Opuscula Bibi whines: Bennett is soft On Iran & Biden

Vindication.

More proof.

On 14 July this blog had an entry headed “Publication’s true colors finally exposed to readers” (https://tinyurl.com/639sbbam) in which it suggested former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behaving as badly as Hillary Clinton or my grandchildren, perhaps worse.

Today, a headline in World Israel News (https://tinyurl.com/mdnr55ue) confirms, at least for this scrivener, yesterday’s effort.

 

THE HEADLINE: "Bennett twiddling his thumbs while Iran goes nuclear," charges Netanyahu followed by a leed paragraph that reads Bennett’s office fired back, accusing Netanyahu of failing to deal with the Iranian threat during his years in power.

Netanyahu missed his chance to act when Donald Trump was U.S. president.

Not only was Trump a strong supporter of Israel, but Muslim countries in the region feared Iran more than they hated Israel, ergo the Abraham Accords.

Now, Trump is gone — perhaps only temporarily — and the leftistS in the U.S. control the White House.

Bennett finds not even luke warm support for an attack on Iran in Washington.

The Abraham Accords, now defunded by the leftists, are tottering — it be a small miracle if they survive the current administration.

What would Bibi do about enemies?

Given he did relatively little during his more-than-a-decade as Israel’s prime minister, even when he had strong support from Washington, what would he do were he in Bennett’s position and had zero support from the White House and the sycophants surrounding the occupants of the nation’s capitol?

Given his lack of action against Iran when he had political support from Washington, why is anyone listening to his sour grapes (right) now than Bennett is at the helm?

Netanyahu has publicly stated his goal is to “bring down the government.”

Like a petulant child, if Netanyahu can’t get his way, he will take his toy (the government) and go home.

Netanyahu has once again driven people out of “his” party, Likud, and he refused a chance to bring in a right-wing, Likud-led coalition by simply stepping down as party head (and therefore prime minister) for a year.

It’s documented.

What can Bennett do?

The reality is that Bennett’s hands are tied.

Washington has abandoned Israel to kowtow to Iran (lifting Trump’s effective sanctions) and restoring the funding to the “Palestinians” that Trump canceled that nearly forced Ramallah to the negotiating table.

Israel could turn Iran into ashes.

Israel could seal the borders to PLO/PFLP areas and its border with Hamas in Gaza. (The Hamas Gaza/Egyptian border is open as long as Egypt is willing to allow traffic through it. Israel does not control Egypt’s actions.)

While much of the Muslim world would privately applaud, it would publicly condemn Israel.

Europe would shun Israel while some secretly would be delighted. Euro-liberals would take to the streets for a new Kristallnacht.

The leftists in North America — lest we forget the Canadians — would gnash their teeth, wring their hands, and send BLMers to destroy anything and everything Jewish in their own countries.

China would see such actions as another opportunity to extend its influence.

Bottom line: Israel would win the battle but loose the hasbara (PR) war, a war it has continued to lose since 1949.

Beyond that, there are some, perhaps many, in Iran that would prefer the ayatollahs to get out of government and return to their madrashas. While the mullahs probably would sacrifice the average Iranian (Persian) to stay in power, Israel — as proven multiple times in Gaza — is less inclined to murder innocents.

 

As an aside: Netanyahu was prime minister for a dozen years. Why didn’t he eliminate Hamas, et al, and put an end to the missile attacks on Israeli civilians? Gaza is a much smaller enemy than Iran and a much lesser threat than Iran. And then there is Hezbollah in Syria/Lebanon. Netanyahu failed to remove it and is rockets.

 

Bennett’s problems

In addition to Bennett’s problems with Washington and Netanyahu’s whining, he also must contend with a government that includes

✡ Likud — Netanyahu’s sycophants and loyalists

✡ Far left parties such as the almost defunct Labor party and Meretz

✡ Anti-Israel parties such as Ra’am

The “religious” parties refused to be part of a government that includes the anti-Israel Ra’am party.

A number of members of the more centrist parties simply wanted to be rid of Netanyahu.

The “Dump Netanyahu” movement

✡ Caused some members to abandon Likud

✡ Forced other right wing and centrist parties to look to other leadership

In order to maintain a coalition of unlikely bedfellows, Bennett and his partner in the leadership, Yair Lapid ,have had to compromise their own political positions. That included accepting Ra’am into the government and naming PLO supporter Ibtisam Mara’ana from the Labor party to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (https://tinyurl.com/47xbbahc).

For the good of the country

If Netanyahu really cared about the county that allowed him to lead it for more than a decade, he would do what former national leaders have done: assume the role of “elder statesman,” write (or find a ghost writer) for a book about his real or imagined successes, retire to his home to raise flowers and grandchildren.

Ben Gurion did it.

Menachem Begin did it.

Even Golda Meir did it.

Quiet retirement not to Netanyahu's liking?

He could do as Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Moshe Sharett and find a profitable situation .

He could even convince his buddies in the Knesset to name him president, as Shimon Peres did.

Netanyahu would rather bring down a government before it gets a chance to accomplish anything — accomplishments would make Netanyahu’s years in office look bad — than to accept defeat and retire gracefully “Stage Right.”

He put his ego above his party and he put his ego above a conservative coalition.

He needs to put his ego on a shelf.

Given time, Bennett and Lapid may well have Israelis wishing Netanyahu was at the helm, but for now, he is not, and his whining is unbecoming for a former prime minister.

 

 

 

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 Netanyau whines

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

Opuscula When did Gantz Join the Joint List?

HOW IS IT THAT co-Prime Minister, Benny Gantz, supports the PLO/PLFP’s Slay for Pay?

According to Yediot Aharonot, as reported by Israel National News/Arutz 7¹, Gantz over the weekend extended the moratorium on an order imposing criminal sanctions on Palestinian Arab banks that hold accounts of terrorists and their families and which are budgeted by the Palestinian Authority.

The imposition of sanctions was initiated by former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, and Gantz froze the sanctions a month and a half ago.

 

Ayalet Shaked and Naftali Bennett

 

Granted, Gantz is not a member of either Netanyahu’s Likud or Bennett’s Blue and White political party, but leader of the so-called Israel Resilience Party.

It seems more than a little strange that Gantz, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is so willing to fund the killers of Israeli military and civilians.

Abu Mazen and the PLO/PFLP cuts the pay of its workers to pay prisoners in Israeli jails salaries that often are greater than the wages they would get at an honest job.

At the same time, the PLO/PFLP don’t pay their bills for utilities they get from Israel. Abu Mazen, in a fit of pique,

  * Refuses to accept tax money Israel collects for the PLO/PFLP

  * Condemns his people to second rate health services by preventing access to Israel’s superior health care workers and facilities

  * Prevents his people from working in Israel for better wages.

Meanwhile, Abu Mazen calls the continued payments to terrorists a "red line" that would not be halted under any circumstances.

 

Is Gantz a PLO agent?

While Gantz may not be an active member of the anti-Israel Arab Joint List, his allowing the PLO/PFLP to continue paying people who have slain Israelis seems to be counter-productive — unless you are Abu Mazen.

Will allowing Slay for Pay payments bring the PLO//PFLP to the bargaining table? So far it has not, Abu Mazen et al are as intransigent as before.

Based on past discussions, the only way Abu Mazen will be satisfied is when the last Jew leaves Israel.

Abu Mazen has lost face with Arabs around the globe. He still is the darling of non-Arab liberals everywhere, but in truth, he has become an embarrassment to the PLO/PFLP bosses.

Hanging on to the Slay for Pay is his last gasp — and Gantz is helping him by allowing the program to continue.

Not only is Gantz propping up Abu Mazen, he is showing the world that (like the U.S.) Israeli decisions are cast in Jell-O^®, if even that much.

With Netanyahu fighting for his political life, Gantz is PM heir apparent.

The only alternative to a Gantz-led government similar to Rabin, Olmert, and Peres, to name but three leftists prime ministers, is a government headed by Bennett, Shaked, or similar strong personality.

Abu Mazen — even despite losing support from other Muslims in the Middle East — refuses to even DISCUSS borders with any right wing government and Netanyahu, who flips and flops daily on settlements, still is considered “right wing.” Abu Mazen is no fool. He realizes that with Gantz as prime minister the PLO/PFLP again will be in position to demand additional concessions from the leftists . . . with the likelihood of getting them.

I would not wish yet another election on the people of Israel, but the current kluge is similar to having Trump as president and Biden as vice-president.

 

 

Sources

1. Arutz 7: https://tinyurl.com/y2ufy62o

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

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 Gantz

There will be Peace in our time

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry & his European buddies are all aglow over a "no nukes" treaty with Iran.

It is the first of a two-part treaty that might mean Iran won't develop nuclear weapons IF if agrees with Part 2.

This truly must remind all thinking people who know anything about history of Britain's Neville Chamberlain and his infamous "There will be peace in our time" after his "successful" session with the nazi's leader, may his name be erased forever, that took the Sudetenland from what was then Czechoslovakia.

It might be well to note that Czechoslovakia was not invited to the meeting, just as Israel, Iran's primary target for nuclear destruction was not invited to the confab with the so called P5 + 1 ( United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany) and Iran.

But would Iran's representative from the Supreme Ayatollah have been allowed to sit in the same room with an Israeli or even an acknowledged Jew?

Interestingly, of the P5 + 1, none of the countries has been threatened by Iran, although the U.S.,UK, France, and Germany are being overrun by Muslims many of whom would like to see the pseudo-democracies replaced by the caliphate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mediterranean, not only is Israel concerned with the continuing Iranian threat but likewise Saudia.

According to Arutz Sheva Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK has declared the kingdom would not “sit idly by” if world powers fail to halt Iran’s nuclear program," reports Al Arabiya.

Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, who was speaking to the British Times, called the Obama administration’s “rush” to embrace Tehran “incomprehensible.”

“We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region,” Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi King Abdullah’s nephew, said.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu said "For the first time, the world's leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment in Iran while ignoring the UN Security Council decisions that they themselves led. Sanctions that required many years to put in place contain the best chance for a peaceful solution. These sanctions have been given up in exchange for cosmetic Iranian concessions that can be cancelled in weeks."

"Implications of this agreement threaten many countries - including, of course, Israel. Israel is not bound by this agreement," Netanyahu affirmed. "What we achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement; it is a historic mistake."

Naftali Bennett said "We awoke this morning to a new reality. A reality in which a bad deal was signed with Iran. A very bad deal," Bennett stated on his Facebook page. "This bad deal gives Iran exactly what it wanted: a significant easing of the sanctions while retaining the most significant parts of its nuclear program

"It is important that the world knows: Israel will not be committed to a deal that endangers its very existence," Bennett concluded.

What makes Kerry & Friends think the Iranians are any different then their cousins the so-called "Palestinians" - Jordanians in Israel. Not once have the leaders of the "Palestinian Authority" kept their agreements with Israel. Not at Camp David, not at Oslo, never.

The Iranian ayatollahs have proven, time and time again, that their promises are only words; there is no worth to them.

There is more similarities between Chamberlain and his meeting the the chief nazi and the P5 + 1 meeting with Iran' representative.

In neither case did the German nor the Iranian have any intent to honor an agreement. The German and the Iranian gained time to advance their agendas - just as the "Palestinians" gain time to gain theirs -- at the expense of the fools who are party to the agreement - and that most certainly includes Netanyahu.

Peace in our time?

Not likely with enemies such as Iran and the PA.