Each one rotten all the way up to PM Netanyahu
By David E. Kaplan
They say, “You can’t choose family,” hence no responsibility or blame. No such excuses in politics. We choose our leaders hence we are responsible for what they do and what they disgustingly say. Normally, citizens wait for the next election to correct bad choices. This time round, Israel does not enjoy that luxury.
We cannot afford to wait as we don’t know what “country” we will very shortly have left with a leadership hellbent on undermining – in record time – the achievements since that iconic First Zionist Conference in August 1897. Who needs enemies to destroy us when our current leadership is doing the job just fine from within. The PM’s concocted coalition is a TROJAN HORSE in that we welcomed them into our home, and once in, they are coming out from the proverbial equine woodwork to destroy and dismantle.
First up in their crosshairs is our cherished democracy and esteemed judiciary.
Declining to passively partake in Netanyahu’s “March of Folly”, Israelis in ever increasing numbers are marching instead to city crossroads participating peacefully in massive protests. Let us dispense at once with the myth that this is being led by the Left or that the protestors are “Leftists”. Afterall, have not respected political commentators in recent years all repeatedly expounded on how “There is no Left anymore in Israel”. This observation is evidenced in the sad state of today’s Labour Party – the traditional Left party that built Israel. In the words of one political commentator, Micah Halpern, the Labor Party is “limping along … barely breathing.” The far more left party, Meretz, is now electorally deceased in the sense that it no longer has a seat in the Knesset.
Is it thus credible to believe that the mythical Left have suddenly re-emerged like a ‘rabbit-out-of-a-hat’ apparition and are the cause of the nation-wide opposition?
No, the folk flocking out on the streets are ordinary, unlabeled loyal citizens who love and want to save their country from the terminal trajectory it is now on. They are not, in the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition cohorts, “Anarchists”. My wife and I, our children and grandchildren, our friends and their children and grandchildren are not “anarchists”.
We are “ZIONISTS”!
If anyone can be called “anarchists”, that is, out to destroy the established order – a delicate balance in a turbulent turf – it is the new Netanyahu 2023 model. Hurriedly off the factory floor having been shoddily assembled with faulty components, it maybe needs to be recalled ASAP before too much harm results. For a Prime Minister who often proudly talks of “Smart Mobility”, Netanyahu’s government so far in two months has proven anything but SMART and as for MOBILITY, we are afraid of where down the road he is driving this country. Stationary or even reverse would be preferable to the dire destination we are speeding towards.
The past two months of this government, apart from the accelerated assault on our esteemed judicial system – the rallying call for the nationwide protests – the performances from government ministers has been nothing less than a litany of lunacy.
The recent remark from the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich to “wipe out” the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwara, sent shivers across the Jewish world as well as raising more than eyebrows from our overseas friends in high places. Is it any wonder that the US has been holding discussions on whether or not to grant Smotrich a visa for an upcoming US trip. We don’t want him either but we are saddled with him interfering in matters beyond his portfolio of finance and all he has to show for it is driving our economy and currency down.
It is amazing how our government ministers are not running but ruining their ministries!
Smotrich, who also heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, said his “word choice was wrong, but the intention was very clear”. Sadly, he’s right on both counts; his word choice was majorly morally wrong as was his homicidal intentions. However, what is mostly wrong is that this despicable character remains in high office.
Bezalel Smotrich is a menace!
No less menacing is the National Security Ministry’s head, Itamar Ben Gvir who boisterously boasted of bringing order but has mostly brought disorder. Israel has always prouded itself that despite the horrendous terrorism it confronts, it does not impose the death penalty. Only once was it ever exercised – the justifiable execution of the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann in 1962. Along comes Ben Gvir with no evidence in support, that the answer to terrorism is the death penalty. He already expressed his preferred method of execution – the electric chair. “Anyone who murders, harms and slaughters civilians should be sent to the electric chair,” said Ben Gvir to advance his legislation allowing Israel to impose the death penalty for “certain” terror offenses. By “certain” he means Arab on Jew, not Jew on Arab.
How do we know this?
Easy, because of Ben Gvir’s absolute adoration of the most notorious terrorist and killer of Arab civilians in recent times – Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994, entered a mosque and opened fire on 800 Palestinian Muslim worshippers killing 29 and wounding 125. Instead of someone whose murderous conduct would qualify him for Ben Gvir’s “electric chair”, no, this mass murderer is instead adored by Ben Gvir so much so that he takes his future wife on their FIRST date to Goldstein’s grave. What is more, until recently, a photograph of Baruch Goldstein hung on the Ben-Gvir’s living-room wall at their home in the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron. This minister in Netanyahu’s government would be happy hanging Arab terrorists, but when it comes to Jewish terrorists, he hangs their portraits in his home!.
And this is what we have as a minister in our government! A hypocrite, a bigot and yes – a menace.
Even the people under his authority think so as reflected in a report today in The Jerusalem Post that headlines:
“Netanyahu must sack Itamar Ben-Gvir, former Israel Police officers plead”
According to the report, “Forty retired Israel Police officers, including former police chiefs, criticized Ben-Gvir’s conduct and warned he could ignite another Intifada.”
The rot that has infected Netanyahu’s governing coalition runs deep. Another senior member and side-kick of Ben Gvir in his Otzma Yehudit party is MK Zvika Fogel, who not only approved the Jewish settler rampage of the Palestinian village of Hawara but called thereafter for it to be “burned and closed.” Just so there is no misunderstanding, the “rampage” by Jewish extremists that Fogel approves, resulted in a Palestinian man killed and homes and cars set ablaze. While Jews nationwide – the ones you see protesting across Israel called it a pogrom – Netanyahu’s coalition partners see it differently; some even favourably.
Said Fogel in an interview with Radio Galey Israel:
“Hawara is closed and burnt. That is what I want to see. Only thus can we obtain deterrence.”
While Israel’s opposition head, Yair Lapid in a tweet called for the removal of MK Fogel from the National Security Committee due to his inflammatory comments, Netanyahu’s coalition members remain belligerent or avoid condemning the violence. Lapid had written:
“If he is not removed immediately from the committee, it is a disgraceful stain and a black flag flying over the head of the government.”
On the contrary, very few in Netanyahu’s coalition saw it as a “disgraceful stain” or “black flag”. For Netanyahu’s National Missions Minister, Orit Struck, she said she understood “the settlers with boiling blood” but felt that it is not up to these good people to take matters into their own hands.
“It is up to us as a government,” she said.
That said, “It is up to us as a people” to remind this government, while holding aloft Israel’s flag and singing Hatikvah – “the hope” – enough is enough!
At every demonstration, the protestors inevitably shout:
“Bibi habayta” – Bibi go home.
If only he would before we all lose ours!
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The demonstrators ignore the fact that this is a democratically elected government
By blocking highways and besieging the prime ministers wife in a hair salon they are no less extreme then the Ben Gvirs and Smotriches Bibi has indicated a willingness for dialogue under the auspices of the President But doubt that this will satisfy the demonstrators who seem to want a coup
Not all the demonstrators are anarchists but there is no doubt that a good minority are judging by their behavior
The demonstrators are not protesting against losing an election but afraid of losing their democracy.
It is both extremely disappointing & frustrating that the barrage of media gloom & doom criticism & disdain for the current Right coalition fails to include or highlight a pivotal point for relevant unbiased context: The vast majority of leftist protestors & global onlookers ignore,are oblivious to or ignorant of the fact that Israel is the ONLY democracy on our planet where the Supreme Court/judiciary,have been dominated by the Left with mostly left-leaning judges for 4 decades,have had excessive powers to overrule,block,invalidate Knesset bills, executive legislation etc. Essentially-needed moderate judicial reform is long overdue-this status quo conveniently suited the Left,but now it is going overboard with exaggerated civil unrest & incitement(blocking roads,highways,railway commuters etc, G-d forbid worse to come).
There are certainly some valid concerns re few unsavory characters in Knesset, far religious right(Haredi) pendulum swing etc.Meanwhile police are way overburdened trying to curb mounting civil unrest & terrorism.-no doubt antisemitic nations & terror groups globally are ringing their hands gleefully.
Bottom Line:Left & Right must expeditiously meet & finally effect rational,moderate reform.Regrettably leaders & extremists both sides are most unyielding with their biased political agendas,massive egos etc.
Israel,as the only democracy in the 22-nation MEast,& amongst 57 Islamic nations globally,
will always remain a democracy G-d willing.
Final point : Sadly politics is dirty(locally & globally) to varying degrees on all fronts-left, right, center, with no apparent end in sight.
I believe that not everything in Israel is perfect. Reforms to areas where the system is failing us needs reform. Probably a large section of the population would think that the electoral system needs reform. We are not being served well by our present system.
Similarly the legal system needs reform. The present method of electing judges to the supreme court is not democratic at all. It is simply a system of jobs for friends and like minded people. No question about that. Changes are needed in the powers of the court but there has to be a middle way, not the extreme changes envisaged by the coalition. I believe we will get the compromises but goodwill must be shown by both sides. We must imagine every dispute is an existential problem. This is the appearance given by many in the media. Whatever bad decisions are made now in this matter can be recformed in the future by successive governments. It is not like the Oslo Accords or the Gaza pullout that were not reversible. Level heads should be shown.
We have had more than enough incitement
I made an error in my letter. I meant to write:
We must NOT imagine every dispute is am existential problem.
Their democracy is safe . They have refused negotiations and i suspect that even if a settlement were reached they would continue demonstrating . Meanwhile our enemies are watching with glee at these divisions and the silent majority of Israelis are watching with dismay
I have just returned from a Demonstration proudly holding up our Israeli Flag with kids, parents and grandparents. The only sound we hear is the chanting of “Democratia”, To have lived for more than 3 decades in Israel, I took Democracy for granted, how very wrong I was. For all of your out there referring to us as” Anarchists” and “Terrorists”, google the meaning of these words, instead join in the fight for our Nation that has been a beacon of light in this neck of the woods and always prided itself on our Democracy.