Netanyahu has the support of the right, but at what cost?

Shortly after the attorney general published his recommendations to indict Benjamin Netanyahu for fraud, bribery and breach of trust, most of the prime minister's coalition partners issued messages of support that were consistent in their theme. Not only did these parties back Netanyahu, but after the April 9 elections, they would recommend to the president that he be the one to form the next government.

 

The only exception was Kulanu, an offshoot of Netanyahu's Likud led by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, which at the time of writing had yet to issue a statement.

Senior officials in Likud said the fact that the legal process is being conducted during the election campaign has led Netanyahu to strategize every move and every quote made to the media, with the main goal being to prevent the leak of votes from the right-wing bloc.

Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters)

Netanyahu also made a point of repeating the messages already heard in the campaign, and stood in front of an election poster with the slogan "Netanyahu, a strong right."

A senior Likud official told Ynet that, "Netanyahu is mainly concerned with ending this campaign with an election victory, and besides that he is working on how to form the next coalition. He understands that there is plenty of time until the (pre-indictment) hearing, but the clock is already ticking until the polls open."

The right wing parties realize that their electorate expects them to support the prime minister and have already begun to toe the party line.

"As we have said from the start, the prime minister has a presumption of innocence like any other citizen in the country," said Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett's New Right party.

"We respect the attorney general's decision, but as the attorney general said in his own words that he will come to the hearing with 'an open heart and a willing soul,' so will we wait for the end of the hearing."

Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, was also quick to declare that his party would have no problem sitting with Netanyahu in the next coalition.

"In the State of Israel, the only body authorized to determine whether a person is guilty or acquitted is the court," Lieberman said. "The presumption of innocence is reserved for every person, including the prime minister. Filing an indictment subject to a hearing is not a final judgment. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, the prime minister is entitled to run in the Knesset elections like any other candidate."

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The ultra-Orthodox parties also repeated the messages of the past few days. Shas has made it clear that there is no other candidate it supports but Netanyahu, and not only will they recommend him to the president but also back him during his term of office, for as long as the law permits it.

In United Torah Judaism, too, the message was similar: "We support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who enjoys the presumption of innocence, and as long as the law allows, we will continue to support him, especially during this sensitive period."

Nonetheless, political sources believe that due to the legal complications he now faces, Netanyahu will find the task of forming a government more onerous, and it is possible that in view of his demands of loyalty, he will be expected to pay a higher price next time, if he does indeed find himself in that position. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Netanyahu has the support of the right, but at what cost? : https://ift.tt/2HcYrvI

Striking a deal with Netanyahu will save Israel's rule of law

It's a sad day for Israel. For decades now, every prime minister has also been a criminal suspect. The only comfort is that despite corruption, the rule of law presides. No one gets a free pass — not even the most powerful person in the country, and not even the president. But that's hardly any comfort, since whatever Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit says Thursday will be met with public outrage.

 

It's not that the majority of the public thinks the rule of law in Israel is corrupt. But we do have to admit that most of the participants in both sides of the public debate about Netanyahu's guilt, have made up their mind and taken a stand on the matter, without waiting for the attorney general to share his own conclusions.

AG Avichai Mandelblit and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

A rigid perspective leads many members of the public to believe that some within the law enforcement authorities are acting from personal motivation rather than a desire to get to the truth. This doesn't mean that whatever Mandelblit says is inevitably based on dishonest motives — far from. But it's hard to shake the feeling that the decision about Netanyahu's affairs was influenced by external pressures. Too many activists, journalists and politicians have already decided what the verdict will be. They have preached, they have protested, they have yelled. Every leak has become a headline and every headline has become a conviction. High-ranking judicial figures have been dragged into this media campaign against the PM.

It's important to clarify that even if external pressures and personal motivations have been at work in regards to Netanyahu's cases, it doesn't make him free of corruption. And even if the criminal charges against him cannot be proven — and I do hope that this will be the case— the prime minister's actions are riddled with corruption. Even though he and his supporters do raise some rightful claims about a public campaign of slander, leaks and pressure — there are undeniable facts describing gifts of phenomenal value, dubious decisions that aided his inner circle, unreasonable pressure on the media in the pursuit of positive news coverage, and on and on it goes.

All of this clarifies that Netanyahu has to give up the role of prime minister. The indictments to be announced Thursday don't deal with a one-time glitch, but rather with a grim, ongoing narrative.

This is the home stretch in the campaign for Netanyahu's future. Both camps are ready for  battle, but no one will be the winner in this fight, and we will all be the losers. If there's still a chance to stop this fight from ripping Israeli society apart irreparably, it's best that Mandelblit reaches a deal with Netanyahu.

The deal should include wiping out the charges against the prime minister in exchange for his resignation. There is no need to seek harsh judgment, but rather let's make a deal to avoid undermining Israel's rule of law. In truth, a deal could be its savior.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Striking a deal with Netanyahu will save Israel's rule of law : https://ift.tt/2VmpAAk

The Palestinians' automatic 'no' to peace

Even with a forensic examination of Palestinian discourse, from newspapers to social media, it is difficult to find a significant voice that doesn't completely reject US President Trump's "deal of the century." The Palestinians don't even know what they're rejecting so passionately, as the contents of the Trump administration's peace plan remain vague—even after the TV interview with Jared Kushner earlier this week. Us Israelis, meanwhile, are so used to the Palestinian intransigence that we don't even stop to ask: Why? Even if you take into account the overt pro-Israeli leanings of the American administration—which reached new heights with the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem—it's hard to understand how a people, who are at one of the lowest points in their history and essentially living off hand-outs, summarily dismiss the opportunity to hear a proposal that might significantly improve their condition, even if it's only for tactical reasons.

This is of course not the first time the Palestinians have said "no," but one would at least expect some form of serious discussion about the matter, given their situation. The Palestinian people have been chronically divided for almost 12 years; the two demi-states—run by Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank—are weak, poor, drifting apart, and both, in one form or another, have agreements of "calm for money" with Israel.

US President Trump; Palestinian President Abbas (Photo: Reuter, AP)

The Palestinian issue—once at the heart of Arab political discourse in our region—has been pushed to the margins. Mahmoud Abbas might still be able to extract a promise out of the elderly Saudi king not to go "behind the Palestinians' backs," but the entire world knows about the business his son conducts with Israel. The Arab world has a hard time understanding what the Palestinians want, and why they allow themselves to continue managing their affairs in such a failed manner. "If you want to free all of Palestine—ahlan wasahlan ('welcome'), but you need to unite. If you want a state alongside Israel, why do you keep saying 'no' again and again when offered one?" one Egyptian TV anchor wondered. Since automatic Palestinian refusal is a given, what exactly motivates Jared Kushner, Trump's point man on the peace process? Is he still hoping the Palestinians change their minds when they learn the details of the plan? Probably not. He didn't even bother giving an interview to a Palestinian media outlet, and instead directed his comments to the Arab world, mostly the Gulf nations (Sky Arabic, to which he gave the interview, is funded by the United Arab Emirates). In other words: he's thinking about the day after the Palestinian "no," when Arab countries could come to them and say: "You once again rejected a generous proposal, we won't remain hostages to your intransigence." It seems farfetched, but work preparing the Arab street for relations with Israel that could be defined as "on the scale of normalization" has been going on for a few years. "If the Palestinian leadership used the money donated by the Arabs since 1948 for Palestine, it would've already built 50 cities like Tel Aviv, 40 cities like Dubai and 30 cities like Riyadh," tweeted an Iraqi journalist this week —and got a shower of likes.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

The Palestinians' automatic 'no' to peace : https://ift.tt/2Ub9nxV

Trump's 'deal of the century' is destined to fall through

Do you remember US President Donald Trump's big plan to cancel the North American trade deal with Canada and the European Union? Well, the new version was the original agreement with just a few minor amendments, which as customary in economic diplomacy would eventually have been carried out anyway.

And do you remember Trump's announcement that he was withdrawing roughly 2,000 US troops from Syria? This too is not happening for now. And the Mexican border wall? Not even a tenth of it will ever be built. For Trump kept has his word on barely 5 percent of what he has promised.

Donald Trump talking about his wall (Photo: AFP)

 

The Middle East peace "deal of the century" drafted by Trump is expected to share the same fate. The plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians was supposed to be presented in 2018, but was repeatedly postponed, with excuses ranging from "we are still working on it," to "now is not the right time."

But the truth is more embarrassing than that. Trump's confidants, who were responsible for wrapping up the deal, lack the creativity, the worldview and the knowledge of historical facts required to carry out this mission. Therefore, they are leaping from one Middle Eastern capital to the other, in hopes of hearing something new and refreshing.

The Clinton Parameters, which the Israeli government approved with several reservations but was rejected by the Palestinian Authority in 2000, was the only actual plan to date that was crafted to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Negotiations were held, vague agreements were drawn up and even a unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza occurred in 2005, but no new solution to end the 70-year conflict has been put on the table. All paths always lead to Bill Clinton's plan, but these days those guidelines seem much harder to implement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner (Photo: Reuters)

The United States is up to its neck in a political civil war, Britain is digging its own Brexit grave and the nationalist populist factions that are gaining strength across Europe could not care less about the Middle East. And to top it all, Russia— which has zero interest in witnessing a US-brokered peace agreement— is popping up at our borders.

  

It is also worth mentioning that the investigations into Trump and his associates' links to Russian officials might lead to several indictments against his politically inexperienced son-in-law Jared Kushner, who brags about "his" plan being top secret. So secret that I doubt he himself understand its contents.

Two different political schools of thought have been clashing in Israel since 1967, with the first claiming the Jewish state is capable of becoming stronger despite its control over the Palestinians, and the second arguing that dominating another nation will eventually ruin the miracle called Israel and lead to an all-out national crisis.

Shimon Peres signs the Oslo Accords, watched by Andrei Kozyrev, Yitzhak Rabin, President Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, Warren Christopher and Mahmoud Abbas, Washington, D.C., September 13, 1993. (Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO)

Most of Israel's prime ministers (Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert) belonged to the second school, and therefore sought to negotiate with the Palestinians, while only a tiny handful (Golda Meir and Yitzhak Shamir) believed Israel could conceivably rule over the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also believes this with every fiber of his being, and it appears that Trump and Kushner share his view, with the proof being their intention to dust off the forgotten term "economic peace."

It would be better to regard the "deal of the century" with disillusioned cynicism — as just another baseless statement made by an American president who cannot control his own tongue.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Trump's 'deal of the century' is destined to fall through : https://ift.tt/2NxgVIx

An era of fake news and manufactured leaders

Leaders, without a doubt, need charisma. It's better if they are also eloquent, sharp-witted and persuasive rather than boring, confusing and uninspiring. Leaders, without a doubt, also need positions, opinions and beliefs. They can definitely be complex, initiate surprising collaborations or show flexibility on a variety of topics—but their core values as representatives of the public should be transparent and clear.

  Media advisors exist precisely for this reason: to hone messages, prepare candidates, and provide feedback and guidance. In this election campaign, however, it seems like the rules of the game have changed. PR advisors don't serve as spokespeople for policy, instead they dictate it. A media advisor will try to guess or estimate what people want to hear—and deliver the goods. 

The Blue and White Party: Moshe Ya'alon, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gabi Ashkenazi (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

 This human engineering reaches new heights in every speech and press conference, and even when deciding which candidates the party will send to the Knesset. Authenticity is for the weak; we will get a leader who is merely a product, to all intents and purposes. He will be marketed exactly as cereal or washing powder is marketed: sparkling, shiny, new, and only a little made of plastic. Unfortunately, this bad habit crosses party lines and plagues almost everyone. It started when parties decided to populate their candidate lists without holding primaries. The candidates' positions don't matter; at the end of the day, it is a celebrity that is required. It's better if this celebrity ticks a variety of boxes of identity politics; and if they don't, they should at least sport a senior army rank on their epaulettes. Everything else is secondary. That way, we get a glamorous and impressive list, just not necessarily a coherent one. And it continues, of course, as the public tries to fathom the views of these figures who will one day fill the Knesset.

On Monday afternoon, all the members of the Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya'alon Blue and White Party convened to sort out their political positions, after coming to the conclusion that candidates from three different factions actually have their own views, and that they dare to utter them aloud. The problem is that all of these different positions don't always align with one another. Confused? So are they.

Prime Minister Netanyahu gives election speech after the Likud primaries (Photo: Avi Mualem)

Politicians who for years built their public identity and demonstrated their core beliefs through their work were required to keep quiet, because everything is recorded and documented these days, and no one wants to find out that the views of the party's no. 2 contradicts those of the party's no.1. And this advice is coming from the very same media advisor who would tell a candidate to speak with respect to the prime minister and present a world view and a vision all in one speech, but then attack the very same prime minister like there's no tomorrow in the next speech. But body language doesn't lie, no matter how much you practice. And at the end of the day, Benny Gantz is signalling his discomfort with the box created for him. In the Likud Party, according to reports, the prime minister has put all of the ministers on a break until the elections. No need to give interviews, no need to initiate any policies. So what if you worked hard the entire term? Stay home and everything will be okay. The Prime Minister's Office will take care of everything.

As for the New Right party—at first they tried to sell us a political entity for both religious and secular, until the latter tarted asking what exactly about the party was for them. The confusing and evasive answers led the party to pull out of a panel discussion on religion and state. Now, they've found a new source of votes, and the agenda of reconciliation has been abandoned in favor of a mantra of "Benjamin Netanyahu will divide Jerusalem."

New Right leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked present new member Alona Barkat (center) (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

In Shas, too, the party knew to pander to the "transparent" part of the population last time, and how to shelve that strategy this time. Because at the end of the day, the question is: where can we pluck more votes from? Where's the bigger pond? And what does the target audience want to hear—but also what can't it bear? But when the target audience changes every half an hour, it's hard to hit the bull's eye. This campaign is just the latest low point in this virtual reality in which we all live. We're in the era of fake news, which encases us in every direction—be it out of negligence or malice—and bots that spread paid messages as if they were flesh and blood. So we need to invest a lot of energy into distilling the facts, formulating positions and finding out what the people are actually thinking. Sadly, it appears our politicians have chosen to devote themselves to this new trend and use it for one thing only - winning. What will their policies be on the day after the elections? Please, don't make them laugh, for who truly cares?

Let's block ads! (Why?)

An era of fake news and manufactured leaders : https://ift.tt/2IDjxWt

Netanyahu underestimated US Jews' revulsion toward Kahanists

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to deliver his speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) conference next month. He will certainly receive the usual round of applause, but alongside the smiles and hugs normally lavished on him, he will also be greeted with suspicion and doubt that certainly weren't there before.

American Jewry is dealing with rising anti-Semitism and a spike in hate crimes—the very worst being the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in October—and a president that at times seems to be held aloft by this ill wind instead of fighting it. And to top it all, Netanyahu has provided the followers of the extreme-right Rabbi Meir Kahane an entry pass to the 21st Knesset.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at AIPAC conference (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

The joint Jewish Home-National Union party has agreed to run together with Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) in the upcoming April 9 race. The agreement on the union, which will be broken off immediately after Election Day, follows days of hectic talks egged on by Netanyahu, who put a lot of pressure on the sides and even made concessions of his own to make it happen in order to form a wide right-wing bloc.

The Otzma Yehudit Party is the latest incarnation of the Jewish National Front, a party that was established ahead of the 2006 elections, but its roots are in the Kach movement, which Kahane established in the 1970s.

Kach was a radical and racist right-wing movement with fascist characteristics; it called to expel Arab citizens from Israeli territory and promoted racist legislation against all non-Jews. It also believed in making Israel a Halachah state (ruled by Jewish law) and in annexing all parts of Greater Israel.

Kahane's movement was subsequently banned from Israeli politics as racist. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by an Egyptian-born American.

Rabbi Meir Kahane at the Knesset (Photo: David Rubinger)

By pushing to bring Kahane's followers back into the Knesset, Netanyahu has crossed one too many red lines in the eyes of US Jews, who view the Kahanists as the Jewish counterparts of the anti-Semites threatening their community.

A rift has been created not only between Netanyahu and the liberal left-wing circles in the US, but also between the Israeli prime minister and the vast majority of American Jews, who were brought up to loathe the Kahanist racism but who woke up one morning to discover that Netanyahu had labeled that racism as morally and politically kosher.

Kahane, a Brooklyn native, developed his racist doctrine in the US, where he also founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which is listed by the FBI as a terrorist group and constitutes the ideological base upon which Kach was founded.

In the early 1970s, JDL mostly focused on activity in protest of the Soviet Union's refusal to allow Jews living in the USSR to emigrate.

The Kahanist terrorism's first victim was Iris Kones, the 27-year-old Jewish secretary of a New York company that managed concert tours for Soviet groups. She was killed by a bomb placed in the company offices in protest of its work with the Soviet Union.

JDL's violent activity to protect Jews left its mark on the entire Jewish community, which viewed Kahane as a symbol of hate and the Jewish version of supremacist hate group Ku Klux Klan.

National Union head Bezalel Smotrich; Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Otzma Yehudit's Itamar Ben-Gvir (Photos: Alex Kolomoisky, AP, Yoav Dudkevitz)

Kahanism's American roots are the main reason why US Jews detest the movement and its followers. Similarly, they don't view this doctrine as an Israeli phenomenon, rather as a malignant tumor growing in Israel's backyard that for many years has symbolized the ugly and most dangerous face of racism.

When Netanyahu promoted the contaminated alliance between Jewish Home-National Union, Likud and Kahane's followers, he could not have taken into account the intensity of the revulsion that US Jews would feel toward the Kahanists. I doubt that he realized that among many of Israel's friends in the US, Kahane is considered on a footing with the supporters of white supremacy, or that his name is mentioned alongside that of former KKK leader David Duke.

Moreover, the fact Otzma Yehudit is a party whose ideological roots lie in the US led to great dismay and condemnation by American Jewish organizations, among them AIPAC and the American Jewish Congress, which usually avoid criticizing both the policies of the Israeli government and its prime minister.

Yael Patir is the director of the Israel Program at J Street.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Netanyahu underestimated US Jews' revulsion toward Kahanists : https://ift.tt/2tD7G0f

Ending racism begins with our children

The day after the Oscars ceremony, I woke up at seven in the morning with hangover.

It was crazy. To my right —my wife is still asleep, with a five-month-old young lady beside her. To the left — boom! I saw two huge golden Oscar figures on the dresser. Holy shit, it was not a dream, it's absolutely real.

Guy Nattiv's Oscar

Oscars night was a crazy night of going from party to party, of consuming alcohol in bulk, of meeting legends like Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Quincy Jones and Spike Lee, who actually voted for us and pushed for us to win.

Guy Nattiv with fellow 2019 Oscar winner OIivia Colman

In the few quiet moments I have had between cocktails and car interviews, I keep thinking about my private heroes - my grandparents who went through hell in Poland and Romania during the Holocaust, lost their entire family, arrived in Israel on an immigrant ship to establish Kibbutz Megiddo and fought for our country to exist. It was important to me to say on stage in front of five hundred million people - that the rampant racism in the US and in Europe has to end!

We are seeing more and more racist phenomena against Jews, blacks, Muslims and foreigners in the US and Europe, perpetrated by white fascist white groups who reared their heads when Donald Trump came to power. Our message is clear and direct, and connects directly to what my grandmothers and grandfathers taught us about the values with which we grew up. My grandfather, Reuven Monowitz, a Holocaust survivor and a hero, took us on a trip to Poland ten years ago, where he declared that the family he established was his greatest revenge.

It is natural that in Skin, my first American film, I explore the racism of a white American family, a work that conveys the clear message that it all begins with the education of our children. Because when you're a 10-year-old boy in a racist town in Ohio and your father teaches you to shoot Mexicans at the border with a sniper rifle, it is fair to assume that within a few years you'll become a violent, dangerous racist who will take the same rifle and start shooting Jews.

The poster for Skin

I hope that now that Skin has received so much exposure, more people will see it both in the US and around the world - and in Israel too - and digest this message. To everyone in Israel – I have endless thanks for the tremendous support we received from our family and friends and all the people who we do not know personally.

This film was made for all of our children, and for the hope that they will grow up in a less violent and racist world. Amen.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Ending racism begins with our children : https://ift.tt/2BVTR1w

Otzma Yehudit are not Nazis, so stop invoking the Holocaust

In an unusual move for a journalist, I publicly said two and a half weeks ago that I would not vote for a party that includes Otzma Yehudit. My position on the matter has not changed.

Despite that, I've decided not to join the campaign against the merger on the right.

 

There are two reasons for this decision: primarily, politics is not a youth movement. Political leaders make very complex decisions under conditions of great uncertainty. I didn't at the time, nor do I now, have the tools to judge the political ramifications of avoiding such a merger.

The second reason is that I will not sign up for a campaign (which began last week and is still ongoing) in which Otzma Yehudit members are depicted as the Israeli version of the Nazis. Yes, their ideology is harmful and destructive, but this campaign, which is meant to link their ideology to Nazism, is simply wrong.

The Otzma Yehudit Party, including (L-R): Itamar Ben-Gvir, Michael Ben-Ari, Benzi Gopstein and Baruch Marzel (Photo: Avi Mualem)

To understand this campaign, one must go back in history. A significant portion of the prominent Jewish intellectuals in the first third of the 20th century were active in Germany, and were an integral part of German culture. They admired that culture, and some even saw it as the epitome of human creation.

And then came the Holocaust, turning their world upside down. The nation that was a symbol of progress and enlightenment became the most horrendous killing machine in human history, and targeted them and their families. As a result, those Jewish intellectuals had to find an acceptable explanation to resolve this cognitive dissonance.

The solution some of these intellectuals formulated was to assume that any nation, at any point in time, might in a matter of a few years deteriorate to the point at which Germany found itself during the Third Reich. Therefore, a logical human being will constantly examine his surroundings, searching for signs that would indicate such a process was beginning.

Even if this conclusion is the correct one, the process of looking for warning signs should make sense. One of the common signs of budding Nazism is racism. Racial segregation laws, for example, are considered a harbinger of a process that ends in  gas chambers. But historical experience does not support the supposition that racism is necessarily a precursor to Nazism. American society in the first half of the 20th century was just as racist as Nazi Germany. The racial segregation laws in southern US states were still in effect, discriminating against black people even after Nazi Germany fell. Despite that, the end result was a black president and no gas chambers. Why? Because even though racism is wrong and terrible, it is probably not a good prophesier of a future holocaust. Rabbi Benny Lau's comments, as well as the comments made by other Israeli intellectuals, are afflicted by a tendency to take any display of racism and jump straight to the Nuremberg Laws and Nazism. First and foremost, that's not true. And beyond that, in the Israeli reality, it's also useless. It's true that Rabbi Benny Lau is second generation to well-known Holocaust survivors; but my parents are also second generation to Holocaust survivors—albeit not well-known—as are millions of other Israelis. Each survivor and each second generation has lessons they took from the Holocaust. No one person's conclusions are more relevant than those of another. There are many people whose personal conclusions from the Holocaust are the complete opposite of Rabbi Benny Lau. So this knee-jerk reaction of enlisting the Holocaust in political arguments is not helpful. It only creates unnecessary instrumentalization of the Holocaust, which undermines the uniting factor of remembrance. Therefore, using the memory of the Holocaust in this argument is not only wrong and ineffective, it also hurts us all.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Otzma Yehudit are not Nazis, so stop invoking the Holocaust : https://ift.tt/2TlbGkA

It's the drugs, stupid

US President Donald Trump wants to build a wall along the United States' southern border. The question over who will foot the bill has already created a constitutional crisis. Congress deprived him of the required $5.7 billion, and in response the president announced that he intends to declare a state of emergency that would make the legislature of the US government lose control of the budget. If no compromise is found, the dispute will be decided in the Supreme Court.

 

Trump's longing for the wall ostensibly stems from a desire to stop illegal immigration. The net migration to the US has actually dropped in recent years, and many economists disagree with the claim that immigration damages the economy. There is, however, no dispute over the damage the drugs do, but there is a disagreement over ways to eradicate this plague.

One positive aspect that emerged from the ongoing row over the wall is the issue of the advisability of anti-drug enforcement, and it seems as though the scales are being tipped to the side of those who want it abolished. Until now, US has refused to engage in considerations of its drug policy's economic cost-benefit, but the price of enforcement is so high and its failures are so decisive that this trend is starting to change.

President Trump near the border wall prototype in San Diego (Photo: AFP)

Some data indicates that building a wall is simply a lack of good sense: 90 percent of the drugs brought in from abroad are smuggled in via vehicles and vessels entering the United States through its gates. Every day, 34,000 cars enter the United States from Mexico, and the authorities seize only 10 percent of the drugs that come through the border. Thorough monitoring of all the vehicles that cross the border is not possible, proving that the wall will almost certainly be ineffective.

If we look at the overall picture, we’ll see that in the past hundred years, the countries of the world has wasted close to a trillion dollars on waging a war on drugs that they have lost. The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that opioid abuse causes nearly $80 billion in damage to the country's economy every year. A quarter of the world's drug-related fatalities are American. The number of US citizens who die annually as a result of a drug overdose has nearly tripled over the last two decades, and in 2014 stood at some 64,000. Most of the fatal overdoses among middle-aged drug addicts were caused by synthetic heroin, which is tens of times more powerful than “regular” heroin.

President Trump near the border wall prototype (Photo: AFP)

Half a million Americans are currently imprisoned for drug offenses (in 1980, for instance, that number stood at just 40,000), and approximately a million people are arrested annually for drug-related crimes. Every 26 seconds someone is arrested on suspicion of possession of an illegal drug. The widespread use of drugs—including painkillers containing narcotics, especially morphine—is one of the leading reasons behind the declining life expectancy in the world's richest country.

Since drug addicts are captive customers, they are not affected by the high price of the commodity and will resort to crime in order to obtain it. The alternative provided by the market is the development of synthetic drugs. The supply is met by the demand, and opium cultivation has grown eightfold in the past ten years.

A starving farmer in the state of Guerrero in Mexico, where most of the drugs are produced, is interested in his family's financial well-being and not in a dire state of American society. Enforcement increases the price of drugs and inadvertently gives the power to drug cartels and criminal organizations that produce and traffic the illegal substances and use violence to control the market. In 2017, some 20,000 Mexicans were killed in drug wars. 

Mexican protesters on the border with the United States (Photo: Reuters)

The defeat in the war against drugs has encouraged calls to redirect the enormous resources currently at the disposal of law enforcement into the spheres of education, research and rehabilitation, as well as into an expansion of social services and investment in a war on obesity that has contributed greatly to the falling US life expectancy.

Since American culture influences the rest of the free world, it’s likely the drug trends will also make their way to Israel sooner rather than later. It’s advisable to take precautionary measures before it actually happens and not wait for foreign trends to show us the way.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

It's the drugs, stupid : https://ift.tt/2SqBgjF

Netanyahu's right-wing problem

If the last week in Israeli politics could be characterized as a big bang in the center, and by polls that showed Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu in a neck-and-neck race, this week began with an explosion on the right.

Netanyahu and his former protégé and current leader of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett, traded unprecendented verbal blows on the sidelines of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

The harsh statements each made to the media about the other reveal a fierce battle between the two for the hearts and minds of the right-wing voters.

Former friends: Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett in the Knesset in late 2018 (Photo: Rafi Kotz)

Bennett was the first to attack to go on the attack on Sunday. Heading in to the weekly cabinet meeting, the education minister announced that he knew that Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had agreed an Israeli response to the American peace plan, which includes the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu promptly responded, and, in a departure from his usual cabinet meetings, rushed to the media to give his own reaction to Bennett's comments. He said Bennett was under pressure and confused because of the elections, claimed his comments had no substance, and, in a particularly biting insult, said that Bennett only led one of the "small parties."

Bennett had geared up for his attack in light of the new political reality of a two-way battle between Gantz and Netanyahu for the premiership, a battle that could cause collateral damage among the smaller parties in each bloc.

 

Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked announce their new party (Photo: EPA)

The political world is also keeping a close eye out for an announcement by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on a potential Netanyahu indictment. According to political sources, if an indictment is filed against Netanyahu, subject to a hearing, those disapppointed in the Likud will be looking for a new political home on the right, and they are precisely the people that the heads of the New Right —Bennett and Ayelet Shaked — are targeting.

The current actions of Bennett and Shaked are largely influenced by the lessons of the 2015 elections, in which Netanyahu ran a campaign to increase his own power at their expense. This time they are fighting to secure their share of the right-wing electorate, and going head to head against Netanyahu in order to do so.

This approach is clearly illustrated in a new video released by the New Right, in which Bennett is seen knocking on the door of a Likud voter's house and convincing the home owner why his party is the true right wing. This is the first time that Bennett and Shaked have openly courted Likud voters, and another video with a similar message will soon be released. Meanwhile, the two party leaders are busy telling the media that only they can stop Netanyahu from yielding to political and diplomatic pressure.

Video of Naftali Bennett wooing a Likud voter

But such attacks are not one-sided. Netanyahu, for his part, has not hesitated to take steps to weaken the New Right and claim as many votes as possible in the right-wing bloc. While Bennett and Shaked could be considered his natural political partners, the personal relationship between the two sides is extremely shaky.

Senior officials in the Likud say that after Netanyahu's primary battle with Gantz, his next priority is to weaken Bennett and Shaked, so as to diminish their power in post-election coalition negotiations. Some sources say that Netanyahu's vigorous attempts to unite the Jewish Home and the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) were not born solely out of efforts to prevent the loss of votes in the right-wing bloc, but also to cut Shaked and Bennett off from their previous political home and prevent small parties in a future rightist coalition from joining forces and posing a threat to his own power.

Similarly, the small right-wing parties will soon launch a campaign against Bennett and Shaked in a bid to syphon off their voters. This campaign will focus on the fact that the two abandoned the Jewish Home in order to form their own party, and will try to draw far-right voters to their own side and traditional rightwing voters to the Likud. Bennett and Shaked, according to the plan, would be isolated and struggle to win votes.

Sunday's events, however, indicate that the leaders of the New Right are not going quietly, and this inter-bloc slanging match will not end any time soon.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Netanyahu's right-wing problem : https://ift.tt/2Ey0YiF

Caught in a Trump trap, Netanyahu pins his hopes on Abbas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trapped in a spectacular manner. US President Donald Treump, not know for his conciliatory nature, expects something in return for his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the city as Israel's capital.

That concession by Israel, sources close to Netanyahu say, will be in accepting the "deal of the century" drafted by the US president, which reportedly has several clauses that the prime minister will find hard to swallow.

The sources say Netanyahu is actually counting on a Palestinian refusal to even consider the deal, given that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to oppose any US peace proposal—but there is no certainty that it will actually happen.

President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett (Photo: Shaul Golan, AFP, Reuters)

Meanwhile, the head of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett, not only claimed on Sunday that Netanyahu intended to go along with Trump’s long-delayed peace plan, which includes an establishment of a Palestinian state, but also set a very tight deadline for the plan—intending to unveil it immediately after the April 9 elections.

Bennett has apparently based his assessments that the Americans will unveil the plan after the elections—but before the government is formed—as Trump wants the deal to be approved during coalition negotiations and subsequent political agreements.

Other reports also suggest that the Trump administration's peace plan will indeed be unveiled soon. The deal is expected to include the provision of establishment of a Palestinian state on 90 percent of the West Bank, including land-swaps and the division of Jerusalem.

 Illegal outposts will be evacuated, and isolated settlements outside the so-called settlement blocs (that some argue will remain part of the Jewish state in any peace deal) will not be expanded. The holy places will remain under Israeli sovereignty but will be jointly managed by Israel, Palestine, Jordan and possibly other countries.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu will take off for Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after postponing the trip last week in order to oversee the merger between the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party and the Jewish Home. This will be the first official meeting between the two leaders since the downing of the Russian spy plane six months ago by Syrian forces who were trying to thwart an Israeli aerial attack in their territory.

"The issue of Iran will be at the top of our agenda," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "We will also discuss strengthening the security coordination mechanism between the IDF and the Russian army in order to maintain stability and prevent unnecessary friction in the region."

But international travel and foreign diplomacy aside, Netanyahu's biggest challenege appears to be at home, where he could well find himself pinning his political hopes on one of his greatest foes - the Palestinian leader.  

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Caught in a Trump trap, Netanyahu pins his hopes on Abbas : https://ift.tt/2Xmuzmt

Israel's moon mission doesn't stop the trains from running

When Israel's first moon mission was set for liftoff, some of us were stuck in an endless traffic jam on the Ayalon Highway around Tel Aviv. When Israel successfully launched the spacecraft, some of us were waiting for trains that never came because that morning 35 conductors suddenly announced they were sick. Right now, Israel is on the way to the moon, while I’m on the way to my mother-in-law in Hadera, who will probably tell me, "It's a shame you have to go back at this hour. They just said on the radio there are serious delays because of a car accident.”

So then I ask myself: "The moon!? Why the hell is it so pressing for Israel to reach the moon when we haven’t even reached the ability to have a fully functioning railway system?"

Liftoff of Israel's first moon mission (Photo: Reuters)

But I would be wrong to do that. This silly claim that "a country that can’t get the buses right shouldn't launch a spacecraft to the moon," has been heard too many times over the past week. We should stick to the facts for a moment: the Beresheet (genesis) project does not belong to Israeli government, and when it lands on the moon, Culture Minister Miri Regev will not rush to have a photo-op with it (or maybe she will, Miri, if you're reading this, I urge you to head off into outer space!).

Actually, very few shekels of taxpayers’ money went into financing the $100 million project and most of the funds were raised through private donors, the most prominent of whom is South African-born Israeli billionaire entrepreneur Morris Kahn, who invested $44 million of his own money and in 2011 founded SpaceIL with the sole purpose of landing a spacecraft on the moon.

I had the opportunity to interview Kahn ahead of the liftoff, and the bottom line is that as well as the hundreds of millions of dollars that the man has quietly invested over the years into a groundbreaking Israeli medical study—meant to help rehabilitate disabled children—the lunar mission has become a passion project for him. He was able to recruit additional donors from all around the world, and when the spacecraft was complete and the mission was ready to go ahead, he opted out of attaching his name to the project, making it seem to be a national Israeli achievement.

Morris Kahn at SpaceIL (Photo: Shaul Golan)

Meanwhile, SpaceIL has turned the project from a strictly technological endeavour to an educational one, making its way from school to school, giving lectures on space exploration and trying to encourage children's interest in science. The successful launch of the spacecraft and the accompanying media coverage sparked an increased interest among the kids, whom I constantly hear discuss the shuttle and its trajectory.

Beyond the national pride, thanks to the project, the Israeli education system has been given a scientific boost when most of the reinforcements come from the auspices of religious organizations that are somewhat less scientific in their approach.

This claim that there's no need to fly into space when we have trouble reaching Nahariya, is baseless. If external donors such as Kahn, were required to bankroll state infrastructure, we would have a real problem, not to mention total bankruptcy because we would be left entirely at the mercy of private investors.

It would be helpful, however, if the state were to take an example from the Beresheet project, which stumbled over countless technological, budgetary and managerial obstacles, but was eventually not only successfully completed but also found itself to be an educational outlet. If they — we — can do that, then surely anything is within our grasp. Even getting to Nahariya on time.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Israel's moon mission doesn't stop the trains from running : https://ift.tt/2Tk3wc6

Netanyahu is the one who should be ashamed

1. Last weekend saw the start of the real election campaign for the 21st Knesset, as well as the Tel Aviv Marathon. If you'd stood on the sidewalk along the route as tens of thousands of Israelis ran their way past, you would have been exposed to the epitome of effort, of sweat and the mutual encouragement, not to mention the moments of heart-warming fraternity.

There was no expression of the violent discourse that is characterizing the election campaign; there was no left and no right, no one was trying to shame anyone else. For a brief moment, you could feel that we were different from those who are seeking our votes, that we were displaying the very decency and integrity they lack.

Tel Aviv marathon (Photo: Oren Aharoni)

2. Benjamin Netanyahu thundered "shame" at Benny Gantz after the latter claimed that while he had been defending the State of Israel, Netanyahu was sharpening his rhetorical skills in television studios in New York. In fact, this was a low and unfair blow. Not because of Netanyahu's reasoning – that he was an officer in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit who took part in defending the homeland - but because such bickering detracts from the real political discourse that should be taking place during this election campaign.

The person who should be ashamed of course is Netanyahu, who had nothing to say when his cronies claimed that Gantz's wife, Revital, was a member of MachsomWatch (left-wing female Israeli activists who record Palestinian experiences at Israeli military checkpoints). Netanyahu should also be ashamed of the ugly propaganda that falsely claimed that Gantz abandoned Madhat Yosef, one of the soldiers under his command, to die in the field. Gantz should not be ashamed - he is actually a product of the education system in Israel, and not of the one in America, where Netanyahu's parents resided.

Benny Gantz and his wife, Revital (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

"I reject any suggestion to be ashamed," says Heffetz, the eponymous protagonist and grotesque figure in a Hanoch Levin play. I would like to propose that Gantz and Lapid adopt this philosophy until Election Day. Netanyahu (who himself is suspected of multiple acts of bribery and corruption) and those responsible for his campaign will take any low, ugly and unfair step just to guarantee his political survival and save him from the threat of justice.

3. Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who was recently elected as the new leader of the Jewish Home party, was praised for his conduct during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Peretz, a helicopter pilot who was later appointed IDF chief rabbi, was wrapped in a prayer shawl as he instructed his students at the yeshiva in Atzmona not to harm the soldiers who had come to evacuate them.

Rabbi Rafi Peretz (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

But now Peretz is the central figure in the union that Netanyahu forged between the Jewish Home and the National Union and the students of Rabbi Meir Kahane from Otzma Yehudit, born of a desire not to waste a single vote for the right-wing bloc.

"When the house is on fire, you do not check the tzitzit (Jewish prayer shawl worn under clothes)," Peretz said - in effect an admission that there are no absolute values. Suddenly the rabbi also has no problem smearing Naftali Bennett or causing shame among the religious-nationalists.

4. We are told that the only thing that unites the heads of the Blue and White Party is the desire to replace Netanyahu. And I say, what's wrong with that? Overall, it seems to me that we aren’t looking for a blue and white king, but rather someone to show us that we can expect personal conduct different to that displayed by the current captain of our ship and his closest allies.

Benjamin Netanyahu makes a campaign speech (Photo: Avi Mualem)

Moreover, Netanyahu claims that if Gantz and Lapid become the heads of the largest party in the Knesset, they will help the Arab parties to create an obstructionist bloc - even though these parties are interested in destroying Israel. This is a lie. Arab citizens of Israel are fully equal, and their parties deserve the public trust. In any event, Ganz and Lapid have not annexed Balad and Ta'al to their centrist bloc, as opposed to Netanyahu, who made sure to bring in Kahane's heirs and those who justify the massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein.

5. Those who did not run in the Tel Aviv marathon could instead have followed the journey of the Israeli spaceship "Beresheet". Netanyahu took advantage of this wondrous event for election propaganda, praising his own achievements and claiming to have transformed Israel into a superpower.

The Beresheet launch (Photo: Reuters)

But even without asking the scientists who they voted for, it is possible to assume that they are not in the Netanyahu camp. Furthermore, the spacecraft is now heading for the moon is not a ballot paper for the Likud party, it is an achievement that belongs to every citizen of the State of Israel.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Netanyahu is the one who should be ashamed : https://ift.tt/2IzV18U

France isn’t ready to truly combat anti-Semitism

The solidarity rally for French Jews held last week in Paris must have seemed impressive to Israelis. But as impressive it was seeing about half of French government ministers as well as other prominent individuals participating, it was too little, too late. The situation in France is not going to get any better.

 

The media only recently reported that in 2018, anti-Semitism has increased by 74% compared to the previous year. The headline only serves to confirm what we are witnessing: physical and verbal attacks against Jews, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and monuments, hate messages scrawled on Jewish businesses and vehicles, and others.

Emmanuel Macron speaking to French Jewish leaders

Although it has been mostly absent from the headlines since Macron’s election, anti-Semitism has not gone away. Therefore, the solidarity expressed, across party lines, last week is heartwarming to many in the Jewish community. But while the rally may have provided some measure of calm, it will not solve the problem. It is doubtful how much this play of unity can affect the perception of the general population in a country where radical elements are increasing. It is unfortunate to see the reaction of the progressive elite in the country who revert to the same mantras that are reminiscent of the messages we heard five years ago when then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that the Jews were the avant-garde of the French Republic; an impressive compliment, but it had no practical influence.

Valls was perceived as a true friend of the Jewish community but in the interim he has become an insignificant figure and left the country about a year ago. His words were forgotten, and it is hard to point to any real progress on the front. What hasn’t worked in the past will not work now. France’s handling of anti-Semitism is misguided and French Jews have had enough of declarations. They do not need another protest march that condemns what is bad and praises what is good. Last week’s march included figures who lack any understanding of the matter. For the Green Party representatives, it was just another stage on which to virtue signal ahead of the elections. As far as they are concerned, anti-Semitism is merely an unpleasant matter, but nothing to get too excited about. The French population also understands this: in the past, such rallies would attract hundreds of thousands of people, but last week only 20,000 showed up.

Rally against anti-Semitism

Furthermore, many participants stubbornly ignore the fact that anti-Semitism has become embedded among certain segments of French society. Therefore, the presence of the elites at the rally only serves to reinforce the conspiracy that Jews control the halls of power. An appropriate response requires that the reality be confronted. Public discourse cannot continue to approach the subject as merely a universal expression of hatred of the other. Bold journalism should not be afraid of exposing the background of perpetrators of such crimes. Finding appropriate solutions requires acknowledging that today's anti-Semitism has passed from the extreme right to radical Islam. This is an open secret, but proponents of identity politics insist on minimizing and diluting it, thus preventing confronting the problem head on. Furthermore, the plight of the Jews in France is not detached from attitudes towards the Jewish state. The Yellow Vest protesters who attacked the Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut in Paris last Saturday yelled slogans unrelated to the protest they were part of. Their cries of “Palestine” and “Zionist garbage” exposed what it is that bothers them about the Jews.

Rally against anti-Semitism

In that respect, France is fertile ground for such unsubstantiated accusations and legitimacy for violence. No wonder it is ultimately aimed at the Jewish community. Progressive parties and their representatives in the media — those who participated in the protest last week — are actively fueling this hatred through the war they wage against the State of Israel. Thus, in the suburb of La Courneuve, north of Paris, the "Festival of Humanity" takes place annually, an important event for the Communist Party and its allies. Every year, the most prominent BDS activists are hosted there.

Rally against anti-Semitism

Perhaps it is clear to senior party officials where the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is, but it turns out that the residents of the surrounding slum neighborhoods are less sensitive to these nuances. The authorities' position on the matter is indeed moving in the right direction. Following his conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron announced that expressing anti-Zionist positions would be considered among the many forms of anti-Semitism. But it is not clear how the move will not remain purely declarative. Macron already made it clear that he was opposed to incriminating those positions. The hate propagators know how to play with the limits of freedom of expression and the censor's capabilities in the era of social networks are nil. And as far as French Jews are concerned, “we had to attend the march, but it will not change anything.” Nicolas Nissim Touboul is a projects coordinator at the Institute for Zionist Strategies and was born in France.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

France isn’t ready to truly combat anti-Semitism : https://ift.tt/2IBChWr

Another giant leap for the Jewish state

The three young men who came to my office almost a decade ago were disappointed. They have just finished enthusiastically showing me their plan to build a small spacecraft that could land on the moon, send a picture from there, and then leap about 500 meters and send another picture.

"We will do this within 3-4 years, at a cost of $10 million," said Yariv, Kfir and Yonatan, "and we will win Google's $20 million prize for the first private (non-governmental) group to do it. We will donate the prize money to educational activities that will attract Israeli youth to study science and technology in general and space in particular. After all, only the United States, Russia and China did it before us!"

Israel's mission to the moon (Photo: SpaceX)

Their three faces fell when I told them that in my estimation, the spacecraft would cost at least $80 million, four times more than the prize money itself. I was reminded of similar situations in which I found myself when I was their age, when my ideas were met with serious doubt. I was lucky, however, and despite the skepticism I was always given the opportunity to prove my ideas. What do we have to lose? I thought.

According to Israeli anti-trust laws, the investment had to come mainly from private sources, so that this would not risk any public money.

"You know what," I said, "I will give you a 10-minute opportunity to present the idea at the Space Conference next week at Tel Aviv University, and we will make sure that the conference includes philanthropists who were educated in Israel and who have Zionist pride flowing through their veins."

Morris Kahn at SpaceIL (Photo: Shaul Golan)

And so it came to pass. In the audience for the presentation was philanthropist Morris Kahn, who donated several hundred thousand dollars on the spot to get the idea off the ground, Kahn ultimately bore the main burden of donations to the project, whose final cost (including the launch) came to about $100 million. He also worked to recruit key people to the management of SpaceIL (including me). The rest is history: the spacecraft is currently making its way to the moon.

The real lesson of this story is the entrepreneurial culture in Israel. No amount of skepticism can stop a group of young entrepreneurs from trying to realize an idea they believe in.

All the foundations needed to realize technological dreams - creativity, technological know-how, mobilization of talented individuals on a volunteer basis, funding, etc. - are around us in Israel; one has only to reach out and take them. This is why Israel is now considered a global center for high-tech technologies, and that is why we economy is thriving. ?

  

Isaac Ben Israel is a general in the IDF reserves and the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Another giant leap for the Jewish state : https://ift.tt/2T8FlNW

Otzma Yehudit is an anathema to the 'normally religious'

In one of his most beautiful texts, the late Uri Orbach wrote that it is not popular to be a routinely religious man, although it is precisely this sector that maintains religious life with reason and with delicacy.

 

"The normally religious," as Orbach put it, are those for Judaism comes as naturally as breathing. They are home owners and professionals, active and sensible men and women who live full lives as an inseparable part of Israeli society. They are the ones who enlisted in masse in the Jewish Home when it was led by Naftali Bennett, alongside Uri Orbach himself. They are the ones who stand bewildered today, as their political home falls apart after it was abandoned by Bennett, as it unites with the racist and Kahanist list of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.

The Land of Israel is very important to the normally religious. But daily life itself is also important – education and health, culture and transportation, and yes, even religion and state. A lot of water flows through the river of Israeli identity, and President Rivlin's four tribes speech misses the sub-streams and tributaries that grow from each one of those tribes. We meet and we part. We intersect and we unite.

Uri Orbach with Ayelet Shaked at a Jewish Home event in 2014

Religious Zionism is not a homogenous entity that votes solely for one party, just like any other tribe. It is more complex, with infinite nuance, and as such its tradition of tribal voting has long washed away. Religious Zionism is no longer purely represented by the National Religious Party, although the party still remains one of its strongest symbols.

Even though unification with Otzma Yehudit is only on the agenda due to the looming collapse of Jewish Home after Bennett absconded, this so-called technical bloc is still hard to swallow. Even those who do agree to this move do so from a place of submission and self-persuasion, in light of the terrible situation reflected in election polling. Kahanists were never part of the religious-Zionist ethos of Torah, work and nationality. The racism, anarchism and discourse of hatred they promote are nauseating to most of the normally religious, who do not know how to digest the new political map.

Show me your technical bloc, and I'll show you who you really are.

"If there is to be a union, at least take the photo of the murderer Baruch Goldstein down from the wall," Rabbi Yaakov Medan from Gush Etzion asked of Itamar Ben-Gvir in a broken voice. But Ben-Gvir was unmoved, as if it were commonplace to hang a picture of a mass murderer in your living room. And the normally religious simply do not know what to do; they are searching for a leader to give them answers.

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Photo: Ido Erez)

If they follow Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who once embraced the very soldiers who came to evacuate him from his Gaza home, then they are signing on to the entry of the greatest racists into the Knesset. If they go over to the New Right, perhaps that will ultimately finish off the ideological home that was dismantled by its very leader Naftali Bennett. Maybe some would have turned to Yair Lapid, if the latter had not relegated every religious candidate on his party's list to the doldrums of the second decile.

So they are left with Benjamin Netanyahu. The same Benjamin Netanyahu who worked so hard to bring about the disgraceful agreement between Otzma Yehudit and the Jewish Home will be the one to benefit from the huge number of voters who will never support a Kahanist list. Thus, thanks to his cynical political cunning, Orbach's normally religious have become Netanyahu's useful idiots.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Otzma Yehudit is an anathema to the 'normally religious' : https://ift.tt/2tASIbo

A 'savior' for the Land of Israel

Yes, the Jewish Home's united list has taken upon itself the role of savior of the Land of Israel and its right-wing government, after the other right-wing parties refused to assume the mantle.

Nothing comes easy. Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked abandoned the Jewish Home, leaving behind a leaderless, confused and shattered party that was plummeting in the polls to below the electoral threshold. But that led, to my surprise, to an awakening that proves the strength of the national religious movement.

Rabbi Rafi Peretz, a well-rounded educator of proven ability, was elected as the new chairman of the party. An impressive new personality, journalist Yifat Erlich, also joined. Under Peretz, and after exhaustive negotiations, a unity agreement was struck between the Jewish Home and the National Union.

The question remained whether to include Otzma Yehudit and create a broad union of religious Zionism, but the more likely it became that there would be a center-left union, the more it became clear that the right needed something similar and that we could not turn our backs on potential votes.

Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett announce their departure from Jewish Home (Photo: EPA)

Not everyone in religious Zionism looks favorably on the unification of the Jewish Home with a party rooted in the Kahane movement. In fact, the party is actually composed mainly of the national-religious public with whom there are many moral agreements, although admittedly there is still a gap between values, and style and conduct.

The proposal was to run on one list, but in a technical bloc - which means that on the day after the elections everyone goes their own way. Thus, for the first time, there is an opportunity for religious Zionism to unite on one list.

Even members of Otzma Yehudit have undergone a change. The Itamar Ben-Gvir of today is not like the Rabbi Meir Kahane of decades ago. And although it is still possible to hear from them extremist statements with which I cannot agree, their behavior is nonetheless more moderate.

Rabbi Meir Kahane speaking in front of an empty Knesset (Photo: David Rubinger)

Now, that the union has been created, the entire national-religious public must unite around it and support it, as the only national-religious list in the April 9 elections. Some parts of the public will find it easier than others to vote for this list, and some will even do it joyously – for they anticipated the day on which they would have one list to unite them all. On the other hand, some will fiund it morally difficult to support it. But let us not forget that this union was created to save the Land of Israel and the Jewishness of the state.

This list, under the valued leadership of Rabbi Peretz, will have to provide answers and be transparent in its actions - not only on the subject of the Land of Israel, but on all matters concerning the Israeli public in general, which are no less important: religion and state, society, education and health.

The heads of the New Right party Bennett and Shaked have declared that they are not looking for votes among the religious Zionists but would rather seek to appeal to the traditionally observant and secular. I very much hope that they will stand by these claims, and refrain from embarking on a campaign that appeals to the national religious public.

After the candidates for each party are submitted, there will be only one list for religious Zionism that unites all areas of this key community. This is a sector worthy of dignified and large representation in the Knesset and in the government. Its people are everywhere, and they have a significant influence in the worlds of Torah, science and academia, medicine, the IDF, law, education and welfare. The strength of this activity and the accompanying values does deserve sizeable and influential representation in the Knesset.

Some of the religious Zionist public may have good and justifiable reasons not to vote for this union, but there are situations in which differences of opinion need to be transcended and a more comprehensive view taken.

In the current political reality, the bigger picture requires a unified list, and we should all unite around the Jewish Home list.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

A 'savior' for the Land of Israel : https://ift.tt/2BIsEiH