6 June 6 • 2019 jn The Jewish News aspires to communicate news and opinion that’ s useful, engaging, enjoyable and unique. It strives to refl ect the full range of diverse viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. We desire to create and maintain a challenging, caring, enjoyable work environment that encourages creativity and innovation. We acknowledge our role as a responsible, responsive member of the community. Being competitive, we must always strive to be the most respected, outstanding Jewish community publication in the nation. Our rewards are informed, educated readers, very satisfi ed advertisers, contented employees and profi table growth. To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 29200 Northwestern Highway, #110, Southfield, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., #110, Southfield, MI 48034. OUR JN MISSION 1942 - 2019 Covering and Connecting Jewish Detroit Every Week jn Arthur M. Horwitz Executive Editor/Publisher ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Story Development Editor: Keri Guten Cohen kcohen@renmedia.us Digital Editor: Allison Jacobs ajacobs@renmedia.us Social Media Coordinator: Chelsie Dzbanski cdzbanski@renmedia.us Director of Sponsored Content: Cassie Kunze ckunze@renmedia.us Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@renmedia.us Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin2132@gmail.com Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar rsklar@renmedia.us Contributing Arts Editor: Gail Zimmerman gzimmerman@renmedia.us Contributing Writers: Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Julie Edgar, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Lauren Hoffman, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, Daniel Rosenbaum, David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell | Advertising Sales Vice President of Sales: Keith Farber kfarber@renmedia.us Account Executives: Martin Chumiecki, Annette Kizy Sales Support: Courtney Shea, Ashlee Szabo | Business Offices Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Production By FARAGO & ASSOCIATES Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Jessica Joannides, Kelly Kosek, Michelle Sheridan, Susan Walker | Detroit Jewish News Partner: Arthur M. Horwitz ahorwitz@renmedia.us Partner: F. Kevin Browett kbrowett@renmedia.us Partner: Michael H. Steinhardt Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho agusho@renmedia.us | Departments General Offi ces: 248-354-6060 Advertising: 248-351-5107 Advertising Fax: 248-304-0049 Circulation: subscriptions@renmedia.us Classifi ed Ads: 248-351-5116 Advertising Deadline: Friday, 12 p.m. Editorial Fax: 248-304-8885 Deadline: All public and social announcements must be typewritten and received by noon Tuesday, nine days prior to desired date of publication. Subscriptions: 1 year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $85 2 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$153 3 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$204 1 year out-of-state . . . . . . . . . . .$125 2 years out-of-state . . . . . . . . . .$225 Per year foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . .$300 Detroit Jewish News 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110 Southfi eld, MI 48034 ©copyright 2019 Detroit Jewish News views O n April 9, Israel held Knesset elections. On Sept. 17, Israel is once again going to hold Knesset elections. Here is your one-stop explain- er for why. OK, why is Israel hav- ing new elections? On the face of it, Israel is going to elections again because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a mandate from President Ruvi Rivlin to form a government but was not able to do so. Though parties representing 65 of the 120 seats in the Knesset recommend- ed Netanyahu to Rivlin, Netanyahu was unable to form a governing coalition. The basic dispute was between Avigdor Liberman’ s Yisrael Beiteinu (five seats) and the Haredi UTJ (eight seats), with neither side willing to back down from its demands over a new military draft law. As a result, Netanyahu couldn’ t get to the magic number of 61 and Israel is going to new elections. That seems straightforward. Why did you say, “on the face of it?” Because a national unity government could have been formed in the space of two minutes between Likud with its 35 seats and its competitor Kachol Lavan (Blue & White) with its 35 seats. If it’ s so easy, why didn’ t it happen? It didn’ t happen because the one obstacle in its path was Netanyahu. Kachol Lavan essentially ran on a plat- form of Netanyahu policies without the Netanyahu corruption and assault on state institutions, making it impossible to climb down from its anti-Netanyahu tree and retain a shred of credibility. So what were Netanyahu’ s options to stay in his post? In 2009, Kadima’ s Tzipi Livni was tasked with forming a government. Her refusal to capitulate to Haredi demands ultimately left her unable to cobble together a coalition by the deadline. Netanyahu was then given the next shot and has been prime minister ever since. Netanyahu did not want to risk suffer- ing Livni’ s fate if Rivlin had appointed Benny Gantz, or another rival, to try and form a coalition. Netanyahu wanted to avoid the appointment of another Likud member to put together a coalition that likely would have excluded him. After weeks of trying to get Liberman to cave, and then a few hours of pressure on the Haredim to cave, Netanyahu was out of options, and pushed through the bill to dissolve the Knesset and go to elections yet again as the only way of preserving his position and getting another bite at the coalition apple. And he thinks that if there is another election, the math will change in his favor and make it easier to form a gov- ernment? He would definitely like things to shift by at least one seat, which would have given him the space to form a govern- ment this time without being held hos- tage by Liberman. But the true aim here is about forming a government and pass- ing an immunity law and/or Supreme Court override before his indictment hearing on October 2. It is why he did not request another extension from Rivlin and risk having elections any later than mid-September, and also why he suddenly flipped on the Haredim at the last second and tried to get them to back down once he realized that Liberman wouldn’ t blink. Netanyahu thought that threatening new elections would scare one or both of the intransigent prospec- tive coalition members, but they both called his bluff. He is now hoping for one of two outcomes; either the combination of Likud and Kulanu — which are now running together as a joint list — will do better than the 39 seats for which they combined this time and will push Liberman underneath the threshold, or the tens of thousands of wasted right wing votes that went to Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’ s Hayemin Hehadash and Moshe Feiglin’ s Zehut last time will this time get one or both of those parties over the threshold, giving Netanyahu more parties to work with and thus more leverage over all of them. Is his gambit going to work? There is simply no way of knowing. On the one hand, there is the scenario in which Bennett and Shaked make the Knesset, Likud and Kulanu are bigger the second time around and Netanyahu has an easier path to a coalition. On the other hand, Netanyahu bent over backwards to embrace Haredi demands that are broadly unpopular with Israelis writ large. He also embraced the Union of Right-Wing Parties and their plan of attack on the judiciary and secular and gay Israelis, and tacitly endorsed their extremism that is also broadly unpopular with Israelis writ large. The unprecedented new elections are a naked attempt by Netanyahu to save his own skin rather than protect the right-wing government for which most Israelis expressed a preference. And they come with added costs — hundreds of millions of shekels from state coffers and prolonging Israel’ s current political stasis. There is a good chance all of this will backfire, to Kachol Lavan’ s ben- commentary Navigating Israel’s Election Landscape Michael J. Koplow continued on page 10