Recently-Discharged Israeli Pilots urge IDF to Bring Them Back

 Whilst all the publicity on electoral reform is based on negativity, there are positive items that would never appear in the media. 

Dozens of recently-graduated Israeli Air Force pilots who recently completed their active service have asked the IDF to call them to return for reserve service.

 The call comes in response to a call by reserve leaders who have declared they will not serve in reserves if the government passes its planned judicial reform.

The letter was sent by the “Pilots for Good” forum, as a response to an announcement by the leaders of the reservists’ protest who warned they will not serve if the Knesset passes the judicial reform legislation.

The organizers of the reservists’ protest announced an “escalation of the struggle” at a news conference in the Air Force Base in Herzliya.

“The government continues to rush through legislation, the defense minister is silent and the government is violating the contract between it and us,” said reserve Lt. Col. Ron Sharaf.

“An executive authority with unlimited power is a dictatorship. If these laws are enacted, the People’s Army will not be able to exist,” Sharaf claimed.

“We commit to return to service regardless of which government is leading the country,” some 50 pilots wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to the IDF Chief of Staff, Israel Air Force Commander, and the defense minister. “We oppose refusals and are ready to return immediately to operational service,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by pilots who are able to return to service and who were discharged by military personnel for reasons unrelated to their operational capabilities, such as the closure of a squadron.

“We pledge to respond to the call to return to active reserve service and defend the State of Israel,” the 50 pilots wrote.

“We have made it clear to the commander of the Air Force that we will be ready to serve at any time,” IDF Major Shai Kalach, leader of the “Pilots for Good” forum, told Israel’s Channel N12 News. “The Air Force reserve is not in doubt, and does not suffer from personnel gaps,” he said.

 

A Coup or not a Coup

The political left says that judicial reform is a coup. However, today’s judicial reform is not a coup, it is a clearly articulated legal process for all to see, understand and follow as passed into law. It is trying to undo the undemocratic coup that former Chief Justice Aharon Barak did 30 years ago, when he publicly announced that he was turning basic laws into a quasi-constitution, not voted upon by the Israeli voters or the parliament. He then used that quasi-constitution to implement a judicial activism that today allows the legal system to basically run the country without any checks and balances

How so?

Here are some high-level examples:

1. When politicians make a political appointment that the legal system disagrees with the legal system cancels the appointment. 2. When politicians try to fire someone that the legal system disagrees with the legal system freezes the termination.

3. When right-wing elected governments want to pass laws that the activist-leftist judicial system disagrees with the legal system kills the bill during the legislative process or has the Supreme Court annul the law.

4. When a left-wing elected government makes an international decision without Knesset approval even though according to law it requires Knesset approval the legal establishment approves the deal without problems.

5. While Israeli law forbids terror-supporters from serving in Israel’s parliament the Supreme Court constantly allows terror-supporting Arab Muslim representatives to serve in Israel’s parliament.

 

 

Saudi Arabia denies Israelis visas for UN event

 Just days after announcing that the country would resume diplomatic relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia reportedly denied visas to Israelis, preventing them from attending a UN event in the Gulf Kingdom.

The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) invited members of Israel’s small Circassian community to attend an event celebrating the selection of their village, Kfar Kama, as one of the world’s most authentic tourism destinations.

Circassians are Muslims originally from the Caucasus region who fled to Israel after the Russian conquest of their region in the 19th century. Unlike Muslim Arabs, they are drafted to the Israeli army. Some 5,000 Circassians live in Israel, nearly all of them in Kfar Kama.

But despite a promise from Saudi Arabia to the UNWTO that the country would treat all visa applicants equally, the Saudi government refused to issue visas to permit the Circassian-Israelis to enter the country..

 Israel’s Foreign Ministry intervened, sending a letter requesting assistance to the UNWTO secretary-general, who echoed those concerns to the Saudi Foreign Ministry. However, the Saudi Foreign Ministry has reportedly refused to budge.

 It’s unclear if the visa issue is a sign of souring relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, now that Riyadh is growing closer to Iran, or if the decision was made by a bureaucrat without a deeper message behind the move.

While it’s believed that Saudi Arabia and Israel maintain extensive ties regarding regional security, intelligence, and military cooperation, the Gulf Kingdom has shied away from the concept of signing an official normalization pact with Jerusalem.

Saudi Arabia has maintained that a two-state solution, which sees the Palestinians given their own homeland, is a precondition for peace with Israel.

Is the Opposition using judicial reforms as pretext to force elections?

 

Last week, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, one of the main architects of the reforms, met with several prominent public figures who drafted a reform compromise proposal. Levin responded favorably to the outline, with sources from his office reportedly calling it a “breakthrough” and the “first outline that goes outside the box.”

 A day earlier, Levin and MK Simcha Rothman, another principal advocate of the reforms who chairs the Knesset Law Committee that is dealing with the legislation, accepted a proposal by the Israel Manufacturers Association, the Chambers of Commerce and groups representing tech companies and building contractors for talks starting at the President’s Residence without preconditions.

 “From the very first day we said we were in favor of a dialogue in an attempt to reach an understanding on the reform and at least to reduce the controversy,” the leaders of the reform said in a joint statement. “We respond to the call for talks without preconditions and call on others in the opposition to respond to the initiate and attend talks with the president on Tuesday.”

Opposition leaders swiftly rejected the proposal.

 Lapid and Gantz rejected the overture and conditioned any negotiations on the government freezing the accompanying legislative process.

President Isaac Herzog last Monday told a gathering of some 100 municipal officials that a compromise judicial reform proposal was nearly complete, and called on lawmakers to find common ground.

“I have already said that it is absolutely legitimate to discuss reforming the judicial system, and aspects of the proposal are indeed advisable. In the last few weeks, I have done everything in my power to bring about discussion and enable the sides to reach an agreement,” said Herzog.

“We are closer than ever to the possibility of an outline. There are agreements behind the scenes on most things,” he continued. “Now it depends on our national leadership, the coalition and the opposition, who need to rise to the occasion and understand the terrible alternative and put the country and its citizens above everything else.”

Will the opposition leaders stand up and be counted? Watch this space

Israel to Open Embassy in Country on Iran’s Doorstep

 

In a regional show of strength, Israel will open a permanent embassy in Turkmenistan, the former Soviet republic and central Asian nation that is on Iran’s doorstep, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced Sunday.

The inauguration comes as another Muslim neighbor of Iran—Azerbaijan—is opening its first ever embassy in the Jewish state. Both diplomatic moves signal Israel is a present and growing influence in the region.

Israel’s top diplomat is slated to travel to Turkmenistan soon to inaugurate the official mission in the capital city of Ashgabat, located about 15 miles away from the border with the Islamic Republic.

“The relations between our countries are important and strategic, and this move will further strengthen the connection and increase our cooperation” Cohen tweeted.

A Muslim-majority country of about six million people, Turkmenistan, located just north of Iran, established relations with Israel in the run-up to its declaration of independence in 1991. About a decade ago, in light of good relations between the two states, Israel opened a temporary embassy there which has been active until now when the newly constructed permanent embassy has been completed.

Over the years, senior officials from Israel and Turkmenistan have visited each other’s countries, signing agreements of cooperation in the fields of politics, economy and energy. Recently, progress has been made in collaboration in health and cyber defense as well.

Historically, Turkmenistan—which possesses one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas—has long served as a thoroughfare for several empires and cultures, and was one of the great cities of the Islamic world.