Minister spent Shalit meeting ‘drinking’
citizens between the ages of 18 and 22, with exemptions for strictly-Orthodox girls, to be enacted by 2016.
The proposal is based on the recommendation of the Plesner Committee, which was established by Mr Netanyahu to address the issue of strictlyOrthodox IDF service and which he disbanded when the Sephardic party Shas threatened to leave the coalition.
Second, Kadima plans on presenting a law for reform of the political system, including regional elections and a higher threshold of votes for any party to enter the Knesset.
Third, Mr Mofaz plans to present a legislative agenda to address Israel’s growing income gap, the lack of affordable housing and early childhood education, issues that have fuelled the social protest movement of the past year.
Lastly, but most importantly, Mr Mofaz plans a forceful initiative to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. He believes the current stalemate represents the single greatest threat to Israel’s future and lies beneath every other problem the nation faces.
“Benjamin Netanyahu’s behaviour in the past three years indicates that he is not interested in pursuing peace,” Mr Mofaz said.
An accord with the Palestinians is already on the table, according to Mr Mofaz. “There is no doubt about what we talking about. It’s been there for years. The big settlement blocks will remain part of the state of Israel. There will be a swap of eight to 10 per cent of the remaining land.”
Mr Mofaz says he cannot envisage including Hamas, the terrorist faction ruling Gaza, in any negotiations unless they accept all the precepts of the Quartet, led by Tony Blair. “That would make them not Hamas any more, and not terrorist. I can’t imagine it,” he said.
He brings up Migron, the illegal settlement that was evacuated last week after more than a decade of legal wrangling, as an example of everything that is wrong in the government’s management of the West Bank.
“We see that when leaders don’t decide, the legal branch is obliged to step in and act as governor,” he said. “Migron should have been dealt with years ago but Netanyahu chose to do nothing, and the Supreme Court was forced to act for him. It is another signal that we need a leader with historic vision, someone who realises that two states for two nations is the only way for Israel to move forward.”
Government investments in the occupied territories, he said, are a cause of “despair for the Israeli middle class”.
Mr Mofaz again cited the example of Migron, where the government spent millions of shekels building infrastructure only to spend millions more dismantling the settlement and building a new one for its residents.
“What can we say about Migron to a guy who lives his life, pays his taxes, serves in the army, obeys all the laws, and realises he is funding such an adventure — and still can’t make to the end of the month?”
TOURISM MINISTER Stas Misezhnikov regularly escapes the watchful eye of his security detail and goes out partying until he is completely intoxicated, according to several of his security guards.
The guards alleged to Channel 2 news this week that as many as three or four times a week, the minister visits nightclubs, including one that features exotic dancers, drinking “until he doesn’t know where he is”.
“Sometimes he would be so drunk he would lose his balance. Some security guards would prop him up, but others refused,” said one guard.
The guards said the minister also repeatedly violates security protocol by heading out on his own.
The TV news report quoted five different security guards, including one who h a d r e p o r t e d l y passed a polygraph test. The security guards said Mr Misezhnikov’s partying has led him to cancel official meetings, and that when the government met to discuss the deal to bring back captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit last October, Mr Misezhnikov was drinking with friends at a bar in the north, and was the only minister who did not attend.
On Monday, Mr Misezhnikov’s office denied the report, saying it was based on “fired employees trying to get revenge through defamation and lies”, and that the minister’s security detail follows all the directives imposed on all government ministers.
On Tuesday, Mr Misezhnikov issued his first response to the report, joking during a meeting between Israeli and Bulgarian government officials that “I made it to work today on time and I passed a breathalyser test.”