Opuscula Where would Priests, levi'im live During duty tours?

MY SON-IN-LAW IS A LEVY, I have a Brother-In-Law (once removed¹) who is a cohan.

(Unlike some places, these two really ARE what their names indicate.)

This morning my Son-In-Law, as he usually does, came out on the balcony where I “slap leather”² to smoke his first roll-your-own of the day.

I was at the Psalm of the Day where I read

השיר שהיו הלוים אומרים על הדוכן
ביום שלישי בשבת

when it occurred to me “Where would all the coheanim and levi’im of today stay?”

 

HAVING DONE MY TIME with the U.S. Air Force (back when the Wright Bros. were making bicycles), I had this vision of military housing.

For the levi’im, probably an open barracks, a la’ basic training. That put about 60 guys in one two-story building.

U.S. Army barracks (https://tinyurl.com/jry8fm4a)

Today, of course, the barracks would have central heat (the Temple is in Jerusalem, after all³) and air conditioning.

Chart from Holiday-Weather.com (https://tinyurl.com/7j3fv9t6)

Perhaps senior levi’im would have, as I did as “permanent party” at Orlando AFB, two-man rooms with a bathroom shared by the entire barracks of about 26 airmen.

Cohanim, like line officers, would have slightly better quarters, equivalent to Bachelor Officers’ Quarters (BOQs); two-man rooms with a shared bathroom between two rooms.

Senior cohanim, like staff officers, might have a small apartment, complete with kitchen. After all, who wants to eat with “lesser” beings?

The COHAN GADOL of course would have appropriate quarters. That means a single-family residence suitable for Israel’s prime minister; plush, grandiose, gold-plated fixtures.

The mess (dining) halls for the “junior” levi’im and cohanim could be open areas, with suitable separation between the classes. Grab a tray and advance down the serving line a’ la cafeteria style.

Air Force mess (dining) hall serving line (https://tinyurl.com/2y894fmj)

The “senor” levi’im would have their own dining area; likewise ”senior” cohanim.

Levi’im would have meals brought to their table (by Israel'im?); levi’im would serve the cohanim.

The COHAN GADOL of course will dine in suitable surroundings with a select company. The levi’im will act as waiters.

(Who does the cooking and the dishes? Israel’im, of course. We also get the cleaning tasks: clearing tables, mopping floors, washing out trash cans. Been there, done that.)

It was interesting to think of my Son-In-Law doing a tour of duty in Jerusalem. Akin to the Israeli army, levi’im and cohanim serve until they are 50 years old (then, rather than retire to a condo on the beach, they hang around as mentors).

It’s not as bad as it appears.

Similar to most 24-hour operations, the Temple “crews” work by shifts.

And, similar to the military, levi’im and Israel’im on KP (kitchen duty) rotate that duty with other jobs — as I did in basic and advanced training.

 

 

Notes

1. Shlomo actually is my wife’s sister’s husband, ergo “once removed.”

2. I am “trapped” in the apartment, being unable to open the building’s heavy door from either a halikon (walker) or kalnoette (mobility scooter).

3. Typical Jerusalem temperature range: 8^oC (46^oF) in January to 23^oC (73^oF) in July

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Accommodations

Opuscula Then and Then

WHEN WE LAST LEFT Parashat Balak, Pinchas was creating shiskabob with an Israelite and a Midianite.

Pinchas was upset because the two were “intimate” in “front of Moses and all of the congregation.” They may have had a room, but they — or at least the Israelite — chose to couple in the opening of a tent.

(Tomorrow we will learn in the first aliyah that the Israelite was Zemri ben Salu and the woman was Cozbi bat Zur, daughter of a Midianites big shot. Numbers Chap 25, V 14, 15)

Pinchas spearing Zemri and Cozbi; artist unknown. (https://tinyurl.com/37zw28xj)

 

All translations are from the Soncino Classics program.

SEVERAL THOUGHTS come to mind.

We know, because the Torah tells us, (Numbers Chap. 25) that HaShem was pleased with Pinchas’ spear work.

If, as the Torah tells us, Jews are to have nothing to do with Moabites for all time, how come King David is descended from Ruth, a Moabite?

Simple. The rabbis declared that while normative Hebrew includes females and males in the same category (e.g., Moabites includes ALL people of Moab), this fails to apply when it comes to Moabite women.

That does not compute.

Cozbi was very much a Moabite woman and apparently was only one of several (many?) who enticed the Israelite males to worship their god, Ba’al Peyor. (Where were the Israelite women with their wiles? Perhaps foreign fruit always has looked sweeter than the local variety.)

OK.

First question. Israel already had a court system of sorts. Who gave Pinchas authority to administer capital punishment sans a hearing? Was Pinchas guilty of murder? Justifiable homicide?

The answer may be found in Numbers Chap. 25, V. 5 where HaShem tells Moses: “Slay you every one his men who were attached to Baal-Peor.”

The Torah tells us that HaShem apparently thought Pinchas’ action was justified: “Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace (Numbers, Chap. 26, V. 12)

And then

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Harass the Midianites, and strike them (Numbers, Chap. 25, V. 16, 17).

In the next verses we have a post-plague census.

UNLIKE JACOB, Moses did not pack up and run.

Jacob (Genesis 34, Chap. 34, V. 30, 21) after Simon and Levi avenged their sister, Dina, for Shechem’s rape told the brothers: You have brought trouble on me to make me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they shall gather together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. And they (Simon and Levy) said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?

HaShem tells Jacob to “get up and go to Beth-El, and live there; and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” (Genesis 35 V. 1). Jacob did a lot of "fleeing."

While not specifically stated, coming as it does immediately after the brother’s revenge, it suggests that Jacob packed up and ran, despite leaving Shalem, a city of Shechem, sans the ability to make war.

Granted we were fewer in number then than when Moses was told to “Harass the Midianites, and strike them.”

Some rabbis suggest that Shechem actually wanted to marry Dina or that Dina went out looking for “trouble.” The Torah does state: “And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.” (Genesis 34, V. 1) Why a princess (Jacob’s daughter) would go sans retinue is open to speculation.

The abduction of Dinah by James Tissot (https://www.jamestissot.org/)

Different views

Some rabbis question Pinchas’ actions. Was it really praiseworthy?

What was Pinchas’ authority to skewer Zimri and Cozbi? Numbers Chap. 25, V. 5, although addressed to Moses, seems to provide justification for Pinchas’ action. Zemri, laying^cq with Cozbi, suggests that he was following her ba’al of Peyor.

As far as Moabites go, the rabbis quickly changed Hebrew grammar to welcome Ruth.

Today King David’s antecedent would not be accepted by most “Orthodox” rabbis and certainly not by the rabbinical establishment in Israel. Saying “Your people will be my people,” doesn’t cut it.

A potential convert today faces a lengthy process, including lessons that go well beyond what Rambam claims is necessary.¹ Hillel’s famous conversion of a Roman² — do not do unto others what is hateful to you … — most assuredly would be rejected, and Hillel was head of the Sanhedrin!

(Why did Hillel present the negative, “Do NOT do…”? Because it is easier NOT to do something than to do something; Hillel understood human nature then and now.)

Some others might suggest that the rabbis are making a business of conversions; this scrivener, of course, would never suggest anything of the kind.

---

Sources

1. the Shulchan Arukh (YD 268:2) rules that someone who wants to convert to Judaism can be taught some of the basic mitzvot. The language there is borrowed directly from the Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Isurei Biah 14). It seems from the language of the Rambam that the convert should not be taught in great detail, but should be generally informed about the laws: And they inform him of some of the lenient commandments, and some of the stringent commandments. And they do not dwell at length on this. (https://tinyurl.com/twnfcktt)

2. One famous account in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a) tells about a gentile who wanted to convert to Judaism. This individual stated that he would accept Judaism only if a rabbi would teach him the entire Torah while he, the prospective convert, stood on one foot. The man went to Hillel. who told him : "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation of this—go and study it!" (https://tinyurl.com/f3nrmje9)

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Then

Opuscula Build third Temple? Not in my lifetime

I MAY BE A LOUSY JEW, but I really don’t want a Third Temple.

 

I HAVE SEVERAL REASONS why I don’t want to see the Temple rebuilt.

This has nothing to do with politics or squatters on the Temple mount.

Sacrifices

Let’s be honest.

The first and second iterations of the Temple were abattoirs.

About the only living thing sacrificed today are chickens and roosters (kaparot), and even that has, for most but the haredim, been replaced by donations of money in the value of the fowl (or more if the person has the financial capability and desire).

Animal sacrifice still is practiced around the world, but with the exception of Yom Kippor fowl, not by Jews.

The landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (FL) in 1993 upheld the right of Santería adherents to practice ritual animal sacrifice in the United States of America. Likewise in Texas in 2009, legal and religious issues that related to animal sacrifice, animal rights and freedom of religion were taken to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Jose Merced, President Templo Yoruba Omo Orisha Texas, Inc., v. City of Euless. The court ruling that the Merced case of the freedom of exercise of religion was meritorious and prevailing and that Merced was entitled under the Texas Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (TRFRA) to an injunction preventing the city of Euless, Texas from enforcing its ordinances that burdened his religious practices relating to the use of animals. (https://tinyurl.com/yb97yd3t)

No Temple, no sacrifice

The Temple in Jerusalem was supposed to be the only place for sacrifices. In truth, sacrifices were offered in other places.

In Deuteronomy 12,13-14 , we only were permitted to offer sacrifices in the place that God has chosen for that purpose. (https://tinyurl.com/yebjtney)

The Jewish Temple at Elephantine (destroyed in the 4th century BCE), and the Temple at Leontopolis was the only Jewish sanctuary outside of Jerusalem where sacrifices were offered. Aside from a somewhat uncertain allusion of the Hellenist Artapanus, only Josephus gives information about this temple. (https://tinyurl.com/yvw2a4a9)

In my Moroccan sidur's morning service, after reminding HaShem that although we were ordered to bring sacrifices, sans the Temple, Cohanim, Levi'im, or even Israels to perform the rites, we are told that (לכן יהי רצון מלפניך) if it is Your will, accept the words of our mouths in lieu of the sacrifices. The Hebrew is better. (סידר אבותינו ע"מ 119)

Why sacrifices, anyway?

I find I am in agreement with Moses Ben Maimon.

In his Guide for the Perplexed (3:30, 3:32), Maimonides explains that the Torah’s main objective is to eradicate the viewpoint of paganism.

Thus, to truly understand the Torah’s original intent, one must be familiar with the philosophies and practices of ancient idolaters (in Maimonidean terms, this refers to practitioners of non-monotheistic religions).

Taking this idea a step further, Maimonides seemingly assumes that ritual sacrifices are a sub-optimal form of worship, leading him to make the bold statement that the Torah instituted its system of ritual sacrifices to facilitate the rejection of idolatrous practices.

He explains that human nature is that whatever people have accustomed themselves to doing becomes so ingrained in their nature that it cannot be easily uprooted. Man cannot successfully transition from one extreme to the other without some time to acclimate. Thus, God did not simply command the Jews to reject idolatry by completely forbidding its classical practices — animal sacrifices, prostration, and burning incense — because these practices were so much a part of human culture at the time that the Jews would not been able to give them up. (https://tinyurl.com/ytcs3au7)

Rambam elsewhere writes about teaching children.

Maimonides (1135-1204), advises motivating a child by promising, "read, and I will give you a nut or a fig."

The point this scrivener took away was that parents and teachers should consider the mental age of the students. Very young children may be rewarded with a small gift. As the child gets older he reward changes.

This scrivener sees Judaism as a young child when we left Egypt, as a teenager in Israel (ergo the two Temples destroyed due to our misbehavior — read on), and today as adults, although admittedly even as adults some of us sometimes act stupidly.

In other words, as children, we were so influenced by our environment that we knew no other way.

We whined in the wilderness every time something didn’t go our way. No meat, no water, Egyptians at our back. Also no confidence in HaShem.

Later, having survived the destruction of not one but BOTH Temples in Jerusalem, we were akin to young adults. We didn’t need to offer sacrifices and the rabbis told us that HaShem wanted other things from us, e.g., prayer, respect for others.

Do we NEED sacrifices?

We, Jews, have survived thousands of years sans sacrificial animals.

Is there any reason to bring back sacrifices (assuming a third Temple rises on the mount).

Who could offer the sacrifices, anyway. Are there any cohanim that qualify? (True, there supposedly is a DNA test to identify who is a cohan, but there are other qualifications.)

Who would be the Cohan Gadol, the person in charge? Back in the day, we were one people. Today, we still are one people, but divided by minhagim (Ashkinazi — and WHICH Ashknazi?), Sefardi (same question: WHICH Sefardi?); how “orthodox,” what sex?

Even “back in the day,” there were legitimate cohanim and usurpers.

Never mind Jordan’s Waqf and its control of Judaism’s holiest site. Bringing down the mosque that sits on the mount would start a war, a war Israel would lose in the media. (Never mind history; people don’t care about anything more than hour old.)

We have prayer.

Actually, we have a variety of prayers, all of which are, according to some rabbis, in lieu of sacrifices. (Does HaShem CARE who utters the prayer or what language the prayer is offered? This scrivener is not qualified to speculate.)

Not in my lifetime

I know there are those who honestly want to build a third Temple. Some already are creating furniture and vessels for use in a third Temple.

Not to be too facetious, but will a third Temple be environmentally sound? Solar powered air conditioning? Times HAVE changed since Solomon had the first Temple constructed.

If we complained about lack of meat as we wandered about in the wilderness, imagine how Jews will complain if the Temple lacks air conditioning and heating.

Will the government allow currency exchange near the Temple. The Christians made a big deal out of money changers in the Temple court, obviously not realizing, or caring why the money changers were there.

For anyone who wants to know, people came from all over the known world to offer sacrifices — non-Jews, too. It was impossible to bring an animal over a long distance, so the person coming to the Temple brought cash to buy a local animal. The money changers were providing a service, converting foreign currency into locally accepted currency. Today, that is a bank’s profit center. Would the banks fight over a concession at a third Temple? Interesting to speculate.)

I don’t want to see all the ramifications that a third Temple would bring down on us.

Lessons ignored

We still have not learned lessons from former Temples.

Why was the first Temple destroyed?

Because of three things that prevailed there: idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder.

Why was the second Temple destroyed?

Because hatred without cause prevailed.

That teaches that groundless hatred is considered as serious as the three sins of idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder together. (https://tinyurl.com/2kdd2dsn)

I fear that a third Temple would put us back in the same condition that existed in the time of the second Temple.

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

Comment on Third Temple

Opuscula Vanity put aside Could have Avoided election

Like or hate Israel’s new government, blame it on one person’s vanity.

 

Had former prime minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu given up the PM post and retired to the life of an elder statesman, the right wing parties would have joined Likud — Netanyahu’s party — to form a viable coalition. Some leaders of these parties might even have returned to the Likud fold.

But Netanyahu apparently wanted to be King Bibi and rule for life.

Leaders make friends, enemies

Netanyahu had been PM for more than a dozen years.

Over that time, all leaders form friendships of convenience and at the same time find the number of foes increasing.

In Netanyahu’s case, the foes outnumbered the friends. Many, former members of the Likud, left the party to form new parties. The new parties had similar political philosophies, but they were “Netanyahu free.”

This is not a new phenomenon. Netanyahu drove former PM Yitzhak Shamir from the Likud. Shamir then formed a new party. (See Yitzhak Shamir mini-biography, below)

Finance Minister Israel Katz told activists for the ruling Likud that in an attempt to prevent the party’s fall from power, he had suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu step aside temporarily to enable the formation of a right-wing government. (https://tinyurl.com/yxzelhg6)

Netanyahu refused, even though Katz (illegally ?) promised that Netanyahu could continue to reside in the PM’s residence while he “vacationed” for a year.

Unlikely bedfellows

Because Netanyahu refused to accept the reality that, after three elections he still was unable to form a stable right-wing government, other politicians, notably Yamina's Naftali Bennett (right-wing) and Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid (centrist) cobbled together a coalition of parties whose main goal was Netanyahu’s removal as PM.

Politically, the coalition members run the gamut from far left to moderate right. The haredi parties representing Shas (headed by a convicted criminal) and United Torah refused to participate in a national unity government that included the Muslim’s Ra’am party and leftist parties they consider anti-haredi.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his minions are behaving like the sore losers they are, like spoiled toddlers who failed to get what they want the instant they want it.

Netanyahu repeatedly promises — or threatens, depending on the point of view — to being down the current government, and his sycophants either try to shout down the new PM (Bennett) and his coalition members or, like petulant children, walk out of the Knesset. Either way, they cannot do the business of the state, the job their parties — not the individuals — were elected to perform.

A better man

Netanyahu had an admirable record, some of which he actually deserved. (He claimed he created the Abraham Accords, for example. The accords that attempt to “normalize” relations between Israel and Muslim countries were conceived and implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump using U.S. assets as a carrot to encourage Muslims to recognize Israel as a country with a right to exist.)

Unfortunately, his forced exit from power and his behavior will be remembered long after anything positive he may have honestly accomplished.

Had Netanyahu done what previous “retired” PMs had done, his positive reputation would remain intact.

Many of Netanyahu’s predecessors as PM knew when to step aside. The following are excerpts from Wikipedia biographies.

David Ben-Gurion retired from politics in 1970 and spent his last years living in a modest home on the kibbutz, working on an 11-volume history of Israel's early years. In 1971, he visited Israeli positions along the Suez Canal during the War of Attrition. (https://tinyurl.com/gtkoro9)

Moshe Sharett during his retirement he became chairman of Am Oved publishing house, Chairman of Beit Berl College, and Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency. (https://tinyurl.com/yfpx8l4j)

Levi Eshkol and Yigal Allon died

Golda Meir resigned on April 11, 1974. She believed that was the "will of the people" and that she had served enough time as premier. She believed the government needed to form a coalition. She said, "Five years are sufficient ... It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden.” (https://tinyurl.com/nlmgqsp)

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing extremist who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. (https://tinyurl.com/mrwvu7d)

Menachem Begin (right) retired to an apartment overlooking the Jerusalem Forest and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. He would rarely leave his apartment, and then usually to visit his wife's grave-site to say the traditional Kaddish prayer for the departed. His seclusion was watched over by his children and his lifetime personal secretary Yechiel Kadishai, who monitored all official requests for meetings. Begin would meet almost no one other than close friends or family. (https://tinyurl.com/kb86yg2)

Yitzhak Shamir was defeated by Yitzhak Rabin in the 1992 election. He stepped down from the Likud leadership in March 1993, but remained a member of the Knesset until the 1996 election. For some time, Shamir was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Shamir went so far as to resign from the Likud in 1998 and endorse Herut, a right-wing splinter movement led by Benny Begin, which later joined the National Union during the 1999 election. After Netanyahu was defeated, Shamir returned to the Likud fold and supported Ariel Sharon in the 2001 election. Subsequently, in his late eighties, Shamir ceased making public comments. Shamir's health declined, with the progression of his Alzheimer's disease, and he was moved to a nursing home. The government turned down a request by the family to finance his stay at the facility. (https://tinyurl.com/cxaooso)

Shimon Peres was elected President of the State of Israel by the Knesset. 58 of 120 members of the Knesset voted for him in the first round (whereas 38 voted for Reuven Rivlin, and 21 for Colette Avital). His opponents then backed Peres in the second round and 86 members of the Knesset voted in his favor, while 23 objected. He resigned from his role as a Member of the Knesset the same day, having been a member since November 1959 (except for a three-month period in early 2006), the longest serving in Israeli political history. Peres was sworn in as president on 15 July 2007. (https://tinyurl.com/znmgjer)

Ehud Barak After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister. In an interview with HaAretz Barak said he currently earns more than a $1 million a year, and that from 2001 to 2007, he also earned more than a $1 million every year, from giving lectures and from consulting for hedge funds. Barak also said he made millions of dollars more from his investments in Israeli real estate properties.

In the interview, Barak was asked whether he is a lobbyist who earns a living from "opening doors". Barak confirmed that he has been received by these heads of state but denied earning money from opening doors for international business deals for Israeli and foreign corporations, and said he does not see any ethical or moral problems in his business activities. He further said there is no logic to demand of him, after "the natural process in democracy has ended" to not utilize the tools he accumulated in his career to secure his financial future. When asked if his financial worth is $10–15 million, Barak said "I'm not far from there." (https://tinyurl.com/c82j4oy)

Ariel Sharon was hospitalized on 18 December 2005, after suffering a minor ischemic stroke. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a heart defect requiring surgery and ordered bed rest pending a cardiac catheterization scheduled for 5 January 2006. Instead, Sharon immediately returned to work and suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on 4 January, the day before surgery. After spending eight years in a coma, Sharon died at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) on 11 January 2014. (https://tinyurl.com/yf3dwomv)

Ehud Olmert in 2009, he spoke at various colleges throughout the United States to mixed receptions. In October 2009, he visited Magnolia, Arkansas, and spoke about Israeli farming, technology and Israel's view on Iran. The speech was given at Southern Arkansas University, where he also invited the rural university to form a partnership with Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (https://tinyurl.com/yhtwwv69)

Term limits

A Hebrew video clip from nearly two decades ago of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for term limits spread like wildfire on Wednesday, reminding the public of the earlier views of the fourth-term leader.

“I have an answer for you that is inscribed in stone,” Netanyahu told tv’s Dan Shilon in 1977. “When I was one of initiators and backers of the Direct Election Law, I asked to add a clause that a prime minister cannot serve more than two terms.”

The Direct Election Law, which allowed the public to choose a prime minister on a separate ballot from their Knesset vote, was repealed in 2001. Netanyahu explained his support for term limits for a prime minister. (https://tinyurl.com/yh8hx52b)

Once crowned PM, the proposal to limit a PM’s term of office quickly “disappeared” from Netanyahu’s vocabulary.

According to a New York Times article (https://tinyurl.com/ygwvb8fb), the first two prime ministers elected directly, Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996 and Ehud Barak in 1999, both resigned early, after losing support among the many parties that found their influence had increased in Parliament.

Today's vote came just hours before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new government was sworn into office this evening, and was supported by the Likud and Labor parties -- the right and left mainstays of his new unity coalition.

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

Comment on Vanity

Flag march in Jerusalem One coin, Two sides

>

THERE IS ABOUT to be a “flag march” in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital.

Part of the march is to pass through a pro-”Palestine” neighborhood.

 

TWO THOUGHTS:

1. Is it really necessary to march through neighborhoods populated by people who really don’t like Israel. (Israel “inherited” them following Jordan’s last [of several] failed attack on Israel.)

2. If the residents of these neighborhoods hate Israel so much and since they claim to be “Palestinians,” let them relocate to areas controlled by the PLO/PFLP or Hamas . . . or to ANY country; Israel has no barriers to their emigrating from a country they hate.

Surely Israel could arrange some compensation for any Muslims who want to emigrate. That’s more than the Islamic states did for the Jews who forcefully or otherwise had to flee Muslim controlled countries, countries where generations had lived more of less peacefully for centuries.

That’s also more than the U.S. governments did for the native Americans whose land they stole and then force-marched them to a promised land that they were later prevented from accessing.

Go where Jews cannot

While a Muslim can legally live anywhere in Israel, a Jew — and possibly a non-Muslim of any religion — can not legally live in areas controlled by the PLO/PFLP or Hamas; a Muslim who sells land to a non-Muslim can be executed for the sale; the non-Muslim is taking life in his own hands just by entering the area.

The anti-Israel Muslims living in Jerusalem have been there for several generations. They are usurpers given Jewish homes by Jordan. (Was this not illegal under international law? Rhetorical question.)

According to Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/5cs592t8), “All Jewish inhabitants from the parts of city ruled by Jordan, including residents of Old City Jewish Quarter were expelled. ” Muslims then moved into homes formerly occupied by Jews.

As an aside After Jordan’s last aborted attempt to conquer Israel, an agreement supposedly was made with the families of the building’s Jewish owners that allowed the Muslim “squatters” to remain as renters. Rent rarely or never was paid, and the descendants of the Jewish owners took the squatters to court. The court ruled in favor of the Jewish owners and ordered eviction of the squatters. That angered the squatters and their “Palestinian” supporters who promptly rioted.

What would you do?

If a person in your country on a visa or as a permanent resident — the Muslim Israel-haters in Jerusalem are permanent residents, not citizens — works to overthrow your country, who cares not a fig for your democracy all the while enjoying its benefits, what would you want your country to do

Simple question .

If you love your country, you might suggest “Expel them”​

If you happen to be a socialist in the mold of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, you might put them into prison camps as he did with Japanese-Americans (they looked different) and a few Germans and Italians who were too blatantly pro axis.

What does Israel do?

Essentially nothing.

Israel even has declared Israel haters in its parliament (Knesset)! If you are old enough, try to imagine Joe McCarty’s reaction to Communists in congress. (https://tinyurl.com/2v2eesyn)

It would be amusing to hear the late senator’s thoughts on the libertines currently sitting in the U.S. congress. Old Joe (right) might have a field day with the “progressives” led by self-admitted Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. A list of members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is available at https://tinyurl.com/2fj7p8c8 if anyone is interested. This scrivener suspects even the late Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey would be embarrassed by the CPC’s antics.

Palestine as a state

In 1948: The Jordanians conquer the West Bank and make it part of Jordan, granting all the Arabs Jordanian citizenship. They do not establish a Palestinian state.

The Egyptians conquer the Gaza Strip but also fail to establish a Palestinian state (https://tinyurl.com/5yptk62b)

Before the Six Day War in 1967, when Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt ruled in Gaza, there was never any suggestion on the part of the "Palestinians" that they wanted independence in their ancestral homeland. The reason was that the "Palestinian" nation hadn't been invented yet. (https://tinyurl.com/2r45jzvd)

The founder of the Israeli Arab Balad Party, Mr. Azmi Bishara noted that there is no Palestinian nation. (https://tinyurl.com/cndxxx5u)

They just won't leave

It is unfortunate that the U.S. leftists that promised to leave the Several States if Donald Trump won in 2016 reniged on their promise.

As the "Palestinian" squatters in Jerusalem, if you don't like the country that provides you with a wealth of benefits, LEAVE.

"Palestiian" squatters can relocate to PLO/PFLP or Hamas areas; people cross the borders on a daily basis.

I'm reasonably certain Israel would give these permanent residents — not citizens — travel documents to exit Israel. What countries will let them in?

Jordan and Lebanon have too many "Palestinians" trying to bring down the governments.

According to Wikipedia, on several occasions "Palestinians" admitted "Palestine" never was a country and in deeds, they felt they were part of "southern Syria."

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on One coin, two sides

Opuscula Self-defense: If not for myself, Who will be?

KAMAU BOBB, GOOGLE'S FORMER GLOBAL LEAD FOR DIVERSITY STRATEGY AND RESEARCH wrote in a now-deleted 2007 blog post that if he were Jewish, he “would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself,” and referred to Jews’ “increasing insensitivity to the suffering (of) others.” (https://tinyurl.com/vfs3cs )

 

FORTUNATELY Google removed Bobb from his diversity position after complaints started to embarrass the company.

I will assume — always a foolish thing to do — that Bobb originated on the Indian sub-continent.

His “killing in defense of myself” smacks of Gandhi.

Gandhi and the nazis

Gandhi said: “Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.....It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.” Mahatma Gandhi, June 1946, in an interview with his biographer Louis Fischer. (https://tinyurl.com/3zuw69da)

Unfortunately, Gandhi was wrong; the world was not “aroused” as the nazis slaughtered Jews, Roma, Communists, mentally and physically disabled and anyone else the nazis determined less than human.  

Gandhi and Hitler (https://tinyurl.com/vx6sy6ps)

 

Gandhi also is quoted writing to the English during the war: “This manslaughter must be stopped. You are losing; if you persist, it will only result in greater bloodshed. Hitler is not a bad man.” (https://tinyurl.com/4pr9uvaf)

Gandhi was wrong — again. Hitler most assuredly was a “bad man.”

Did anyone ever prevail by NOT defending himself against murderers?

 

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?¹

 

Had we not defended ourselves

Had Jews not defended themselves in our homeland,

✡.  We would not HAVE a homeland

✡  We would not NEED a homeland since we would be dead at the hands of our “neighbors.”

A little history

1920: Jerusalem and Passover Six Jews were killed and some 200 injured in Jerusalem

1924: Jerusalem 133 Jews and 116 Arabs lay dead

1929: Hebron Death toll was 133 Jews, including eight Americans, and 110 Arabs

1936: April, an Arab attack on a Jewish bus led to a series of incidents that escalated into a major Palestinian rebellion.

1936-39: A total of 415 Jewish deaths were recorded during the Arab Revolt period.

1948: 78 Jews, including 23 women, were killed by gunfire or were burnt when their vehicles were set on fire. A convoy consisting of two ambulances, three buses of medical staff, three logistical trucks and two Haganah armored cars headed up the narrow road to Hadassah Hospital with medical and military supplies with assurances from the occupying English that all was well. It was not.

1948: Independence war; Israel attacked by five Muslim armies (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia) and eventually by English-led Jordan.

1956 Sinai Campaign: Operation Kadesh

1967 Six-Day War

1968-70 War of Attrition

1973 Yom Kippur War

1982 Lebanon War: Operation Peace for Galilee

1991 Gulf War

2006 Second Lebanon War.

Source: (1920-1948) https://tinyurl.com/txxwj3f7 and (1956-2006) https://tinyurl.com/nvxn94c7

The frequent attacks from Lebanon/Syria (Hezbollah) and Gaza (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) are a continuing problem.

Defending against leftists

While Israel manages to fend off physical attacks, it fails to prevent or even mitigate attacks by leftist media and politicians eager to have a soapbox on which to rail against Israel and, increasingly, Jews in general.

According to many in politics and the media, Israel “disproportionally” defends itself. Why “disproportionally?”

1: Body count. Israel protects its citizens — ALL of its citizens: Jew, Muslim, other — with safe rooms, warning sirens, and anti-missile defenses to shoot down incoming mortars and drones.

2: Targeting. Israel precisely targets military assets. When it targets multi-use (military/civilian) assets such as a Hamas HQ/media center, it repeatedly warns the occupants to evacuate; that the site about to be eliminated. Missiles from Gaza and Lebanon/Syria so far have mostly been unguided mortars generally aimed at Israeli civilian areas. This is classified as a “war crime,” but this crime rarely is noted by the media.

It is sadly interesting to note that many of the civilian casualties in Gaza during the Spring 2021 campaign were caused by Hamas/Islamic Jihad missiles than blew up or landed in Gaza.

Israel’s major failure is in the field of “hasbara” — public relations.

It never seems able to get its side of the story published n the “major media,” the name newspapers and tv networks.

As an example: the so-called International Criminal Court (ICC) is charged with investigating and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. (https://www.icc-cpi.int/about).

The ICC intends to investigate Israel for war crimes, but it ignores actual war crimes committed by Israel’s enemies. (The ICC also threatens to investigate and try the United States for crimes presumably committed under the previous administration.) The ICC is encouraged in its witch hunt of Israel by several terrorist organizations, including the PFLP and Hamas.

As far as investigating “crimes against humanity,” the ICC chooses to ignore actual offenders.

Of the 197 countries of the world, there are 20, including three territories, considered to be the most societally repressive. Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea and Sudan are at the top of the global list for countries that are among the worst abusers of human rights. To be deemed an abuser of human rights, civil liberties and political rights are the violations assessed, and these particular countries mentioned above have concurrently been on such lists in the previous years. (https://tinyurl.com/27kv6k4e)

Human rights groups believe China, although not mentioned above, has detained more than a million Muslim Uighurs over the past few years in what the state defines as "re-education camps".

There is evidence of Uighurs being used as forced labour and of women being forcibly sterilised. (https://tinyurl.com/yuucd3s7)

Despite the above, the ICC only has time to investigate claims leveled by the very people who attack Israel both physically and politically.

The (dis)United Nations has a “Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices.” (https://tinyurl.com/25wv3393) The committee only recognizes complaints, real or imagined, by Israel's enemies.

As an example, “After recent annual consultations with Member States, the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices* today expressed deep concern over reports that Israel, while donating surplus COVID-19 vaccines overseas, has failed to fulfill its international legal responsibility and obligation to ensure the vaccination of the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory. The number of vaccines received so far by the Palestinian people represents only a ‘drop in the sea’, in addressing the overall vaccination needs and containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Against this background, the Special Committee calls on Israel, as an occupying power, to urgently comply with its international legal obligations, to ensure that Palestinians and Syrians under occupation have access to available vaccines, in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

What the “Special Committee” fails to acknowledge is

a. The PLO’s executive refused vaccines from Israel.

b. According to many international law experts, the Oslo Accords specifically place healthcare for Palestinians squarely on the PLO.

c. Israel vaccinated many Palestinians who came into Israel to work (obviously for “selfish reasons” to reduce the spread of the Chinese virus in Israel).

d. Israel allowed Qatar — an enemy state — to land multiple aircraft at Israel’s main international airport with aid for the PLO — aid the PLO rejected because the planes landed at Lod. (Palestine lacks an airport capable of accommodating large commercial aircraft.)

About the only thing the United Nations is united about is castigating Israel at every opportunity and facts be damned.

QUESTION: How much of the above was reported by the media or acknowledged by politicians?

 

To return to Hillel’s question: If I am not for myself,
Who will be for me?

 

 

Sources

1. Hillel HaBavli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

Comment on If I am not for myself

Opuscula One man’s ego Opened government To Leftists, haters

THE EGO OF ONE MAN, Benjamin Netanyahu, may put leftists and haters of Israel into the government.

Not since Israel’s first prime minister has any politician had such a grand vision of himself.¹

 

Netanyahu’s party, Likud, has been in power since Menachem Begin wrested control from Ben Gurion’s Labor party in 1977.

The Likud of 2021 is not Begin‘s Likud of 1977.

In a critique of Netanyahu’s tenure, Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, defines some of the reasons the prime minister’s right-wing supporters abandoned him. (https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb)

According to Tobin, rather than raging at Bennett and his Yamina colleague, Ayelet Shaked, they should be blaming the object of their veneration for this. The creation of the so-called unity government was made possible by one man and one man only. And his name is Benjamin Netanyahu.

such a coalition was rendered possible by Netanyahu’s personal untrustworthiness.

It is possible to argue that Netanyahu’s skills as a leader outweigh the shortcomings in his character. But his problems go deeper than the fact that most of the Israeli media and the intellectual, legal and bureaucratic establishments are biased against him. The flimsy corruption charges that he is seeking to refute in court can be seen as a product of that bias.

To be fair to Netanyahu, similar to the media in the United States, Israeli national circulation media generally are at least left leaning if not solidly leftist and are aligned with leftist political parties. Only one national circulation media, Israel HaYom, is conservative.

Tobin noted that Netanyahu spent the last decade driving most of his possible successors out of the Likud. He also has convinced just about everyone who did a coalition deal with him that they had been swindled. Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz, who signed a power-sharing agreement last year that Netanyahu reneged on as everyone had predicted, is just one example. As such, Netanyahu’s credibility is shot.

Unity government for change?

The hoodge-podge of competing political philosophies — far left to far right — all have one thing in common, a “Never-Netanyahu” commitment.

According to a Washington Post article (https://tinyurl.com/fse3e7hb), Divisions between a dovish left and a hawkish right have long defined Israel’s highly fragmented party system. Yet during the past couple of years, Israeli politics has increasingly become not only a competition between left and right — but also between the pro-Netanyahu and Never-Netanyahu blocs. One side sees Netanyahu as the protector of Israel, while the other considers him an immediate threat to Israeli democracy. Netanyahu’s indictment on bribery and fraud charges and his combative stance toward the Israeli legal system have only further polarized how Israelis feel about their prime minister.

The New York Times (https://tinyurl.com/yehm4ve9) blames Netanyahu for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapse, and tensions between Jews and Arabs inside Israel peaked in May when unrest swept across mixed Jewish-Arab cities during the latest Gaza war.

At the same time, the publication credits Netanyahu claiming he nevertheless defied expectations and convention by negotiating diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries, subverting assumptions that Israel could make peace with Middle Eastern states only once a final deal with the Palestinians had been made.

Most people, especially Americans, would credit former President Donald Trump with forging the “normalization” (not “peace”) agreements between Israel and several Muslim-dominated nations. The NYT chose not to credit Trump for anything.

Not first “unity” government

If the Lapid-formed unity government ever takes office, it will not be Israel’s first attempt at an almost-all-party government.

It also will not be the first time the prime minister post will be held on a rotation basis.

Israel has had, according to the Washington Post (https://tinyurl.com/55vwy5nt) several “national unity” governments, including:

1967-1969

On the day before the outbreak of the June 1967 war, prime minister Levi Eshkol -- under mounting public pressure to do so -- brought opposition parties Herut (the predecessor of the present Likud Party), Gahal, and Rafi into the ruling coalition, the first time any of these parties had been included in a government. This national unity government, the first of its kind in Israel's history, was formed even though Eshkol's ruling coalition had included 75 seats out of the 120 in Knesset (well above the necessary threshold). In the 111-member national unity government, the former opposition parties were given just one seat in the cabinet -- the Ministry of Defense, awarded to Moshe Dayan.

1969-1970

Following Eshkol's death in February 1969, Golda Meir was tapped to succeed him as head of the Labor Party and to lead Israel's fourteenth government. Wary of upcoming elections, coalition members Alignment (Labor), Gahal, Herut, National Religious Party (NRP), Independent Liberals, and Rafi together with the minority lists decided to honor the existing coalition agreement and maintain the embrace of national unity. This time, however, former opposition parties Gahal, Herut, and Rafi were given ministerial posts and portfolios as fully integrated members until Israel went to the polls in October 1969. Following the elections, a new national unity government was formed with essentially the same composition.

1984-1988

The July 1984 national elections -- reflecting the fissures in Israeli society that followed the Lebanon war -- were ideologically indecisive: Alignment (Labor) won 44 seats while Likud took 41. Unable to assemble a coalition larger than 54 seats each, the Knesset's two largest parties reached an unprecedented agreement whereby Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and Likud Party leader Yitzhak Shamir would divide the administration and switch portfolios, each serving out two years as prime minister and foreign minister respectively (under this arrangement, Peres served initially as prime minister and Shamir as foreign minister).

1988-1990

he November 1988 elections resulted once again in a political deadlock. Labor won 39 seats -- down 5 from the previous seventh Knesset and down 24 from the sixth Knesset -- but the 40-seat-strong Likud held just one fewer seat than in the previous Knesset. Labor and Likud blocs both made abortive attempts to construct coalitions with the religious parties (Shas, NRP, Degel Hatorah, and Tehiya) who collectively held 18 seats, almost enough to give either bloc the required majority. In the end, Labor and Likud instead chose to adopt another power-sharing arrangement, but unlike the 1984 elections, the poll results enabled Shamir to become prime minister with Peres as foreign minister.

In May 1989, the Shamir government presented plans to proceed with negotiations concerning Palestinian autonomy, and the fabric of the coalition began to unravel. Labor Party leader Peres -- upset that Shamir would not comply with U.S. secretary of state James Baker's more ambitious peace initiative -- toppled the government with the support of religious parties disgruntled by domestic and finance issues.

Only one “unity government” lasted more than two years.

Ego brought down Netanyahu

Unless Netanyahu can scuttle the new government before it is accepted — and by all accounts he is making every effort to prevent a new government from forming — he and his ego will be history, at least for the moment.

Finance Minister Israel Katz proposed to Netanyahu that he hold fresh primaries for the party leadership, with the winner replacing the incumbent as prime minister for a single year — after which Netanyahu would presumably return. (https://tinyurl.com/kjnkt6z4)

According to Katz, Netanyahu would have been allowed to remain in the PM’s residence while waiting to be reinstalled as PM.

Lingering question

Before first assuming the prime ministership, Netanyahu proposed term limits for the position.

As soon as he assumed the position, the proposal “disappeared.”

Talk of the Knesset instituting term limits for the position has resumed.

Will it happen if Netanyahu succeeds in overcoming the “unity” government of Lapid and Bennett?

Will it happen of the unity government prevails?

Is the issue a “smoke screen” for something entirely different?

Politics in Israel.

 

 

 

Sources

1. Ben Gurion had the chutzpah to order his flunky, Yitzhak Rabin, to open fire on JEWS bringing weapons and personnel for Israel’s defense on the ship Altalena (https://tinyurl.com/vuruujk3).

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Ego

Opuscula King Bibi Deposed By own arrogance

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, caused his party (Likud) to lose control of the government.

Offered a chance to “fool the people” by surrendering the party leadership for a year — after which he would be reinstated and return to power — he refused.

In the end, it cost him his crown.

 

Jonathan S. Tobin editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate wrote what this scrivener considers a well-thought out review of Netanyahu and what led to his downfall. See https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb

 

ACCORDING TO ISRAEL’S CHANNEL 12 tv station, Finance Minister Israel Katz recently suggested to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Likud Central Committee hold a vote for the ruling party’s chairman and that whoever wins will serve as premier for a year instead of Netanyahu to allow for the formation of a right-wing government.

Katz also reportedly told Netanyahu that he and his family can continue living in the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem during that year. (https://tinyurl.com/nm6yvrn5)

Netanyahu rejected the idea.

The “Katz plan” would have allowed Netanyahu’s political foes on the right to accept a Likud-led coalition to form a government excluding left-leaning, leftists, and Israel-hating (e.g., Ra’am) parties from control of the Knesset.

Israel’s Labor Party, according to HaAretz editorial writers (https://tinyurl.com/x4jdsm8k), once was Israel’s largest party and ruled 1948 until Menachem Begin's Likud first came to power in 1977. The newspaper describes Labor as the party that"supports the policy of social pluralism and equality, and since the 1990's, a free market “with a soul' economic policy." In the political arena, despite most of its leaders having a military background, Labor has traditionally led a pragmatic, more compromising approach to solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."

Interestingly, until Begin and Likud came to power, there were zero peace agreements with neighboring states; so much for solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."

Katz and Sa’ar

HaAretz (https://tinyurl.com/8eyx9c) writes that Transportation Minister Katz is currently the only truly senior Likud minister besides the prime minister. With all the top cabinet jobs doled out to coalition partners, Katz has been forced to make do with the same position for eight years. As a sop to his seniority, Netanyahu added to his portfolio in 2015 membership in the security cabinet and also made him intelligence affairs minister.

It should be noted that the once independent HaAretz (c 1975) now is solidly in the leftist camp, and its opinions should be viewed accordingly. All Israeli national circulation newspapers have a political bias.

The HaAretz piece continues.

Gideon Sa’ar, 50, the suave Tel Aviv lawyer who moonlights as a DJ, is married to Channel 1’s senior anchor Geula Even and has recently ended his time-out from frontline politics.

Sa’ar’s advantage over Katz is his younger and more sophisticated image. Katz, however, has a crucial edge – he’s currently a Knesset member.

Like Katz, Sa’ar is, o was, a Likudnik.

Alone on the throne

One reason Netanyahu has opposition from his own party is his apparent fear of being replaced.

Interestingly, at one point Netanyahu proposed term limits for prime minister; and then he was given the plumb and the idea of term limits quickly went away.

HaAretz again: In the quarter century since taking over Likud, Netanyahu has dominated the movement, transforming it from a grassroots ideological outfit into his personal platform. This was true even of the six years between 1999 and 2005 when Ariel Sharon nominally led the party, with Netanyahu in the wings waiting to return. Bibi has never nurtured any deputies, and he has quickly cut any potential successors down to size.

The Times of Israel (https://tinyurl.com/45ekn8wf) opines that Netanyahu’s bloc, comprising Likud and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, meanwhile, would win just 44. Even with Yamina, such a coalition would still fall seven seats short of a majority. Leaders of other Zionist parties have not expressed a willingness to sit in a Netanyahu-led coalition.

Too many politicians have too many real or perceived grievances against Netanyahu and are unwilling to support any government in which he is prime minister even if it means a collation with leftists and other Israel haters (e.g., Ra’am).

 

One point must be made perfectly clear: not all Muslims align with Ra’am, not all Muslims are anti-Israel or pro-PLO/Hamas. There are Muslims in the major political parties where they serve their constituents admirably.

 

Few of the recent articles on Netanyahu focus on either his legal woes or his wife’s infamous behavior.

For most who want Netanyahu gone, it simply is time for a change.

He was offered an chance to “hide” for a year (ibid.) — and even keep many of the PM’s perks — a move that would prove to thinking Israelis that no politician can be trusted.

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on King deposed