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 Yitzhak Rabin Remembered

THE OTHER DAY IN ISRAEL there was the annual “Remember Yitzhak Rabin” Day.
It remembers the State’s shame of having a former prime minister slain.

But it also eulogizes a man whose past is bloody.

I REMEMBER YITZHAK RABIN as the man who ordered Ben Gurion’s Haganah to open fire on fellow Jews bringing personnel and weapons to fight for Israel’s survival. Rabin was the “on the shore” commander pledged to do what his self-important boss told him. Ben Gurion hated – and that is not too strong a word – Menachem Begin, a leader of Lehi and political foe of Ben Gurion.

Lest anyone forget, Ben Gurion ordered Rabin to take troops to the shore and to confiscate all weapons Begin’s people had acquired in Europe. Begin had agreed to share the weapons with Ben Gurion’s Haganah. The boat was the Altalena¹.

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altalena_Affair

Then there was Oslo, a one-sided agreement with Yassar Arafat. Israel lost, the PLO gained – and never, to this day, has the PLO lived up to the agreement.

Meanwhile, Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize along with his own Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres and the PLO’s leader Yasser Arafat.

It was the agreement that caused Rabin’s assassination by Yigal Amir, a Jewish Israeli student in 1995 in Tel Aviv.

On the positive side, Israel now has peace agreements with former enemies Jordan and Egypt.

Did Rabin arrange the peace agreement with Egypt?

No, it was Began – vilified by Rabin’s mentor Ben Gurion, and Anwar Sadat.

Rabin was Prime Minister at the signing of the Israel-Jordan agreement.²

Assassinating political leaders is all to common around the world, and more than a few were murdered in ancient Israel. However, killing a prime minster in Israel was a shock and brought shame to the country, no matter what justification Amir believed he had for the murder.

At the most recent Rabin memorial event, his relatives broke with the tradition of trying to heal differences and excoriated members of the current government.

In other words, they behaved like American leftists after losing an election.

According to the Jerusalem Post³,
Slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s grandchildren blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during services marking the 23rd anniversary of Rabin’s assassination on Sunday, in one case falsely accusing Netanyahu’s spokesperson of a tweet referring to Rabin as a traitor. 

Noa Rotman, speaking at a ceremony on Mount Herzl, harshly criticized the country’s political leadership and said that people in positions of authority were taking part in incitement.

“If you don’t stop the journey of incitement, blood will be spilled here,” she said, as Netanyahu sat in the front row alongside President Reuven Rivlin.

At the Knesset two hours later, Netanyahu referenced Rotman’s statement, and said he was “astonished” by the accusation, and that it was completely baseless. The tweet in question was posted by Caroline Glick of a satirical poster before Yom Kippur showing pictures of various left-wing figures and organizations under terms used in the traditional confession Jews say on Yom Kippur. 

Over a picture of Rabin shaking Yasser Arafat’s hands on the White House lawn was the caption, “we sinned.”  

“I was shocked, because I did not believe for a minute that someone in the Prime Minister’s Office did such a thing,” Netanyahu said. “But I immediately asked to look into it – and it turned out that it really did not exist. This is a tweet from a journalist who has nothing to do with the Prime Minister’s Office.”

Sounds a great deal like the Democrats claims about the U.S. president.

The Times of Israel⁴ reports that
Yonatan Ben-Artzi, Rabin’s grandson, used his speech on the Hebrew anniversary of the murder to attack Netanyahu for dividing the country, arguing it would lead to Israel’s destruction.

“A leadership that encourages division and violent attacks on other opinions. He who drives and incites against anyone who thinks differently from him as a sourpuss or a leftist will lead to the destruction of the next Temple,” charged Ben-Artzi.

“The citizens of the state are entitled to a leadership that cares for their needs and is not bored with them and their requirements,” he said. “A leadership that mocks and disparages those that feel distress is the source of that evil, and it will deepen the rift, division and internal conflict.”

That is reminiscent of the Israeli Labor party politician who told an American woman who dared raise an issue to “Go back to America.”

The Rabin memorial event has, in the past, been nothing less than a paean to the slain former leader; it was not, until this year, used as a bully pulpit to castigate political opponents.

The only thing the Rabin descendants have accomplished by their vitriol is to send people to their history sources to learn about Rabin before he became a murdered “hero.”

The Altalena proved that both Ben Gurion and Rabin had feet of clay.

Rabin’s memorial should be noted as a moment in modern Israel’s history when the rule of law was superseded by a religious zealot.

---

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altalena_Affair

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty#History

3. http://tinyurl.com/ybqoonno

4. http://tinyurl.com/yat259t7

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.

Comments on Rabin

Opuscula Maybe now Israel Has worthy president

 

During the reign of Shimon Peres, now Israel's former president, the state was burdened by a man whose self-flattery destroyed the office.

From the beginning, Israel's presidency has been an almost non-political one; the president was a meeter and greeter of foreign dignitaries.

Peres, to the embarrassment of many Israelis, apparently thought his role similar to American presidents, and in the process, did as much damage to Israel as America's incumbent is doing to the United States.

Fortunately the presidency is time limited and Peres' term is, thankfully, over.

In his place Knesset Members (MK) - not the public - elected a former MK to represent Israel to the world for the next seven years.

Hopefully, Reuven Rivlin will restore honor to the office.

Changing of the guard

According to ABC News,

Israel's parliament on Tuesday chose Reuven Rivlin, a veteran nationalist politician and supporter of the Jewish settlement movement, as the country's next president, putting a man opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state into the ceremonial but influential post.

Rivlin, a stalwart in the governing Likud Party, now faces the difficult task of succeeding Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate who became an all-star on the international stage.

The second paragraph of the ABC piece offers a hint of ABC's political leanings. Peres, then Foreign Minister, was given the Nobel prize in 1994, a prize he shared with then Israel Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, and the Egyptian terrorist Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa (a/k/a Yasser Arafat). This is the same prize that the U.S. president was given after less than a year in office, suggesting that in both cases the prize was granted prematurely.

Hopefully Rivlin will not, as Peres did, tell a person who had the audacity to challenge his opinion to Go back where you came from.

Rivlin who most assuredly has political opinions must understand that those opinions must be shared with the world through a proxy; that the presidency is ceremonial.

The government rests in the hands of the prime minister and his hand-picked yes men (and women). As with the current U.S. president, all power (for now) rests in the hands of the country's chief executive.

If Rivlin can restrict himself to the duties of the presidency then he may go down as the president who restored honor to the office, an office tarnished by Peres who apparently forgot his career as an MK was over before his MK cronies awarded him the prize of the presidency..