Category: Israeli Politics

FROM RUNNING TO RUINING ISRAEL

It is not too late Mr. Prime Minister, to avert a catastrophe

By David E. Kaplan

“At long last…” began The Jerusalem Post’s editorial on Joe Biden’s long-awaited invitation to Israeli PM Netanyahu. A somewhat discoloured welcoming hardly redcarpet and no mention of White House, and listening on i24NEWS at the time when the news broke, the invitation sounded awkward – unclear on when and vague on venue. It was kind of like “when you are next in town, lets catch up.”  There was not even a hint of “swinging over” to the White House.

Clearly to avoid embarrassment on a number of levels, the feeling-somewhat-marginalized Israeli prime minister wanted ‘some’ invitation out there before Israeli president, Isaac Herzog touched down in the States for his meeting with Biden at the White House to be followed with an address to both Houses of Congress.

Warm Welcome. Isaac Herzog (left) meets with US President Biden at the White House before the Israeli president goes on to address both Houses of Congress where he received multiple standing ovations.

The optics was clear – it was not Israel being snubbed; on the contrary – it was  being joyously welcomed on the occasion of its 75th anniversary – it was its president, Isaac Herzog. And for good reason thought much of the people of Israel who would prefer their PM instead of visiting the White House in Washington, to rather retire to his own house in Caesarea.

There is disbelief that this once immensely respected prime minister, this surmounter of challenges, would transform into an instrument causing such national disunity and dissent. The day following the “invitation”  was the ‘National Day of Resistance’ as mass anti-judicial reform protests convened at railway platforms, highways and intersections – metaphors for a country ‘on track’ and going places.

Joining the multitude of voices warning of the country now going in a wrong direction is someone top-of-his-game in ‘Smart mobility’, Israeli computer scientist and businessman Prof. Amnon Shashua. The company he cofounded and which he remains CEO, Mobileye was acquired in 2017 by Intel for $15 billion and hailed then as the largest acquisition of Israeli technology in the country’s history. Netanyahu, who had a hand in creating hi-tech’s miraculous milieu back then, now has a hand in unraveling all those achievements  with forecasts of a recession due to reactions both local and global to his government’s planned judicial overhaul.

Smart Advice from Smart-Tech Wizard. Holding his technology in his hand, Mobileye CEO and cofounder Prof. Amnon Shashua, warns Israeli prime minister who holds the country’s future in his hands: “Netanyahu, stop the judicial overhaul – It is not too late”.

If in 2017 Netanyahu could say to Shashua the day after the monumental deal that “This is a day of rejoicing for the economy of Israel,” not today!

Titling his article in the online news platform Ynet “Netanyahu, stop the judicial overhaul – It is not too late”, Shashua writes that  although the prime minister received a mandate from the majority of Israelis, that mandate did not include “to alter the face of the nation.”

The Mobileye CEO prefaces his position with:

“I am not a political person. Since the government declared its intention to promote judicial reform, I believed with all my heart that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom I deeply respect, would ultimately do the right thing. This belief was also based on meetings and lengthy discussions with various relevant parties. However, unfortunately, I am no longer convinced of that.”

What Shashua is convinced of is that:

“In order to make significant changes in the fundamental principles of our legal system, we must act with a broad consensus that does not differentiate between right-wing and left-wing stances. Such essential changes, like interfering with the independence of the judiciary and its involvement in governmental decisions, concern all of us, regardless of our political positions. We should not approach such legislation with a one-sided and biased approach.”

Warning it is essential to remember “that today the public officials in power represent the right bloc; tomorrow, they may be representatives of the left,” hence “We must seek consensus. If reaching an agreement is not possible, the process should be stopped. It must be stopped.”

Reminding that in the business entrepreneurship world “a CEO of a company that destroys its values is held responsible, regardless of who or what caused the destruction of value,” Shashua sadly laments that  this clearly is not the case in Israeli politics.  Despite the immense damage to Israel’s “security, economy, foreign relations and social cohesion,” the Netanyahu coalition is not deterred displaying recklessness at the erosion of cherished values.

Shashua concludes “all that remains between us and this dangerous change with unclear implications is the citizens of Israel themselves.”

Hence the protests and why they will continue and intensify.

A kindred spirit is Tel Aviv-Yafo mayor Ron Huldai who renamed on Monday 17 July the city’s famed Kaplan intersection  – the epicentre of the anti-judicial overhaul protest movement  – “Democracy Square”.

Israel at a Crossroad. The mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ron Huldai renames Kaplan intersection in Tel Aviv “Democracy Square” as a tribute to the unwavering spirit of the hundreds of thousands of protestors who have gathered there for 28 consecutive weeks, championing the democratic values that sit at the heart of the State of Israel. (Photo credit Kfir Sivan)
 
 

“There are two reasons why we decided to rename this intersection ‘Democracy Square,” explains Huldai in a press release. “First, in the State of Israel’s 75th year, it has become abundantly clear that democracy is not to be taken for granted. We want to remind ourselves of that. Second, we want to acknowledge the tireless resolve of those who have gathered here for 28 consecutive weeks in the spirit of democracy. What is more beautiful than coming together in pursuit of common, unifying values? We hope that in the future, years after this threat to our democracy has dissipated, this will serve as a tangible reminder of a period in our nation’s history when thousands of people came together with determination and perseverance to fight for the values outlined in our Declaration of Independence — the values that comprise the foundation of the society we want to live in and want our children to thrive in.”

The resounding message to the prime minister and his coalition is:

STOP! Stop this frenzied assault on democracy before it is too late.

Will future generations lament this chapter in our history or rejoice like in the story of Purim of how we averted a catastrophe of our people. This choice is in your hands, Mr. Prime Minister.

It is time for you to resume running instead of ruining the country.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

BIBI AND HIS BILLS

As Bibi’s ‘’reasonable bill’ advances in Israeli Knesset, country retreats into the abyss

By David E. Kaplan

If the US is reassessing its relationship with Israel’s leadership, they are only following the example of the citizens of Israel.

Uproar in the House. The fate of the nation resting with Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (r) speaking with Justice Minister Yariv Levin as the Knesset deliberates a bill to cancel the judiciary’s review powers over the ‘reasonableness’ of government decisions, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2023. Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

When some 300 reservists in cyberwarfare units issued a letter on Tuesday saying they would not show up for volunteer reserve duty after the Knesset okayed the first reading of a bill to eliminate the High Court’s ability to rule on the “reasonableness” of government decisions, it exposed a gaping wound in Israeli society explaining the shocking but not surprising rebellion within the ranks. When defense minister Yoav Gallant ‘shot’ back at the protesting reservists saying they were “giving a prize to our enemies” he was missing the most important point:

 that a sizable resilient chunk of Israeli society now see the current government as the “ENEMY”.

Message from the Military. Preceding latest developments of reservists refusing to serve in protest, IDF Reservists and activists protest against the government’s judicial overhaul, outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem back in March 2023. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

The cyberwarfare reservists were following in the wake of the nearly 200 Israeli Air Force fighter pilots – some of whom “conducted covert Israeli operations” – who too are refusing to continue serving as reservists in protest against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul that they see as an assault on their country’s democracy. This new, never before phenomenon is literally chipping away at Israel’s armour –  because an angered people have been awakened and see what Gallant fails to see that this extreme right-wing government  is now the ‘Enemy of the People’.  If Bibi and his gang – albeit elected –  succeed in their pursuit, staying out of jail for the prime minister is the least of the people’s concern. What is existentially worrying is if this government succeeds in passing all their rotten bills it will be the end of the vision that most Israelis share of a liberal democratic Jewish state.  And THIS is what is worth fighting for. This is why the reservists are threatening not to serve and why the people en mass have enlisted to fight this government week after week now entering its 28th week.

Taking the Hight Ground. Israeli fighter pilots are refusing to train joining in the wave of protests across the country against the government judicial ‘reforms’. (Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

And the people protesting are in good company. Given that the government could pass key legislation aimed at radically overhauling the judiciary within days, former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit who had been appointed to this position by Netanyahu in 2016, warned as well this week – that the country stands on the “brink of dictatorship.”

Beware of Bibi. Warning today that the country stands on the “brink of dictatorship” because of Netanyahu’s policies, the former attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit is seen here as Bibi’s cabinet secretary back in September 2014 with the prime minister (left). (AP/Menahem Kahana, Pool/File)

Mandelblit, who was once a close confidant of Netanyahu and served as his cabinet secretary from 2013-2016 before being appointed attorney general, said on Channel 12 that the proposed legal overhaul was “not reform” but “a revolution, regime change. It’s a complete change of the DNA upon which we grew up, and the upshot is the elimination of the independence of the legal system from end to end.”

And like before the Rabin assassination, once again the warning signs are there.

“The bitter divide over the planned overhaul,” continued former attorney general Mandelblit, “will lead to violence…..and somebody or some people will pay the price in blood. That’s what will happen.”

Crazed Crony. Derailing Israel’s democratic future, a frenzied Simcha Rothman, head of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee at the committee meeting on the planned judicial ‘reform’, at the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 12, 2023. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

This is the state of our State that Netanyahu has brought upon his people who he once so admirably served and now threats are there to serve him.

I cannot go anywhere today whether to my physiotherapist, hairdresser, a funeral or paying a condolence call without engaging in conversation about the “matzav” –  Hebrew for the situation. I believe it is the same for most people for what is more important today than our future tomorrow? 

Israel Today – Ministers Applaud, People Protest. Government ministers celebrate after the Reasonableness Standard Bill passes its first reading in Knesset. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

And the message from the US could not be clearer. By inviting the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog to address next month the US Congress, while still not extending the customary invitation to Israel’s prime minister to visit the White House, is a reassurance  that the much talked about widening rift  between the US and  Israel is only between the US administration and the Netanyahu government – not the people of Israel. This will be visually affirmed to the entire world watching on TV when the members of both Houses of Congress, rise repeatedly on their feet to give rousing ovations to  President Herzog. The people of Israel will also be on their feet  as they again and again will take to the streets across the country to protest until this nightmare comes to an end.

Let’s end the nightmare of Netanyahu so we can return to the dream of Herzl.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

‘TILL THE END OF TIME

Israelis may protest against each other but the message to its enemies is we are here to stay

By Yair Chelouche and David E. Kaplan

In his political treatise – ‘The Prince’ – Renaissance political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, addressed the question whether for a ruler:

 “It is better to be feared than to be loved, if one cannot be both.”

This may have been in the back of the mind of Saudi Arabian journalist and novelist Abdullah bin Bakheet when in the Saudi daily Okaz (June 15), he wrote:

 “Arabs in the region have accepted Israel’s power, they have not yet accepted its right to exist.”

Israel, celebrating its 75th birthday this year, is still unable to capture, never mind the hearts but even Arab acceptance of the “right to exist”.

Israelis may be more divided today than at any time in its history but they are solidly united on their right to a Jewish state on the sliver of turf that is our ancestral homeland.

True Zionists. Israel’s enemies need to understand that while a large number of Israelis may be united against government policies thy are no less united against those who with to destroy or undermine the Jewish state.

We may fiercely argue amongst ourselves on the character of the state – as the vigorous protests now into their 27th week clearly demonstrates – but on the very existence of a Jewish state there is no argument.

The question the Saudi journalist then grapples with is if Israel can transcend being ‘acknowledged’ solely as a powerhouse that Arabs endure like an incurable disease to being truly accepted as an integral cultural component of the Middle East mosaic?

Bakheet tackles this  conundrum by posing the question of whether the Middle East holds any “cultural connotations that could unite peoples, and what is the cultural foundation that could allow for coexistence between the peoples of the Middle East and Israel?”

While the Arab world stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean “encompass many political entities” it is bound together in “a single cultural bloc” enjoying  a “shared cultural identity”. This is  evidenced “in the likenesses of their language, faith, history, literature, customs, traditions, and aspirations,” which clearly to Bakheet must thus exclude Israel.  He cites as examples the book fairs of Beirut, Cairo, Medina, Riyadh, Kuwait, Marrakesh, Amman, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi that “display similar authors, while musical compositions from Damascus evoke joy in the people of Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, the Gulf, Palestine.” Again, he reasons, Israel has no part in this.

Adding that “a fatwa issued in Cairo resonates throughout the entire region,” Bakheet asserts that “these undeniable similarities demonstrate the unified culture of the Arab world,” leaving Israel as the odd man out; a foreign import  unable to genuinely integrate into the region. For the Jewish state to achieve some modus vivendi in this Arab milieu, Israel can only depend on the US to coerce or influence Arab countries to make an effort to accept the presence of Israel. He arrives at this conclusion because Israel is otherwise unable “to exist in a world with which it is otherwise unconnected.”

To Bakheet’s line of thinking, there is the natural Arab world and then there is the unnatural Israel, discounting thousands of years of Jewish history.

Winds of Change. Multiple flags flying in the wind signals that despite the challenges, the Jewish state is inexorably integrating in a mostly Muslim Middle East.

FROM CAMELS TO PENGUINS

How negative the collective mindset of Israel is in the Arab world is captured in Bakheet’s ‘animal’ type perspective below, which is both illuminating and alarming. He describes Israel’s presence in the Middle East under the protection of the USA:

 “… like transferring a herd of camels to the Arctic, providing them with a tight reserve in which to live, severing any relationship with the outside world. As long as the camels are provided with appropriate protection, they can survive, although they must remain within their dedicated reserve until they are either repatriated or transformed into penguins.”

Israelis for Bakheet are a people confined, under protection and subject to consequences if we step “off the reservation”.

To Abdullah bin Bakheet and his ilk and whoever else shares his mindset, I would respond with the profound message of Israel’s illustrious Foreign Minister, Abba Eban that:

“Israels’ future will be longer than its past”





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

“I CAN’T BREATHE”

It’s getting suffocating, Israelis need to attack the country’s issues, not each other

By David E. Kaplan

Every Saturday night, while walking amongst hundreds of flag-bearing protestors towards Kfar Saba’s main square, we are met with the same solitary individual bellowing expletives from his first floor balcony.

His animated harangue – mostly incomprehensible – is interspersed with loud outbursts of devotion to “King Bibi”, a sentiment for the Israeli prime minister certainly not shared with the throng of protesters below.  

This ‘Balcony Scene’ plays out like a weekly ritual with little change – he shouts, a few protestors in the crowd shout back; mostly he is ignored, a lot laugh. Some invite him to jump!

Amusing and sad, this tragi-comic scene is a microcosm of the nature of the division and the discourse today in Israel, and that it crosses party lines is hardly an equality to be proud of.

During a shouting match in Knesset in January 2022, Yesh Atid’s Merav Ben-Ari called  Ofer Cassif of the  the Jewish-Arab Hadash party a “misogynistic racist and Israel hater,” to which he responded by calling his female counterpart a “hen”. Such parliamentary eloquence!

Sad Sight. This is what Jewish revenge looks like when unchecked. A yard where cars were torched by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara near Nablus in the West Bank. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

While protesters to the judicial overhaul have unjustly likened Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the prime minister has behaved little better, maliciously equating the legitimate protestors in support of Israeli democracy with the Jewish settlers who in a revenge attack, torched a number of Palestinian villages. Extremists destroyed homes and cars with one Palestinian 27-year-old man shot and killed.

And as for Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who is gung ho to deal harshly (“zero tolerance”) with judicial overhaul protestors, and about whom former police chiefs warned poses “a tangible and immediate danger to the security of the State of Israel,” has called the settlers who rampaged and torched Palestinian villages:

 “sweet boys”

Revenge Rampage. The Jewish settlers who caused this while on a revenge rampage in the West Bank are referred to by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as “sweet boys”. [Hisham K. K. Abu Shaqra/Anadolu]

Each day the divisions widens and the discourse becomes more disquieting. From the politicians to the people, the nature of engagement is characterised by more screaming than talking and so avoiding getting down to exploring a national consensus on fundamental issues that could prove more protective in safeguarding this nation’s future than a squadron of new generation fighter planes. Yes, we need to always increase our arsenal as we are responsibly doing by ordering the latest 25 F-35s from the U.S. but at the same time we also need to responsibly create a sustainable society based on consensus polices that can provide security and prosperity.

BUILDING BLITZ

Top of the list dividing this nation is the “settlement enterprise” or alternatively the “Two-State Solution”, the latter which the Prime Minister Netanyahu endorsed in his 2009 Bar Ilan speech and which is now unravelling for being “unviable”.  Maybe so maybe not but it needs to be seriously part of the national conversation. Instead we see a Netanyahu frustrated at his judicial overhaul blocked by unrelenting protestors, paying off the extremist wing of his coalition with annexation coin. Hence the Israel cabinet approved a resolution to speed up the process of constructing buildings in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

Construction or Destruction. Will plans to speed up building in the West Bank sabotage prospects for peace?

“For Israel to continue to thrive, it must continue to build,” says the mayor of Mitzpe Yericho, a religious West Bank settlement located 20 km east of Jerusalem. While the mayor’s sentiment most likely is not shared by a majority of Israelis, like the bulldozers that one day will prepare the ground, this coalition will bulldoze its policy of frenzied construction, regardless of the consequences.

Where is the national conversation that this is what we should be doing?

FOR GOD’S SAKE!

Then there is the issue of the Haredim, who some argue are a bigger threat to Israel than Palestinians or Iran. The rapidly expanding Haredi state-within-a-state’s current dynamic cannot continue on its current trajectory without eroding Israel’s brittle tenure as a Western-style democracy as well as sustain its impressive per capita income rivaling top European economies. How and when will this be resolved?

Ticking Time Bomb. How will the unemployment rates within a rapidly growing Haredi community impact Israel’s future?

All these issues demand to be nationally addressed in the present and not like the proverbial can kicked down the road, again and again, by successive leaderships.

Its frequently said about the Palestinians that “there is no partner” or “there is no one to talk to”. Over the last disastrous six months of this government tempestuous tenure, this could apply to us Israelis:

 “there are no partners” and “no one to talk to”.

As I write,  Israel’s opposition were up in arms  of the vote that took place in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee led by MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) approving the controversial “reasonableness standard bill”. Calling it a “one-sided and oppressive move that harms the citizens of Israel and tears apart the people,” opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid and National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz said in a joint statement that the bill was intended not to defend citizens but to defend politicians.

There were protests preceding this vote and there will be a lot more following it.

In going forward, we should remember the line, whose source is uncertain but whose message is clear:

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”

Future generations are depending on us – we have a responsibility to behave responsibly.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

OMG’otliv!

Can one open the page of an Israeli newspaper paper without wanting to instantly close it?

By David E. Kaplan

Now into the 24th week, “Why are you still protesting?” is the question increasingly asked. Over and above the persistence of the Netanyahu government’s injudicious judicial overhaul, you only have to open the papers nearly every day to either sigh or grunt – with embarrassment.

Top Jewish Canadian philanthropist, Charles Bronfman the co-founder and major sponsor of the Taglit-Birthright programme, had it right when he recently said regarding the Netanyahu coalition:

“…There are some guys in there that shouldn’t be in any government anywhere…”

And yet there they are, making outrageous and dangerous statements that are published locally and then republished abroad.

Ranting and Raving. An animated Tally Gotliv at a legislative committee meeting at the Knesset on Monday, February 20, 2023.
(photo: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Take the following as reported on 21 June in The Jerusalem Post. Once again Tally Gotliv makes news – bad and embarrassing news, which she seems to be perfecting. Fresh out of her role in the recent Judicial Selection Committee vote fiasco, she tweeted following the horrendous Palestinian terrorist attack leaving four innocent civilian Israelis dead. Exploiting this tragedy for her extreme right-wing agenda, she writes:

“I am uncompromisingly right-wing. Wherever a terrorist comes from, the whole place needs to pay. Collective punishment.” 

“Whole place?

She explains:

 “Killing terrorists isn’t enough. It’s heroic and brave, no question, but it’s not enough.” 

No, not enough for Gotliv;  what needs to be done for this member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party is that not only the terrorist’s home should be destroyed but his or her hometown should suffer collective punishment. That should send shivers down any Jewish spine. It reveals – irrespective of one’s politics – why the country is so divided? This expression of Gotliv’s thinking is not an aberration – it’s her mindset! And it’s a mindset shared by others in the Netanyahu coalition.

Dark Times. Already back in May 2022, Supreme Court chief, Esther Hayut, was accusing politicians of seeking to ‘destroy’ Israel’s justice system warning that discourse about the court is ‘deteriorating’ to ‘dangerous places’

Earlier in the year, she blamed the High Court’s chief justice Esther Hayut for a terror attack in which three Israelis were killed. On a tirade tweet she wrote on February 12, 2023 :

 “I blame the High Court Chief Justice for the terror attack. I blame her for the feeling of chaos amongst the people of Israel, I blame her for the destruction and severe damage to democracy and the rule of law.”

Is it any wonder Gotliv wants to undermine the High Court when she has so little respect for it that she can outrageously blame its Chief Justice for the murder of Israelis?  Is it further any wonder that Gotliv put her name forward as a candidate to serve on the Judicial Selection Committee only so she could destroy it from within?

Facing Off. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut (l) and the target of Israel’s extreme right-wing in government and the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin who is spearheading the judicial overhaul.

Is she not precisely a character who Bronfman was referring to when he said:

 “shouldn’t be in any government anywhere…”?

This is precisely why Israel needs not a restricted – as preferred and proposed by Netanyahu’s coalition –  but a robust Supreme Court. If for no other reason, the country needs it no safeguard minority rights that are being increasingly threatened.  On the same day as Gotliv’s outrageous statement, Haredi MK Yitzhak Pindrus said that if it were up to him, he would cancel not just the pride marches in the country, but also get rid of the whole LGBTQ movement.

Uproar in the House. MK Yitzhak Pindrus, whose dream is “to blow up” the Supreme Court is seen here in February 2022 pointing an accusing finger as he is escorted out of the Knesset plenum during a stormy debate.(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

According to this United Torah Judaism MK, the LGBTQ community is the most dangerous risk to the State of Israel.

In an interview with Channel12, he said:

“The most dangerous thing for the State of Israel, more than ISIS and Hezbollah is the LGBTQ+ community,” and that “If it were up to me, I would prevent not just the pride march but also the whole movement.”

In other words  you have a member in the coalition believing and publicly expressing that homosexuality is a threat to Israel’s national security! It is more dangerous than Hezbollah that seeks Israel’s destruction and in concert with Iran, is a constant threat on Israel’s northern border? One would be inclined to dismiss this as ‘crazy talk’ and ignore but this man enjoys a crucial vote  in the Knesset and is exercising it to literally ‘take down’ the Supreme Court.  Reflect on what he said on Israel’s 2023 Independence Day in May at the Nehora high-school yeshiva in the Mevo Horon settlement north of Jerusalem. Participating in a panel debate with Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman, who together with Justice Minister Yariv Levin are spearheading the devious judicial overhaul:

“You know what my dream is? To bring a D9 [bulldozer] and blow up the building.”

Not content for his coalition colleagues to find more subtle ways to destroy Israeli democracy through the “judicial overhaul”, Pindrus wants to literally demolish the building that is the physical embodiment of that democracy!

Targeting Democracy. Consisting of 15 judges appointed by the President of Israel, upon nomination by the Judicial Selection Committee, Israel’s Supreme Court in Jerusalem is the highest court in in the land and is now the target of Israel’s present right-wing government.

When confronted afterwards by reporters, Pindrus said he had no regrets about what he said but that he spoke “in humour” and that his critics overreacted.

Really? That the character of Israel’s future is a laughing matter?

Is it any wonder that Bronfman said:

 “…There are some guys,” in Netanyahu’s government “that shouldn’t be in any government anywhere…”.

To the question “Why are you still protesting?”, nearly every day brings news of the need to continue protesting and with more vigour.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

IT’S COMPLICATED

Life in Israel is complicated, its politics even more so

By David E. Kaplan

The Thomas Edison quote “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” could have applied to Israeli politics unfolding in the Knesset on Wednesday the 14th. There was little to inspire coming from the governing – somewhat of a misnomer –  coalition’s shenanigans, but it did have much of the country perspiring in anticipation.

It was a day  to be attired in togs and towels rather than suits as people  from the prime minister down literally looked like they were sweating.

In the early morning’s buildup,everyone knew something big was happening  – possibly about to explode – but people were sketchy on the specifics. The next day articles appeared in papers under such headings as the following which appeared in The Jerusalem Post:

 THE JUDICIAL SELECTION SAGA EXPLAINED

While it was unfolding in real time, those less au fait with the complex procedural details asked others, who were frequently met with:

“It’s complicated ……”

What was a vote for two positions on a committee had Israelis across the country glued to the news; calling or texting each other for updates or explanations and with half of them ready with their unfurled flags at their front doors ready to take to the streets in protest. Let it be said that the vote was for no ordinary committee but for the all-important Judicial Selection Committee which stood at the core of the protests over the governments assault on democracy with its judicial ‘reform’ – another misnomer – hence the more favoured usage of ‘overhaul’. And with threats coming from all directions if their expectations based on understandings or promises made with the Prime Minister were not met, the stage was set for another societal implosion. That left the PM to skillfully engage in his Machiavellian maneuverings and as the morning passed into afternoon with no announcement of results of the voting, the tension mounted. Maybe the PM was this time losing his touch; less “skillful”.

At midday we heard ‘Road 2’ was blocked, only to learn that it was not to do with protestors but a “suspicious object”.

What was transpiring in  the Knesset was far more ‘suspicious’!

If the hallways of the Knesset are characterized by twist and turns, so to were the twists and turns of the drama playing out within this parliamentary labyrinth. It could be described in one word – intrigue!

Begruntled Ben Gvir. “The fact that some Likud members voted against the coalition’s stance is very troubling and raises a big question mark if all Likud members are committed to the judicial reform,” said Ben-Gvir said, Head of the Jewish Power party and Minister of National Security. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Great Bard had it right with “All the world is a stage” –  as people have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre – and there were quite some talked about – others best forgotten -performances. In the starring role was the inimitable prime minister who was juggling egos and agendas of the likes of Levin, Rothman, Ben Gvir and in her first major starring role, Likud MK Tally Gotliv, which turned out disastrous for her and hopefully her future in politics. There were a host of others in cameo roles but that was a side show.

Adding to the plot – which became quite comedic as even newsreaders were speculating after 3 hours of vote counting  “How long does it take to count 120 votes?”  In fact not even 120, as a few MKS were traveling abroad! Clearly, folk were speculating that they were delaying revealing the results for fear of an unpredictable fallout.

Breaking Rank. Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid (left) with party MK Karine Elharrar during a joint press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 14, 2023. Elharrar was elected 58-56, meaning at least four coalition members broke ranks to vote for her. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In the nail-biting finale, the result was unexpected. It did not go according to Bibi’s design of a no vote for both candidates – Tally  Gotliv and the opposition Yesh Atid candidate, Karine Elharrar  which would have resulted automatically with a fresh vote in 30 days allowing Bibi his most precious commodity – time. Time allows him to contort and contrive, but it was not to be because although Gotliv received a paltry 15 votes and was predictably out, the huge surprise was that Elharrar received a whopping 58 votes that meant that 4 members of the Prime Ministers Likud Party deserted and voted for the opposition candidate. There would still be another vote in 30 days but the opposition had won the day and awaiting Israeli flags remained unfurled at front doors – there were to be no protests on the 14th.  

Coalition Cohesion Unraveling. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his vote for candidates to the Judicial Selections Committee in the Knesset on June 14, 2023, hoping all his Likud would follow his call to vote ‘no’ for both candidates. Not all did.  (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Likudniks who broke rank was the most talked-about twist and turn sending a strong message to Netanyahu. This follows the earlier major expression of defiance within the coalition of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant‘s public criticism in March, when he warned that the judicial overhaul legislation posed a “clear and present danger” to Israel’s national security. That message now resonated in the inner sanctum of the Likud on Wednesday 14.

Speaking at a conference at Reichman University in Herzliya, Yesh Atid party chief, Yair Lapid said:

“What we saw yesterday in the Knesset vote was the beginning of a new Israeli alliance. From the chaos and mayhem and lies, an alliance has been created that no longer deals with right, left and center — but rather with an attempt to safeguard the State of Israel.”

Best Interests of the State. Speaking at Reichman University in Herzliya on June 15, 2023, the Yesh Atid and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that the 4 or more coalition members who mutinied to help elect his party’s Karine Elharrar are unwilling “to be part of plan to destroy Israeli society”.(Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Those coalition MKs who went behind the screen and voted in favour of MK Karine Elharrar “did not switch parties nor receive any promise,” said Lapid. “They did it because they are decent people and are no longer willing to be part of the mechanism destroying Israeli society. I am full of respect for this.”

He added further that:

 “We will keep working with them to ensure the well-being of Israeli democracy. Some of them are telling us: ‘Even in an open vote, we won’t cooperate with anything that damages the State of Israel. We weren’t elected to the Knesset to serve the extremists’.”

Plotting and Plutzing. Members of the coalition during a vote on the Judicial Selection Committee at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, June 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Is this a portend for the future. Is Bibi’s support within the Likud for the controversial judicial overhaul severely eroded?

This would appear to be Lipid’s thinking when he added:

“This alliance is the future of the country. A patriotic, liberal, decent, incorrupt majority that acts to boost security, to lower the cost of living, to create a constitution, and most of all — that is determined to ensure that this nation won’t be torn apart.”

Uproar in the House. Political chaos as Benjamin Netanyahu (left) who ordered his coalition to vote against all the committee candidates in a last-minute move suffered a rebellion that has weakened his position of pursuing controversial changes to Israel’s legal infrastructure. (Photo Ronen Zvulun/Reuter)

Can not argue with these aspirations.

Should this take root, Israelis in their thousands across the country could start making alternate plans for their Saturday nights!





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

BRAVO BRONFMAN

Jewish Canadian philanthropist welcomes demise of present ‘coalition of chaos’ government believing Israel will emerge stronger.

By David E. Kaplan

It was interesting  to read the Ynet newspaper headline that “Charles Bronfman, one of Israel’s most prominent Jewish philanthropists, believes the Israeli government won’t last much longer, as it is only a matter of months before it falls.”

Taglit-Birthright cofounder Charles Bronfman

Whether this Netanyahu coalition does or does not fall – whether within months or longer –  it is sobering hearing who is joining the chorus supporting the demise of Bibi’s “coalition of chaos”.

I continued reading Bronfman’s bombshell with increasing interest as it also brought back personal memories of when I interviewed the Canadian billionaire and co-founder of Taglit-Birthright on the occasion  of the programme’s 10th anniversary in 2009.

At the time of our telephonic interview, Bronfman was preparing to join a flight with 400 North American Birthright participants, where they would be welcomed on arrival at a special ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport by Israel’s then Prime Minister, none other than its current prime minister –  Benjamin Netanyahu. There was then in 2009 much to celebrate. Sponsoring free ten-day heritage trips to Israel for young adults of Jewish heritage, Taglit-Birthright was proving to be the flagship of Israel programmes. Said Bronfman on the Birthright programme in that 2009 exclusive interview:

 “It required a massive infusion of funds, a secure structure and a commitment from many disparate parties to make it work. What we were not short of in the beginning were skeptics. Today there are none.”

So yes, there was much to celebrate back then.  

If today – because of the threat to Israeli democracy by the coalition’s judicial overhaul  – there is less to celebrate, not so  for Bronfman who is buoyed by the 2023 protest movement seeing it as a spontaneous expression of democracy.

“This is amazing,” he said referring to the weekly protests now into their twentieth week. “This stopped the legislation and this is also proof that the legislation will not pass. It will not happen, and I believe Israel will come out stronger, the question is in how many days it will take.”

Cry Help – Israel Responds. Taglit-Birthright cofounder Charles Bronfman (left) and the recipient of the 2023 Charles Bronfman Prize Yotam Polizer chief executive officer of IsraAID, the Israel-based non-governmental organization that responds to emergencies all over the world with targeted humanitarian help. (Photo: Meital Pinhas for Phillip Van Nostrand)

Bronfman’s observations and insights were made during a closed conversation at the Charles Bronfman Prize 2023 ceremony in New York, where the $100,000 prize was awarded to Yotam Polizer, chief executive officer of Israel’s international humanitarian aid organization IsraAID.

Often the first to arrive at disaster-struck areas around the world – Sierra Leone, Japan, Greece, Turkey, Nepal, Ukraine, and Sudan to name a few – IsraAID led by Polizer is compared around the world to the International Red Cross.

Bronfman’s posited a personal concern that “in the current political climate in Israel,” it may well become increasingly difficult to convince his grandchildren, who in the future will be leading the family philanthropic endeavours, to contribute to Israel as the family did in the past.

This is a dire warning to Netanyahu. The disturbing direction this government is taking the country will increasingly lose traction with younger generations of Jews. It was already these concerns that inspired Bronfman and his co-partner Michael Steinhardt to initiate the Taglit-Birthright program over two decades ago.

Birthright Visionary. The writer with Charles Bronfman (right) in 2009 at Ben Gurion Airport to cover the arrival of 400 North American Birthright participants marking the 10th anniversary of the Taglit-Birthright program.(Photo D.E. Kaplan)

“Michael and I came at this from different perspectives,” he revealed to me in the interview. “Michael wanted to “plug the dam of assimilation” as he put it. For him this was the number one problem confronting world Jewry and he argued that the program could impact enormously on enriching Jewish life in the Diaspora. While not discounting the importance of stemming the tide of assimilation, I was however more interested in forging a closer relationship between Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora. I believed that together, we could be a real force for good in the world – separately, we might fall apart. It was a case of the age-old saying “United we stand, divided we fall.” I was looking to forge a stronger Jewish world.”

Time have Changed. Once united collogues in the Likud party, Dan Meridor (right) seen here with PM Netanyahu, now a major opponent of the Prime Minister’s assault on Israel’s internationally respected judiciary.

Is this present Israeli government not a threat to the visions of Taglit-Birthright? Are not the misguided actions of Netanyahu’s coalition  more likely to weaken rather than strengthen “to forge a stronger Jewish world”? The protesters on Israel’s streets every Saturday night know the answer. So does the long-standing Likud member Dan Meridor who was alsopresent at the high profile ceremony at New York’s Historical Society Museum. Concurring with Bronfman in taking a justifiable dig at Israel “coalition of chaos”, Meridor, a former Israeli Minister of Justice and a member of the prize committee, said that “unlike those in the government” leading the controversial judicial overhaul, the people on the stage “care about humanity” and not their positions!

This was quite an indictment from this long-time member of the Likud party who apart from his service as justice minister, had at various times, served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy. Back in January 2023, Meridor accused Netanyahu of placing his ambition for power ahead of the country’s best interest by literally “selling out” Israel’s democratic character to win over coalition partners by acceding to their controversial demands.

Voice of Reason. Nachman Shai (2nd left), the IDF’s most trusted voice during the Gulf War was again a trusted voice when he criticized the Netanyahu government’s initiative to overhaul the judiciary at the protest in Kfar-Saba on the 3 June 2023. Seen here with the guest speaker are (l-r) Warren Samuels, the writer, Hilary Kaplan, Janine and Danny Gelley and Jackie Samuels. Liron Samuels, the son of Warren and Jackey was injured by the police at a protest the previous evening and was hospitalized.

Speaking to Ynet, Bronfman said:

 “It won’t be a matter of years, it’s a matter of months. This government will fall, I’m sure of that. You read the polls, I read the polls. There are some guys in there that shouldn’t be in any government anywhere. I’m confident that the government will fall in a matter of months, and a year from now we will stand here and we all say Mazal Tov!”

For Bronfman’s prediction to materialize – whether in a few months or longer – the protests must continue.

Which means hundreds of thousands of Israelis know what they will again be doing this Saturday night!


Police Violence. Liron Samuels shows his injuries at the protest in Kfar-Saba that he sustained by the police at a protest the previous night in Caesarea. His account of what happened went viral on the social media.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

THE KNESSET BUDGET CELEBRATION

Perpetual poverty for part of the population should never be government policy

By Neville Berman

If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. The origin of this idiom is unknown, but the wisdom of it is self-evident. The latest Knesset budget has turned this idiom on its head.  Don’t learn to fish, but eat for life seems to be a new economic theory not practiced anywhere else in the world.  Any institution that denies a person the opportunity to become educated in a way that will allow the person to earn a living should not be entitled to receive public funding. The latest two-year budget passed by 64 members of the Knesset does the opposite. It steeply increases government handouts to institutions that deny their members the opportunity to learn English, science and math that will enable them to be gainfully employed. This  policy will cost billions of shekels and result in a section of Israeli society dependent on government handouts for generations. This is tragic. Perpetual poverty for part of the population should never be government policy. It is shameful and deceitful.

Budget Blues. Thousands in Jerusalem rallied against the budget and deals for ultra-Orthodox.

How did this come about? 

The truth is that the only way that Netanyahu could become Prime Minister was to agree to offer unprecedented amounts of public money to religious  political parties that were willing to support him. Blackmail, bribery, corruption and extortion were elevated to new heights.  Morality and ethics were abandoned. Netanyahu got what he wanted by offering staggering amounts of public money to those willing to support him if the price was high enough. This is a slippery downward slope that could develop into a chasm that will be incredibly difficult to get out of. The consequences of what happened with the passing of the budget has only just begun. The appointments of some Ministers can be compared to the appointment of a pyromaniac as head of the fire department. It cannot have a happy ending.

Beyond Judicial. Protesters accused the government of looting state coffers to meet demands from Haredi politicians, at demonstration in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 23, 2023.organized by the same activists behind anti-judicial overhaul campaign.

The real problem is that the small political parties that are part of the coalition have become drunk on the concept that they now control the government and can do whatever they want. What they want is to be able to rule without any oversight by the judiciary. It is called dictatorship.

You have been warned.

A Ticking Time Bomb. How will the unemployment rates within the Haredi community impact Israel’s future.(photo credit: JACK GUEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)



About the Author:

Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award.  In 1978 he immigrated to the USA  to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel.  He is married with two children and one granddaughter.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

JITTERS AND JUBILATION IN JERUSALEM

On Jerusalem Day Israel celebrates the unity of the city but how unified is it?

By David E. Kaplan

“It’s ironic,” says my wife’s nephew  visiting from Philadelphia, “that on Jerusalem Day where do you think in Jerusalem our group was most afraid to walk!”

Not in the Old City but in Mea She’arim; meaning; the supposed threat not from Arabs but from fellow Jews!

Dressing Down. At the entrance, ultra-Orthodox men stand under a sign advising of the strict dress code. (Nati Shohat/Flash 90)

Keith and his wife Caroline Joffe were part of a large delegation from the US  – Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia – which falls under the umbrella organization Jewish Federation of North America – and while the organizers “did not cancel our trip despite the war with Gaza, chose not to cancel our visit to the Gazan border to view the situation following ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’ even though the situation remained tense, but they did cancel our ‘Challah Baking’ tour through Mea She’arim,” said Keith.

God Forbid. The do’s and don’ts in Mea She’arim, a district founded in the late nineteenth century and since then nothing has changed there.

Advertised as “not to be missed”, my American family chose the Challah Bake tour in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighbourhood instead of the alternate option of the famed Light and Sound Show, and were then told at the last moment:

 “that it was unsafe to go because the last group to visit were attacked by the residents; spat on  and subjected to verbal abuse and there was a strong likelihood of a repetition. We were aghast”

Jerusalem Day. The writer’s wife’s family from USA with their Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia group celebrating Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall.

Some in the group were still keen to visit as they felt that as Jews visiting Jerusalem, no visit was complete without a visit to Mea She’arim. Their persistence was met with:

“The atmosphere was not right to visit at this point in time.”

The atmosphere was not right on Jerusalem Day? A day that celebrates and commemorates the “reunification” of East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem following the victorious Six-Day War of 1967, 

I was reminded of people I know, people from my youth movement in South Africa, Habonim, who fought in that war and in Jerusalem.

View of History. Standing between models of past warriors, the writer’s wife Hilary (c) with her niece Dee (l) and nephew Keith (r) from the US on the ramparts of the Old City, Jerusalem.

One such is Ian Rogow of Tel Aviv; who in 1967 was a 31-year- old, married with young kids, fighting fiercely on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He recounts the battle in this letter to his family in Cape Town, recorded in a ‘book of letters’ by the late  Muriel Chesler:

“On Monday, 5th June, my company was moved after dark to the front where kibbutz Ramat Rachel, east of Jerusalem, forks the border with Jerusalem. That night we took a terrible hammering, and the shells of heavy 120mm mortars and long-distance artillery beat down on us like hail storms.

It was a long night and the machine gun and rifle fire found only brief moments of respite during the dark hours.

I shall carry with me to the end of my days, the memory of the long, drawn-out, sibilant whistle that so ominously precedes the explosion of a mortar shell. At first, you’re frightened as hell, and you strain to push your whole body into your steel helmet like a snail retreating into its protective shell as you dig into mother-earth tighter, and wish your trench was deeper, and you think of God and pray. But you have to fight back, and soon you condition yourself against hitting the dirt with every bone-chilling shriek of an incoming shell.

Back in Battle. Writing to his parents from the Jerusalem battlefield in June 1967, that he hoped that would be the last war, Ian Rogow (left) found himself on the bank of the Suez Canal during the 1973 Yom Kippur War where he is greeted here by the “Father of Modern Jerusalem”, Mayor Teddy Kollek.

By the time dawn broke, Ramat Rachel was safe and by nightfall, we were in Bethlehem; white flags flying from the rooftops and the Royal Jordanian army not in sight. The next day we were in Hebron, and here too, the white flags fluttered prominently from every roof-top.”

The remaining danger, Ian writes were:

 “unseen snipers. We lost many a life to the bullet of a rifle fitted with a telescopic sight and triggered by a well concealed finger.”

Ian concludes this long letter of further wartime encounters through Gush Etzion with:

“Let our political successes match our military victory as some small compensation for the heavy price we paid – so as not to let down those who gave their lives for the gain we have made by the sword.”

In the heat of battle, prescient prose if ever there was from a war-weary soldier with a young family. Rogow’s message is valid today in 2023 no less than it was in June 1967 as an ever-increasing number of Israelis anguish that the gains won by yesterday’s brave soldiers are not being squandered by today’s foolish politicians. It should be prescribed reading for anyone entering politics to read Barbara Tuchman’s ‘March of Folly’, that reveals through examples of history down the millennia from Troy to Vietnam that governments pursue policies contrary to their best interest. They do so foolishly, knowingly, repeatedly and incomprehensibly they take in the proverbial ‘Trojan Horse’. Attired in alluring political verbiage to appear to “strengthen democracy”, Netanyahu’s “judicial reform” may well prove Israel’s ‘Trojan Horse’.

It does not have to be. What is more important – the coalition or the country?






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

LOOK WHO’S TALKING

Nearly the whole country – but who in Israel is listening?

By David E. Kaplan

My physiotherapist expressed while treating my damaged knee:

“You know, this is worse then when I was in Lebanon.”

This was a reference to the mood in the country and not the condition of my knee.  “We were fighting an enemy back  then behind a wall, on top of a roof or above on a hill. Now we are fighting at home with each other – our neighbours, our friends our family. I don’t know how, when or even if, it will end.”

My physio was more optimistic about my knee than Israel. I felt the complete opposite. I knew realistically the best days of my knee were behind but no less realistically believed that the best days of Israel still lay ahead. Resonating in my mind were the profoundly prophetic and poetic words of the South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician Abba Eban:

 “Israel’s future will be longer than its past.”

After 2000 years of exile and persecution, we were not going to let control over our destiny slip away again and by or own hand!

True there “was no resolution yet in sight” as my physio asserted with the same intensity as he hard-pressed the flesh around my fragile knee, but we did agree “at least we are talking”, albeit at times  more like SHOUTING!

And if the country was experiencing a semblance of a “civil war” as some TV commentators and news media correspondents are bandying about, it is of a Jewish variety. Afterall, the barbs are at the tips of tongues not bullets.

Tally on the Warpath. Likud’s Tally Gotliv at a legislative committee meeting at the Knesset on Monday, February 20, 2023 was sanctioned for blaming Israel’s Chief Justice Hayut for a fatal terror attack. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

VICIOUS VERBIAGE

Nevertheless, the verbal barbs emanating from this coalition are tough to process. Take for example, Likud firebrand Tally Gotliv, who at a recent rally in Netanya in support of her government’s proposed judicial reform, called for the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miar. The AG had simply been doing her job by warning, nay I say ‘counselling’ the Prime Minister that he would be acting illegally if he involved himself directly in his government’s moves to change the country’s judicial system. Why? Simply, because it could be construed as a conflict of interest vis-à-vis his ongoing criminal cases.

Freshman Firebrand. Far-right Knesset Likud freshman Tallly Gotliv has attracted much media attention over her outrageous statements such as accusing the Israeli left of “betraying the State of Israel”  to calling to imprison the former prime minister, Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier for “sedition”.

On a rampant charge of absurdity, galloping Gotliv further called for the insane imprisonment  of  former PM Ehud Barak accusing him of “sedition”. Sedition? “He should be in prison,” she  called for. Where does Gotliv come with her crazy notion of calling Israel’s most decorated war veteran who fearlessly faced death on the battlefield and was a former Prime Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff a traitor? It’s one thing being known for fiery rhetoric, it’s quite another accusing your opposition – simply for holding opposing views which is the nature of “opposition” of having “betrayed the State of Israel”. Gotliv had bellowed to her followers at the Netanya rally the following:

“You know what differentiates us from the people on the left? The left has lost it, the left betrayed the State of Israel; the left forgot the most basic values of the people of Israel and a Jewish and democratic state.”

Could her choice of wording be more divisive and dangerous?

Gotliv is a sad barometer of the calibre of this government’s leadership. Her statement was not a rash outburst of an animated politician at a rally. Gotliv displays a pattern of stupidity imbued with toxic values – a calamitous combination. Review what she shockingly expressed in a Twitter post back in February when she accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut of inciting a deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of three Israelis:

“I blame the Supreme Court chief justice for the terror attack. I blame her for the chaos in Israel, and for destroying democracy and the rule of law.”

A member of the government blames the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for murder and terrorism, and you wonder why the people of Israel are literally up-in-arms, brandishing banners to protect their Supreme Court?  

Man on a Mission. Coalition’s chief architect of the government’s planned judicial overhaul, Justice Minister Yariv Levin at a rally in support outside the Knesset on April 27, 2023. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Is it any wonder why the protests continue every Saturday night against a government  that has not lost its way but is decidedly heading in the wrong direction. This ‘coalition of chaos’ is careering ingloriously at full speed down a cul-de-sac. It is a political and moral dead end and the people of Israel from all persuasions and parties have risen to revers course before it’s too late. By obstructing certain roads in protests, these obstructions are proving to be a metaphor of trying to block the coalitions attempts at undermining Israel’s precious democracy. It is why the very mention at protests of those names in the coalition driving this chaos from Prime Minister Netanyahu, to Levin, Rothman, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and now Gotliv are met by protestors shouting repeatedly in Hebrew “Busha, Busha, Busha” – “Shame, Shame, Shame”.

This is Conversation. Anti-judicial reform protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset in Jerusalem are making their voices heard.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Nevertheless there is one marked change in the political landscape. If in the past protesters against judicial reform were criticized for protesting, now supporters of the government too are protesting all across the country – in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Beer Sheva and even in my city of Kfar Saba. Irrespective of allegiances and perspectives, a cross-section of citizens are making their voices heard. People are addressing issues that for far too long have been hibernating under the proverbial rug, lazily left for future generations to resolve.

‘Right’ up one’s Street. The right as well have taken to the streets in protest. Seen here are tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis gathered in Jerusalem a mass rally in support of the government’s efforts to drastically overhaul the judiciary
 

No longer.

With people pouring onto the streets in protest, there is a new dawn awakening this generation to forge a way ahead as to what type of Israel it wants.

That crucial conversation about the characteristics and identity of an evolving Israel – raucous as it is – has begun. What’s more, no one can escape it.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).