There not too many details available at this time, but the IDF has announced several times that it has captured massive amounts of military equipment, weapons, armaments, from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Much of the weaponry captured was supplied originally by Russia. 

The question is what to do with all that [possibly] valuable stuff.

From what I understand, Israel won't use at least much of it due to Israel's policy of only using NATO-approved weapons. Destroying it seems to be wasteful, though if there is no other use for it that is what the IDF will continue to do.

MK Dan Ilouz (Likud) has proposed a law by which any of these captured Russian-supplied weapons and equipment that the IDF will not use should be transferred to Ukraine to use in its battle against Russia.

So, the IDF gets first dibs to put whatever it feels it can use into use in its own military efforts.

After the IDF decides it has taken what it will and has no use for the rest, the Defense Ministry should find a way to securely send the rest to Ukraine to use in its war against Russia.

Interestingly, Ilouz writes in the text of the proposal a couple of interesting points.

First, Ilouz explains that this is in order to maintain security stability in the region and internationally and "to assist countries fighting for their sovereignty", Israel should transfer these weapons to Ukraine, etc...

I hope this text won't come back to be used against Israel, as other countries will defend their support for the Palestinians as a country fighting for its sovereignty which the Israeli Right supports while pointing to this law.

Second, Ilouz calls this poetic justice - supporting allies internationally against those who supply our terrorist enemies with weapons with those very weapons. And this would be a poetic justice.

This will probably upset Russia

I personally think the law is fine and can be passed, even if it is largely unnecessary. We all know it will almost never be carried out, and the ironic part is that even if it would be, it almost never would be needed. most terrorists in these parts of the world are suicidal to start with - they die either as part of the terror attack or with the help of a gun held by an Israeli putting an end to the attack. The terrorists, or their assistants who do get caught and taken alive, would mostly anyway not get the death penalty. 

So, yes, maybe there is some sense of deterrence by having such a law on the books, and we already have one on the books anyway, but I dont think the impact will be majorly significant. The deterrence will be effected more by applying the law and actually killing terrorists by hanging or firing squad or whatnot than just by having such a law (and again, we already do have such a law, though perhaps it needs to be amended or broadened a bit). And we know that will only rarely happen, if ever. Between the courts, international pressure and condemnation, threats of greater escalation and whatnot, we all know the government that would carry such a death sentence out is probably very rare.

All that being said, I think today's debate is bad timing. Does this have to be handled today in the middle of the war, with the lives of many of the 240 hostages hanging in the balance? Can't it wait until the hostage situation gets clarified or until we get them back? With Hamas seeing Israel working on such a law, maybe it endangers the hostages even more than they already are! 

I dont know if now is the wrong time for this or not, but this just piles on more worry to the families already in grief and not sleeping without a sign of life from their loved ones in forty some days. I am open to being convinced that there is some benefit to doing this right now, but I currently dont see the big benefit and only see the additional pain being caused.

Exactly one week from now, October 31, 2023, was supposed to be the day of municipal elections in cities across Israel.

The war that began with the brutal Hamas massacre of October 7 put a wrinkle in that. With a war ongoing it would be difficult to hold elections. The Knesset has been discussing delaying the elections. 

I see several issues making holding elections now difficult, such as public safety, campaigns that have been cut short, large swaths of the population that are unavailable to vote (people called up to the Reserves and are on the front lines or wherever they might be), towns down south that need reorganization, candidates and incumbents that maybe have been killed or injured in the initial massacre, etc.

To that end, today the Knesset approved the law delaying municipal elections. The law passed schedules the new elections with a 3 month delay, for the date of January 30 2024. Additionally, the law allows the government to approve, without having to pass a new law, an additional delay of another month if it deems this necessary. Meaning, if the war is still going on and the situation at the end of January doesn't allow for elections to be held, they can delay for another month and hold the elections on February 27, 2024.

source: Maariv

I honestly think 3 months or four months wont be enough and we will need another delay. I think they should have postponed it by 6 months or even a year.

The way the government is talking, they expect the war to last a few months or even longer. If they are telling anything remotely similar to the truth and to real expectations, we wont be able to hold elections in either January or February. And even if things quiet down by then, the candidates will need time to campaign and as mentioned, in many towns, especially down south and possibly up north by then, they will need to reorganize with time for new candidates to step forward and do everything necessary including campaigning and whatnot.

Unless of course a 3 month delay is indicative that the government actually expects this to be short, despite what they are saying publicly.

I do not understand how this works.

Every time someone is killed by a terrorist, or injured or taken hostage, they have to pass a new law to include that victim?

If there is already a law in the books that refers to compensation for the families of victims of terror, shouldn't new victims be included automatically?

it seems backwards that a new law should need to be passed for this. And if it does need to be passed, pass it once and for all and include all victims, future victims included (may there not be any!), so that they do not need to go through this idiocy every time separately.

Israel is scheduled to transition off of DST to Winter Time at the end of October. According to Barkat, the troops will benefit form the extra hour of daylight during active hours, so instead of sunset at 4:30 it would be at 5:30, and the economy will benefit from this as well. Additionally, people get down and depressed during the winter months with darkness settling in early - keeping it daylight for a bit longer will keep people's spirits up a bit.

Some support the initiative, saying it will help the war efforts.

Others oppose the initiative. Minister from Shas along with Minister of Communication Shlomo Karhi are opposed to the initiative because it will hurt religious people who need to pray. With a late sunrise people wont be able to pray until 7am instead of at 6am.

source: Ynet

I do not personally have an opinion on the matter other than to say that if it really would help the troops and the general morale of the nation, and I do not know if it will or wont and that should be studied, it should be done. At this time that is the most important thing. The religious people, myself included, can sacrifice a bit and daven a little later for a short period of time. It seems a little selfish while the troops are sacrificing everything including their lives, or at least risking them, that davening at 7 is our biggest problem and we give priority to that. And again, I do not know if extending daylight savings time will help the troops, and that should be studied, but if it will it should be done.

The only justification I can think of for the opposition of the extension is if the opposing ministers are referring to religious soldiers not being able to daven until 7am which might be too late for them. If they are referring to civilians I see no justification in the event that the troops really will benefit from the extension.

I do think it is interesting that this is an effect of, and conversely can effect, the war.

MK Alon Shuster (Hamachane Hamamlachti) said this evening in a radio interview that he is submitting a law proposal with another version of a draft law. 

I should note, I looked around on the internet a bit and could not find any details about this, so I only have this one statement to comment on. 

So Shuster said that his draft aw proposal will be equality for all, sharing the burden equally for all. There have been various proposals, and none of them are fully sharing the burden - they each target a specific community and demand the burden is shared equally in that one community, but they ignore others who are also not sharing the burden. Shuster says this proposal will be full equality and sharing the burden for everybody. Shuster says this will apply to Haredim and Arabs and even Haredi women who also need to serve the country in some way.

That is a bombshell. Haredi women? That battle was lost a long time ago, and Shuster wants to light the country up again over that issue???

Additionally, Benny Gantz, head of Shuster's party, has been working a long time on these draft law proposals and he has been relatively generous to the Haredim on this issue, making me wonder where this is coming from and if Shuster has approval and support for this or if he is going independent. 

Women? Obviously it would be some sort of offer of National Service and not actual army service but even that was absolutely rejected as "yaharog V'Al Yaavor" by the Haredi community.

I am curious to see what happens with this.

According to Ilouz, holding secret ballot votes in the Knesset means the elected officials are not able to be held responsible to the voters - nobody knows what they actually voted on the issue. MKs like to say they represent the people (even there is no direct voting for any specific candidate), but when voting in secret in Knesset, the public has no way to know if their representatives are actually voting their interests.

Obviously this comes at the heels of the recent vote for representatives of the judicial appointment committee in which it seems to be clear that some Coalition MKs voted in favor of the Opposition candidate due to the secret ballot used.

Ilouz says that as representatives of the public the actions of MKs should be transparent to the public so the public has the tools and ability to decide whether or not to vote again "for us" in the future. Secret ballot votes in Knesset damage democracy and should become extinct.

source: Hamechadesh

As reported by Kikar, the racism law, until now, has been directed to protect from incitement based on race, color, nationality, ethnicity, but "Haredi" never fit into any of those categories. Asher says because of that it has basically been open season on Haredim with incitement against Haredim going unchecked, because Haredim are not any different than anyone else from ethnic or race or color  or nationality perspectives.

Because of that Asher has seen it necessary to add Haredim to the list of those protected against racism and incitement. It is time, MK Asher says, to put an end to the incitement against Haredim and set a red line - there is no other group in Israel incited against as much as the Haredi community. This law, Asher says, will clarify that the blood of Haredim is not hefker.

This is all nice and good, and maybe even somewhat necessary - the Haredi community seems to consider any criticism of it to be incitement and anti-haredi hatred, but there is definitely some, way more than there should be - but how can it possibly be enforced? Can anybody claim they are Haredi and call the police on someone or sue someone for incitement if they say something not ice about them? Only people wearing black hats? What would be the criteria for a female to say she is Haredi and incited against? As necessary and justified as this may be, how, in law, can they define who this applies to and to whom it does not?

Minister of Transportation Miri Regev is working on a proposal that would allow registered car garages to provide testing services for the annual registration of the car. Decades ago car garages were allowed to do this but back in the 1980s that was discontinued due to what was thought to be a conflict of interests.

Funnily enough the conflict of interest was dual sided. It was a concern the testing centers would fail cars in order to get more business to "fix" those problems and to then re-test. The other concern was that garages would be lenient on their customers and pass cars that should not necessarily be passed. 

Regardless of the conflict of interests, Minister Regev is pushing to go back to the system of having registered garages deal with the testing as well. Regev said this will be a tool in the fight to bring down prices. Instead of about 70 testing centers around the country, there would be much more competition with about an expected 1500 garages that can also do testing. Increased competition usually means better pricing. Additionally with so many testing options available, getting the test will be much more convenient - shorter lines, garages that might be closer to home or office and more convenient..

Being that this used to be the system in place and was shut down by the courts due to the conflict of interests, I wonder if this will be allowed to pass now. It sounds good for the customer in several ways, but if it brings back that conflict of interests that could be a problem.

Kol Hai News is reporting on a proposed law.

The law proposed by MK Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) would make it illegal to wave a Palestinian flag, or the flag of any enemy/hostile entity, in Israel.

The vote passed its first reading 54-16 and will be prepared for second and third readings.

The law would make it illegal to fly the flag of any entity hostile to Israel, or any entity that does not allow the Israeli flag to be flown - tit for tat. Violators will be subject to a prison term of up to a year.

I wonder if this includes waving the Palestinian flag in the "occupied territories", over the Green Line, East Jerusalem, and the like. With so many Palestinians living there, are they just going to arrest them all? Will they not be allowed to fly the flag they consider their own?

MK Almog Cohen explains in his proposal that as a democratic country people are allowed to protest any issues they in dispute with the authorities over. Legitimate protest is fine, but waving the flag of a hostile entity that doesnt allow the Israeli flag to be flown is a red line.

As far as I understand it, in what is supposedly an effort to effect a decline in housing prices, the government is trying to pass what is called the "arnona law". Every city collects municipal taxes from its residents, and from businesses located within municipal borders. This arnona revenue is meant to be the bulk of any city's revenue to be used for funding garbage collections, maintenance around the city, education, activities, and whatnot. Cities collect one fee for residential properties and much higher fees from commercial properties. It seems that some cities choose to focus more on developing commercial property and build less residential, so that they can collect more arnona at the higher, commercial, rates. This supposedly causes housing prices to skyrocket due to a shortage of available housing. And there are some cities and towns that collect very nicely and are considered wealthy cities, while other cities and towns are poor with a lot of residents paying discounted arnona rates along with little commercial properties in their environs.

This supposed discrepancy is behind the arnona law. The arnona law would create a fund in which the wealthier cities in Israel would have to deposit a portion of the arnona revenues they collected (I dont know what the percentages are) and that fund would then distribute monies to the poorer cities to help "narrow the gap". This would also affect housing prices as it would somehow incentivize cities to build more residential housing, cutting down the shortage of supply of housing and stabilizing and lowering the prices.

Just on the face of it, this is socialism. Taking from the wealthier cities to give to the poorer cities. There is nothing right wing about these economics. Just on that alone it makes me think this is a bad idea. We need a freer economy, not a more restrictive one. It makes sense to me, I think, that residents pay their town municipal taxes in order to get municipal services. I dont want my municipal taxes going to pay for another cities issues. I already pay general taxes to the government and dont see why my municipal taxes should be redirected to other cities instead of being used to provide me with more and better services.

If the government wants to bridge the gap, it surely can find ways to do so without taking away my municipal services that I paid for - and cities who have money taken from them will surely cut municipal services.

Additionally, Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch has found a way to exclude the cities and towns in Jude and Samaria, over the green line from participating in this. Actually, they will retain the right to receive money from the fund but will be exempted from having to pay into the fund. There were also reports earlier today (though I dont know if anything will come of them) that the Likud is trying to find a way to exclude cities that are Likud strongholds so they do not get hurt by this.

I dont know if my city would receive money from this fund or if it would have to pay money into the fund. Obviously if my town will get money I will be in favor of this program because then I will benefit from it rather than lose from it :-) ... but seriously, this looks like robin Hood or some form of socialism/communism and cant be good. If we take away their revenue from investing in business and employment, what incentive will they have to continue?

It is interesting that the left wing parties are opposed to this saying it is a way to take money from the rich and give it to the Haredim and settlers. That might even be true (partially), but still - isnt that a big part of the left wing agenda? a bit of socialism, sharing the wealth, and all that? 

I am open to hearing why my impression is wrong and why you think it is a good program.

In my opinion, this is a bad law, as most religious laws are. It is antagonistic, and while we have to see how it plays out, many online are talking about plans in response to spread chametz in public areas, including in hospitals, more than ever before. It might be a few hotheads, or it might be a mass of people, I guess we will find out in a bit over a week.

Especially without the right to check bags and confiscate chametz being brought in, what is the point of the law - just to allow hospital administrators to make an announcement? That is their big accomplishment? that is worth the price of antagonizing the secular community?

Had this law pass already, all those Otzma people (including an Otzma MK) and others who were out this morning interfering with the IDF razing of an illegal settlement would be arrested and in jail for 3 years.

#justsaying

Now this here is finally a serious act and law proposal by a full right wing government.

MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) and Minister of Settlement Orit Struk have proposed a law that would cancel the Disengagement Law of the Northern Shomron region.

Back in 2005, then prime Minister Ariel Sharon effected the Disengagement form Gaza and shortly after from the Northern Shomron, evacuating the Jewish communities from Gaza and from several communities in Northern Samaria.

Since then there has been a concerted effort to revoke that law, with pressure by lobbyists on the lawmakers sympathetic to the cause. That day might soon arrive. The first hurdle has finally been passed.

This law proposal, which has been approved by the legislative committee to move forward for voting, would make it legal (or it would stop making it illegal) for Jews to go back and resettle those evacuated communities (eg Chomesh, Sa-Nur and others) in Northern Samaria. Even without resettling, it is currently illegal for Jews to even go there, and that would change.

Northern Samaria is one thing but I am not sure we want to take back Gaza as a next step, but maybe giving ourselves the option might be worthwhile.

Kobi Bornshtein, a reporter for Mishpacha, tweeted today the MK Merav Michaeli (Labor) proposed a new law today.

In light of the various Netanyahu and Shas attempts to devise laws to allow Deri to circumvent the Supreme Court and be appointed minister, Michaeli has proposed a new law that would solve the problem.

Michaeli's proposed law, and this would be an amendment to one of the basic laws, is that Aryeh Deri will be declared above the law and can be appointed to any position he may desire.

lol. I love it.

I had my say about this two weeks ago when the idea was just floated, but now MK Deri has decided to advance this law and supposedly, according to news reports, has agreement for support among all coalition members, even ones who spoke out against it, at least to pass its first reading. 

It is going to be laws like this that will at some point bring down the government. the extreme right or extreme religious members of the coalition are going to keep pushing crazy laws like this. At some point Netanyahu will say no. He'll probably freeze this one as well after the first passing. The Likud doesn't want it, Likud voters don't want it, and Netanyahu doesn't want it, but he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Right now he has to give Deri this little victory, but at some point he wont be able to continue advancing these types of laws and at some point that will cause a coalition crisis.

The unofficial tzniyus police of Mea Shearim never worked out well for anyone. I wonder if this can turn out any differently even though it will be official. I would be curious what type of reaction this law, if it will pass, will cause among the people. Will there be some form of protest with so many choosing to stay away from the Kotel? Will we see the annual slichos during Elul with much smaller crowds of people with much less participation of the traditional and non-religious? Will we see a form of protest of thousands going tot he Kotel in attire that does not meet the laws of tzniyus -women wearing pants and short sleeves and the like and daring the police to arrest thousands of women? or will the people just accept it and behave accordingly? If someone does get arrested, say a woman for wearing slacks at the Kotel, will she be able to defend herself in court with her lawyer claiming that her rabbi says these pants are allowed for women, even if other rabbis say they cant be? Are we going to have secular judges deciding what Jewish law should and shouldn't include?

Is this entirely to be directed at women or will this be enforced against men as well - no shorts perhaps? shirts with no sleeves will get you arrested? Will this cause an uprising of the women, having a law passed just against them?

The only situation that would allow a mayor to be arrested by the police would be if they were caught in the act committing a crime that includes use of force or treason.

Katz says the impetus for this law is the many situations in which mayors were arrested and after many years of investigation were released and cleared of all charges, damaged form the arrest that turned into nothing.

source: Walla News

Perhaps the bar of proof gathered by the police and prosecutors needs to be higher for arresting a mayor, but exempting them from all criminal prosecution seems like preparing the grounds for corrupt leadership.

Shas MKs, led by MK Ariel Buso and Minister Michael Malkieli, have proposed a law that I hope desperately PM Netanyahu will shoot down and stop it dead in its tracks.

Buso has proposed a law that apply prison time of up to 6 months or a fine of up to 10,000nis for a various list of infractions. The list of infractions includes davening in a mixed minyan, and another infraction being going to the Kotel in immodest dress.

First, how will immodest dress be defined, and by who?

Second, does the State of Israel really want to be arresting people for praying to God, even if it is in a way I dont agree with?

Third, enforcement (of the dress code) will be by definition almost entirely selective, so it likely wont stand up in court anyway.

I must say, this is probably one of the worst law proposals I have ever heard.

According to the proposed law, 15% of the hours of permitted bathing should be designated for gender-segregated access.

The response to this proposal has been harsh, accusing Gafni and Netanyahu of pushing Israel to becoming a halachic state. I suspect Netanyahu will choose to tell Gafni to cool it and stop proposing all these religious laws. He doesnt like them and worse his voters mostly dont like them either. Gafni might have to wait until after Netanyahu leaves the political scene and the "full right" coalition becomes a full religious coalition.

According to Gafni, in the proposal, Israel has at least 20% of the population not going into the springs and rivers because of religious reasons, of all the various religions found in Israel. These populations are discriminated against, these are State-run sites, operating in a way that causes many people to be unable to benefit from them.

1. I wonder where he came up with 20%. It might be accurate, it might be low, it might be high. I have no idea. I wonder how he got to that number. When we go on tiyulim and to water hikes and stuff, we see plenty of religious and Haredi people enjoying the springs and rivers despite the lack of segregation. I am sure many avoid it, but how do you figure out how many?

2. I think we have to define discrimination. If someone chooses to not use a service because they dont like it (for whatever reason) are they being discriminated against? If I and 50,000 other people dont like the way Bituach Leumi offers a service so we dont take advantage of it, is that discrimination or is that my own problem? If we dont like the service open to the public as it is, is it discrimination? I am not so sure it always is. That being said, it is a shame that many religious people dont have a way to benefit form the springs and rivers around the country. Knowing how tiyulim work though, I am not sure how realistic it is to come upon a river while hikling and say right now only the men can go in, it will be open for women in two hours, and the women, or men, have to wait, and when they get their turn, then it takes longer for the tiyul to get on tis way... and vice versa. this just doesnt seem practical.

MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) has now proposed a law that would prohibit anyone from bringing chametz into any hospital on Pesach. Gafni has reportedly asked PM Netanyahu to advance this proposal to become law, though we will see what Netanyahu has to say about it - he does not seem to be happy with all the religious legislation going on, and the chatter about religious policy that makes the secular and traditional in Israel very uncomfortable.

Gafni, in his proposal, stresses the significance of Pesach and the severity of the issue of chametz and says that for tens of years the hospitals did not allow chametz on premesis during Pesach, so as not to cause problems for patients who adhere to the rules of Pesach, until the Supreme Court shot that down when it was appealed, and this will cause a problem for religious patients, many who might refuse necessary health care out of concern of coming across chametz in the hospital. Gafni says the law would exclude hospitals in the non-Jewish sector that normally do not bear a kashrut certification. Patients will not be forced to eat matza, but with the advances in food technology today all foods can be produced kosher lpesach so patients will be able to eat rolls and cakes and cookies and whatnot that are all kosher lpesach.

good? bad? I dont know. In general I am not a fan of religious legislation. I think it does more harm than good for religion.