In The News:

After Days Of Haggling, Netanyahu Strikes Coalition Deal

Likud Beytenu, the Bayit  Yehudi and Yesh Atid reached the final stages of coalition talks Wednesday night, with Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett negotiating to break the impasse between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.

After days of arguing over the Education and Interior portfolios, the number of ministries in the government, the Knesset Finance Committee, and changing Hatnua's coalition deal, the parties reached an apparent compromise brokered by Bennett on Monday evening, meeting late at night to iron out the final details.

The three parties' coalition negotiating teams were working on the final agreement at press time Wednesday night.

On Thursday morning, the Bayit Yehudi Central Committee is expected to vote on the agreement, in accordance with the party's by-laws, and Bennett, Lapid and Netanyahu will sign it later that day. The government will be sworn in at the Knesset next week.

After Smoke Clears Tough Challenges For Old-New PM

After six arduous weeks of back-and-forth negotiations, spin, counter-spin, secret meetings and bleary-eyed all-nighters — and then some more spin — white smoke has finally emerged from the Prime Minister’s Residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street: Habemus coalition, we have a government.

It was a close call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And although he could have held out a bit longer — he only has to inform President Shimon Peres about his coalition by Saturday night or forfeit the privilege to build the government — he didn’t take the risk. Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid stood his ground and guaranteed the education portfolio for his No. 2, Rabbi Shai Piron. Netanyahu really wanted to save the prestigious post for the incumbent, Gideon Sa’ar, who came in second in the Likud party primaries, but Lapid won out.

But the government he finally cobbled together will not make his life easy. To his left sits Tzipi Livni, who dreams of signing a peace deal with the Palestinians today rather than tomorrow. To his right grins Bennett, his disgruntled former bureau chief and soon-to-be deputy prime minister, who dreams of annexing the West Bank.





Argentine Jorge Bergoglio Elected Pope Francis



From "the end of the earth," the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday, a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a pastor rather than a manager to resurrect a church and faith in crisis.

He is the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit and the first named Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, the humble friar who dedicated his life to helping the poor. The last non-European pope was Syria's Gregory III from 731-41.

"You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome," the new pontiff said as he waved shyly to the tens of thousands who braved a cold rain in St. Peter's Square. "It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome."

The new pontiff brings a common touch. The son of middle-class Italian immigrants, he denied himself the luxuries that previous cardinals in Buenos Aires enjoyed. He lived in a simple apartment, often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited slums that ring Argentina's capital.

He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.

Islamist Militias Taking Over Egypt

Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood and allied Islamist parties have announced the formation of civilian militias to police the nation in those areas where the actual police have gone on strike over government policies.

Spokesmen for the parties told Egyptian media that militia members would be authorized to arrest those they deemed to be law-breakers.

Beyond the obvious dangers of allowing civilian militias to run rampant, the fact that these militias will be entirely made up of radical Islamists is cause for great concern among secular and Christian Egyptians.

One source who has contributed to Israel Today in the past said life in Egypt is becoming nearly unbearable for Christians. He labeled some of these new militias as "religious police," suggesting that they are indeed targeting as "criminals" anyone who fails to submit to Islamic law.

For Israel, the long-term danger is that Egypt will very much turn into a much bigger and stronger version of Lebanon, where heavily-armed Islamist militias are able to independently threaten the Jewish state with little or no intervention from the government.

Training Syrian Rebels To Conquer Golan Heights And Shoot Down Israeli Aircraft

No, they don't say it quite like that.  But after years of hypocrisy, the Obama administration has admitted that while it declined to arm Syrian rebels directly for fear that weapons would end up in the hands of al-Qaeda forces, it has been quietly vetting and training anti-Assad forces while others provided weapons all around.  Now the training is out in the open, and Secretary of State Kerry has pledged$60 million in "non-lethal aid" to the rebels.  (Plus $250 million to Egypt, while Israel may take a hit of $150 million from sequestration -- makes you wonder.)

American assistance is supposed to go only to "moderate" rebels, but arms have been flowing freely, paid for by American "allies" Qatar and Saudi Arabia and moving through Turkey.  Recently, a source with ties to Israeli intelligenceclaimed that a supply line has been running from Bosnian extremist groups, outside the control, influence, or even vision of the U.S. and its allies.  Libya and al-Qaeda in Iraq have also been conduits for weapons to rebel militias, and last week, 48 Syrian government soldiers and officials were killed in Anbar Province, an al-Qaeda stronghold.

Israel expects to see any and all weapons, including some of the estimated 15,000 surface-to-air missiles the U.S. admits "disappeared" from Libya, aimed in its direction. 

It was Israeli intelligence reports that Assad was moving his chemical weapons that first brought American Special Forces to Turkey and Jordan in 2012, hoping to train Syrian rebels to secure the arsenal before Assad or Hezb'allah moved it to Lebanon or used it.  The irony of planning to entrust chemical weapons capability to rebels to whom they wouldn't give guns appears to have escaped the Americans. 

British papers report that the U.S., Britain, and France are now working together with high-ranking Syrian defectors at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center near Amman.  EU guidelines on the Syrian arms embargo allow military training as long as the aim is "the protection of civilians."  This is nebulous at best, harking back to "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P), the announced basis of American intervention in Libya.  Only this time, we're apparently training Syrians to do the protecting, raising the question of what weapons they will use, since the U.S. doesn't yet admit to providing any.

The United States, France, and Britain claim to be training their own Syrian rebel force, either to help overthrow Assad or to help ensure a peaceful transition after he's gone.  But there's that pesky weapons question again.  Whether the rebels are supposed to kill government soldiers, or be prepared to kill "jihadists" after the war to prevent a jihadist government, with what are they supposed to do it? 

Israel, not for the first time, will be left to cope with a situation born of the inability of its neighbors to fashion a tolerant society and the failure of the West to understand and protect its interests and its friends.

Israeli Chief Of Staff: Syria 'Could Blow Up In Any Moment'