Israeli Politics

Why Moshe Kahlon is a Total Fake

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Sometimes dirty politicians are caught at the right place at the right time, and everybody thinks they’re a hero. This is the case with Moshe Kahlon, another Likud politician who left the party to form his own Kulanu party. Others who left have been Lieberman, Bennett, Livni, and Sharon. Kahlon is a two-bit loser lacking any guts or backbone, that was shoved in the right office at exactly the right time to make one move and now people worship him.

What people think he did was introduce competition into the cellular market, thereby lowering prices. If he had done this, it would have been a good thing. Unfortunately, this is only partly true. He did allow other phone companies to exist (amazing) thereby increasing competition. But there was one caveat that nobody seems to care about that will bite everyone in the ass very soon.

They never tell you this detail in the media, because the media is stupid. But Kahlon’s “reform” goes like this. Companies have a finite amount of time to start up and get as many customer as possible. In order to enter the market they have to pay a huge deposit to the Misrad HaTikshoret or whatever department is the overlord of the phone market. And then the 4 or 5 (forget how many) companies with the most customers gets their deposit back from the overlord government department.

This, of course, encourages rock bottom prices at a loss for the phone companies because they are trying to stay alive in the race to be allowed to continue operating. My phone bill, for example, is 10 shekels a month with Golan Telecom. They are charging ridiculously low rates because the owner, Something Golan, wants to be in the running to survive and get his deposit (bribe) back from the government.

After the time limit is up, which I believe is at the end of 2015, the remaining companies will then jack up prices to higher than market rates in order to make up for their losses in trying to bag as many customers as possible within the time limit. There will STILL be a lack of supply because other companies will STILL be banned from the space and forbidden from competing with the survivors.

So much for Moshe Kahlon, who, if he had any guts, would have simply closed his department and allowed anyone to start a phone company at any time anywhere.

All a government minister has to do in order to really succeed is close his office, lock the doors, and never show up.

Unfortunately, that is not what Kahlon did.

HUGE It looks like Netanyahu Really Lost the Mercaz Likud Vote After All

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Well well well…isn’t this just beautiful? Though a final decision has yet to be made by the Likud court, it looks like that Central Committee vote that Netanyahu “won” last week really was a loss.

Here’s the article from Haaretz.

First of all, last week a Mercaz meeting was called that took place in Ariel. I was not there, but a neighbor of mine who is a Mercaz member described what happened as completely insane. Danon, who headed the meeting as chairman, completely and totally ignored those present. Apparently, he even hired 15 bodyguards during the meeting to ensure he wouldn’t be physically mobbed. He was booed fiercely by the crowd because they had voted down Netanyahu’s proposals, which where three:

  1. To push up the primaries to December 31 from January 6.
  2. To unite the Chairman and Knesset List elections and hold them on the same day.
  3. To allow Netanyahu to personally name 2 of his lackeys to the list.

The crowd was clearly against it, but Danon called for a secret ballot on the matter, which requires a certain amount of signatures which were not collected. The vote was appealed by Feiglin since there were no signatures for it, but that appeal was overruled.

Then Netanyahu “won” the vote 1567 to 835, because the ones that don’t show up to Mercaz meetings are the ones that support him, because they’re lazy, whereas we Feiglinites are motivated up the wazoo and would show up to a Mercaz meeting in Ramallah if we had to.

So, Feiglin and his sidekick Michael Fuah, a Manhigut Yehudit cofounder and the political brains behind the whole operation starting from the late 90’s, appealed to the Likud court again, but this time the appeal was a bit different.

The Likud Constitution states that the Knesset list election and the Chairmanship elections must take place on different dates. It also says that Knesset list elections must be “fair and equal”, which precludes Netanyahu from naming them personally. So, in order to change the Likud Constitution, you need a two-thirds majority. Count 1567 to 835 and it’s 41 votes shy of that majority.

The appeal is basically saying that since Netanyahu did not get his two-thirds majority, he in effect lost and cannot name candidates to the list, nor hold chairmanship and list primaries on the same day.

Now, even though a final decision from the court has not come in yet, it seems that Netanyahu is really nervous about this, because his men are talking personally with Fuah to find a compromise before the court rules.

This comes as an especially sweet victory for me because I remember four and a half years ago the Mercaz vote to postpone Mercaz elections. Netanyahu wanted to postpone the Mercaz elections precisely because he knew he’d lose control of it, and Netanyahu won that vote by getting over two-thirds to then change the constitution.

I remember going home that day after hanging out at the Herzliya Likud branch with Shmuel Sackett all day and feeling, for the first and thankfully only time, dejected and out of hope. For a few minutes I really thought that we could never win and Moshe had no chance of ever becoming prime minister.

I soon recovered, and now we really have stopped the Netanyahu steamroller. By 41 votes.

If the decision comes in to reverse the vote, it will be a real momentum changer in the party.

Back to the Four Blood Moons, an Election Prediction

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Let’s get bold. Go big or go home. And let’s keep in mind that this is just a game, and I could be wrong. (In other words, let’s hedge some bets.)

I wrote a little ditty about the four blood moons a while back and it’s been getting a lot of traffic. People are interested in it apparently. Disclaimer, I find it interesting and possibly credible, but I’m not holding my breath and I reserve the doubt that it could be nothing. So in the spirit of the four blood moons, here’s my prediction for the upcoming elections.

According to Jewish blood moon theory, a term I have just coined, something big is supposed to happen around Sukkot. That’s about 9 months away. Elections are on March 17, which is 6 months away from Sukkot. The minimum space between general elections has to be at least 3 months.

Therefore, if the big change does mean that Feiglin will be elected by Sukkot, that means this time he will get very close to winning the upcoming Likud primaries, but Netanyahu will eek out a victory. Since Israelis are so freaking tired of Netanyahu, Likud will not do too well in the generals. Netanyahu will either cobble together a hodge-podge government, barely, or he will not be prime minister at all. If he cobbles together a coalition, it will fall within 3 months. If he doesn’t, and he is not prime minister, he will resign just as many other would-be prime ministers have from the heads of their respective parties, and once again there will be primaries for Likud chairman.

Feiglin will win those easily, or else he will win the ones that happen after Netanyahu’s 3-month government falls sometime around summer 2015.

In either case, we will have Moshe as head of Likud before the last blood moon appears on Sukkot. This time it’ll be a good run, but not yet.

Let’s see what happens.

Yael German’s Crazy Amazing Plan for Misrad HaBriut that Will Save The Country

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Yael German is a sick woman. Besides Naftali Bennett, who earns my title for worst, most disgusting Knesset Member/Minister, Yael German is right behind him for her callousness. Lapid I pity because he’s more clueless than callous, even though arguably he does more damage due to the power of his position as Finance Minister.

One reader turned my attention to this article in The Marker, which outlines German’s new crazy amazing plan for the Government Health Mafia to make it better. My disdain for Yael German comes from the fact that she fought Moshe Feiglin hard on the cannabis legalization issue, and actually made it harder for sick people to get marijuana by giving the entire industry to Sarel, a government crony company in charge of supplying the Health Ministry and all its crony hospitals with all its supplies at monopoly prices.

Yael German, apparently, has the moral authority to make sick people suffer and not let them take what helps them. She is therefore unforgivable in my eyes, unfeeling, and evil for the pain she causes suffering sick people.

But anyway, the title of the article here is “Equalizing the Burden Begins at the Health Ministry”. Already you can tell this is about taxing the rich more to support public hospitals. And indeed that’s all it is. Here is the relevant half of a paragraph about German’s new “plan” that’s supposed to make the Misrad HaBriut a powerhouse of modern health blah blah etc.

גרמןהציגה שני מהלכים גדולים שעודם בחיתוליהם ואמורים להיות הזרזים לשוויון המיוחל: הראשון הוא שינוי שיטת החישוב של מס הבריאות, שיהפוך אותו לפרוגרסיבי יותר באמצעות העברת נטל מהעשירונים הנמוכים לגבוהים. השני הוא הקמת ועדה ציבורית לבחינת דרכים לחיזוק הרפואה הציבורית.

Basically, German is doing two things. One thing really, because the second thing is so stupid it’s only worth mentioning for comedy. First, she’s making the taxes that go to the Health Mafia more “progressive” AKA raising them on the rich people to support the Mafia. Second, she’s…jeez, it’s really hard to write this without rolling my eyes so I can’t even type…she’s “establishing a committee to investigate ways to strengthen the public health system.”

Translation: She’s paying a bunch of her friends and relatives or political allies and donors some tax money so they can sit on their fat asses and drink coffee all day somewhere in the Knesset’s meeting rooms and discuss how they can raise taxes even more to make the Health Mafia even stronger. This committee will probably cost millions of shekels because everyone on it will be paid obscene amounts to discuss raising taxes even more on you, while spending your money talking about it.

So that’s it. She’s going to raise taxes, and appoint a committee of her friends to discuss how to raise taxes still further. That’s her plan. Ingenious.

Feiglin takes a Shot Across Netanyahu and Danon’s Bow

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Here’s the background:

Last week there was a big meeting of the Likud Central Committee in Tel Aviv. They were there to set the primary day agreed upon by Danny Danon and Benjamin Netanyahu to be January 6. Danon is the Central Committee Chairman.

Moshe Feiglin, playing the game, got up at the meeting of 3,000 people and submitted a motion to limit the primaries to stand for 6 months assuming no new general elections are called within that time frame. Primaries would then happen again before the next general elections. That would prevent Netanyahu from simply grabbing the crown now and using it as a blank check for the next 2-3 years to do whatever he wants.

The media was shocked and awed, but Feiglin’s motion actually passed by a wide majority. However, Danon basically ignored the vote, probably because he has a backroom deal with Bibi to team up against Feiglin in exchange for some petty crony position or other. Below is a video, in Hebrew, of Feiglin’s motion passing and Danon making up an excuse why it didn’t really pass. In his words, “People voted for both sides,” so the vote was “void”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQyBz478Fc

Besides that mess, Feiglin came off a total superstar during the meeting. I was not there as I am not a central committee member, but from what I hear he totally owned the place. Here’s a piece from Ynet about what went down that night and how Feiglin had to calm his supporters down not to jeer Netanyahu when he came up to speak. (The part about Rav Kahane is just stupid fluff having nothing to do with anything, but the media always has to bring up Kahane when Feiglin wins a battle in Likud.)

Here’s the video. Even if you don’t understand Hebrew, it is clear who’s the rock star here and who’s the zhlub.

So, a few days ago some crony lawyer name Something HaLevi wrote a letter to some other crony that Feiglin’s motion is illegal for some technical reason or other. (If you want to know the garbagey details, he wrote that it says in the Likud Constitution that the Chairman will be Likud’s candidate for prime minister, and that means that once he’s chosen, he’s chosen for the next elections no matter how far out they are. This is, of course, bullshit, but blah blah blah, not important, it’s all political theater anyway.)

So now, Feiglin has come out with his response, pretty much slamming Netanyahu and Danon, in public, for being crony schmucks, which they are, and saying that his motion did pass, and to ignore it is illegal.

He basically took a big shot across their bow without taking any legal action (yet), and they are both – Danon and Netanyahu – running against him for Chairmanship of the party.

Here is a translation of Feiglin’s letter:

To:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud Chairman

Knesset Member Danny Danon, Likud Central Committee Chairman

The Likud

Concerning: The vote on the motion to limit the validity of the Primaries

After checking the pictures that were published from the Central Committee meeting last Sunday in the matter of my motion, it is quite obvious that my motion got a clear majority. Central Committee Chairman MK Danon’s claim, which he made after losing the open ballot vote twice, that certain Central Committee members were voting twice, has no supporting evidence, and it harms and mocks the Committee members.

The scandalous behavior of Chairman Danon does not end here.

The elections committee decided on November 6 that, in keeping with the recommendation of the Attorney General Avi HaLevi Esq., the vote for moving up the primaries and all the related motions are so important that they should be done by secret ballot today between 10am and 10pm. How and why did this decision evaporate? Why is the vote not now taking place?

It seems, unfortunately, that nothing at all as changed. Decisions are made behind closed doors between the Chairman and his representatives and the Central Committee Chairman. The committee members are simply there to be part of a play. When not all goes according to plan and the committee members do not play the part planned out for them and actually state their preference, you do not respect their decision while using the same dirty tactics we knew in the past.

The opinion that you solicited from Avi HaLevi Esq. where he claims that no vote should take place on my motion, is not worth responding to. If we keep going down that road, we can nullify every Likud Party institution and let HaLevy run the whole show. It’s obvious how much you yourselves disrespect HaLevy’s opinion because you are not holding a secret ballot vote on the Prime Minister’s request move up the primaries, as HaLevy proved must be done, and he even made sure to cite it as a decision of the elections committee.

I hereby declare, clearly and publicly, that my motion to limit the validity of the upcoming primaries to 6 months was accepted by the Central Committee.

I will also add that if we are indeed on the eve of elections as the Prime Minister claims, this unacceptable behavior I previously mentioned, brings up justified anger. The party will be dragged into the courts, instead of just having transparent procedures. This behavior has political consequences that we all will pay for. I call on both of you, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Central Committee Chairman Danny Danon, respect the decision of the Central Committee and its members.

Sincerely,

Moshe Feiglin

Does that mean Feiglin is going to court? I don’t know. He is certainly threatening it. I spoke to him on Friday and he was not sure if it is worth it to do so even though he thinks he can win. We’re winning anyway.

I’m not good at making political decisions, so I have no idea one way or the other if Feiglin should fight here over this issue. But I trust that whatever he decides, God will help us come out on top.

Both Danon and Netanyahu are going down in the end. They are nothing but petty politicians. Moshe Feiglin is the only man running.

 

 

SHOCKER Finance Minister Yair Lapid is a Corrupt Playboy

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Who would have guessed that the Minister of Male Grooming Yair Lapid is a corrupt spendthrift little pisher.

According to an investigation by Ynet, he took a trip to the US in October 2013 that cost, somehow, 54,000 NIS. His sidekick, some politician named Micki Levi, the deputy Finance Minister, had a refrigerator installed in his car for 3,534 NIS. The list of profligacy is long.

The really funny part though is to see the various different government apparatuses try to steal from one another. How? License renewal for all the cars driven by gang members of the Finance Ministry cost 529,000 NIS last year. This of course goes right to the pockets of the gang members of the Transportation Ministry which charges monopoly prices on license renewal by outlawing all competition. The head of that gang is Yisrael Katz, who really looks and acts like Boss Tweed.

Boss Katz Tweed

So Lapid isn’t “spending” half a million shekels on license renewal. He’s just transferring the money to another government office, that of transportation. Same with the million shekels he spent on gas. Half of it goes to Katz and his disgusting 100% Blu Tax on gasoline.

Lapid may be corrupt, but he’s a beginner compared to Katz.

Half a million shekels for holiday gifts including Pesach, Purim, and Rosh Hashana, because being a tax receiver isn’t enough. This is for 1,000 tax receivers who “work” for Lapid in the Finance Gang.

But that’s nothing compared to the Computerize the Government program, that has been going on since 2004 and was supposed to be finished in 2006. 82,000,000 NIS just this year, eight years behind schedule, who smells a computer-industrial complex here? BOONdoggle.

But we should all be proud to pay taxes, as I heard a Rabbi say recently in his Rosh Hashana sermon. The Rabbi is also a tax receiver, partly.

The Finance gang says it will cut all unnecessary spending. Sure. If I ever head the Bank of Israel, I will cut off the money at the source, so if they want to spend that much, they’ll have to tax you for it directly instead of have me print it for them and tax you through inflation.

The whole article, in Hebrew.

The most powerful line from tonight’s Manhigut Yehudit meeting with Moshe Feiglin

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I sat down tonight with a group of about 40 people, Feiglinite activists. As usual Moshe was able to cut through all the circus crap with one sharp line. That is one ability of his that is unmatched.

Ready for the line? Here’s the line.

“Of the 120 Knesset members, 119 of them are incapable of saying the simple phrase ‘This is our land, including Gaza’. The hardest of the right wing will only go so far as saying ‘Let’s conquer Gaza and give it to Abu Mazen.'”

The question we must answer before we even try to win a war is who does Israel belong to? The left wing and the right wing both agree. It belongs to the Arabs.

And on the other side, there’s Moshe Feiglin.

 

Netanyahu asks for taxpayers to fund 10,000 shekels of ice cream for him

rafifarber Humor, Israeli Politics, The Jewish Libertarian Blog

No joke. Hey Bibi! Why don’t you buy your own freaking ice cream?!

Oh, that’s right. You don’t earn any money. You only subsist off of my tax receipts. So then what’s the difference between Netanyahu, or any other government leach, asking for ice cream from a budget, or paying for it from his tax funded salary?

No difference. It’s all theft.

 

Moshe Feiglin the Movie, Premier at Tel Aviv Museum Feb 18

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Next will be Feiglin the lunch box, Feiglin the breakfast cereal, and of course, Feiglin the flamethrower! (The kids love that one.)

I’ve seen the movie, it is extremely well done. We’re going after the whole pie now. We want the Likud chairmanship, and we’re going to take it. Time to step on the gas.

Sign up for your free reserveration here.

In order to be there, reservation is required. I’m going. Here’s the trailer.

Vote Likud and give Netanyahu hell

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If you want to make it impossible for Bibi to do anything stupid like dismantling outposts and robbing Jews of their land, then the best way to stop him is to vote Likud. The bigger it is, the less he can control it.

If you vote Bennett, Likud will be smaller, he will have less internal Likud opposition, and Bibi will use Bennett like a spare tire. Bennett will join the coalition when Bibi needs him, and when Bibi wants to do something stupid like “peace negotiations” or “gestures to the Palestinians”, he’ll kick out Bennett and bring in Yesh Lapid or Karl “Yechimovich” Marx and do it anyway.

The bigger Likud is, the more people in the coalition that cannot be kicked out at Bibi’s convenience. When Bibi wants to do something stupid, I’d rather he have 40 Likud MK’s to fight with that he can’t kick out rather than 30.

Bibi wants the smallest Likud possible while still maintaining his PM seat. That’s why he kicked down Moshe Feiglin last time, and that’s why he launched a suicidal inane distasteful campaign against Bayit Yehudi this time. To get the right wingers disgusted with him so they’ll  vote for an outside party that he can control with ease.

So help us stop Bibi. Vote Likud. Make it so huge it’s unmanageable. Give Bibi hell.

And if you really hate Likud and can’t bring yourself to do it, which is understandable, vote Aleh Yarok.