Greenberg Traurig recently opened an office in Tel Aviv and now they've started a blog relating to laws effecting companies doing business in Israel. We wish them lots of luck here.

TANSTAFL- Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

I think this op-ed from Yediot Aharonot is right on.

No Free Meals - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews:

Orly Azoulay

People who are familiar with the codes in Washington know that in this town there are no free lunches. The president of a superpower does not visit a country overseas without knowing that the results of the trip have been assured ahead of time to his satisfaction and in accordance with his interests. Obama has decided to visit Israel because he understood from Netanyahu last week that a two-state solution is possible.

 

The president and his advisors do not really believe Netanyahu and are not concealing their suspicion towards him. But as far as they are concerned, Netanyahu actually lost the recent elections and will therefore do whatever is asked of him. He has no choice.

Obama is coming in order to apply pressure on Netanyahu's weak point after the people of Israel have spoken and after America's fear that Israel was shifting to the right proved to be, for the most part, unfounded. 

 

The fact that the White House announced the visit at a time when coalition negotiations in Israel are ongoing is not coincidental. The US is signaling to Lapid and Livni that this is the time to jump on the bandwagon and be a part of the next government, because the president is serious: He is not seeking revenge; nor is he indifferent; Obama is coming to Israel to complete the mission, and he needs them in the coalition.

 

Secretary of State John Kerry, who will be touring the region before Obama, is showing extraordinary enthusiasm about the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Obama had his doubts, but they have diminished somewhat. As far as Obama is concerned, Netanyahu is the prime minister, but he is no longer king.

 

Obama will come to Jerusalem to speak to the Israeli public above Netanyahu's head. He will try to charm the Israeli public and allay its security-related concerns. He will give the Israelis what they crave for: A big hug from a foreign leader and an almost limitless line of credit.

 

After winning the hearts of the people, Obama will get down to business. His mission: Renew the alliance with the Israeli public and clarify to Netanyahu that playtime is over. He does not intend to let up until white smoke appears.

Israeli Physicians to be Told They Must Treat HIV Carriers- Haaretz

According to a report by Haaretz, the Israeli Medical Association-(IMA)'s ethics committee has decided that it is unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat a patient with HIV. (For the IMA's statement in Hebrew click here.) I'm not sure why doctors would refuse HIV patients any more than patients with other highly infectious and fatal diseases. The article suggests that it may be due to certain prejudices and a stigma that attaches to HIV patients. Now, this statement by the IMA is not a legal decision so if a doctor would refuse to treat a patient it seems that they would not be violating any law but they might be subject to discipline by the IMA.

This new stance is not so clear to me because the IMA's position, found on its website, is that "A physician must offer medical assistance in urgent cases or in life-saving situations. In any other instance a physician may decide not to provide medical treatment to a patient for personal or professional reasons." So I'm not sure whether this new statement is referring to urgent cases or non-urgent cases. If it is referring to non-urgent cases then it seems to signal a reversal of policy. (In Australia, doctors have a duty to provide care, at least in urgent cases, even where there is no previously existing doctor-patient relationship.)

The Old Paint and Tow Scheme in Tel Aviv

A woman got a parking ticket for parking in a handicapped spot that wasn't marked handicapped until after she had parked. The municipality painted it around and under her car and then towed it for being parked in a handicapped spot. She went to fight her ticket with the embedded video surveillance footage and the city waived the fine and apologized to her. 

Mitigating factors for the city: I did read somewhere that a sign had been put up there even though the street had not been painted yet. It also seems to me that the curb is painted blue, the color for handicapped spots. Also, I think I read that the people who painted the sign and probably the towers are subcontractors for the city.

Pelephone Rules Out Cyberattack- Class Action Filed

In what must be one of the fastest class-action filings ever, on Monday a law firm in Israel filed a NIS 450 million class-action against cellular phone company Pelephone for a four hour service outage that ended at 11 PM Sunday night. The JPost reported that the suit was filed on behalf of one Tom Lifshitz requesting "NIS 100 in damages and NIS 50 in emotional damages, citing the fact that mobile communications are an integral part of daily life and their absence left him unable to make personal or work-related calls, leaving him feeling 'helpless.'"

My wife was trying to call some people who use Pelephone yesterday and noticed that she could not get through. It was frustrating for her and it must have been even more frustrating for Israelis who have Pelephone as a provider, but a class action suit. Really? Emotional distress because your phone didn't work for four hours? Do you think this is the United States? If a car hit a power line and knocked out power to a whole city would that be grounds for a class action? I doubt it. I understand that people rely on their cellphones, sometimes to the exclusion of landlines but it doesn't seem like this is something that you can really sue for. You have to expect that even in our advanced technological age their will be some episodes of downtime every once in a while due to unforeseen circumstances. Besides, Pelephone is offering to compensate people with free minutes or data. That should probably be sufficient, instead of NIS 150 for each affected customer.

Oh, and totally coincidentally, I think we are switching to Pelephone tomorrow because we got a good deal for international calls and an American phone number on our cell phones and home phone. The recent outage gave me some pause, but not enough.

Legal Networking Event in Tel Aviv

One of the organizers asked me to post this information for a networking event geared toward Anglo lawyers in Israel.

Click here to register.