Israel Daily News

Knowledge is the Best Weapon

160, March 18, 2021

Leaked memo from Biden seeks a 2-State Solution with 1967 lines; Israel uses drones to monitor polling sites & a special report on overcoming trauma after living on the Gaza border.

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Special Report wth Judy Spanglet, Connections and Links http://connectionsandlinks.israeldaily.news/

At the end of Thursday’s show, we spoke with Judy Spanglet, the director and founder of an organization called Connections & Links, which helps people who have suffered from trauma to overcome it using easy to learn techniques and skills. She works mostly with families who live at the Gaza border and experience loads of routine rocket fire. Connections and Links sponsored the podcast, which is very exciting for the IDNP team. If you know someone who would be a good fit to sponsor the podcast, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Now Let’s get to the news.

1. Prime Minister Binyamn Netanyahu promised to accept next week’s election results even if he loses. “Of course I’ll accept the results. What can I do, cry?”, he said on the radio Thursday. His comments come after Avigdor Liberman, chair of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, boldly claimed Netanyahu and his supporters were planning a riot similar to the insurrection that occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6th, carried out by supporters of former president Trump, who refused to accept his election loss. Ga sp! That’s quite a statement don’t you think? Liberman has no actual claims for this statement and Netanyahu denies it. In the past several weeks, however, there have been two different instances of Likud supporters attacking supporters of opposing parties. According to the most up-to-date polls, Likud is projected to gain the most seats, but continued political deadlock is expected after the election, with no party having a clear path to assembling a majority coalition, which is needed to create a government. Netanyahu has attempted on several occasions to fly to the UAE to bolster his foreign policy reputation and track record before the election, but the Emiratis have been reluctant. We’ll get to this next.
2. The United Arab Emirates has scrapped plans to hold a summit for Prime Minister Netanyahu, United States officials, and leaders from the Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel. The summit was seen as a great opportunity to strengthen diplomatic relations between the nations. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, however, was angered after determining the summit was part of Netanyahu’s campaign agenda for the upcoming Israeli election. Netanyahu has been trying to bolster his image leading up to the country’s fourth election in two years, and showing strong diplomatic relations with the UAE could be attractive to voters. The UAE stated that they refuse to be a part of any “electioneering” in Israel, and thus have cancelled the summit. Netanyahu maintains his position that diplomacy with Arab countries would not be as strong under different leadership.
3. In a State Department memo leaked on Wednesday, so just yesterday, the Biden administration will look to reinstate US foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s reflects traditionally held positions of past U.S. administrations — so before former president Trump.. For example, a push for a two-state solution based on pre-1967 lines, with mutually agreed upon land swaps. The memo also includes a plan for a $15 million aid package in coronavirus-related humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians as early as later this month. The memo highlights the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, as one of the organizations the Biden administration plans to fund in order to aid the Palestinians. Israel accuses UNRWA of perpetuating the conflict, criticizing the agency’s habit of extending refugee status to millions of Palestinian descendants, instead of honoring only the original refugees, which is what most refugee populations do worldwide. Their textbooks have also been criticised for not including Israel as a country on maps of the world and inciting children to use violence against Jews. State Department officials have had quote “listening sessions” with senior officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry who “welcomed the restart of US-Palestinian relations.” Those two offices happen to be controlled by Blue and White ministers Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, who have taken pride in their efforts to block Netanyahu’s plans to annex plots of land in the West Bank.
4. Let’s talk El Al. Israel is bailing the airline out with a 210 million dollar government advance. They’re securing tickets for security personnel. I guess 210 million dollars worth. It makes sense because this bail out is going to last for the next 20 years! Meaning El Al and its subsidiary line Sun d’Or which I have never heard of before today will owe seats to security people for two decades. Talk about being indebted to someone. The government is backing 82.5 percent of a 300 million dollar loan for the airline under the agreement that its new and controversial owner, Eli Rozenberh would invest the rest of the cash and create a plan that could cut costs. Rozeberg is controversial because he’s a 26 year old yeshiva student in Jerusalem with no background in business. His father is a healthcare millionaire in New York.
5. And a follow up in the International Criminal Court case which alleges individuals from both Israel and Palestinian territories have committed war crimes… well… Israel has officially received a letter from the court, which is a sector of the UN. The letter details the scope of the crimes its investigating. The investigation is controversial in and of itself because the international criminal court is meant to try individuals from places without functioning court systems. The letter reportedly arrived over the weekend and Israel’s national security council is working on a response.
6. Israel is holding elections on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 and officials at the top are concerned that there will be crowding as people get into lines, so …. They’re bringing out the drones. That’s right drones will be monitoring lines at 751 polling sites and if they see that lines are too crowded, messages will be sent out to people that they can move on to other locations with less crowding. The idea is to move people along quickly and keep people separated as best as possible in order to avoid any Covid-19 health restriction breaks. Special vans and taxis will be taking the sick and quarantined to do safe voting. There’s also 4 voting booths going into Ben Gurion airport, which is a first. The idea is to service israelis flying in to vote. Absentee voting is not available for Israelis unless you’re an emissary. So if you want to vote in Israel — get your butt back home.

And now for the special report…listen here for the Facebook Live with Judy Spanglet, Connections and Links. We talked about communities suffering from constant rocket fire and how they use techniques to survive and thrive.

Wow. what an incredible effort in order to help our brothers and sisters.

Connections and Links is in the middle of a fundraising drive so that they can continue their great work. I’ll have you know that between the time our live interview finished and I started to edit the podcast, Connections and Links received a donation. That’s the power of media! Thank you to whoever that was.