Aug 4

👉🏽 Citi joined S&P and Moody’s and lowered Israel’s ratings, in this case its growth estimate., saying GDP, credit ratings and investment would all suffer because of reform.

👉🏽 Five-hour hearing yesterday, no decision yet on whether to invalidate an amendment to “Basic Law: The Government” which forbids the court from removing a sitting prime minister, and permits only the Knesset to do so and only for medical reasons and with a 2/3 supermajority. The case is important because it is precedent for under what circumstances in general the court can rule on an amendment to a basic law - like unreasonableness, which the court will hear in September. Both Justices Hayut and Vogelman have suggested that the court does have that right, despite the semi-constitutionality of Basic Laws.

👉🏽 Arutz 7 reports that Religious Zionism (Bezalel Smotrich) and Jewish Home (Hagit Moshe) will be merging into the “National Religious - Religious Zionism Party”, to be led by Smotrich.

👉🏽TOI reporting that in an interview with ultra-Orthodox Mishpacha magazine, PM Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs said the Coalition will reformulate the Judicial Selection Committee, and then delay further overhaul.

👉🏽 JPost reporting that Zionist rabbis declared a boycott on Strauss products, after the Strauss Group stopped advertising on pro-government Channel 14 after a show featured a call for Yigal Amir’s release. (Amir murdered then-PM Yitzhak Rabin.)

👉🏽 TOI reports that ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabat news site reported Shas and United Torah Judaism will not abide by a further delay in the Haredi conscription legislation. “Aryeh Deri and Yitzhak Goldknopf are warning behind closed doors that they will bring down the government if the coalition moves to delay the bill again, according to the report.” They demand the legislation be passed at the beginning of the next Knesset session.

👉🏽 Maariv poll shows elections today would
benefit National Unity (Ganz) with 30 seats, but hurt Likud (27 seats), with country evenly split about idea of a unity government. The current Coalition would go down from its current 64 seats to 54 seats

👉🏽 Calcalist reporting that Jewish-American multi-billionaire Arthur Dantchik will cease funding “Forum Kohelet,” the ultra-conservative organization providing the funding and strategy for the judicial reform. Dantchik donated millions to Kohelet, according to the NYT. The founder of Kohelet, New Yorker Moshe Koppel, was quoted in the New York Times, saying “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but in some sense we’re the brains of the Israeli right wing.”

👉🏽 JPost on impending emergency caused by doctors leaving the country because of reform.https://m.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-753701

🇮🇱 🇮🇱 🇮🇱