Opuscula Publication’s True colors finally Exposed to readers

MOST OF ISRAEL’S NATIONAL MEDIA, tv, newspapers, and on-line publications, are politically left of center; some more than others. (Specifically,, limited circulation/limited interest media, such as that controlled by Orthodox rabbis, are excluded from the “most national media” category.)

One publication stood out as a bastion of conservatism.

Operative word: “Stood.”

Past tense.

 

I USED TO THINK ISRAEL HAYOM presented basically fair coverage, less influenced by the politicians than other publications.

It was to the right-of-center, to be certain.

However,

New name needed

The newspaper is owned lock, stock, and ink barrel by “an unidentified relative” of the Adelson family.¹ On the death of Sheldon Adelson, his widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, assumed the role of publisher.

While Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, Israel HaYom stayed close to its general conservative roots.

However, when Netanyahu was deposed — primarily by his own doing — the paper’s loyalty to the former prime minister took precedence over journalistic integrity.

No matter what the leaders of the current coalition do (or don’t do) they are pilloried by Israel HaYom columnists and headline writers.

Netanyahu could do no wrong (despite his record).

Netanyahu’s foes can do no right — never mind that they have been in office less than 90 days.

In this scrivener’s opinion, the publication should be renamed to

Bibi’s Personal PR sheet

Caveat: I was not, I am not, a fan to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Just like Hillary

Netanyahu and his followers learned from Hillary Clinton and her Democrat sycophants after she lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump.

Whine.

Claim he could do better.

Disrupt parliamentary discussions.

Exit in a huff.

Promise to “bring down the government” because the man who would be king was deposed.

Childish.

My grandchildren are no worse, and they are 10 and 6.

Frankly, Netanyahu’s behavior, and that of his hangers on is embarrassing.

Embarrassing to the country he used to lead.

Embarrassing to the people who once gave his party their votes.

(In Israel, Members of Knesset (MKs) are elected by party; the more votes (mandates) a party receives, the more members will make it into the Knesset. The Knesset has 120 seats.)

All about Bibi

This is not the first time people have left the Likud party, the party Netanyahu leads.

In a previous instance, several Likud members left the party because of Netanyahu’s flips and flops. The best known of the defectors was former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (right).

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. (https://tinyurl.com/snvutxm9)

According to Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, “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.” (https://tinyurl.com/2awx3d38)

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.

Bibi and D.C.

Netanyahu had his problems with Washington while the Democrats were lodged in the White House.

During the Trump administration, Bibi and Trump had a warm relationship that led to the Abraham Accords (for which Netanyahu falsely claims credit).

Now that the Obama protege (right) is sitting in the Oval Office and surrounding himself with pro-Muslim/anti-Israel advisors, Netanyahu would hardly be welcome at the White House. (Would Biden snub a prime minister as the chutzpan Obama did?)

The current coalition — it is not expected to last the full four-year term — is more pragmatic, less antagonistic to Washington than Netanyahu following Trump’s defeat.

 

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Sources

1. Wikipedia: https://tinyurl.com/2a9jneac Footnote 9)

 

 

 

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 True colors

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.

 

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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.

 

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