November 2026: Venice, Israeli Election Update and Other Comments

Jewish Museum in Venice

 Happy Friday the 13th (not an unlucky day in Jewish   tradition).  In fact it has been a beautiful day today -   27c - about 80F and sunny. I decided I would try to   get a blog written before Shabbat.  Lots to write   about from Israel.  The political news changes every   day - it is transfixing. It is likely to be so for the next   several months, if not years. But I try to write about   other things sometimes as well - so I'll address a few   topics but make sure to include my take on the   political updates.

Venice

I am starting this blog differently - with a bit about Venice.  We were there this week and I had a few comments about the city that would fit the general content of this blog.  I am not going to write a broad travelog about the city - it is a beautiful city - with many things to do and we enjoyed it thoroughly.  It  is a bit chilly this time of year - but that also means fewer tourists.

But I wanted to write a few comments about some Jewish or Jewish-friendly aspects of the city.

Venice has an estimated Jewish population of about 450-500 Jews - out of a total population (in Venice itself) of approximately 50,000. So it is not a very large Jewish community. But there are two functioning synagogues - the Levantina Synagogue (for local Venetian Jews) and the Chabad synagogue.  Venice also has had least three Kosher restaurants, a Kosher supermarket, bakery and other facilities.

For Shabbat observers, you can make reservations in advance and pre-pay and actually go to a Shabbat-observant restaurant for Friday night meals, Shabbat lunch and even Seudah Shlishit on Shabbat afternoon.  For the rest of the week, the Gam Gam restaurant will deliver Kosher food all over Venice.

We attended shul on Shabbat at the Levintina Synagogue in the Jewish Ghetto.  It is an Orthodox synagogue - very ornate - going back to the 16th century apparently. You need to register in advance by sending a copy of your passport, which you do not need to carry on Shabbat - although there is an eruv around the whole area so you could carry it even if you are observant.  There were about 50-60 men downstairs and about 20 women upstairs in the women's section.  

The Italian tradition uses Sephardi pronunciation - and nusach.  Up until Shacharit - different people took turns reading different tefillot - every single word is read, like in a Yemenite synagogue - there are no "silent" prayers, other than during the Amidah.  The Torah scroll has very ornate silver crowns and breast plates.  Once the Torah is taken out of the Aron Hakodesh (the ark), the hazzan walks to the other side of the sanctuary with the Torah and then goes up a winding staircase to the top - which is actually level with the women's section upstairs.  The Torah is read from that area - and then, subsequently, the hazzan leads Musaf from there as well.

I can't say that it was a super friendly congregation - no one really spoke to us - or offered me an aliyah - and there was no kiddush mentioned (at least not that we were invited to). But the singing was nice and it was an interesting experience.  

While in Venice we also visited the old Jewish Ghetto museum, which is connected to three different synagogues - and learned about some of the Jewish history of Venice.  The Jews were forced to live in the Ghetto from approximately 1515 to the late 18th century - at which time they were "liberated" by Napoleon. The pre-World War II Jewish population has been estimated at 1,200. At least 250 of those residents were deported and killed by the Nazis in 1943 and 1944.

Like the situation in much of the rest of Europe, I would not call this a "vibrant" Jewish community.  But at the  same time, there  is enough going on that observant Jewish visitors can feel comfortable -  especially if they stay near the old Ghetto area. We bumped into several fellow Israelis travelling around in the Ghetto area - as well as visiting  Jews from France, England, the U.S. and other places  and all kinds of other tourists as well.

Israeli Politics

We are in a fascinating period in Israeli politics.  There is a great deal of uncertainty and I do not think that, at this point, I can accurately predict what is going to happen. But I can review some key points and see what kind of prediction I wind up at.

As you might recall, by the time the dust cleared and the election results were published, the previous Netanyahu coalition wound up with a total of  53 seats out of the 120 member Knesset.  That means that the opposition has 67 seats - enough to make up a majority.  But nothing is that simple and certainly not in Israeli politics.

First of all, once the results came in, the Israeli President Herzog met with representatives from each party and asked them who they would support to be the Prime Minister. For Netanyahu's side, only 46 MKs recommended that he be the Prime Minister. The Yehadut HaTorah party withheld a recommendation.

For the opposition, 67 MKs recommended Gadi Eisenkot, which included 8 members of Ra'am and  11 members of the Joint List - both Arab parties.

President Herzog did not immediately confer the  28-day mandate on Eisenkot.  Instead he took the weekend to  think about it. This past Sunday he formally asked Eisenkot to take the 28 days and try to form a government.

What Now?

Eisenkot is in a tough spot.  He does not have a 61 seat majority with Zionist parties.  He needs to somehow come up with a total of more than 61 to form a government.  He has 28 days to get this done (down to 22 now I think). His situation is much better than Netanyahu's but he may still be unable to form a government. Here are his current options.  I think there are at least 6 options, maybe more.  As I have said before - this is Israeli politics and all kinds of things are possible.

Eisenkot's Options

A Government with the Arab Parties

One option for Eisenkot is to form a government that relies on the Arab parties - and gets him to a total of up to 67 seats.  One might have thought that this would be the easiest route but that is not really the case.  Eight seats from the Arab parties are from Ra'am, led by Monsour Abbas.  Abbas actually joined the Bennett-led government previously and has shown a willingness to meet Eisenkot's stated conditions for joining.  If the opposition had won 53-55 seats and only needed the Ra'am party to form a government, I believe it would be fairly easy.  As it is, I think Ra'am will support a wide range of different types of governments led by Eisenkot. However, some of the opposition leaders including Bennett, Lieberman and Eisenkot have vowed not to form a government that relies on Arab  parties for its legitimacy.  I believe that Eisenkot and Bennett may be willing to show some flexibility here but Lieberman, so far, has indicated that he will not.

The bigger problem is that even with 56 seats - with the Zionist opposition plus Abbas - that still does not add up to 61. The other Arab parties (the Joint List) are willing to support Eisenkot in votes - either as "external" supporters in a minority coalition or in some other way. But some members of this bloc are anti-Zionist. Some have made comments sympathizing with Hamas and some have stated their goals are to replace Israel as a Jewish state with a different  kind of state.  This is really problematic for three of the four opposition parties - Yashar, Beyachad and Yisrael Beiteinu. Only Yair Golan's party, the  Democrats, has been willing to push for this coalition - even including anti-Zionist Arab party members.

Forming a coalition that relies on these parties will leave Israel in a precarious situation if it is faced with a security risk situation. It could hamstring the government from making laws that Israel needs.

On the other hand, if the Arab parties are willing to show some flexibility, it could turn into an historic opportunity in Israel - one that could form the basis for long-term cooperation, improve the situation for millions of Arab Israelis - and bring many positive changes for Arab and Jewish Israelis.

Overall, at this point in time, with all of the pitfalls, I think that this is most likely to be the initial direction for Eisenkot and his party. It may be that once the rest of the Knesset members see that Eisenkot is actually forming a government - some will reconsider their positions and join his government.

Eisenkot faces several risks here.  Some of his party members could refuse to go down this path, which is what happened with Bennett the last time around. Or other parties - Lieberman's party or Bennett's party could pull the plug.  Or the Arab parties themselves can set the price too high.  It this type of government forms and it has a short shelf life, Eisenkot could face a really big problem in the next elections.

At the same time, if it is Eisenkot's only way of forming a government for now, I believe that he will decide that it would be better to take that chance than allow Netanyahu to continue on as Prime Minister.

Either way, the opposition is going to force a new election in the Knesset on Monday for a new Speaker of the House, which will then give the opposition the ability to set the agenda - even before a new government is sworn in. The opposition is already preparing all kinds of legislation, even though much of it is overturning bills that were passed over the past four years by the Netanyahu  government.

A Government with the Haredim

Up until the election, it seemed highly unlikely that the ultra-Orthodox parties would consider joining the opposition.  They have been part of Netanyahu's coalition for many years and have been loyal to Netanyahu.  Moreover, the opposition ran on a platform demanding full enlistment from the Haredi community. 

But the Haredi parties are realizing that they may wind up being frozen out of access to power, funding and representation - and they are aware that this would be disastrous for them.  From one recent report, they could face an immediate reduction of more than 500 million shekels in the first year alone if aspects of the "coalition funding" that were in the previous budget are cut.

The problem here is that the price that the Haredim is demanding is simply too high for the opposition. They want an exemption from military service with legislation that will allow the Knesset to override a decision of the Supreme Court if the Court overturns the exemption law.  They want funding maintained at or increased from similar levels. They want to continue their monopoly over State-Religion issues.  These are all major platformms that Lieberman, Eisenkot and Golan ran on and to some extent Bennett. If the opposition gives in to all of this, they will be seen as no different than the Netanyahu government.

This week, Lieberman has been spearheading negotiations with the  Yehadut Torah party.  He believes that he can get a deal done.  But there are so many problems with this.

First of all, the coalition, if it could be formed, would only have 61 seats.  Perhaps it would get to 69 with the support of Ra'am or even 80 if the Joint List supported it.

However, it may be that the demands would be so high that a compromise would not be possible.

Perhaps only one of the ultra-religious parties would agree.  Or perhaps they are working with Netanyahu to simply run out the clock.

My view is that Eisenkot's group should be willing to include the ultra-religious in a government but only at a greatly reduced price.  If they won't agree initially, Eisenkot could swear in the minority government, start enacting legislation (including a budget) and see if the Haredi demands soften. I believe that they will.

A Unity Government with Netanyahu

Prior to the election, Netanyahu said there would be no unity government and only called for a "broad, right wing Zionist government."  In other words, "come and join my last government - I will let you in...".

This is not going to happen, at least not in this form.

First of all, Eisenkot certainly cannot rely on Netanyahu to fulfill any kind  of promises  about a rotation or future coalition.  Netanyahu used his two years in office as part of a deal with Gantz and then pulled the plug on the government before the second half of the rotation. Secondly, Bibi does not want to abandon his bloc of far right wing members - Smotrich and Ben-Gvir and their parties - and there is no way that the Eisenkot group will form a government with these folks. Thirdly, the gap in a wide range of areas is so huge - other than some geopolitical issues - that it seems impossible to bridge.  Above all else, I think the coalition's most important goal was to get Bibi out of the Prime Minister's chair.  I don't see a deal happening where Eisenkot allows Netanyahu  to go first and remain on as the Prime Minister. A unity government with Bibi leading is option #3 of the 5 or 6 that I alluded to above.

On the other hand, Eisenkot could propose a deal with just the Likud - or perhaps the Likud and one ultra-orthodox party - whereby Eisenkot would go first.  It would need some kind of legislation backing since Netanyahu is currently prohibited from serving as a Minister because of his criminal charges. But if Eisenkot were to offer a rotation deal, where Eisenkot goes first, there is a national inquiry into October 7, 2023 and a range of other pieces of legislation - Eisenkot's bloc might support it. However, I don't think Bibi would  agree - and if he did - it would only be for long enough to get an opportunity to pull the government down and go for new elections. Netanyahu has no interested in serving under another Prime Minister and I do not believe that he will agree to any deal that causes this to happen. So much for option #4.

Despite all of the people on the right calling for a "unity government" - since they just lost the election - there is simply too much for the opposition to lose and not enough upside for the opposition to agree to a unity government in a way that would be satisfactory to Bibi. Netanyahu never really made any serious efforts to form a unity government when he had the majority and instead opted for a very extreme, narrow government.  His government passed many different pieces of highly offensive, anti-democratic legislation and the opposition will want to overturn most, if not all, of this.

3. Uncharted Territory - Minority Government

Another option for Eisenkot - a fifth option,  is full steam ahead with no government yet.  In other words, he will work step by step - change the speaker, pass some pieces of legislation and try to negotiate a deal with whomever is available.  This may be the only and best course for him for now.  If Bennett and Lieberman both pull the plug, they have 19 seats combined, they could cause the whole project to collapse. But I am not sure that they will be willing to do that politically and then face another election. 

In short, I think we were headed towards this type of arrangement for now.  It will be unstable - but we might get some stability with time as more parties join.  It will face external, domestic external and domestic internal threats - but so will all of the other options. 

4. New Elections

This is Bibi's current goal. Netanyahu knows that the opposition will not join a "unity" government which allows him to continue on.  So he is looking to drag things out as long as possible and then force a new election. He has no interest in joining a government under Eisenkot.

First of all, Bibi needs to prevent Eisenkot from forming a government in the first 28 days.  He has been on a publicity blitz using social media.  He is attacking the Arab parties and arguing that they are all "terrorism supporters" and arguing that their votes were illegitimate or obtained through fraudulent means, even without any evidence to support this, according  to Israeli Supreme Court Justice Solberg. Everywhere Bibi goes, he argues that he is the only leader capable of leading Israel and that the country will fall part without him. Some of his supporters believe this but at this point, many do not. Certainly the supporters that voted for 67 opposition candidates do not agree.

If Eisenkot uses up the 28 days and cannot form a government, he can request an additional 14 days.  Again Bibi will try to oppose this - and do everything he can to stop Eisenkot from forming a government.  By the way, Bibi's toolbox may also included outright violence and threats of violence that are explicitly or subtly supported by Bibi and his coalition members.

If Eisenkot's time runs out, Bibi will have two weeks to try for form a government himself.  But I think his prospects are highly limited - if not non-existent.

Summary

I guess overall, now having written this, I am leaning towards a prediction. I think Eisenkot will be able to form some type of government, at least initially with the support (even indirect support) from the Arab parties.  It will not be that stable, initially, but Eisenkot will need to find a way to stabilize it - perhaps by adding in one or both of the Haredi parties. If he fails, we may see a new election relatively soon - and the results could improve Netanyahu's position - especially if the opposition is viewed has having been willing to abandoned the platforms that they ran on. Stay tuned!

Other Items

Air Canada Flights

Air Canada is scheduled to resume flying between Toronto  and  Tel-Aviv on November 30, 2026.  Perhaps I am being overly optimistic but I have a ticket on that first flight - from Toronto  back to  Israel. We will see if that  happens.  If the flights continue, it will  make my life much easier - with the availability of direct flights. Sure that might mean fewer visits to interesting European cities but the convenience of direct flights will be tremendous.

The U.S. Relationship

I am not going to write about the U.S. elections and their impact on Israel too much in this blog.  I will say that there are various reports that Bibi has been pushing hard to get Trump to renew the attacks on Iran and "finish the job." According to various reports, Bibi is worried that the window is closing and the opportunity to destroy Iran's nuclear program or bring down its government will vanish.  

For one thing, while Trump initially went ahead with major attacks on Iran, he failed to present a plan to the House and Senate, to attract other  allies, to build support among the American people - or even to show that he had some type of  winning plan.  He failed to set out attainable war aims - and certainly failed to realize any of the aims that he had set out. In fact, he wound up with a new war aim - midstream - opening up the Hormuz strait that had not been shut before the war. 

For various reasons, including the increasingly high price of oil and world and domestic pressure - Trump pulled the plug on the war without anything significant to show for it.  Now Iran is rebuilding, threatening to advance its nuclear program and threatening the U.S. and its allies in a variety of ways.  But it seems  to me unlikely that Trump will renew the war in Iran. In the medium to long term, the Iran war may wind up going down  in U.S.  history as more of a debacle than the Vietnam war.  

For his part, Netanyahu is anxious to restart the war.  But he cannot do so without some level of U.S. support and assistance. If Netanyahu starts the war and Iran responds by attacking U.S. interests - that would cause further and massive deterioration in the U.S.-Israel relationship, which is already at a low point currently, at least as far as U.S. public opinion is concerned.

The opposition in Israel have been arguing that Bibi wants to trigger a new round of fighting - to help distract from election results - produce an impetus for an "emergency national unity government" and maybe run out Eisenkot's time.  We cannot discount this entirely. But although this is what Netanyahu may want to do - I think his window may be closing for now.  

There  is so much more  to write - but this has already taken quite a bit of time - and I have other work to do.  I'll be leaving the +27 weather shortly to go and enjoy some snow in Toronto (according to some forecasts), see the Leafs lose a game or two - and deal with other things back in Toronto. It should be fun-filled, heated, few weeks of political wrangling and  I guess I will have to watch some of it from afar.

Shabbat Shalom and  best regards.