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 Separate PM, Knesset vote When convenient

THE HEADLINE READS

Netanyahu facing political headwinds, makes plea for direct prime ministerial elections
^{https://tinyurl.com/9y777s46}

Israel tried (in 1996, 1999, and 2001) to separate the election for prime minister (PM) and members of Knesset, but the politicians got scared and canceled the idea.

Let the people decide? That’s not a politician’s way.

The same politician who today seems to call to separate the voting also is the politician who, before becoming prime minister, promoted term limits for that post.

Flip and flop.

According to the World Israel News,

“Netanyahu called for direct elections for prime minister and blamed Naftali Bennett of the Yemina party for preventing it.”

Naftali Bennett (l) and Benjamin Netanyahu (r) (Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Bennett is perhaps the Number One contender from the political right to be PM.

Netanyahu is facing a fifth plebiscite if he is once again unable to form a government.

In Israel, with more than 15 squabbling political parties, including far left, far right, religious, and anti-Israel (Ra’am, mostly), forming a coalition of 62 agreeing Knesset members is difficult; lately it has been impossible.

Electing a PM on his — or her — own would not quiet the political warfare, but it would mean the PM is secure — for the duration.

Currently, the PM usually is head of the political party garnering the most votes. For many years the leftist held control of the position, but since Menachem Begin, Israel's 6th PM, led the old Likud party to victory, the PM has been in right-wing hands. The Likud of Begin’s day is not the Likud of 2021. (Blogger’s opinion.)

England’s “gift”

Israel, fortunately or not, inherited many things from the English.

The political system of the tiny island off Europe’s coast is one of the legacies.

England, for all its problems, is not burdened by an over-abundance of political parties.

Plus it has a figurehead monarch that has more respect than Israel’s powerless president, usually a washed up politician with few political enemies.

The English PM almost always is from one of the two major parties on the island.

While if may be no better, the U.S. (usual) two-party system at least limits the number of candidates and members of each party sort out, via primary elections, who they want to represent them in the various levels of government. It does make voter fraud easier. This may change during the Harris administration when Washington intends to override state voting laws; a packed Supreme Court will uphold this attack on states rights. Again, blogger’s opinion.

Another U.S. idea that Israel could, but won’t, implement is a requirement that politicians reside in and represent a voting district. Again, this requirement is missing from the English model.

 

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 Voting

Opuscula Native Americans Had war chiefs To lead warriors

AS MOST BOYS GROWING UP in the U.S., I was fascinated by Indians, a/k/a “Native Americans” in PC-speak.

Many Indian tribes had a special chief — leader — who was skilled in dealing with threats from outside the tribe.

The only time a war chief had authority was when the tribe was threatened. Otherwise, the war chief was just another member of the tribe.

ISRAEL HAS HAD “war chiefs.” Menachem Begin was a war chief, which is how he, and Egypt’s war chief, Anwar Sadat, managed to make a so-far long-lasting peace.

Benjamin Netanyahu is NOT a war chief.

In fact, he seems to have worked against the men who could serve Israel as a war chief.

Netanyahu kowtowed to Hamas several times. The last time, this week, he obliged Hamas and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman resigned.

According to Liberman, “I have tried to remain a faithful member of the cabinet and to make heard another view, even at a great electoral and political price,” Liberman said. However, Tuesday’s ceasefire with Hamas “cannot be interpreted in any way other than a capitulation to terrorism." ¹

Netanyahu claimed he had “secret” information; apparently so secret he could not, or would not, share it with his war chief. Granted, Liberman is not a Likudnik; he heads the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel [is] our home) party.

Liberman is a “hawk,” a man who was frustrated by Netanyahu’s constant flip-flopping on Gaza and the “settlements” and many other issues.

Another “hawk,” Naftali Bennnett, also of Yisrael Beitanu, wants Liberman’s old job.

Bennett’s demand for the defense minister position is opposed by fellow cabinet ministers Moshe Kahlon of the Kulanu (All of us) party and Aryeh Deri of Shas (the late R. Ovadia Yosef’s party). Deri was convicted of corruption before being named to Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Bennett told Netanyahu "There is something to do. I told the prime minister yesterday to appoint me defense minister so Israel can back to winning."¹ Bennett has long criticized the Netanyahu government’s reluctance to respond more forcefully to Gaza rocket attacks, and has advocated ground incursions into the Gaza Strip.²

Both Bennett and Kahlon threaten to pull their parties out of Netanyahu’s coalition; Bennett and Yisrael Bietnu if Netanyahu refuses to appoint Bennett as Defense Minister and Kahlon if Netanyahu appoints Bennett to the post.

Either way, the current government is on shaky ground.

Meanwhile, there is, or was, a bill in the Knesset that would allow Israel’s president, a largely ceremonial position, to appoint whomever the president wished to form a new government. Currently, the president is obliged to ask the leader of the party with the most seats in the Knesset to try to form a government. All governments, from Ben Gurion on, are formed as a coalition, usually by blackmailing the person named to head the new government.

Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/yafx7j7y

2. http://tinyurl.com/ycwcs59p

3. https://www.haaretz.com/1.4705992

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 War Chiefs

Opuscula Talking through Their black hats

 

THE BLACK HAT POLITICIANS, both Ashkenazi and Sefardi, are up in arms because

    The Israeli government is making noises to recognize that some Jews are neither haredi or heloni but, oy the world is ending, Conservative or Reform

   Women and the LGBT community are about to have a government-sanctioned place at "The Wall"

   Government mikvehs are to be opened to ALL Jews, even Conservative and Reform Jews (can you see the water roiling?)

   There is a non-extremist movement that would perform halakic (according to Jewish law) conversions.

IT'S OK FOR A HELONI WHO barely knows there are three pilgrimage holidays and thinks there is only one new year - January 1, and it's OK for an atheistic Jewish male to visit the wall in the haredi section for men or an agnostic Jew to visit a mikveh - although why an either would do so is beyond my ken.

An ignorant Jew never has his or her Jewishness challenged by the black hats as long as the Jew is NOT affiliated with either Conservative or Reform movements.. A knowledgeable Conservative or Reform - or, one guesses, a Humanistic or any other non-Orthodox sect - Jew is not a Jew, at least according to the black hats.

Sadly, one of the most outspoken Sefardi Jews is the son of the late Hakham Ovadia Yosef - R. David Yosef.

According to R. David, "Reform Jews are 'idolaters' while Conservative Jews don't practice real Judaism

I wonder how many Conservative and Reform people he knows - and would he even SPEAK to a Reform or Conservative Jew?

R. David is, unfortunately, not alone.

When a politician, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, visited a school that was aligned with the Conservative movement, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau criticized the Education Minister's visit. Unfortunately for Jews of all varieties who respected R. Lau's father, the son is closer to to Sefardi counterpart, R. David Yosef in his bigotry than to his father, R. Israel Meir Lau, in his father's effort to bring Jews closer together.

R. Samuel Eliyahu, one of the most prominent leaders of the hard-right wing of the national religious community said the non-Orthodox movements were bringing about a “spiritual holocaust.”

“The Reform and Conservatives are our brothers, but their path is a disaster, there’s no delicate way to put it, and it is forbidden to to give them encouragement, as a path by, drawing them close,” said Eliyahu.

But if they are our brothers and if the haredi think they have "gone astray," wouldn't it be logical to meet with them to show them "the correct path?"

R. Yaakov Ariel, one of the most respected national religious rabbis in the country, said that “Reform [Judaism] isn’t Judaism… it is forbidden for a man who observes the Torah and commandments to recognize the Reform.”

Even other black hats are victims of R. David's foul tongue.

R. David Says Rabbi David Stav is a ‘Reformed Jew With A Kippa’

For more on R. Stav, see http://www.jewishpress.com/tag/rabbi-david-stav/ and the institute he heads http://www.tzohar.org.il/English/founders-and-leadership/.

FORTUNATELY, not all "Orthodox" rabbis are are bigoted as Hakham David.

The Chief Rabbi of Efrat, R. Shlomo Riskin, contends that Reform or Orthodox, we must embrace every Jew.

If we cannot interact with them, how can they be embraced?

Even RASHBI realized that not everyone needed to be as observant as he and his son - even if HaShem had to make that point clear to him.

Is a Conservative or Reform Jew worse than HaAher?

Truth in blogging: I am neither Conservative or Reform, but I have friends who are one or the other. I am not comfortable in their services, but many have a wealth of Jewish knowledge and a love of Judaism that must be acknowledged and appreciated.

Opuscula Israel to pay salaries Of Hamas terrorists? Say it isn't so

 

From Israel National News, a/k/a Arutz Sheva (Channel 7) we read that Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) strongly opposes the push for Israel to agree to Hamas's economic demands, which would include paying the salaries of Hamas officials working against Israel politically and militarily in Gaza.

"Over the last day, reports have surfaced that Israel has agreed to finance Hamas's officials in Gaza," Bennett fired. "This is a dangerous euphemism. This is political protection money: you pay us, then we'll shoot you later; you don't pay us, then we'll shoot you right now."

The money will inevitably go toward rebuilding terror tunnels, and manufacturing or importing missiles, Bennett said.

The comments were part of an article heded "Bennett Slams 'Calm for Cash' Formula in Talks with Hamas"

The article continued:

On Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Sawa revealed that Hamas was able to funnel millions of dollars into Gaza over the past two months despite the IDF campaign - and that two months' salary was paid in full to its terror "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Additional funds will also be paid to Hamas government officials.

Analysts suspect that the funds - which seemingly appeared out of nowhere - may have been procured, at least in part, from Saudi and United Arab Emirates (UAE) donors.

A little history

The U.S. (mostly) pumped money and technology into Germany and Japan (and the rest of non-Communist Europe and Asia as well) after World War 2.

Germany had murdered millions of civilians (Note 1) while Japan is alleged to have murdered at least 300,000 civilians (Note 2).

While leaders of both Germany and Japan dreamed of world domination, once defeated they accepted the new status quo and acquiesced to the victors' demands (disarming, etc.).

In return, and as an act of good faith, the U.S. helped rebuild the former enemies' countries. The fact that this eventually might (and in fact did) cost the U.S. a number of industries and thousands of jobs was ignored in the rush to "buy" the former enemies' good will.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE between the Germans and Japanese and Hamas.

The difference is that - at least for the moment - the Germans and Japanese abandoned their plans for world domination.

Hamas, despite its losses, still has as its sole goal the destruction of Israel and the elimination of all non-Muslims of their variety from the region. Hamas, like Iran, envisions a world dominated by Muslims if not populated only by Muslims.

To ask Israel to fund ANYTHING in or for Gaza while Hamas is present - for its presence means it is in power; it has the guns and money - is foolish. For Israel to fund anything in Gaza without eliminating Hamas and any lingering anti-Israel feeling is STUPID.

It should be sufficient that Israel provides - at the Israeli taxpayer's expense - medical treatment in Israel for Gazans. It would be enough that Israel provides electricity and water to Gaza, which Gaza is supposed to buy. It should be enough that Israel allows all manner of materials to cross its border with Gaza.

It not only is enough, it's more than an enemy who refuses to give up his demented ways deserves.

The people of Gaza elected Hamas as their leader. The people of Gaza apparently have neither the will nor the capability to replace Hamas, peacefully or otherwise. (Hamas has shown, in its takeover of Gaza from the PA, that removing it from power will not be a peaceful transition.)

Before anyone pressures Israel - from inside or outside or the country - to fund ANYTHING in or for Gaza thinking it will buy peace with Hamas as the U.S. dollar bought peace with Germany and Japan, they should revisit post-war Germany and Japan and see how the idea of world dominion was abandoned while in Gaza today, Islam's scheme to dominate the world is alive, if not well.

There is a difference.

 

Note 1

From ukemnde.com, the Ukrainian Community In Montreal:

Ukrainians    5.5 - 7 million
Jews (of all countries)    6 million +
Russian Civilians    2 million +
Poles    3 million +
Yugoslavians    1.5 million +
Gypsies    200,000 - 500,000
Mentally/Physically Disabled    70,000- 250,000
Homosexuals    Tens of thousands
Spanish Republicans    Tens of thousands
Jehovah's Witnesses    2,500 - 5,000

The list does not include an estimated 3.3. million Russian POWs

 

Note 2

According to a Wikipedia entry titled Japanese war crimes, R. J. Rummel, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, estimates that between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3 to over 10 million people, most likely 6 million Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. According to Rummel, "This democide [i.e., death by government] was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture." According to Rummel, in China alone, during 1937–45, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and 10.2 million in the course of the war.[60] The most infamous incident during this period was the Nanking Massacre of 1937–38, when, according to the findings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Japanese Army massacred as many as 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war, although the accepted figure is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.

 

yohanon dot glenn at gmail dot com