanyahu must answer claims that he improperly used party resources in his leadership primary run. Netanyahu and the Likud’s election committee said in response that Galili had no authority to disqualify the prime minister.
Netanyahu appealed the decision Thursday. Sources close to him called Galili a political hack. Galili also tried Thursday to disqualify the Knesset candidacy of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon.
Despite dropping out of the leadership race, Feiglin has continued raising large sums of money, which he has used for his race for Knesset. Unlike Netanyahu and Danon, who raised large sums from a small number of donors abroad, Feiglin has raised NIS 300,000 from small donations from dozens of Israelis.
Anyone know what the relationship between Obama, Kerry and Shai Galili is?
He’s far to the right of Netanyahu, and who thinks Netanyahu isn’t far enough “right” to head Likud. Netanyahu has his enemies to the right and to the left ... :-) ...
Danon said he believes that Netanyahu will be able to run for Likud leader and the Knesset despite being disqualified last Wednesday by the party's comptroller, Shai Galili. Galili said Netanyahu must answer claims that he improperly used party resources in his leadership primary run. Netanyahu and the Likud's election committee said in response that Galili had no authority to disqualify the prime minister... Galili also tried Thursday to disqualify the Knesset candidacy of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon.
I was surprised that the “staunchly conservative” government of Israel is totally fine with allowing taxpayer funded abortion on demand and rampant promotion of gay “rights”. Is there anything resembling a social conservative in Israel?
Well, Israel will rule over the nations of the world when the Messiah of Israel returns and sets up his one-world government there ... but that doesn’t mean that Israel is like the USA, either with politics or social issues or the laws they enact and enforce there. Israel is not “mini-USA” in the Middle East.
I support Israel as the homeland for the Jews and to be secure in their own land, but I don’t expect them to be like the USA. They are their own country!
Yet it's marketed like that over here.
>> I support Israel as the homeland for the Jews and to be secure in their own land <<
I do as well, and totally stand with them on national security issues. I think its idiotic that the United States demands they stop building "settlements" in the West Bank. Israel can do whatever they want with their boundaries and if the Muslims in the middle east don't like that, too bad.
That being said, I would certainly give Netenyahu an earful about his government's liberal abortion policies if I was a visiting American politician. It's ironic he complains about Palestinians killing Jews on the one hand, while his country is killing more Jewish babies than Hamas could ever dream of on the other hand. Demographics is destiny and Arabs may become a majority in Israel by 2040 with the current birth rates.
You’ll note that Israel does have support from the LGBT crowd ... and basically IsrEl takes support for its existence from whatever group will give that support to Israel ...
Op-ed: Why LGBT People Around the World Need Israel
http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/07/09/op-ed-why-lgbt-people-around-world-need-israel
Israel has a more progressive record on gay rights than even the United States. Israel made consensual gay sex legal in 1988, although the antisodomy laws had not been enforced since 1963. It prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1992. It was the first country, in 1994, on the continent of Asia to recognize same-sex unions. It made it legal for gays to serve in the military back in 2000. And a majority of Israelis, according to recent polls, support gay marriage. The capital city, Tel Aviv, is considered a gay mecca, where they are now building a monument to memorialize the LGBT people who were persecuted under the Nazi regime during World War II.
Yes, there are a few other Middle Eastern countries where homosexuality is no longer a crime (Jordan, for instance), and they should be recognized. But none of them have stood up as strongly for us as Israel.
For Israel to be so principled in its convictions and in its willingness to fight for us, while surrounded by countries such as Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, is a testament to Israel’s commitment and character.
— — — — —
I’m not an LGBT supporter, but Israel is.
ALSO ... in regards to abortion ...
Israel’s abortion law now among world’s most liberal
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-abortion-law-now-among-worlds-most-liberal/
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Israeli politics are complicated. There are dozens of parties, and many parties have semi-independent factions or are actually coalitions of smaller parties running together,
The Likud party is born of Revisionist Zionism, which is a largely secular but not secularist movement. It has religious Jews in its leadership. There are more religious parties. The Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi) is party dominated by the older National Religious Party (Religious Zionists) from which it was formed along with National Union, which has since split. It has 19 members and would probably come closest within the current Parliament to social, fiscal and national conservatism. Then there is Shas, a Sephardic Orthodox party. Finally, there is United Torah Judaism, an ultra-Orthodox Party. Shas and UTJ are largely interest groups for their communities and have support the left on certain issues.
The Orthodox Jewish position on abortion is complex. At its most stringent, the position from Jewish Law is that for the first 40 days, abortion for any reason is allowed as the zygote and embro are “as water”. After this, the position is that an abortion may occur only to save the mother’s life unless the baby is being born and it mostly out of the womb, in which case his or her life is of equal merit to the mother. However, more liberal interpretation of protecting the mother’s life include her health and even mental health. This more liberal interpretation is that of Conservative (Masorti), Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. I believe that Karaite Jews prohibit abortion after the point at which a fetus is recognizably human. I have no idea what Samaritans believe, but there are only about 400 of them in Green line Israel and they aren’t exactly Jews. I consider them Israelites following the northern traditions. Other Jews don’t see them as Jews.
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