The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
Coalition scrambling ahead of key vote; MK leaves shiva for mother, Netanyahu could come from hospital The coalition is scrambling to muster enough votes to pass a key vote in the Knesset later today. Hebrew media reports say that Likud MK Boaz Bismuth was asked to leave the shiva (the seven-day mourning period) for his mother to come to the Knesset to vote on the Trapped Profits Law, and he has done so. The Walla news site also reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could leave the hospital where he is recovering from prostate removal surgery to cast a vote. The scramble comes as the opposition says it will not offer the customary offset for absent government lawmakers. Meanwhile, some coalition MKs are threatening to also vote against the bill. The far-right Otzma Yehudit party and ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party threatened yesterday to oppose the Trapped Profits Law, insisting their demands be met first.
Communications minister again calls for attorney general to be fired Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi calls on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to dismiss the attorney general “immediately,” accusing her of acting out of “entirely political” rather than professional considerations. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment of Roi Kahlon as acting civil service commissioner “is another clear attempt to interfere with the powers of the elected government,” Karhi declares. Baharav-Miara’s office told Netanyahu yesterday that Kahlon did not meet the criteria for the position. In a position paper, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon wrote that Kahlon claimed in his resumé to have far greater management experience than he actually has. “This is the same attorney general whose appointment itself was riddled with difficult questions and inaccuracies, including the ‘recommendation’ from Judge Anat Baron which in retrospect turned out not to exist,” Karhi states. In 2022, Globes reported that despite being listed as a reference by Baharav-Miara, a spokesperson for the Courts Administration had stated that Baron had informed her that “in the absence of professional interaction with her, she would not be able to give a recommendation on the professional angle.” However, if contacted regarding Baharav-Miara, the judge could discuss her in a nonprofessional capacity “in light of her personal acquaintance with her.”
Lapid warns Israel must choose between democracy and theocracy Israel is now facing “an era of opportunity” but to take advantage of it, citizens must choose between democracy and theocracy, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares at a conference organized by the Calcalist financial daily. “We are in an era of opportunity. Trump’s second term, MBS’s regional ambitions in Saudi Arabia, the weakening of the Iranian regime, the crushing of Hamas and Hezbollah — all of these could lead us to a new and wonderful world,” Lapid states. “But Israel must choose. Both at the ballot box, but also in a much deeper sense. Will there be an extremist halachic state here, or a democratic Jewish state? A messianic government with a prime minister who feeds on our internal division, or a sane government that will unite us around common values? The decision we make will determine not only our future, but also the future of our children.”
Smotrich urges Netanyahu to make sure the budget passes Following two coalition parties’ threats to vote against a key budget bill, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take responsibility” for making sure it passes. Speaking during a Hanukkah toast in his Religious Zionism party’s faction room in the Knesset, Smotrich declares that he is “determined to continue to steer the Israeli economy responsibly in this year of war and not get dragged into petty squabbles.” “The budget is not the finance minister’s, it is the State of Israel’s. The prime minister must take responsibility… and the coalition must rise to the occasion and pass the budget,” Smotrich says. Netanyahu is currently hospitalized after having his prostate removed. The far-right Otzma Yehudit party and ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party threatened yesterday to oppose the Trapped Profits Law, insisting their demands be met first.
Iran security chief says ‘new resistance’ against Israel to emerge in Syria Iran’s security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian says a new group would emerge in Syria to fight Israel following the fall of president Bashar al-Assad, state media reports. “With the occupation of Syrian territories by the Zionist regime, a new resistance has been born that will manifest itself in the years to come,” says Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, IRNA news agency reports. In a meeting with Oman’s foreign minister, Ahmadian insists that Iran’s anti-Israel axis of resistance was “not weakened” after the December 8 fall of Assad, a longtime Tehran ally. Assad fled Syria after rebel forces led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized the capital Damascus after a lightning offensive. Since his fall, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military facilities, saying it aimed to prevent them from falling into hostile hands. It has also moved forces into a buffer zone on the border.
Top West Bank cop accused of faking probes of settler violence to please Ben Gvir, gain promotion The Department for Internal Police Investigations (DIPI) lifts a gag order on the name of one of the senior police officers suspected of severe misconduct involving a systematic refusal to investigate incidents of suspected Jewish nationalism attacks, in order to earn advancement on the police force. The officer named in the scandal is head of the Judea and Samaria District investigations and intelligence department Commander Avishai Muallem. Alongside Muallem, another senior police officer from the same district whose name has not yet been disclosed is being investigated, while Israel Prison Service Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi is also a suspect in the affair. DIPI states that Muallem, together with the other senior office from his district, is suspected of having “carried out irregular activities in the framework of their positions with the goal of influencing their advancement in the Israel Police, while deviating from the path for dealing with cases of nationalistic crime.” Yaakobi is suspected of having informed Muallem that he was the subject of an undercover DIPI investigation, before the investigation was made public. According to Ynet, DIPI suspects Muallem of conducting sham investigations into acts of Jewish nationalistic crimes in the West Bank merely to give the appearance that an investigation had been conducted without bringing the perpetrators to account. The scandal was broken open earlier this month when DIPI officers raided Muallem’s home earlier this month, arrested him, and detained Yaakobi for questioning. Muallem’s lawyer Ephraim Dimri claimed that the investigation was politically motivated and said Muallem was implementing orders by more senior officials and “the policies of the minister responsible for him,” in reference to ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Yaakobi claims that he did not violate any laws in informing Muallem about the investigation. Ben Gvir’s office said in response to the publication of Muallem’s name that “what DIPI is investigating is fulfilling the minister’s policies, which is adherence to equal policies: the law for a hilltop youth is the same as for a left-wing youth.” The statement added that when Ben Gvir became minister he “made clear that there will not be selective persecution of right-wing people,” and that the days of “unlawfully harming the hilltop youth” had ended. “Hilltop youth” refers to radical settler activists who establish illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. Many of these activists have also been involved in violence against Palestinians, as well as theft, destruction and arson of Palestinian property. Few of these crimes are prosecuted, with the High Court of Justice recently acknowledging this reality as well.
A senior commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group was killed in a drone strike earlier this month in the Gaza Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet say. The target of the strike, Anas Muhammad Saadi Masri, served as the commander of the northern Gaza sector in Islamic Jihad’s rocket division, according to the military. Masri was considered by the military to be a prominent commander in Islamic Jihad, responsible for numerous attacks on Israel and IDF troops. On the October 7, 2023, onslaught and during the war, Masri was responsible for Islamic Jihad’s rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip at Israeli border communities and for commanding the operatives who carried out the attacks, the army says. The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike at the beginning of December.