How else to message Jerusalem before it’s too late?

By David E. Kaplan

Late last Wednesday afternoon, I was at the kid’s playground at Tel Aviv’s popular Sarona market, expecting little more than a fun few hours with my grandkids.  Apart from the obvious enjoyment of engaging with the li’l ones, it’s also one of those rare times I can get away having a ‘glida’ (Hebrew: ice-cream), usually “verboten”.  However, what time should have been simple and sweet became complex and sour, for instead of running after them between the play equipment, we the grandparents were met with “Mah..?” (what?) followed by “Lamah…?” (why?) concerning the sudden cacophony of sound, loudspeakers, and angry police keeping “big people” apart. The protest and counter protest was not something to avoid; it was happening adjacent to the playground. How does one explain to  3 and 5 year-olds that the ‘big people’ are angry; that they are trying to send a message to “important” people in Jerusalem but no-one is listening and that if it was Saturday night, their grandparents too would be among the “big people” protesting.

While this complex drama was playing out, my mind drifted to that profound observation in the 1970 movie classic, Cromwell, when Oliver Cromwell played by the late Richard Harris, arrives in London on horseback from his country estate summoned to an agitated Parliament and says anxiously to his enquiring two teenage sons amidst a public commotion in the streets:

 “When men run out of words, they reach for their swords. Let’s hope we can keep them talking.” 

The “we” did not succeed because the king, Charles I, was not interested in listening and a painful civil war ensued.

Today, the Israeli “we” are talking; that is what these protests are about. They are the collective voice of the people. How else can they make their voices heard? Write letters to newspapers and if published will have as much impact as having been drawn in beach sand? Wait until the next election by which time the ethos of this country will be unrecognizable? One could still petition the Supreme Court, which is precisely why Netanyahu wants to  disembowel it of its judicial gut!

The Supreme Court is to Netanyahu what Thomas Becket was to King Henry II.  Some eight centuries after the first Plantagenet king cried out “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”, Israel’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, hears his “King Bibi” appeal and reaches for his proverbial sword. That is why we are in the mess we are and why the protest will and needs to continue.

At present, we too have neither ‘king’ nor coalition listening.

They say that democracies do not disappear overnight; that they  erode over time, little by little, surely but assuredly until that day the people awake to discover it’s absence. This is not what is happening in Israel. The process could not be more out-in-the-open nor rapid, with a prickly populace awakening every day with an OMG and a groan to the news of another outrageous embarrassing statement or act of misconduct by members of this coalition government. An integral part of this pathetic political pantomime is the prime minister, the master of oratory that has less of an audience at home besides his safe Channel 14, explaining in English to a gullible overseas media, mostly in the USA that the judicial law is “minor” and that democracy fears by the protestors are “silly”.  What Bibi and his gang are orchestrating is not “minor” and the people’s fears for Israeli democracy are not “silly”.

The Israeli people that produced a magnificent country in record time are wise to the  attempted undoing by this catastrophic coalition. They have fought off the enemies from without; they will fend off the enemies from within.

At some stage we hope that reason will prevail and that the judicial overhaul will be SUSPENDED allowing people to talk before they reach for their swords. The constitutional issues that have unsettled this nation are complex having to meet multifarious interest groups across the political, ethnic and religious divide and need time to study, present and then decided upon. Possibly even voted upon in a referendum.

In this way we will avoid the impending implosion and grandparents can safely return to the playground without having to engage five-year-olds about politics.

I may even catch up on the “glida” (ice-cream) I unjustly missed out on.

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).

Pushing through nation-divisive bills, Netanyahu is gambling away his people’s future for his own

By David E. Kaplan

In 1993, when he was Israel’s charismatic standout spokesman and still three years shy from being his country’s prime minister for the first time, he published his impressive work on Israel’s rightful place in the world:

‘A PLACE AMONST THE NATIONS’

Now 30 years on in 2023, it is Benjamin Netanyahu’s “PLACE” as prime minister that is being called into question. The man who has served as Israel’s longest serving premier, has in only seven months transformed from being praised as one of Israel’s greatest leaders – for good reason –  to being reviled as its worst – also for good reason. Having taken the country to great heights, he is now driving it to unforeseen lows!

Writing in the right-leaning The Jerusalem Post, Amotz Asa-El refers to the final reading of the law abolishing the protective reasonable standard by 64-0 with the opposition boycotted the vote as “Benjamin Netanyahu’s day of infamy” – a poignant reference to Japan’s surprise attack on Pearle Harbor in 1941. It is also the title of Asa-El’s article with the subhead reading “Netanyahu earned his place in history as the man who tore Israeli society and led it to civil war.”

It may well not come to that but Netanyahu seems reckless as to whether his actions are leading in that direction. For Netanyahu, those opposing him – whom he disdainfully characterizes as either misinformed or misdirected – simply don’t seem to understand him when he says, “ I am actually strengthening democracy.” Securing a platform for his Orwellian-speak with Fox News’ Life Liberty & Levin, Netanyahu took a swipe at President Biden when he told the conservative talk show host Mark Levin that “Everybody has an opinion on Israel,” but that he “doesn’t comment on internal debates in other democracies.” In other words he, Bibi, is always reticent in the affairs of it friends, and that he Biden, should keep his opinions to himself. Netanyahu conveniently forgets or ignores how in In 2012, he all but campaigned for Mitt Romney  against Barack Obama. Inter alia, Netanyahu’s backer, the late Sheldon Adelson, held a high-profile fundraiser for Romney in Jerusalem in what Joe Klein in Time magazine called an “unprecedented” interference by a foreign leader in a U.S. election. Klein described Netanyahu’s behavior at the time as an “unprecedented attempt by a putative American ally to influence a US presidential campaign.”  

There are those in the coalition arrogantly playing down the significance of the striking down of the reasonable bill like Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, who thought he was being highly entertaining by dismissively remarking on i24NEWS before the predictable outcome of the vote that “tomorrow the falafel in Israel will still be democratic.” Jokingly presenting Israel’s democracy as a falafel to a TV audience, Bismuth knows the reality – that the impact will prove monumental and the opening salvo on weakening Israel’s judiciary.

Why all of a sudden is it so important for this extreme right-wing governing coalition to remove the reasonable protection provision from Israeli statutory law?

For starters, the elimination of the reasonable doctrine obstructs the Supreme Cout from cancelling executive decisions that are extremely unreasonable.  Looking back historically, the Supreme Court has rarely intervened using this provision and has never blocked any national programme whether economic, social, economic or defence related. The obvious inference is that you only want the ‘Reasonable’  provision cancelled unless you want to implement something “unreasonable”.

This begs the question of what “unreasonable” does Bibi, Boaz and their cohorts in the coalition want furiously carried out before there is another election or before Bibi becomes mired in his criminal proceedings?

• Will he use this power to make  unreasonable appointments like a convicted felon Arye Deri as his finance minister?
• Will he fire the politically independent Attorney General which he has threatened to do?
• Once Netanyahu has his ‘yes men’ in position, will he then proceed to wiggle his way out  of his bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges by engineering a more pliable new Attorney General to drop all the charges?
•  And then for the Holy Grail of this coalition’s wish list, will he annex the West Bank and expand settlements.

Did not Justice Minister Yariv Levin , the architect of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul today, say back in 2017 when as Minister of Tourism that:

“We are not seeking ‘creeping annexation’; we are looking for justice for the residents… and if there are those saying that through legislation we are advancing ‘creeping annexation’ — we won’t argue.”

They won’t argue!

There you have it in the words of those not running but ruining this country. This judicial overhaul that will according to Bibi “strengthen democracy”, will instead liquidate any chance of salvaging the ‘Two State Solution’ and resolving the Israeli-Palestine conflict that has persisted for over a century.

Interestingly, what was Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s reaction when it was announced that the scrapping of the reasonable bill is being seriously challenged and for the first time in history, the Supreme Court with an extended bench of 15 justices will consider petitions on 12 September? Without any derogatory felafel references this time, he tweeted:

 “15 people wearing judges robes replacing 120 representatives of the people….this is the end of democracy.”

A befuddled Bismuth omits to mention that those “15 people wearing judges robes” in Israel’s absence of a protective second house of parliament or a constitution, offers the only protection against the “unreasonable” conduct of a wayward government.

Boaz was quickly supported by the irascible Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who similarly tweeted that “I will not respect a High Court ruling to strike down the reasonableness bill.”

The battle lines are drawn.

While Netanyahu concludes on the last page of his A PLACE AMONG THE NATIONS that “If the central aim of the Jewish people during its exile was to retrieve what had been lost,”and that “the purpose now is to secure what has been retrieved,” he may sadly end up  the ‘author’ of his own misfortune and possibly that of his country by sabotaging its future.

If this prime minster continues unimpeded on his present path, the architecturally beautiful Supreme Court building in Jerusalem  – the focus of Israel’s present plight – will remain just that – a beautiful building, an edifice to what was rather than what we are and what we could be.

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).

Regaining and retaining power at all cost – the sad saga of PM Benjamin Netanyahu

By Stephen Schulman

A short while ago, I finished reading TRUTH TO POWER Three Years Inside Eskom by Andre De Ruyter in which he describes his three years as CEO of South Africa’s national power utility: a giant corporation with 40,000 employees. The book does not make for pleasant reading, for in it De Ruyter details his unsuccessful attempts – that almost cost him his life by poisoning – to overcome the tidal wave of chronic corruption, plundering, criminality, cronyism, nepotism, indifference and incompetency that turned the once national pride into an almost non functioning entity saddled with a colossal debt.

The plight of Eskom is a mirror image of South Africa today: a country that is unable to provide basic services and security for its citizens. It is a failed state with a horrific crime rate, ruled by a party riddled with corruption that sees itself indivisible from the country and is prepared to pay any price whatsoever to stay in power. Reading the book is a sobering experience for its lessons are twofold: learning about the causes that made a country turn into a failed state and raising your awareness of those same factors that might be affecting your own.

Israel, my home for more than half a century, is a far cry (thank goodness!) from present South Africa, but I could not help reflecting on the current state of affairs and discerning certain alarming parallels. The ANC (African National Congress), the backbone of the anti-Apartheid struggle has been in power since Apartheid’s demise in 1994 and its leaders have come to regard political power as their patrimony.

 Unfortunately for our country and its citizens, Benjamin Netanyahu heading the Likud party sees himself in the same light. Before returning to power in 2022, furious at being consigned to the wilderness of the opposition, he and his political allies of other opposition parties adopted a policy of willful obstruction to destabilize the government, vilifying the prime minister, harassing and intimidating its members. Throwing all restraint to the winds in their eagerness to bring its downfall, they demonstrated their utter contempt for the welfare of the citizens. It did not matter that they voted against and torpedoed bills that were beneficial for the country: openly declared, what was important for them was to regain their rightful seats at all costs and by any means, no matter what.

Netanyahu returned to power after the November 2022 elections by forming a coalition with United Torah Judaism and Shas: the two ultra-religious parties and Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, and Noam: extreme right wing, nationalistic and messianic. All of the coalition partners had one thing in common: a lack of interest in the general good, the furthering of their own narrow interests and squeezing as much as possible from the public purse no matter if it caused a budget deficit. To stay in power, Netanyahu acceded to all their demands.

The resulting feeding frenzy and his desire to satiate them all including his own party functionaries – whose main qualification appears to be a talent for sycophancy and toadying – noisily clamouring for a seat on the gravy train, has resulted in a triumph of accommodation, creativity and ingenuity: a clumsy, bloated cabinet of 31 ministers and deputy ministers, so that each full meeting resembles a typically overcrowded classroom. Israel now has ministers with ministries that it never knew it needed! Most of them are superfluous and their portfolio holders are ill suited for their – or any post – and often with authority that overlaps with other ministries.

Just to name a few: The country is saddled with a Minister of Public Diplomacy (whatever that is!), a woman notorious for her foul mouth and blind devotion to the prime minister and his wife. The National Security Minister with past convictions of public disorder, incitement of racism and support for a terrorist organization now oversees the security of the citizens. The arrogant Minister of Finance has no fiscal background and is more concerned with his own sectarian interests, neglecting the burning issue of inflation while the Minister of Housing – a member of the ultra religious- coalition has a dubious background of honesty and transparency.

Netanyahu returned to power under a dark cloud of his ongoing trial with indictments for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. When a predecessor was indicted for bribery and breach of trust, Netanyahu condemned, called for his immediate resignation and backed the integrity of the court. However, in his own case, in a display of brazen hypocrisy and pure spin he sang an entirely different tune: loudly proclaiming that he was as pure as the driven snow and the victim of a sinister leftist conspiracy not just to unseat him, he, the anointed Benjamin, but the whole right wing government from power. He launched an unrestrained assault on the police, judiciary and state attorney, besmirching, vilifying and accusing them of lack of integrity. Now in power, he has come back with a vengeance to destroy the organs of government and democracy and nullify his trial.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu of destroying the soul of my country.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu that in your self seeking haste to avoid facing trial, you have abandoned all scruples and are dragging the State of Israel into the abyss of dictatorship,

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu of shredding the social fabric and destroying the cohesiveness of our society. You have fomented hatred between the different communities by labeling and stigmatizing those that are not for you as “Ashkenazi leftists” who are against the country and have encouraged intolerance, division and violence. In deliberately setting brother against brother, undoing the social ties that bind our country, you have created deep rifts between all. You have sinned unpardonably.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu of poisoning the social discourse and lowering it to a nadir. You have encouraged and cultivated a culture of rudeness, intolerance, disrespect, insult and verbal violence where common courtesy has long been extinct. You have long surrounded yourself with followers whose foul mouths, threatening behaviour and grossness is simply breathtaking. The latest example of one of your sycophantic ministers threatening, insulting and mocking the attorney general is a disgrace. It is the behaviour of a backward juvenile delinquent and yet this is the same man entrusted with a key position in the cabinet! Furthermore, you have used your son as a proxy to libel, denigrate, slander, spread poison and harm not only those who speak against you but their families as well. Your silence is clearly one of assent.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu of creating a culture of extravagance, profligacy, greed, avarice and rapaciousness that has become the norm. You and your family cultivate multi-millionaires and demand and accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from them. To hide the shameful action from the eyes of the public, you then resort to code words for the gifts of cigars and champaign and have them clandestinely delivered in inconspicuous packaging to your back door. Is this the behaviour of a prime minister who should serve as an example to his citizens? Should not the prime minister as a public servant, serve as a role model of moral integrity and high ethical standards by refusing to accept gifts? Tragically, you fail to see your behaviour in such light. You have even attempted to pass a law (for the present shelved) that would permit office holders and public servants to accept gifts in money and kind. Is this not corruption?

 Benjamin Netanyahu, you and your spouse have long viewed the public purse as your own to carry out extensive renovations at your homes and have demanded and got extravagant perks for yourselves. I cannot forget the words of your wife Sara who when some years back was criticized for ordering extravagantly expensive catering (at the taxpayers’ expense) for the bar mitzvah of your son. She was quoted as replying:

“If the nation wants Bibi, let the nation pay.”

The country for the first time in many years is experiencing inflation but one of the first items of priority the finance committee placed on the agenda after you were elected was to devote a long session to increasing both you and your wife’s many existing benefits.

Benjamin Netanyahu, you now receive (at this date and not adjusted for inflation!) an updated official clothing allowance of NIS 80,000 per annum: a sum that many wage earners do not even bring home or receive as pensions. I sincerely hope that this will enable you to purchase a few shirts to replace those with frayed collars so your bosom buddy billionaire Melchin won’t have to fill the need or your Sara have to schlep the empty bottles to the local supermarket to collect the deposit to supplement your income as she once did to collect NIS 4,000 shekels on the 13,333 bottles (paid for by the state) that stood outside your kitchen door.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in your desire to emulate the billionaires with whom you hobnob, you happily let the finance committee agree to the purchase of a jet liner then refurbished to your taste and with a present cost and upkeep of approximately NIS 1000,000,000 (one billion shekels). The country’s hospital infrastructure has been so neglected to the extent that it has far trailed the population growth. Consequently, we have the most crowded hospitals in the OECD with an annual death rate of 3,000 to 6,000 patients due to superfluous infections contracted during hospitalization. Does this waste of money that could have been used in hospital construction and the unnecessary deaths of your citizens not unsettle you or does drinking pink champaign blur your vision and smoke from your Havanas obscure reality?

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu of plundering the public purse by creating a huge unnecessarily bloated cabinet of 31 ministers and deputy ministers each with their large staffs, rank with nepotism and cronyism, filled with party hacks and obsequious camp followers that cost the country i.e. us the taxpaying citizens many hundreds of millions of shekels each year.

 I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, in your self interest, of pandering to your coalition partners and of bearing the responsibility for looting the state treasury by acceding to their demands and allocating them outrageous sums of money thus plunging the economy into a deficit and raising inflation.  You have given the ultra religious sector hugely disproportionate sums to subsidize and incentivize the number of unproductive and unemployable individuals dependent on the largesse of their elected representatives. In so doing, you have simply widened and perpetuated the vicious circle of poverty and done a gross disservice to our country.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, of not being satisfied with your shoveling of public money to the ultra orthodox sector but also of agreeing to exempt them from military service. In so doing you are creating a country of those serving and being served, in so doing, discriminating against the majority and further deepening the social divide by creating hatred and resentment.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, of trampling democracy underfoot in our country by neutering the judiciary for your own ends. In the absence of a constitution, the courts have stood as the guardians of basic rights. You and your band of cohorts have now passed a law that prevents them from reviewing the reasonableness of government and ministerial decisions. This retrograde step now allows complete politicization of the public service by obviating the need for accountability and transparency and giving the government carte blanche to appoint public servants whose sole qualification is not their professional competency but their obsequiousness and kowtowing to the powers that be.

With the law in force, the floodgates have already opened with your obeisant lackey the minister of transport appointing a party hack as her bureau head – somebody that the Supreme Court had previously disqualified due to his complete lack of suitability. You, Benjamin Netanyahu, now unshackled will undoubtedly reappoint your long time crony Aryeh Deri – a serial offender and ex-convict thrice convicted of bribery, corruption, moral turpitude and tax evasion – as a key cabinet minister. This is a stain on and shames our country reducing it to the status of a banana republic. To add insult to injury, you have promised him an additional budget of one billion shekels to distribute as food stamps to those he decides are indigent and needy. It is clear as daylight that under him he will create another bloated administrative apparatus tainted with nepotism, cronyism and corruption that will determine the criteria to fund his supporters. Yet another source of taxpayers’ money that discourages the ultra orthodox sectors from working and perpetuates their poverty. 

You, Benjamin Netanyahu have already attempted to politicize the public service by trying to place your appointees, both ill qualified, as governor of the Bank of Israel and head of the Bureau of Statistics: both moves that would undermine their independence, disinterestedness and verity but would serve your interests and thus destroy the faith and trust of the general public in these vital institutions.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, of further undermining the judiciary by working to change the composition of the selection committee for Supreme Court judges to give the ruling coalition the majority membership thereby determining that your puppets be in place to execute your will – and we all know to what end.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, of formulating legislation to muzzle the media, smother all criticism and stifle free expression by establishing state censorship – a move unprecedented in the history of the state.

We, the citizens, Benjamin Netanyahu, with our growing concern, live in increasing insecurity as you, cynically, have appointed a blustering ineffectual individual with past convictions of belonging to a terrorist organization and of public disturbance as our Minister of Public Security. The police force is understaffed and thanks to him, demoralized and beset with resignations. Murder in the Arab sector has skyrocketed. There are organized gangs in the Galilee and down south that include extortion and agricultural theft as only two of their nefarious activities. The epidemic of car theft has reached such unprecedented proportions that it has affected our cost of living as the insurance companies have raised their premiums by 50%.

I accuse you, Benjamin Netanyahu, of hubris, by purposely not heeding the counsel of jurists, economists, diplomats, hi-tech leaders and many other prominent citizens from all sectors who advised taking the path of moderation and consensus and the danger of your taking unilateral action with its repercussions. In your arrogance, willful deafness and blindness, you have turned your back on the huge body of responsible citizens (paying taxes and serving in the reserves) protesting throughout the length and breadth of Israel against your rash decisions and so typically and mendaciously blame them for the present situation.

 You, Benjamin Netanyahu, singlehandedly bear the responsibility for bringing the country to the brink of a civil war, having created an atmosphere of insecurity, mistrust, fury, frustration and despair for the future. The enemies on our borders are licking their lips and rubbing their hands in glee.

You, Benjamin Netanyahu, have destroyed in a few months what took generations to build. You carry the responsibility on your shoulders. I urge you to stop, reflect and place the future of our beloved country before your own. Consider carefully and decide wisely for, if not, history will judge you harshly.

About the writer:

Stephen Schulman is a graduate of the South African Jewish socialist youth movement Habonim, who immigrated to Israel in 1969 and retired in 2012 after over 40 years of English teaching. He was for many years a senior examiner for the English matriculation and co-authored two English textbooks for the upper grades in high school. Now happily retired, he spends his time between his family, his hobbies and reading to try to catch up on his ignorance.

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).

Israel cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s comment about “the salad bar” is an echo of “let them eat cake”.

By Rolene Marks

Mention the name Itamar Ben-Gvir and you are almost guaranteed some kind of reaction from Israelis. Some will react with a curse, maybe a rude hand gesture, definitely an eye-roll and a very strong opinion. Few Israeli public figures have ever been as provocative as Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir nor as divisive. Nevertheless, he does have his supporters, albeit in the more far-right camp.

Israel has had right wing governments in the past, but the concern today is not so much that it is right-wing, as it is tilted to the far right, replete with ministers like Ben-Gvir, his Otzma Yehudit co-chairman, Betzalel Smotrich and others. Their views are extreme and they are regarded by Israelis to be racist, homophobic and dangerously provocative.

Comments made by party members have been alarming in the last 8 months, including Otzma Yehudit, Member of Knesset, Zvika Fogel who said in an interview on Radio Galei Tzahal following a fatal terror attack several months ago, “Yesterday a terrorist came from Huwara – Huwara is closed and burnt. That is what I want to see. Only thus can we obtain deterrence.”

“The act that the residents of Judea and Samaria carried out yesterday is the strongest deterrent that the State of Israel has had since Operation Defensive Shield. After a murder like yesterday, villages should burn when the IDF does not act,” Fogel added. Israel’s Attorney-General and police opened an investigation for incitement in response.

The incident went from worse, to well, worse.

Liking a tweet from Samaria Regional Council deputy mayor Davidi Ben Zion that called “to wipe out the village of Huwara today”, Otzma Yehudit co-leader, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Minister of Finance, who was taking part in a financial conference hosted by The Marker business daily, was asked why he had “liked” a tweet.

“Because I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it,” Smotrich replied. He added that “God forbid,” the job should not be done by private citizens, condemning the rampage and saying, “we shouldn’t be dragged into anarchy in which civilians take the law into their own hands.”

This man has a major shared portfolio in the Defense Ministry concerning administration of the West Bank.  Our soldiers who follow an impeccable code of ethics could be in a position where they would have to take orders that support his ideological beliefs should certain judicial reforms, like the override clause, be passed.

While Ben-Gvir appealed for citizens not to take the law into their own hands, he also referred to Jewish extremists who carried out a subsequent attack where they burnt Palestinian property as “sweet boys”.

This is the man who once had a portrait of Dr. Baruch Goldstein prominently displayed in his living room and has faced charges of hate speech against Arabs. Israeli-American terrorist Baruch Goldstein massacred in 1994, 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs. Ben-Gvir removed the portrait after he entered politics.

For years, Ben-Gvir was a self-described disciple of the late racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose extreme platform called for expelling Arabs and criminalizing sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. More recently, he has tried to distance himself from some of his spiritual mentor’s views but Israelis remain uneasy with the firebrand who brandishes his weapon of choice – threats to topple the government – if he does not get his way.

He even created controversy decades ago when he clashed with legendary Irish singer, Sinead O’Connor, who passed away last week. In 1997, O’Conner was scheduled to perform in Jerusalem in a concert called “Sharing Jerusalem: Two Capitals for Two States.” The event was set to take place just a few years after the signing of the Oslo Accords. British and Irish embassies in Tel Aviv reported receiving death threats against O’Connor and her family and she subsequently cancelled. After her cancellation, fans and fellow peace activists expressed anger, surprise and dismay — some sealing their lips with black tape and protesting in the streets against Ben-Gvir and his allies.

Incensed after hearing Ben-Gvir, who was then 21, boast in a radio interview that he had succeeded in scaring her away from Jerusalem, O’Connor sent a letter to the Associated Press and other news organizations saying, “God does not reward those who bring terror to children of the world…..So you have succeeded in nothing but your soul’s failure.”

Many Israelis fear that far-right Knesset members have emboldened the extremists with their rhetoric. Six former police chiefs and over three dozen deputy police commissioners recently called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister, warning that he poses “a tangible and immediate danger to the security of the State of Israel.” The police commissioner of Tel Aviv Ya’akov (Kobi) Shabtai recently quit, pre-empting being fired for not using enough force against protesters and said he would not seek to extend his term when it ends in January.

“On a personal note, during my term as commissioner, for the past two-and-a-half years, I’d served under three cabinets and three ministers,” Shabtai said. “I have used the tools at my disposal to the best of my ability to preserve professional standards in accordance with protocol. It is no secret that I do not intend to serve a fourth year under these conditions.”

Protesters recently chanted, “Ben-Gvir is a terrorist” when the National Security Minister showed up at a protest in Tel Aviv.

Last week it was, the eye-roll and fury was felt across the country. Following the selfie-taking by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and several others after the highly contentious “Reasonableness Law” was passed in the Knesset, prompting widespread protests and international concerns, Ben-Gvir tweeted that this was the “salad course that builds up an appetite for the rest of the meal”.

Such hubris. Such a vainglorious comment, utterly devoid of any acknowledgement of the real fear and concern 62% of Israelis (according to multiple polls) feel. I could not have been the only person who referenced the French Revolution era comment “let them eat cake” while feelings of anger fomented.

The presence of the far right in Israel’s government has not only been a factor in galvanizing the massive anti-reforms protest movement who are aware of the consequences for Israeli’s economy, security and society but it is worrying diaspora communities and harming the country’s  international standing. Many are asking questions such as how will this affect Saudi normalization plans. This past weekend, the NY Times reports the Saudis require concessions to the Palestinians in order to normalize relations with the Jewish state – concessions hardline right wing extremists would never agree. Defense Minister Gallant, at great potential risk to his position, has called for a national unity government with opposition leaders Gantz and Lapid but excluding Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

On Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning for Jews, Ben-Gvir ascended the Temple Mount and called for unity.  “On this day, in this place, it is always important to remember – we are all brothers,” the minister said. “Right, left, religious, secular – we are all the same people. And when a terrorist looks [at us], he does not differentiate between us. Unity is important, love of Israel is important. This place – this is the most important place for the people of Israel – where we have to return to show our governance.”

If only his actions matched his words.

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).

Netanyahu’s Israel is becoming unrecognisable with each passing day

By David E. Kaplan

It was light relief; a fleeting moment of illumination before darkness.

A “heartwarming” video clip went viral. It captures a brief respite amidst the tumult and turmoil in Israel, as protesters who are against the judicial overhaul head down the long escalator and meet momentarily pro-judicial overhaul supporters heading up the adjacent escalator at Jerusalem’s Yitzhak Navon underground train station. The caption to the clip describes the moment as “heartwarming” as animated protestors holding diametrically opposed positions on the government’s judicial overhaul, reach out physically to touch hands as the escalators move on – one up and one down – a moving metaphor of a literally touching encounter but going off in different directions. They were returning to their homes in a country that was beginning to feel less like home.

My son Gary, who lives in Tel Aviv, experienced it. He was in the long endless throng of protestors against the judicial overhaul heading down the escalator to the platform that would return them back to Tel Aviv after a day of protesting outside the Supreme Court. “Surreal” is the way he described it.

Separated by less than a metre, “Here we were, opponents, singing different songs, wearing T-shirts with contrary messages, as were our placards, and suddenly, a surprise reaching out – not political, purely emotional!” A spontaneous outreach – albeit fleeting.

Still, it was nowhere close then what their politicians could even achieve!

How could it be achieved when the Prime Minister did not even allow it to be achieved and would later blame the opposition. Before the crucial vote – all captured on film – Netanyahu sat like an impartial referee in the Knesset, as his Defense Minister on his right, Yoav Gallant pleaded for a delay to the vote on the ‘Reasonable Bill” that was tearing the country apart, while on his left, the arch proponent of the bill, Justice Minister Yariv Levin bellowed the opposite.

“Give me something to work with,” pleaded an anxious Gallant trying desperately to stem the erosion of the military by protesting reservist refuseniks,  but it fell on deaf ears. The Nero in Netanyahu let Israel burn as the vote went through 64-0 with a walkout before the vote of every member of the Knesset bar the frenzied coalition of Bibi Netanyahu.

The score, 64-0, bellowed to the world, Bibi won, Israel lost.

The reactions local and global were swift.

Until recently, Bibi was championed as Mr. Economics, “the man who understood money.” That’s history, gone with the destruction of the Second Temple, which is precisely where he is leading the country today. Within hours of the passing of the first bill of the judicial overhaul, Israel’s financial markets tumbled with the shekel hitting a two-week low versus the dollar. Does the prime minister or his cohorts even care when Citibank and Morgan Stanley warn of “major risk to Israeli economy” with Morgan Stanley lowering its credit rating?

They are not showing it!  Is as if we are living in a Stepford Wives scenario that the minds of our leaders  have been taken over and programmed to lead us to self-destruct, while their supporters are delirious with delusion into believing this somehow its “G-d’s plan”.

“The last few months have literally broken the spirit of a lot of people who now don’t believe their future is in Israel,” said Eynat Guez, co-founder of an international payroll company called Papaya Global. “The government is sending a clear message: You’re not welcome here. We don’t care about your future.”

That was exactly the feeling of those who were descending down the escalator and if there was a fleeting moment of light below ground, above ground a day later it was all dark as the front pages of many of the newspapers carried sponsered BLACK front pages.

Where was this leading? Again, we did not have long to wait. “This is only the beginning, there are many more overhaul laws to pass,” voiced danger-man National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to reporters. And in response to the Biden administration’s displeasure at Israel’s assault on shared democratic values, Ben Gvir responded on Army Radio that his Israel – most certainly not mine –  “will only take the good things from the U.S., like arming civilians and using the death penalty against ‘terrorists’.”

Is this Israel even recognizable? Is it any wonder a cartoonist has Herzl vomiting from his Basel balcony.

QUO VADIS?

In response to the message from the coalition Knesset vote, first at the starting block to further lead Israel to ruination was the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judaism party (UTJ). Expeditiously exploiting the cancellation of the “Reasonable Bill”, UTJ proposes a bill that would legislate that studying Torah be viewed “as service to Israel and the Jewish people” with the sole aim  to prevent a future Supreme Court ruling to strike down a new Haredi conscription bill on constitutional grounds. In other words, to avoid joining in with the lesser mortals – the people of Israeli – in defending the country. The UTJ bill would enshrine in law a blanket exemption from military service to students in yeshivot (orthodox leaning institutions) and prevent the Supreme Court – because no longer a reasonable bill protection – from striking it down on the basis of inequality.

The haredi parties had initially demanded an ‘override clause’  in order to ensure that it will be able to override a similar Supreme Court ruling in the future. That now is unnecessary as the Supreme Court would no longer have the constitutional right to strike down such a future law. The spectacle in the Knesset on Monday has brought the country to this iniquitous state of affairs.

With the direction of Netanyahu’s Israel today clear to all, it is only a question of time as this predatory government moves on the West Bank to further annex, speed up housing construction, legitamise illegal outposts and harass the lives of the Palestinian population.  Any possibility of peace will further recede and there will be no Supreme Court to question the “unreasonableness” of this government’s misguided conduct.

If THIS government survives and continues on THIS “March of Folly”, then Israel will not live up to the prophesy of the late Israeli diplomat and esteemed foreign minister Abba Eban, when he wrote:

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

What is more, It won’t be at the hands of the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah  or any of the usual suspects but by our own hand.

I thought it was an injunction of Judaism not to commit suicide!

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 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.

The optics was clear – it was not Israel being snubbed; on the contrary – it was  being joyously welcomed on the occasion of its 75^th 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.

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”.

“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).

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.

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”.

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 28^th week.

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.”

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.”

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? 

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).