July 28

Gallant urging Netanyahu to start unity government with Gantz and Lapid, and dump Smotrich, Ben-Gvir.     https://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-8,00.html

News sources report Prime Minister Netanyahu warning that Israel would enter “uncharted territory” if the Supreme Court strikes down reasonableness, saying he hopes “we don’t get to that.” (Is he suggesting that the government won’t abide by the Supreme Court ruling and that this will devolve into a constitutional crisis?) Pushed by CNN, Netanyahu refused to say whether he would abide by any potential overturn.

When Knesset reconvenes in October, of the 141 bills currently on the docket, they will be looking at 42 laws that seem designed to neuter the judiciary, 11 laws to control the electoral process; 24 laws fo strengthen Orthodox religious control of the country; 7 laws to politicize public bodies; 30 laws that infringe on basic human liberties; 4 laws to close down the media; and 12 laws to regulate academia. (Original source for these statistics was removed: Partial source at

https://en.restart-israel.co.il/.../the-state-of-legislation/

Likud’s Transportation Minister Miri Regev’s new public transport rate change, instead of the across-the-board 12% increase announced a day earlier, apparently now has major city residents subsidizing the price for Haredim and West Bank residents, according to Calcalist.  In the new plan, cities including Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Rehovot will pay more, subsidizing residents of Jerusalem, all Haredi municipalities, and West Bank settlements, who will pay less. (This echoes the controversial Arnona Fund plan, with the  government reallocating business property taxes  to aid Haredi and West Bank municipalities at the expense of thriving cities).

The Knesset Law Committee advanced a bill giving the Minister of Religious Services (formerly Affairs) Shas’ Michael Malkieli  the power to appoint hundreds of new rabbis to state-funded positions, taking power (and all accountability) from the municipalities.

After Moody’s Investors Service warned of “negative consequences” for Israel’s economy following the passage of unreasonableness, Ittai Ben-Zeev, chief executive of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, begged PM Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich to talk to Moody’s and prevent a downgrade. PM Netanyahu and MK Smotrich have publicly dismissed the ratings as no cause for concern. In a statement, Ben-Zeev said, “No plan to strengthen the Israeli economy will help, if the rating goes down.” Economists have called this irreversible.

Although government officials have repeatedly called protesters anti-Democratic anarchists, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has now instructed its missions to explain away the judicial reform as strengthening democracy, the proof-text being that the anarchistic protests are an example of a thriving democracy. Missions were also instructed to cite compromise talks, though no such talks are currently underway. The packaged arguments echo PM Netanyahu’s recent leitmotifs.

S&P said that “reforms will continue to harm the Israeli economy,” and that Israel’s economic growth will shrink from 6.5% in 2022 to 1.5% in 2023. i24 reported that Israel’s Finance Ministry, Bezalel Smotrich reportedly was “blindsided” by the S&P warning, which was unexpected.

PM Netanyahu told the US press (ABC News)  that democracy fears are “silly.”