1. Less than a week passed between Thomas Friedman's dramatic headline about a "reassessment" of US-Israel relations until the phone rang at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. On the line was US President Joe Biden. The elderly American did not threaten or warn, but the conversation ended a four-month break with Netanyahu, during which he invited him to a meeting in the United States.
Tendentious commentators began as usual to dwarf and downgrade the conversation. It didn't sit well with their predictions — which surprisingly match the protesters' slogans — that "we've lost America." Instead of sitting at home or asking the public for forgiveness for the deception, they began to quibble. "Biden didn't say he was inviting," "They won't meet at the White House but in New York," and other nonsense claims. For 14 years they have been predicting a political tsunami, yet the international community refuses to toe the line, and only strengthens its ties with the Jewish state.
So everything is fine with Biden. On the other hand, if there is an American front that the prime minister actually needs to deal with as soon as possible, it is surprisingly Donald Trump. Despite another indictment this week — this time for biasing the results of the 2020 election — the redhead's chances of returning to the White House are extremely high. The trouble is that when it comes to us, Trump has reasons to be angry.
Biden: "U.S. commitment to Israel's security is strong" // Archive photo: Reuters
First, about Prime Minister Netanyahu, and second, about those American Jews who were not impressed by his historic decisions on behalf of Israel and elected Biden. He cannot understand why most of the established Jewish community supports the party, which by all accounts is less supportive of Israel than he is, to be in its place.
As for Netanyahu, Trump for some reason got the impression that "he was the first to congratulate Biden," as he has said on several occasions. The facts are different. Netanyahu was among the last in the world to congratulate Trump's opponent, but what does it matter?
Trump is angry. Also in public, and even more so in closed conversations. People who met him recently heard explicit things. So while there's more than a year until the U.S. presidential election, this time the transatlantic conversation should leave the prime minister's office and go straight to the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. There, too, there is a disconnect that needs to be ended.
Through the hustle and bustle
2. In the midst of the turmoil sown by the opponents of the government, significant developments and steps for the benefit of the people of Israel disappear from the public consciousness. This week, the Knesset approved an amendment to the Admissions Committees Law, which will be a significant tool in strengthening the groaning Jewish settlements – as described at length in this newspaper – in the north and south.
Under the new law, community communities will be able to grow to 700 families, not just 400 as was the case until now. This is real news for settlement and Zionism. Moreover, the change was made amid a rare agreement these days between the coalition and many in the opposition.
The 700 Families Law amends one of Aharon Barak's harshest rulings, known as the Katzir-Ka'adan High Court. In the same 2000 decision, Barak toppled one of the masters of Zionism, when he ruled that the state could not allocate land specifically to strengthen the Jewish hold on the land. Therefore, he forced the small community of Katzir to accept the Arab Qa'adan family.
A settlement in the Galilee. Change for the better, photo: Moshe Shai
The decision dealt a severe blow to the settlement enterprise in the north and to the Zionist spirit that pulsed in it even before the establishment of the state. Since it was adopted, the planning and building institutions have not dared to speak out and act to strengthen the Jewish hold on the entire country. Arabs were defined in official documents as "natives" and were granted leniency. Jews - not really. In 2011, the damage was slightly repaired when the Knesset authorized community communities to number 400 families. This week, as mentioned, the threshold was raised to 700, and in a few years it is expected to reach 1,000.
Orit Struk, the Minister of Settlements who was the spirit behind promoting the law, with the assistance of MK Alon Shuster of the State Camp, told Israel Hayom that "this is a historic step and wonderful news for rural settlement in the periphery. This law will remove the shackles from the communities and allow them, after years of injustice and suffocation, to grow and develop without losing their communal fabric.
"For years we dreamed and tried to enact this law, because we knew that its legislation was critical to the future of the settlements. Now we turn to strengthening the urban sector in the periphery. The CEOs Committee, headed by the Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, Yossi Shelly, which was established at my request, is currently discussing ways to strengthen the cities in the periphery. As Minister of Settlements, I am committed to strengthening our hold throughout the country and in all sectors."
Border Police officers. From now on, police officers in the field will receive a salary increase, photo: Haim Goldberg/Flash90
Another significant step that has barely made headlines is a salary increase of 40,11 shekels a month for 9 percent of Israeli police officers, some 2023,2022 people. This permanent benefit will be enjoyed by those police officers who give their souls in the field, and it is intended to turn the trend of leaving the police into a broad mobilization for it. The person responsible for the move is National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who financed it through the addition of NIS 2 billion to the police in 000-<>. Ben-Gvir understands that a very large part of the loss of governance stems from the fact that the police are simply too small, and hopes that this pay increase, and two others that will follow, will fill the <>,<> missing standards.
Subsequently, it is probably only after the change of police commissioners that the National Guard will be established, which is supposed to provide a broader and deeper response to rampant crime. Another tool that is supposed to replace the criminals is the application of a "Southern Law" to soldiers and police officers who harm weapons thieves from IDF bases. The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved the law initiated by MK Yitzhak Kreuzer (Otzma Yehudit). Today, soldiers who harm gun thieves risk prosecution if they slightly deviate from the regulations. The new law will give them the backing they deserve.
Since the government was formed and the legal reform was launched, capitalists who oppose it, and their mouthpieces in the media, have warned of the collapse of the economy and the flight of investment. Their prophecies of rage, unfortunately, have partially fulfilled. Had these businessmen and journalists not sowed panic, less Israeli money would have come out of here and the stock exchange would have risen even more than the 2.72 percent recorded since the beginning of 2023.
What is certain is that, just like the idle forecasts of a political collapse, the economy is also on a positive trend. The Central Bureau of Statistics recently reported a halt in inflation, mainly thanks to interest rate increases by the Governor of the Bank of Israel. Home prices, as is well known, are also declining slightly. As a result, the Central Bureau of Statistics growth forecasts were revised upward, and there are even assessments that the interest rate will decline soon. It turns out, then, that Smotrich, Netanyahu and Governor Amir Yaron are not doing such a bad job.
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