THE JERUSALEM POST

WWW.JPOST.COM

Volume LXXXVIII, Number 26722 FOUNDED IN 1932 NIS 13.00 (EILAT NIS 11.00)

T H U R S DAY, J U N E 18 , 2 02 0  2 6 S I VA N , 578 0

Living on Memo to Pence Orchestra of dreams

Vessels show Jewish continuity Will Trump replace his From IDF rank of major
in Israel after Roman destruction VP with Nikki Haley? to C major in jazz
Page 4 Page 10 Page 16

Have generals Coronavirus cabinet renews train

lost their luster?
Why did a ‘Post’ poll indicate
Eisenkot is not a political asset?
ANALYSIS
• By GIL HOFFMAN
One of the reasons Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanya-
hu has lasted so long in poli-
tics is because of a smart move
he made back in 2007 when
he was leader of the oppo-
sition in the Knesset – after
leading Likud to getting only
12 seats.
Netanyahu had his confi-
dant, MK Yuval Steinitz, pass
what was known then as
the Halutz Law, named after
then-recently retired IDF
chief of staff Dan Halutz.
The law instituted a three-
year cooling-off period for
former generals and heads
of security and intelligence
agencies in an effort to pre-
vent Halutz and his successors
at the helm of the IDF from
entering politics.
The impact of the law has
been that potential politi-
cal opponents of Netanyahu
have either entered business,
made millions and lost inter-
est in politics, or faced crim-
inal investigations that have
preempted their prospective
political careers.
Netanyahu’s opponents
thought they had found the
secret formula to defeating
Netanyahu when Blue and
White was created with three
former IDF chiefs of staff at
the helm in Benny Gantz,
Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe
Ya’alon, who had made it
through the cooling-off peri-
od unscathed. But it didn’t
work – in part, because Blue
and White’s own polls indi-
cated that Israelis felt the saf-
est under Netanyahu.
It is with this background
that a possible political career
may begin for Lt.-Gen. (ret.)
Gadi Eisenkot, who this week
took his first post-army job
in Israel as chairman of Yad
Ben-Gurion, which carries
on the legacy of Israel’s first
prime minister by encour-
aging development of the
Negev.
Eisenkot only completed his
term as IDF chief of staff in
January 2019, but a loophole
in the Halutz Law would allow
him to run in the next elec-
tion, even if three years have
not yet passed. On paper, he
has what every party would
want: a strong military career,
two parents born in Morocco,
a childhood in the periphery
and no clear political agenda.
But a Smith Research poll
published in Wednesday’s
Jerusalem Post found that if
the former general would
See GENERALS, Page 7
GADI EISENKOT
(Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
service, cultural events as cases soar
Nearly 300 people test positive for coronavirus in 24 hours
• Jaffa neighborhood, Rahat, Arara designated as ‘red zones’
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz lead last night’s
coronavirus cabinet meeting amid the highest number of daily cases in two months. (Haim Zach/GPO)
90,000 olim expected to arrive
in next 18 months, minister says
• By JEREMY SHARON
Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina
Tamano-Shata said on Wednesday the latest
forecasts estimate that 90,000 new immi-
grants will arrive in Israel from around the
world over the next 18 months.
The Jewish Agency, Nefesh B’Nefesh, Qal-
ita and other organizations handling aliyah
arrangements have all stated of late that
the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a
large spike in the number of Jews around
the world who have expressed heightened
interest in emigrating to Israel.
Earlier this month, however, the Jewish
• By EYTAN HALON
and MAAYAN HOFFMAN
Trains will finally return to
Israel’s railways on Monday
after the coronavirus cabi-
net approved the renewal of
services under tight health
restrictions on Wednesday
evening.
In addition, the ministers
decided that cultural events
will be permitted with crowds
limited to 250 attendees, or
500 attendees if approved by
the director-general of the
Culture and Sport Ministry.
They designated the Ajami
neighborhood of Jaffa, Rahat
and Arara as “red zones” with
high levels of infection, where
schools will now be closed
and gatherings limited to 10
people.
The meeting held at the
Foreign Ministry took place
as official data showed that
Israel had recorded its largest
Agency said it expected 50,000 immigrants number of daily cases in two
in 2021. months.
Additionally, the Jewish Agency figures Some 288 people tested
for aliyah have actually shown a decrease positive for the novel coro-
in the number of immigrants in 2020 over navirus in the last 24 hours,
2019 figures owing to air travel restrictions the Health Ministry reported
and other complications due to the global Wednesday evening, bring-
health crisis. ing the total number of active
From January to April this year, 6,368 new cases to 3,993.
immigrants arrived in the country, com- At last count, 19,783 cases
pared with 9,899 in the same period last of coronavirus had been con-
year, a decrease of about 36%. firmed in Israel, and the death
The decrease in April was particularly toll was 302.
“We have an increase in
See OLIM, Page 7 morbidity. We need to lower
it, and we have to continue
opening the economy,” Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanya-
hu said at the start of the
meeting. “We will talk today
about a responsible way to do
that in the case of transporta-
tion too. But we must address
the general increase and in
specific centers of morbidity.”
Initially, trains will be lim-
ited to 500 passengers and
would-be travelers must
reserve a place online from
48 hours ahead of their jour-
ney. Masks must be worn at all
times, and the temperature of
travelers will be checked upon
entry to stations.
Tour operators
appeal to PM
to rescue industry,
Page 3
Nighttime trains will not
operate at this stage, and trains
between Tel Aviv Hahagana
and Jerusalem will not stop at
Ben-Gurion Airport. Electrifi-
cation work may cause disrup-
tion on other lines, and the
Tel Aviv-Jerusalem line will be
extended to Tel Aviv Savidor
in the “coming weeks,” Israel
Railways said.
The reopening of cultural
events follows weeks of pro-
tests, with industry workers
demanding assistance as they
have been forced to remain
See RENEWS, Page 7

Abdullah presses Congress Once touted as Palestinian capital,

to oppose unilateral moves
Settlers publish map of how to eliminate enclave danger
• By TOVAH LAZAROFF
and LAHAV HARKOV
Jordan’s King Abdullah has
turned to the US Congress to
help halt Israeli West Bank
annexation plans. In confer-
ence calls with its leaders, he
said annexation poses a dan-
ger to the region and to his
country’s peace treaty with
Israel.
“Any unilateral Israeli mea-
sures to annex lands in the
West Bank is unacceptable
and undermines the prospects
of achieving peace and stabil-
ity in the region,” Abdullah
said, according to his office.
In video conversations on
Tuesday and Wednesday, he
stressed the significance of a
two-state solution at the pre-
1967 lines with east Jerusalem
as the capital of a Palestinian
state.
It was a message he impart-
ed in conversations with
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, the Sen-
ate Armed Services Commit-
tee and the Appropriations
Subcommittees in the House
and Senate. He also spoke
with them about the strong
ties between the two coun-
tries, including their strategic
defense partnership.
While Abdullah reached
out to the US Congress, tra-
A PALESTINIAN enjoys a water spot near Jericho yesterday.
(Yaniv Nadav/Flash90)
ditionally a strong bastion of
support for Israel, confusion
reigned in Jerusalem over how
to execute the portion of US
President Donald Trump’s
peace plan that would allow
for Israel to apply sovereignty
to 30% of the West Bank as
early as July 1.
On Wednesday, Prime Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu
was scheduled to meet with
Alternate Prime Minister
Benny Gantz, Foreign Min-
ister Gabi Ashkenazi and
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin
to try and resolve differences
regarding annexation plans,
according to Channel 13.
Separately, Gantz asked
three retired IDF briga-
dier-generals to be in charge of
the Defense Ministry’s annex-
ation department, but they all
refused, Channel 12 reported.
With no one coordinating the
matter, the Defense Ministry
reportedly has not done any
preparation work for possible
annexation.
Blue and White MKs are
attempting to promote a
staged annexation plan that
would begin with the two
well-recognized settlement
blocs of Gush Etzion and
Ma’aleh Adumim, KAN Radio
reported Wednesday morn-
ing.
Did Putin save
Israel from Obama
in the UN? Page 2
An additional two areas pos-
sibly could be added to that
plan, the Ariel bloc and the
Jordan Valley, which is not
considered to be a bloc, the
report said.
The US wants Gantz to sup-
port Netanyahu’s annexation
See OPPOSE, Page 7
Abu Dis may shrink with annexation
‘I can tell you 100% implementation of plan has begun,’ mayor tells ‘Post’
• By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
As far as Abu Dis Mayor
Ahmad Abu Hilal is con-
cerned, Israel has already
begun implementing its plan
to apply sovereignty to parts
of the West Bank, including
his town, southeast of Jeru-
salem.
On Wednesday morning,
he woke up to the sound of
Israeli bulldozers entering
the Abu Mugheira area in the
Suwwaneh neighborhood of
Abu Dis, long touted as the
future capital of an indepen-
dent Palestinian state.
In recent weeks, every move
Netanyahu, Gantz on collision course
ANALYSIS
• By TOVAH LAZAROFF
How did Alternate Prime
Minister Benny Gantz, the
man who once dismissed
Prime Minister Benjamin Net-
anyahu’s annexation pledge
as “irresponsible,” sudden-
ly become the politician on
whose shoulders the whole
plan rests?
The notion of the Blue and
White leader as the savior of
the annexation juggernaut,
when Gantz rarely even men-
tions the word, is in one way
consistent with his branding
since the moment the former
IDF general entered politics.
A cautious speaker, with
an almost deadpan style of
by the Israeli authorities in
the Jordan Valley and some
Palestinian villages in the
West Bank has been inter-
preted as a sign that Israel
has begun implementing
the annexation plan on
the ground. Some Palestin-
ians claimed that the IDF
has removed signs warning
Israeli citizens from entering
Palestinian Authority-con-
trolled areas to pave the way
for implementation of the
plan.
Others claimed that the
Israeli authorities have begun
See CAPITAL, Page 7
speech, the tall gray-haired
politician is hardly the vision
of the dynamic leader ready to
jump into the fire pits of hell
to save Israel from destruc-
tion.
Yet, from the start, he was
cast as the one man who
could save Israel from Net-
anyahu, the one man who
could save the country’s legal
system and its democracy, the
one man who could revive
the Left and, yes, the one man
who could make peace with
the Palestinians and the Arab
world.
It has been Gantz’s style to
allow others to control his
brand, painting him with
their hopes and fears, rather
than setting his own tone. It is
ABU DIS, whose mayor, Ahmad Abu Hilal, told the ‘Post’
yesterday ‘the annexation plan will take lots of our land.’
(Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
almost as if the role of Israel’s
political chameleon, who eas-
ily changes his right- and left-
wing stripes at will, suits him.
After 11 years of watching
Netanyahu vanquish his
political competition, Gantz
has proved surprisingly elu-
sive. His bloc received more
votes than Netanyahu’s, giv-
ing people the impression
that he might be the first
prime minister to include the
Arab parties in his coalition.
Then he flipped 180 degrees
rightward to join Netanya-
hu’s coalition, a move that
sent his political cache in the
centrist and left-wing camps
tumbling.
Now, just when Gantz has
appeared at his weakest and
after Netanyahu took pains to
ensure that legally he could
not block annexation, Gantz
has captured the stage of an
initiative that the prime min-
ister hopes will become one
of his key diplomatic legacies.
On one hand, the two are
separated by the thinnest of
swords when it comes to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Neither of them support a
two-state solution at the pre-
1967 lines. They both believe
the Jordan Valley and the set-
tlement blocs should be part
of sovereign Israel.
Under certain circum-
stances, based on his party’s
platform, Gantz is not even
See COLLISION, Page 7