Rising anti-Semitism presents ‘dire’ threat to Germany, head of top national security agency warns.

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

The head of one of Germany’s national security agencies has warned that his country is facing a “dire” situation in terms of rising anti-Semitism.

In an interview ahead of Monday’s publication of his department’s 100-page report on anti-Semitism, Thomas Haldenwang — president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the government agency tasked with defending Germany’s democratic institutions from extremists on right and left — noted that anti-Semitic crimes committed by right-wing extremists “increased by 71 percent in 2018 and by another 17 percent last year.”

Added Haldenwang, in an extensive conversation with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Saturday: “In the everyday life of our Jewish citizens, this means they are often exposed to insults, threats and attacks.”

Haldenwang underlined that “when Jewish citizens tell me that they are wondering when the time will come to leave Germany — that they have even reached this point — then the situation is dire.”

He said that the goal of the state was to ensure “that everyone in this country can wear a kippah whenever and wherever they want: Just as we have to ensure that everyone can wear a cross around their necks or a crescent moon without being afraid.”

The report by Haldenwang’s office highlighted an “informal network” of right-wing extremists who were working in key areas ranging from the domestic intelligence service to certain media outlets. Anti-Semitic propaganda was being “skillfully” repackaged to appeal to a broader public, it said.

“The old hatred is becoming more socially acceptable,” the report asserted. “The limits of what can be said shift in favor of the antisemites.”

Haldenwang emphasized that anti-Semitic messages were implicit in many of the conspiracy theories embraced on the right, such as the claim that the billionaire financier George Soros, who is Jewish, was funding a “globalist” threat to national governments.

Such attacks symbolized the “typical, poorly veiled anti-Semitism of the New Right — not clearly stated, but clearly indicated,” said Haldenwang.

The same report observed that after right-wing extremists, Islamists were the main culprits in attacks on Germany’s Jewish community.

While hostility to Jews on the far right was frequently based on discredited racist tropes, the report said, among Islamists, prejudice against Jews was grounded in “the anti-Zionist enemy image of the ‘Jewish State of Israel.’”

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on January 16, 2020.

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The leader of Otzma Yehudit, the party kept off the combined list, charges that he and his followers were betrayed and stabbed in the back.

By World Israel News Staff

There was high political drama in the Knesset on Wednesday night as the Central Elections Committee extended its 10 pm deadline for parties to submit their lists of candidates to run in the March 2 parliamentary election.

It wasn’t until midnight that the dust settled regarding the composition of a list comprised of various right-wing parties which had been negotiating among themselves until the deadline and beyond and were being pressured by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join forces.

Ultimately it was determined that the list would consist of representatives of the New Right, Jewish Home, and National Union parties. The Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party was kept off the list.

“Together!” exclaimed Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of National Union, in a tweet.

“I congratulate my partners on the agreement,” he wrote. “Religious Zionism is setting out on the road together.”

The list is to be headed by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of New Right, who had insisted on keeping Otzma Yehudit off the list, arguing that the party had an extremist agenda regarding Arabs.

However, Jewish Home had earlier agreed to run together with Otzma Yehudit.

A meeting on Wednesday evening between Bennett and Jewish Home leader Education Minister Rafi Peretz broke up without an agreement on the issue. The two were then summoned by Netanyahu to the Prime Minister’s Office for a meeting even as the 10 pm deadline for submission of lists approached.

Peretz agreed to back away from his agreement with Otzma Yehudit.

Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir said that he felt betrayed.

“The education minister stuck a knife in my back and in the back of 84,000 people who supported me. It was not only him but all of the politicians in Religious Zionism,” Ben Gvir charged.

After two Knesset elections in 2019 which did not produce a new government coalition, Netanyahu was urging unity in the Right to help the chances of attaining a better result in the upcoming March election.

Among left-wing parties, Labor and Meretz decided to run as a merged list and MK Stav Shaffir, who was kept out, announced on Wednesday that she would not be running separately, and would take a break from parliamentary life, in order to avoid creating a split within the Left, which is trying to replace Netanyahu with Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz as prime minister.

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on January 14, 2020.

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The new unified list is now calling on another right-wing party Jewish Home to join the alliance.

By World Israel News Staff

In a stark turnaround, the New Right party, headed by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, has joined forces with Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s National Union party and will run as a joint ticket in the March 2 Knesset election.

“This is a big day,” said Bennett on Tuesday.

“We have reunited the family. We’ve made a large alliance in the ideological Right and in Religious Zionism – from the traditional [non-Orthodox] to the Haredi-Zionists, from the knitted kippas to those without kippas, from Tel Aviv to Kedumim” in Samaria,” he stressed, referring to the New Right ideology of bringing together religious and secular Israelis among right-wing citizens of the Jewish State.

Just a day earlier, Bennett announced that his New Right party would run separately and not join other right-wing parties on a unified ticket.

National Union was said to be on the verge of joining a list together with Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit, but in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Smotrich reportedly made clear that such a deal was not working out, and instead he turned to New Right.

National Union and Jewish Home exchanged accusations over who was to blame for the collapse of their negotiations.

Now Smotrich and Bennett are both urging Jewish Home to join them instead

Bennett called on Jewish Home leader Education Minister Rafi Peretz “to join us immediately to form a single united party, for the victory of the national camp.”

“Bezalel Smotrich is our partner and ally. The alliance with him brings together all the streams of Religious Zionism and the secular ideological Right and ensures the formation of a stable and secure right-wing government. I call on the Jewish Home to join us,” Shaked said.

Registration for parties running in the March 2 election is taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, with the deadline set for 10 pm on Wednesday.

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It represents “the only chance” for the right-wing parties overall to achieve an absolute majority in parliament, says New Right.

By World Israel News Staff 

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced Monday that his New Right party will run separately in the March 2 Knesset election and not join the right-wing parties running together as a consolidated ticket in the parliamentary ballot.

A New Right statement said that running separately represented “the only chance” for the right-wing parties overall to achieve an absolute majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Israelis are going to the polls for the third time within a year due to the inability of either of the largest parties to form a governing coalition in the stalemated parliament.

In April, New Right ran alone and failed to gain enough votes to enter the Knesset. In the September election, the party not only joined a combined right-wing list but was placed in the first spot. The result was seven seats for the joint faction.

The New Right leadership has alternated between Bennett and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Currently, Bennett is at the helm.

Despite its failure in April, New Right believes that if it runs separately this time, it can ultimately achieve more seats for the right-wing camp that could then form a government coalition to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in office.

The assessment is based on the hope that because New Right is comprised of both religious and secular members, it could sway voters away from Netanyahu’s main challenger, the Blue and White faction. The parties who are joining the combined right-wing list are religious.

Blue and White, as well as Yisrael Beytenu, a key party in determining who becomes the next prime minister, has spoken of forming a “liberal” government on the issue of religion.

New Right says that it intends to promote an election platform that stresses religious tolerance in Israeli society alongside a tough security stance against the Palestinians.

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“The Right will not forgive Bennett, Smotrich, and Peretz if they don’t unite into a joint list,” Netanyahu tweeted.

By World Israel News Staff 

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett of the New Right party is considering running as part of a joint list of “all the religious Zionist parties” in the March 2 Knesset election, Kan public broadcasting reported Wednesday. Israel’s Channel 11 reports that he may lead the list.

Earlier, New Right had announced that it would run separately.

Israel is heading to its third parliamentary election within a year due to the failure to form a governing coalition.

In the April 2019 election, New Right ran separately but failed to receive 3.25 percent of the vote, the minimum required by Israeli law to enter parliament.

In the next ballot, in September, New Right ran jointly with other right-wing parties, and in fact, headed the list with former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. The bloc, called Yemina, won seven seats in the 120-member Knesset.

However, the most extreme of the right-wing parties, Otzma Yehudit (or “Jewish Power”), was left off the list in September. It ran separately and failed to pass the minimum threshold, costing the right tens of thousands of votes.

This time, Otzma has already joined in a merger with the Jewish Home party, paving the way for a comprehensive right-wing bloc.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been encouraging a joint run of all the parties.

“The Right will not forgive Bennett, Smotrich, and Peretz if they don’t unite into a joint list,” the prime minister tweeted last weekend.

Bezalel Smotrich and Rafi Peretz head two right-wing parties which have run together in the past.

Bennett met with Smotrich on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of a joint run in March, Kan reported, adding that Netanyahu met with both of them.

Though the public broadcaster referred to the potential joint effort as a list of religious parties, New Right is a mixed party: Bennett is religious but Shaked is a secular Jew, and the party takes pride in its mixed representation.

However, for Netanyahu, the important element is bolstering the Right.

Public opinion polls have shown the prime minister’s Likud party losing some ground to its main challenger Blue and White, but a strong showing by a joint Right list could help Netanyahu ultimately garner a majority coalition to finally form a new government.

The post Right-wing steps closer to real unity with reports that Bennett will lead it appeared first on World Israel News.

A spokesman for Shaked has not yet commented on her absence, reports The Jerusalem Post.

By World Israel News Staff

The absence of co-founder Ayelet Shaked was notable on Monday as the New Right Party launched its election campaign.

A spokesman for Shaked has not yet commented on her absence, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Before officially rejoining the party’s second election campaign, rumors were swirling that Shaked was considering joining the Likud party.

With Shaked not present, Defense Minister and New Right co-founder Naftali Bennett party took center stage at the launch event.  A campaign flyer featured only Bennett next to the slogan: “Definitely right – not kind of, and not sometimes.”

On Monday, the party discussed its political platform and voter demographics. Reportedly, the campaign plans to target Russian voters in an attempt to take seats away from Russian-born Israel Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman.

“Rule of the right-wing will not happen without a big New Right, which will end the pretense of other parties,” the party said in a statement following the campaign kickoff.

“Right-wing is not just in the realm of diplomacy. We are right-wing economically, right-wing in terms of freedom of the individual, right-wing which is not dependent on committees. The New Right is definitely Right, not kind of right and not sometimes right,” the statement added.

Shortly before new elections were called, Bennett announced, with Shaked present, that the party will run alone in the next election.

“If we run into an election campaign against our will – the New Right party will run as an independent party for the Knesset. I have already updated the prime minister, he is aware, we are running as a party and will be open to connections. We will do what is right for the State of Israel. The New Right is returning to the center of the map in a big way,” Bennett said at the Nov. 25 press conference.

Shaked said that new elections were inevitable.

“We are not yet desperate to have Liberman return to the right-wing bloc, but that seems highly unlikely. The most realistic scenario is a third election campaign,” she said at the time.

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Religious-Zionist parties are in trouble in the coming elections if they don’t unite, a poll finds.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The right-wing religious-Zionist parties are in a struggle for survival, according to the latest poll published Thursday in Israel Hayom.

Neither a united Jewish Home-National Union party nor the further-to-the-right Otzma Yehudit (or “Jewish Strength”) party passed the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent.

The former polled at two percent and the latter at only one percent in the Ma’agar Mochot survey, which had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

According to Israel Hayom, Jewish Home leader and Education Minister Rafi Peretz has rebuffed efforts to unite with his party’s former partner in the last elections, the National Union, with which it is ideologically the most similar.

Peretz has reportedly also rejected a technical bloc with Otzma Yehudit.

In the last round of elections, the Otzma Yehudit party received some 84,000 votes, worth 2.5 seats. These were lost as the party ran alone and didn’t cross the electoral threshold.

According to Israel Hayom, Otzma’s leadership has reached out to other religious-Zionist parties to persuade them that their support in a technical bloc would mean success in the March elections.

New Right in good position

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett’s New Right party is considered to be in the best position possible to the right of the Likud, according to an analysis by Israel Hayom on Sunday.

His decision to part ways with the national religious parties with whom he ran in a technical bloc in September seems to have paid off for him.

He has backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout recent months, which apparently will help him with the secular right-wing base that supports Netanyahu despite the corruption charges.

Israel Hayom also reports that Netanyahu will not attempt to siphon votes from Bennett as happened in the last election as the prime minister saw that he “paid a very painful price” for doing so in September.

Serving as defense minister, a position he took over in November, will likely help Bennett win votes in the national-religious camp, which had punished him in the April elections for leaving the Jewish Home party to establish his New Right party.

This sector has longed for years to have a “real” right-winger in the position that is directly responsible for issuing building permits in Judea and Samaria. His tough stance against Palestinian terrorism and Iranian entrenchment along Israel’s northern border will also appeal to Israel’s defense-minded voters.

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on October 31, 2019.

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Bennett is navigating his way into the Likud and Shaked has been holding meetings to discuss a return to Jewish Home.

By World Israel News Staff

The leader of the New Right party, MK Ayelet Shaked, is considering quitting the party and returning to her previous home, the Jewish Home party, reports Israel Hayom.

The New Right is “dying,” says the newspaper, as the other party leader, MK Naftali Bennett, is navigating his way into the Likud, the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Shaked has been holding meetings “over recent days” in which she has been discussing a return to Jewish Home.

Her plan includes an effort to take over the leadership of Jewish Home, replacing current chairman Rafi Peretz, an MK who serves as education minister in the Netanyahu government, which continues to rule as efforts have failed so far to form a new governing coalition after the September 17 parliamentary election.

It has been a tumultuous short life for New Right, which was first established when Shaked and Bennett announced last December that they were breaking away from Jewish Home.

However, they failed to gain enough votes in April’s Knesset election to enter the Israeli parliament.

When Netanyahu failed to form a new government and a new election was legislated to take place in September, New Right was given new life and the two leaders decided to shake things up.

Bennett, who had held the top spot, agreed to a demotion to the second position in favor of Shaked.

The party leadership then also agreed to join a consolidated list of right-wing parties, including Jewish Home, and run together in the September election. The list won seven seats.

However, after the new Knesset took office, New Right broke away and was recognized as a separate parliamentary faction.

Shaked is a popular figure among many in the political right, including the Likud, where an effort has been made to court her and she has shown interest.

However, a dramatic change for Shaked is not expected very soon, says Israel Hayom, because both the Likud and Jewish Home have a “qualification” period which would prevent her from joining immediately. Neither Netanyahu nor Peretz is seen as likely to agree to reducing the cooling-off period to allow Shaked to pursue her aspirations in their party.

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Gantz’s road to becoming the next prime minister will be a difficult one.

By World Israel News Staff

A meeting between the right-wing bloc and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to take place at the Prime Minister’s office tomorrow afternoon.

The right-wing bloc is the unifying faction of the Shas, United Torah Judaism, New Right, and the Jewish Home-National Union parties that is headed by Netanyahu.

On Monday, Netanyahu announced that he has given the mandate to form a government back to Israeli president Reuven Rivlin after failing to form a ruling coalition.

Netanyahu attacked Gantz for refusing to cooperate with him during the process.

“I have made all efforts to bring Benny Gantz to the negotiating table, all efforts to form a broad national unity government, all efforts to prevent another election. Unfortunately, time after time, he simply refused,” he said.

In last month’s national election, Netanyahu fell short of securing a 61-seat Knesset majority. But Rivlin gave Netanyahu the first opportunity to form a government because he had received one more recommendation by Knesset members than Gantz did.

Today Rivlin gave the nod to Gantz to attempt to form a government.

Gantz’s road to becoming the next prime minister will be a difficult one.

He now has 28 days, with the possibility of an extension upon request, to obtain the 61 seats needed to form a ruling majority.

Gantz will need the support of the Arab Joint List, which has publicly stated that it will not join a coalition.

“We want and cannot take any part in the government or the coalition,” Arab Joint List chairman Ahmed Tibi said in an interview with Israel public broadcaster, Kan Reshet Bet in September.

He will also need the support of Israel Beitenu’s leader Avigdor Liberman who has been steadfast in his refusal to sit in a coalition that includes any Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties.

If Gantz is unsuccessful in his attempts to form a government than Rivlin can either give the Knesset members 21 days to find an alternative candidate for prime minister or call for another round of elections. If no candidate is successful in forming a government, the Knesset will automatically be dissolved and a third election will take place within 90 days.

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However, the right-wing leader says Blue and White should negotiate with the whole right-religious bloc and not each party alone.

By World Israel News Staff 

On Tuesday, New Right leader MK Ayelet Shaked said that her party would accept an invitation to meet with Blue and White, headed by MK Benny Gantz, on the possibility of forming a new governing coalition on the heels of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Monday that he had failed.

“In response to many questions which I have received: if we are invited to a meeting with Gantz, of course we would come,” tweeted Shaked.

“But we would make clear to Gantz,” she added, “that it’s a shame to waste time and would be worthwhile to start conducting negotiations with representatives of the bloc.”

Shaked was referring to the 55 MKs in the 120-seat Knesset who support Netanyahu’s leadership.

It has been a bone of contention between Blue and White and the Likud.

As Netanyahu conducted talks with Blue and White on forming a new government over the past month, he insisted that he represented all 55 MKs who backed him and not just the 32 seats won by the Likud in the September 17 election.

The other smaller factions include New Right, Jewish Home/National Union, United Torah Judaism, and Shas. Members of these parties are said to have even signed pledges of allegiance to the incumbent premier.

Blue and Right has rejected this approach, arguing that it should be its strength of 33 seats negotiating across a similarly-sized Likud and not in a position of weakness as much smaller than the entire opposing bloc.

“The New Right will not conduct independent negotiations,” Shaked insisted on Tuesday.

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Feiglin says he’ll go it alone in September’s elections.

By World Israel News Staff

Zehut party leader Moshe Feiglin confirmed to IDF Radio on Monday that his party will run  independently.

Asked whether he was worried about wasting votes, the right-wing leader said, “The only one who didn’t waste his vote in the last elections was the one who voted Zehut.”

Feiglin’s party failed to garner enough votes to enter the Knesset in the April elections.

Feiglin criticized Ayelet Shaked, the former Justice Minister who will lead the United Right-Wing Alliance, according to reports on Sunday.

Feiglin told IDF Radio, “Although I brought more votes than Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, Shaked did not turn to me at all, and no negotiations were conducted even though everyone knew our hands were outstretched. We will run ourselves and enter the Knesset.”

Shaked and Bennett are still ironing out the details of their agreement with the Union of Right-Wing Parties, which so far includes the Jewish Home and the National Union.

Contradicting Feiglin’s assertion, Shaked has made clear that she wants as broad a right-wing coalition as possible.

On Sunday night, as negotiations appeared to move forward, she expressed hope “that we can move to the next stage – to try to enter all the right-wing parties under a united right.”

Her close political ally, Naftali Bennett, said recently that negotiations with Feiglin would start as part of the next stage.

Two parties remain outside the alliance – Zehut and Otzma Yehudit (or “Jewish Power”). The latter is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. He has said he wants to unite.

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on July 22, 2019.

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The former justice minister announced at a press conferences Sunday she will serve as chairwoman of the New Right party, with ally Naftali Bennett stepping aside to make way for her leadership.

By World Israel News Staff and JNS

Confirming reports circulating in the Israeli media, Ayelet Shaked made an official announcement on Sunday evening that she will serve as party leader for the New Right faction.

This development represents a new direction for the party, which failed to cross the electoral threshold in April elections following a campaign led by Naftali Bennett.

Bennett introduced Shaked at a Sunday press conference during which she made the announcement, calling on other right wing parties to come together under Shaked’s leadership prior to the next round of elections in September.

During the announcement, Shaked commented that until now “there had been no party led by a woman” competing in the upcoming elections.

The results of a Channel 12 poll released on Sunday reveal that an alliance between Shaked’s New Right party and the Union of Right-Wing Parties (UWRP), with Shaked serving as leader, could garner 12-13 seats in the Knesset.

Whether or not embattled UWRP head Rafi Peretz will cede leadership of such a faction to Shaked remains to be seen.

Shaked’s announcement arrived just 10 days before all political parties must announce their slates for the upcoming Sept. 17 national election.

“I prefer if we create a [moderate] right-wing bloc with one leader, and have another leader at the head of another religious hardal [religious nationalist] party, which is the Union of Right-Wing Parties,” Bennett told Channel 12 news in an interview broadcast Saturday.

Shaked has apparently met with Peretz, but allegedly stopped short of openly asserting interest in his slot, according to a URWP source quoted by Ynet.

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