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Netanyahoo, Indicted For Bribery, Fraud And Breach Of Trust, Becomes More Dangerous
The Attorney General of Israel just indicted Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahoo in three cases. The announcement comes at a time of political stalemate. It might help to resolve it.
Israel had two parliament elections this year which both ended in a political stalemate. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahoo of the Likud Party nor Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz managed to form a government. Both were unable to find enough additional votes to form a coalition and to gain a majority.
Now the parliament has 21 days to find a majority. It will likely fail and a third election seems inevitable.
It is curious that Israel's Attorney General used this point in time to finally charge Netanyahoo:
Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit announced Thursday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be charged with bribery, fraud and breach in three corruption cases, dubbed Cases 4000, 2000 and 1000.
In the most serious case Netanyahoo is alleged to have changed regulations in exchange for more positive press coverage:
Case 4000 is considered the most serious, and revolves around an alleged bribery deal between Netanyahu and businessman Shaul Elovich, who controlled the Bezeq telecommunications company and the Walla News site. According to the indictment, Netanyahu and Elovich engaged in a quid-pro-pro deal in which Netanyahu – as communication minister – led regulatory steps directly tied to Elovich's businesses and interests that yielded the tycoon some $500 million.
In return, according to the indictment, Netanyahu and his wife Sara made consistent requests to alter the coverage on the Walla News website in order to serve the Netanyahus' interests and target their opponents. Elovich allegedly pressed the editors of the website to comply with the Netanyahus' demands.
Walla publisher Elovich as well as Arnon Mozes, publisher of the Yedioth Ahronot media group, will also be indicted for bribery.
The charges have been known for quite some time and the timing of the official announcement seems political.
Netanyahoo will now come under intense pressure to resign. It is very much his personality that blocked the forming of a new government. Should he be removed over the next 21 days it might be possible for the parliament to form a government and to avoid a third election.
But Netanyahoo will fight tooth and nail to gain and keep immunity. He will try to delegitimize the judicative and he will use any available trick to stay in office.
That makes him even more dangerous than he usually is.
He might even decide to do something, like starting a big war, to prevent his removal from power.
Lebanon, Syria and Iran must watch out.
@ Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 22 2019 0:37 utc | 24
Those numbers are practically identical to South Korea’s in the same time period. There’s no miracle happening in the land of the Chosen People.
The link you posted comfirmed my affirmation Israel has a demographic time bomb. In the section of “population”, there’s this observation:
Israel’s population, including Israeli citizens residing in the West Bank, but not including foreign nationals residing in Israel for employment purposes, is estimated at 8.80 million as of the end of 2017. This is an increase of 1.9% from 8.63 million in 2016, following 2.0% growth in 2016 from 8.46 million people in 2015, and 2.0% growth in 2015 from 8.30 million people in 2014. Between 1990 and 2017, Israel’s population grew by 82.4%, with a significant part of the increase due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. In 2016, 11.2% of the population was 65 years of age or older, 31.7% was between the ages of 35 and 64, 28.9% was between the ages of 15 and 34, and 28.3% was under the age of 15. 91.2% of the population lives in urban areas, with 18.6% of the population living in Israel’s three largest cities: Jerusalem (population 874,200), Tel Aviv (population 435,900) and Haifa (population 279,200).
The Israeli population is composed of a variety of ethnic and religious groups. In 2016, 74.7% of the total Israeli population was Jewish, 17.7% Muslim, 2.0% Christian and 1.6% Druze. The State’s Declaration of Independence and various decisions of the Supreme Court of Israel guarantee freedom of worship for all Israeli citizens. Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages in Israel, while English is commonly used.
In 2015, the Haredi Jewish community comprised approximately 11.2% of Israel’s population. The Haredi community is characterized by a high fertility rate, which is expected to gradually increase its demographic share among the total population. Based on the demographic projections of the Central Bureau of Statistics, it is anticipated that by 2040 the Haredi community will comprise approximately 20% of the population. The Haredi community is also currently characterized by relatively low participation in the labor market, particularly among men, as well as a low level of labor market-related skills.
There is concern that Haredi demographic trends may, over the long term, contribute to lower aggregate participation in Israel’s labor market and lower labor productivity, thereby adversely affecting GDP growth. The impact of Haredi demographic growth may be significant with respect to tax revenue, due to lower revenues from taxation of labor and a generally lower level of economic development.
So, what this means is that:
1) Israel has a very low old age population (11%). For comparison purposes, your average European First World country (plus Japan) will have something between 39-35%. Even Brazil has a higher proportion of old aged population than Israel, at 18%-19%ish. Low rate of old age population indicates bad life quality and/or high fertility rates.
2) Speaking of fertility rates, the text mentions that the Haredi (i.e. ultraorthodox Jews) are growing at a much higher pace than the rest of the population. As I wrote in my first comment here, those ultraorthodox Jews are infamous in Israel for not wanting to work and not wanting to serve in the Armed Forces. They consider themselves and want the rest of the people to treat them like sacred cows. And they are growing as a proportion of the population. In fact, if it wasn’t for the immense influx of Soviet Jews to Israel in the 1990s, those ultraorthodox would’ve been making about 15% of the entire population — rivaling with the Muslim Arabs as the largest “minority” of Israel. No wonder the far-right is very viable politically there.
3) Even with those extremely high fertility rates by the Haredi, Israel only has 75% of its population being Jewish. Not only that, but the Muslims make almost 20% of the entire population (probably, absorbed Palestinians during the country’s previous territorial expansions). That means Israel failed even in its most basic objective: be a Jewish country for the Jewish people.
About the economic data, it is conclusive: there’s nothing special happening in Israel. The country is tiny and only has 8.8 million inhabitants (not counting foreigners living on work). Inflation is low, but almost zero (0.4%) — that’s catastrophic for a capitalist economy like Israel, since it borders deflation. Debt is around 60-70% of total GDP, not bad — by post-2008 standards. It’s balance of payments is erratic (oscillating from 5.4% to 0.6%), which is characteristic of Third World countries. The same is true for the rest of the correlate date. Overall, its “trading economy” hovers around USD 150 billion, which means it could pass as a normal second rate tiny European country.
Its USD reserves are not impressive either — its peak was USD 113 billion (2017). That’s much lower than post-coup Brazil (more than USD 380 billion) and, what, lower than even Erdogan’s bankrupt Turkey? That means you shouldn’t expect the Chosen People to be weathered from a typical neoliberal crisis, although, to be fair, I don’t think any American Wall Streeter would have the balls to attack the Israeli currency (Soros won’t do it because he’s pro-Israel).
Overall, Israel doesn’t strike fear to the rest of the world. The only thing it has other comparable tiny countries (e.g. Hungary, Greece, Czech Republic) don’t is the USA’s direct protection. But even this protection is not resulting in any kind of exceptional prosperity to the Isreali people in relation to these same comparable countries. Numbers all indicate Israel has peaked — even if those Haredi start to act like breeding machines, there’s no way 8.8 million will be able to fight a country like Iran, which is much bigger and potentially richer.
Iran has much more potential than Israel. If I were the Iranian government, I would quickly end with this Muslim-Aitaollah theocracy bullshit, implement socialist reforms so was to emulate the Chinese system as close as possible (“market socialism with Iranian characteristics”) and hurry up propping up its industrial potential. And, of course, make alliances with Russia and China for protection against the inevitable American direct invasion and potential nuclear attack.
But whatever the Iranians do, the new reality of Israel is economic stagnation. No flying cars. No living to age 120. No Jettisons. The Messias won’t come.
Posted by: vk | Nov 22 2019 3:11 utc | 30
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