Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on August 15, 2017

Pennsylvania is home to more than three dozen hate groups ranging from local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan and a violent skinhead group to anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim organizations, according to a national watchdog group that tracks extremist organizations.

In its annual Intelligence Report, released in February, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported the number of hate groups had surged nationally to 917 in 2016, within 100 of the all-time high recorded in 2011.

Forty of the groups were in Pennsylvania, making it the fifth most active state behind California (79), Florida (63), Texas (55) and New York (47), according to SPLC.

Theres no question about it that theres a decent white supremacist presence all throughout the state, said a senior investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League in Philadelphia, who asked that his name not be published because of the nature of his work.

But, he cautioned, white supremacist and other hate groups are difficult to quantify because they exist in shadows and are often little more than clusters of like-minded people who ascribe to the ideology of a larger group. Such pockets of hate group activity exist throughout the state, in urban areas including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and rural places like Potter County, in north-central Pennsylvania, where one of the nations largest neo-Nazi groups has a regional headquarters.

Much of the activity is private or anonymous, such as distributing leaflets in neighborhoods or on college campuses, but in the last year Pennsylvania white supremacist groups have staged public events.

In November, about 50 members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement held an anti-diversity rally on the Pennsylvania Capitol steps, drawing about 200 counter-protesters and dozens of police in riot gear, according to published reports. And in May, the East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan drew attention and protests after their announcement they would burn a cross in rural Lancaster County, although the event happened on private property, according to news reports.

The presence of hate groups in the Lehigh Valley has been visible this year with the arrest of several men following an April raid by federal agents on the home of a known skinhead leader in Phillipsburg, N.J. Federal authorities charged Joshua Steever, 37; Henry Lambert Baird, 49, of Allentown; and Jacob Mark Robards, 40, of Bethlehem and three other men from Maryland and Virginia with drug and weapons trafficking conspiracy.

They were members, prosecutors allege, of Aryan Strikeforce, a skinhead white supremacist organization active throughout Pennsylvania. Steever, Baird and Robards have been convicted of violent felonies, according to court records. Prosecutors allege they transported and sold what they believed was methamphetamine and parts of automatic weapons to earn money for the group.

That was a substantial blow to that organization, but it hasnt made Aryan Strikeforce dissolve altogether, the Anti-Defamation League researcher said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the following hate groups active in Pennsylvania:

peter.hall@mcall.com

Twitter @phall215

610-820-6581

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Pennsylvania fifth in nation for hate groups - Allentown Morning Call

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Posted By admin on August 15, 2017

MARKESHIA RICKS / New Haven Independent

Nearly 300 people gathered Sunday at Chapel and Church streets in New Haven, one of several rallies around the state to protest white supremacist violence and hate.

Washington Connecticut may not be fertile ground for a white supremacist rally like the one that turned violent in Charlottesville, Va., but the state is not immune to hate.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., says there are several active hate groups in the state.

Perhaps the leading white supremacist figure fromthe stateis KennethZrallack, described by the Anti-Defamation League as one of the founders of the White Lives Matter movement, a small network of hardcore white supremacists with connections to a variety of hate groups.

Zrallack and his brother Matthew organized the Connecticut White Wolves shortly after their graduation from high school in Stratford. In 2004, ADL called the group a collection of racist skinheads that has grown into the largest and most active extremist group in the state, promoting an ideology espousing hatred of Jews and racial and ethnic minorities.

Members, though typically young, have been involved in a number of criminal acts in Connecticut and have forged ties with nationally recognized hate groups, including the National Alliance, the Creativity Movement, White Revolution and the Ku Klux Klan, the ADL said.

The White Wolves seemed to disband after Ken Zrallack was arrested in 2010 and charged withconspiring to sell guns and hand grenades to an FBI informant brokering a deal for a Ku Klux Klan offshoot. A jury acquitted him of those charges.

Zrallack then became one of the very first activists in the White Lives Matter movement in the spring of 2015, the ADL said. That movement was a reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement that grew out of frustration at a spate of police killings of black youth.

A chapter of the ACT for America in Cheshire is also considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The center said that in the nine years since it was founded by Brigitte Gabriel, ACT, which stands for American Congress for Truth, has grown into far and away the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in America.

The group says it is planning a number of America First rallies across the nation on Sept. 9.

The nationalgroup has condemned the violence in Charlottesville, which resulted in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer.

MARKESHIA RICKS / New Haven Independent

Jesus Morales-Sanchez, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Accion, speaks to the crowd Sunday in New Haven.

ACT for America stands squarely with the rights of all Americans to peacefully rally on behalf of their own beliefs, or in opposition to those of others, Gabriel said. Heather Heyer was murdered for her beliefs, and we join in sorrow with her family and friends. Her killer will be brought to justice, and while that cannot undo what has been done, it sends a powerful signal to the forces of hate and intolerance that they will be dealt with swiftly and according to the American rule of law.

The third Connecticut hate group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center is a black separatist organization known as the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The SPLC calls the organization a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers.

Connecticut is more likely to hold rallies in support of those who are the targets of hate groups, like it did in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, said Steve Ginsburg, ADL Connecticut regional director.

He said white supremacists are not a real force in Connecticut, but there are people in every state with extremist ideologies who connect with others over the Internet.

I dont think we are ripe to be the next Charlottesville, but I could be wrong, Ginsburg said.

The state legislature voted unanimously this year to toughen Connecticuts hate crime laws. But still, there is evidence of hate in the state.

In February, hundreds of printed fliers from a white supremacist group were found on driveways and in mailboxes along the Newtown Turnpike in Weston, Wilton, Westport and Norwalk. The fliers read, We must secure the existence of our race and a future for white children. Make America White Again.

There are also dozens of hate crimes reported each year to the state police, a requirement of Connecticuts hate crime laws.

Reports from 2003 to 2012 show a slight increase in hate crimes, with 166 reported in 2012.

But the FBI says that two-thirds or more of these types of crimes go unreported.

Tom Condon / CTMirror.org

An anti-hate rally in West Hartford Sunday

Bridgeport author Andy Piascik, who has written about the Ku Klux Klans history in Connecticut, said its difficult for the United States to shake off the white supremacist movement.

The ideology of white supremacy is a central aspect of U.S. history, he said. The society was founded on the slavery of African Americans and we live with that legacy today.

The Ku Klux Klan appeared first in Connecticut in the 1920s, he said, when there was concern about continued immigration of Italians, Poles and Jews from Europe, increasing labor unrest and large socialist and anarchist organizations who tried to appeal to everyone.

The latest Klan rallies in the state occurred in the early 1980s, but counter-protesters vastly outnumbered the marchers.

Today, counter-protesters in Connecticut would significantly outnumber the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Piascik said.

The sort of KKK-type groups are likely to be small in Connecticut, Piascik said. But look at how quickly they came out of the woodwork (in Charlottesville.) They want to announce to the world we are here.

Steve Thornton, a retired labor organizer in West Hartford who has written about fascism in America, predicted the violence in Charlottesville is going to spur more, not fewer, hate crimes.

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It may not be ripe for a large white supremacist rally, but there's hate in CT - The CT Mirror

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Posted By simmons on August 15, 2017

Email a copy of "ADL Unconvinced by Trumps Condemnation of KKK and White Supremacists" to a friend

US President Donald Trump denounces white supremacist groups on Monday Aug. 14. Photo: Screenshot

President Donald Trump finally issued a strident condemnation of white supremacist groups on Monday afternoon, denouncing by name the Ku Klux Klan and other neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations whose violent actions at Saturdays far right rally in Charlottesville, Va., included a car ramming attack that resulted in the death of one anti-racist protester.

Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, Trump said.

Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America, the president declared.

But one leading US Jewish organization said that Trumps statement which came after two days of intense pressure from Republicans and Democrats for the president to call out those responsible for the violence by name wasnt enough.

August 14, 2017 12:04 pm

Lets be clear: I think we should expect a leader in the highest office in the land to step above the lowest possible bar, said Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on a Monday afternoon media conference call. We need to move from words to real action.

Greenblatt urged the White House to adopt a plan of action to confront white supremacist ideology, through such measures as training every single law enforcement officer to deal appropriately with hate crime, as well asincreasing funds foranti-bias programs at the Department of Education.

But the ADL leader courted controversywhen he asserted that Trump needed to ensure that there were no links between the current White House staff and white supremacist organizations.

Individuals who are associated with, for example, the alt-right found their way into positions of authority in the West Wing, Greenblatt said.

Referring to Saturdayscar ramming attack, Greenblatt continued, If this indeed was an act of terror, the president should make sure that no-one on his staff has ties to terrorists.

Asked whether he had any particular White House officials in mind, Greenblatt replied, I think the appropriate thing is to use the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics to do an investigation and make that determination for themselves. Pressed on whether this might include senior White House officials Steven Bannon and Sebastian Gorka both of whom have strongly denied frequent accusations of being connected with white supremacist groups Greenblatt answered,its certainly possible.

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ADL Unconvinced by Trump's Condemnation of KKK and White Supremacists - Algemeiner

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Posted By simmons on August 15, 2017

Jolie Brislin believes events like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, can happen anywhere, even Las Vegas.

We need to continue to stay vigilant to say that this has no place in this community, said Brislin, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League in Las Vegas.

On UNLVs campus Monday morning, some students felt shaken by Saturdays deadly rally, where 20-year-old Ohio resident James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly drove into a crowd of protesters. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 people were injured in the attack.

Fields reportedly is a Nazi sympathizer.

Evan McKinney, an incoming UNLV student and a member of the Air Force, said he is very concerned people were rallying for white nationalism and neo-Nazism.

It stands against our union and stands against what our country is founded on, said McKinney, 27. Its really scary for me as a black man. Its horrific seeing the atrocities.

UNLV student Jonathan Earnest said hes at a loss for words.

Almost in a sense, theyre glorifying Hitler, said Earnest, 25. Thats not what we need to be going towards. We need to be unifying, not dividing.

Stand against hate

Nevada may be more impervious to such an attack, however. Local and state leaders have strongly denounced the actions of the hate groups that participated in the rally, showing that state leaders are quick to take a stand against hate, Brislin said.

Our elected officials came out with very strong and stern statements, she said. From our governor to our senators to our state Assembly to city council they came out in denouncing this right away, and that shows how strong we are as a state.

UNLV student body President Christopher Roys joined the denunciation Monday, saying he aims to add the universitys name to a nationwide letter condemning the Charlottesville violence.

In a statement, Roys said he and more than 50 other UNLV student leaders aim to say hatred and violence wont be tolerated on campus.

Our University should continue to reaffirm that students should not have to be afraid for their safety, and should not feel endangered on campus, Roys wrote. White supremacy is a scourge on humanity, just as other hate groups, and we all should oppose them collectively.

Just as the condemnation has come from the top down locally, the national ADL is looking to President Donald Trump to develop a comprehensive plan of action against racist groups.

We must continue to name the haters by who they are the alt-right, the neo-Nazis, Brislin said. We need to continue to call them by their name.

Four hate groups operate in Nevada, with three based in Las Vegas, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The ADL, with a mission to stop the defamation of Jewish people, has documented 12 anti-Semitic incidents this year in Southern Nevada. That is double the amount at the same time last year, Brislin said.

The incidents run the gamut, Brislin said, from vandalism to harassment of children on the schoolyard to cyberbullying, although the ADL has been unable to trace the actions to any specific hate group.

Nonetheless, education is key to ending it, she said, so the ADL is providing teachers with lesson plans on how to talk about hate crimes.

Its a road map on how to have the conversation, Brislin said. When were sitting at the dinner table and children bring this up, how do you have a conversation centered around hate, but also have a positive takeaway from it?

Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.

Active hate groups in Las Vegas

Israel United in Christ, Black Separatist

The Daily Stormer, Neo-Nazi

a2z Publications, general hate

Source: Southern Poverty Law Center

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Las Vegans denounce hate in wake of deadly Charlottesville rally - Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Posted By richards on August 14, 2017

Philadelphia Police

Police released this photo of a man who urinated on a synagogue on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Northeast Philadelphias Somerton section.

A man gave the finger to a surveillance camera mounted on a synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia before he openly urinated on thebuilding early Sunday morning, according to police. Now authorities are asking for the publics help in identifying the little pisher.

Around 12:30 a.m., theman was captured onvideo approaching the front doors of Congregation Beth Solomon on the 100 block of Tomlinson Road, police said. He allegedly gave the finger to the camera and urinated on the synagogues walls and the sidewalk in front of the synagogues doors.While urinating, the man continues to address the camera until finished, police said in a news release.

Surveillance footage shows the man getting into a white sedan and leaving the scene, authoritiessaid.

Anyone with information on the vandalism is urged to contact Philadelphia Police at 216-686-8477.

Published: August 14, 2017 1:21 PM EDT

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Cops: Man urinates on synagogue, gives surveillance camera the finger - Philly.com

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Posted By richards on August 14, 2017

WOODMERE -

A Far Rockaway man accused of impersonating a police officer to try and get into a Woodmere synagogue was arraigned on criminal impersonation charges.

Police say Mikhail Mikhaylov was stopped as he tried to get into the Young Israel of Woodmere Saturday morning.

According to police, the 28-year-old identified himself as a police officer to a security guard.

The suspect was wearing a blue baseball cap marked NYPD on the front and police on the side. He also had handcuffs and a mace case on his belt, officials say.

Mikhaylov showed the guard what appeared to be an NYPD detective shield, but took off when asked for further identification. In addition, officials say he told people inside that he had a gun inside his car.

Mikhaylov is being held on $2,500 bail.

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Man accused of impersonating police officer to get into Woodmere synagogue - News 12 Long Island

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Posted By richards on August 14, 2017

Shearith Israel in Manhattan. (Wikimedia Commons)

(JTA) A New York appeals court revived the unlawful termination lawsuit against a synagogue that fired a staffer who became pregnant before her wedding.

The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday opens the door to renewed legal action by Alana Shultz, a former employee of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, Reuters reported.

Shultz had worked as a program manager for the congregation for 11 years when she was fired in 2015. Shultz said she was fired on July 21, 2015, a day after returning from her honeymoon, and was told during a meeting with synagogue officials that her firing was part of a restructuring.

According to her lawyer, however, she was fired after her employers learned that she was 19 weeks pregnant.

Her dismissal was effective on August 15, 2015, but Shultz said the synagogue tried to reinstate her 10 days earlier after learning she had hired a lawyer, Reuters reported.

A lower court judge said that because the synagogue had offered to reinstate her, Shultz had not suffered an adverse employment action to support her Title VII discrimination claim. But the appeals court disagreed, saying the initial firing did indeed constitute an adverse employment action.

Sarir Silver, a lawyer for the congregation, said her clients are reviewing their legal options and may appeal.

A lawyer for Shultz welcomed the decision. No female employee should have to fear termination because she becomes pregnant, Jeanne Christensen said in an email. We look forward to vindicating our clients rights.

Shearith Israel, also known as The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Last week,a federal appeals court in Boston affirmed its ownership of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island the countrys oldest synagogue building and its set of historically significant silver Torah ornaments.

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Court allows lawsuit over firing of synagogue staffer who was ... - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on August 14, 2017

TRAVERSE CITY There are few things Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg loves more than Shabbat and smooth jazz, though he admits combining the two is a rare treat.

It has been nearly 15 years since Sleutelberg and Jeff Haas organized a series of "Jazz Shabbat" services, reharmonizing traditional Jewish prayers into jazz songs. He jumped at the chance to do it again.

The two will reunite for a Jazz Shabbat on Aug. 18 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Traverse City. Sleutelberg will lead the free Jewish prayer service while Haas playing jazz harmonies of traditional Shabbat hymns from the grand piano.

"Having an opportunity to pray and use jazz motifs to elevate the music of those prayers is exciting," Sleutelberg said. "Anyone familiar with the prayer service will still be able to chant along, but the surrounding melodies will be something very new."

Sleutelberg was a Rabbi at Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy for 28 years before retiring last year. He joined Congregation Beth Shalom of Traverse City in September and has since led monthly sermons at the synagogue.

Congregation Beth Shalom will host the Jazz Shabbat with funds from the Ravitz Foundation Initiative for Small Michigan Jewish Communities, a grant that supports smaller Jewish congregations outside the Detroit metropolitan area.

The congregation applies for the grant twice a year to fund special programs beyond what it can usually afford, said event chair Terry Tarnow. She said they wanted to focus this year on shaking up the usual Shabbat service.

"We're trying to make a service that is still spiritually inviting but doesnt sound the same," she said.

That's where Haas came in. The jazz musician grew up on liturgical music and said his Jewish heritage was fodder for several of jazz compositions.

"I fell in love with music of the synagogue when I used to crawl around the organ as an infant, then I fell in love with jazz," Haas said.

Sleutelberg and Haas worked together on a the Shabbat lineup, including 11 traditional Hebrew prayer hymns. Haas reworked half of those into jazz harmonies.

"Imagine taking your favorite painting and reframing it It would look familiar but different," Haas said. "This music will sound familiar but different."

Haas will play the hymns in between original jazz music he composed for the Shabbat alongside Laurie Sears on clarinet, Jack Dryden on double bass, and Rob Mulligan on hand percussion.

Congregation Beth Shalom will host the Jazz Shabbat on Aug. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, directly followed by oneg a Jewish Sabbath celebration with desserts and refreshments. Tarnow said the service can seat around 200 people, but encouraged those interested to reserve free tickets at http://www.jeffhaasshabbat.eventbrite.com.

Sleutelberg stressed that all are welcome at the Shabbat Jewish or otherwise. He said the congregation has no more Jazz Shabbats planned, but he hope to do more of the services and even expand them to other congregations.

"Theres the possibility of taking it to the Detroit area or even beyond if there are others that wish to pray in this way," Sleutelberg said.

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Jazz for the soul: Local synagogue adds jazz to prayer service ... - Traverse City Record Eagle

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Posted By admin on August 14, 2017

Hell just got a little more crowded.

Some might consider that inappropriate about the dead, nothing but good should be said, per the Yiddish proverb but, when the deceased in question is Ernst Zundel, a distinction needs to be made. Because, when the list of monsters is drawn up one day, Zundel will have achieved true distinction. In Canada, in this era, his evil and malevolence were almost without equal.

Ernst Christof Friedrich Zndel was born in Germany in April 1939, and died in Germany in August 2017. As far as we are aware, no one demanded photographic proof of his passing, or forensic evidence of the heart attack that killed him. But they would be entitled to do so.

Zundel, you see, made his name made a fortune denying the murders of millions. He achieved worldwide infamy by peddling foul, criminal conspiracy theories about the Holocaust. That was what he sought to do, day after day after interminable day: deny one of the greatest mass-murders in the history of humankind. To whitewash the sins of Hitler and the other architects of the Holocaust.

He studied graphic art in Germany, then scurried to Canada when he was 19 tellingly, to avoid conscription by the German army. In Montreal, he laboured in obscurity, acquiring some skills as a retoucher of photographs. Even then, the little man excelled at erasing reality.

Early on, his megalomania and self-delusion were manifesting themselves. In 1968, he actually ran for the Liberal Party leadership the one that was won by the father of our present prime minister. He was against "anti-German" attitudes, he told the few reporters who bothered to listen. Zundel then drifted down the highway to Toronto in 1969, where he started up another undersized commercial art studio.

Like all winged insects, he achieved a taste for the limelight. He got involved with something called Concerned Parents of German Descent, and bleated and brayed about how the media were being mean to Germans. As such, he issued press releases denouncing the acclaimed NBC TV miniseries, Holocaust. He started to get noticed, but for all of the wrong reasons.

Like all cowards, too, Ernst Zundel was leading a double life. One enterprising journalist, Mark Bonokoski, discovered that Zundel was publishing anti-Semitic screeds under the pseudonym Christoph Friedrich. One his pamphlets was The Hitler We Loved And Why.

At that point, others might have withdrawn from public view, or expressed regret, or chosen a different path. Not Ernst Christoph Friedrich Zundel. Not him. Zundel commenced his downward descent into the ooze and the muck of organized hatred. Now unmasked, Zundel became Canada's top purveyor of lies.

Out of his fortified home at 206 Carlton Street in east-end Toronto, Ernst Zundel created Samisdat (meaning, to self-publish). He went on to publish more of his paean to Hitler, as well as Did Six Million Really Die?, and other such filth. In a way, he became "a run-of-the-mill neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier," Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, told the New York Times.

But that understates Zundel's significance. In his prime, Ernst Zundel was the most prodigious publisher of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism on the planet. In his various run-ins with the law, he was permitted appallingly to put the Holocaust on trial. And, along the way, too many gullible reporters and far too many politicians regarded him as a "free speech" advocate or a harmless crank. Ignore him, they said, and he'll go away.

He wouldn't. He didn't.

For a while, Canada rid itself of the foul stench that was Ernst Zundel. He slunk out of the country, and relocated to Tennessee, where he married Ingrid Rimland another Holocaust denier. In 2003, Zundel was arrested for overstaying his visa and deported back to Canada. Two long years later, the Liberal government deported him, too back to Germany, the place he had fled to avoid military service, almost 60 years before.

His indecent legacy remains. Even now, a group of neo-Nazi Zundel fanatics are publishing a Holocaust-denying leaflet in Toronto's east end, just like he did. Their publication is called Your Ward News. As with Zundel, gullible reporters and far too many politicians are calling the new haters "free speech" advocates or harmless cranks. Ignore them, they're saying, and they'll go away.

They don't. They won't.

Their hero may be gone, but their enthusiasm for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is not. The hatred may subside, some years, but it never fully goes away.

So: we must never forget. We must never falter. We must never stop fighting the purveyors of hate and lies.

Because Ernst Zundel, from his distant perch in hell, fears that, most of all.

Also on HuffPost:

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Ernst Zundel's Neo-Nazi Legacy Will Linger Unless Toronto Fights Back - Huffington Post Canada

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Posted By admin on August 14, 2017

The Justice Ministry is preparing a draft amendment to Israels Basic law that would allow the prime minister to declare war, or order a military operation that could lead to war, with the approval only of the 10-member security cabinet.

The legislation is being advanced by Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a Channel 2 report Sunday.

The bill would have the full cabinet authorize the security cabinet to make decisions about going to war or taking steps that could lead to war. And it would allow decisions to be made even if not all members of the security cabinet were available at the time.

The full cabinet would not need to be briefed on the decisions or the reasons for the decisions, according to the draft.

According to the report, the Justice Ministry believes the smaller decision-making body would limit the possibility of leaks.

Additionally, it would give greater authority to the security cabinet so that its members would take more responsibility for their decisions. This was a recommendation of the Amidror Report into the functioning of the security cabinet, reportedly added at the request of Netanyahu.

Last year, Netanyahu tasked a committee headed by former chief of the National Security Council, Major General (res.) Yaakov Amidror, with coming up with recommendations on ways to overhaul of the high-level security cabinet and improve intelligence-sharing among senior ministers. The move came amid heavy pressure by Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett who argued that the functioning of the security cabinet was deficient, and that these deficiencies were highlighted by the 2014 summer war with the Gaza Strip.

A State Comptroller report published this year found considerable fault in the way the security cabinet was managed during the 2014 conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge.

Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, near Gaza, in 2008 (photo credit: David Buimovitch-JINIPIX/Flash90)

Channel 2 speculated that the background to the proposed legislation is an incident that took place seven years ago. Netanyahu and then-defense minister Ehud Barak approached the then-IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and the then-head of the Mossad Meir Dagan to prepare the defense establishment to take a certain military position. Ashkenazi and Dagan refused to do so, saying such a move was illegal without the approval of the full cabinet as it could lead to war.

After Ashkenazi and Dagan refused to cooperate, Netanyahu and Barak decided not to go ahead with the operation rather than risk presenting it to the cabinet.

There is speculation that the incident was related to Irans nuclear ambitions.

The amendment is expected to come before the Knesset in the coming session after the current summer recess.

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Netanyahu prepares to strengthen role of security cabinet - The Times of Israel

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