WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING - SPECIAL EDITION - cri de coeur

The letter below is from our young friend Joel Collick who made aliya from London, did his stint in the IDF, married, and now lives and works in Jerusalem.

Protesting Netanyahu's putsch is a cross-sectional, bipartisan endeavor. To keep up on events here I recommend regularly checking https://www.timesofisrael.com/

Join me in identifying with Joel's cri de coeur.**  Thanks. Elliot  

 

#starts

 

Dear all,

 

Israel is in a critical 'three week' period. Three weeks between the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls and destruction. Three weeks between the first and final readings of the reasonableness bill, part of the government’s 'judicial reform'.

 

For those overseas, consider donating to Jerusalem's broad-tent pro-democracy movement 'Safeguarding our Shared Home' (it sounds a bit better in Hebrew), via PayPal here.

 

*** 

 

“I’ve got a brilliant new strategy", boasted Boris Johnson in a 2006 television interview, nearly 15 years before he would become UK Prime Minister. His strategy, he elaborated, was "to make so many gaffes, that no one knows what to concentrate on... You pepper the media with so many gaffes that they are confused.” Boris didn't stick by much, but these were words he has certainly seemed to live - and govern - by.

 

Binyamin Netanyahu seems to be following a similar strategy. Here, though, 'gaffes' doesn't cover it. We're talking about scandalous acts of national self-harm. 

 

Netanyahu's record of lies and 'red-lines' crossed is so exhaustive that we have become numb to it. His government's sins and failures are so numerous we just can't keep up, and it's hard to know where to start. I have no intention of attempting to draw up an extensive list, although someone definitely should. Until that happens - here's an abridged list of just some of the unforgivable acts and colossal failures. Each one on its own merits censure, and earns Netanyahu and his government an eternal mark of shame in the history of the Jewish people.

 

A List of Shame

 

'Judicial Reform'

 

As the former Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit - whom Netanyahu himself appointed - kindly reminded us just last week, Israel is 'on the brink of dictatorship'. Virtually every credible expert agrees. The country is being torn apart by legislation to gutter Israeli democracy, with devastating costs to liberty, diplomacy, economy, security - you name it. The Justice Minister – who has been working on these 'reforms' for decades – has himself admitted that they are not compatible with democracy. What the government calls ‘reform’ is an authoritarian power grab.

 

Here's a resurfaced clip from 2012 to remind us that Netanyahu also knows very well that his 'reforms' don't 'strengthen democracy' as he is wont to claim.

 

Inciting Against Demonstrators 

 

Netanyahu, his government and supporters, have repeatedly incited against non-violent pro-democracy demonstrators, who have been labelled terrorists and anarchists, and falsely accused of stopping ambulances and spilling blood. The Prime Minister's son compared them to Nazis. Netanyahu himself has (more than once) equated the protests to radical settler pogroms against Arab villages. Many of his fellow ministers have gone further, making it clear which of the two groups they prefer. 

 

Let's recall: not a single policeman has been sent to hospital. Indeed, in one instance, demonstrators paused their protest to treat a policeman who injured himself with his own pepper spray! Those visiting emergency rooms are the demonstrators themselves, many of whom have faced unreasonable police brutality. One former air-force pilot nearly lost his eye to a water cannon, which Minister David Amsalem thought worthy of mocking on the Knesset podium. 

 

Talking of police brutality - let's speak about the Minister in charge of the police... Itamar Ben-Gvir. 

 

Itamar Ben-Gvir 

 

This fascist retrograde with a criminal record (convicted of supporting terrorism) was once a political joke on the fringes of politics. Now, he is a monster, and one that Netanyahu deliberately unleashed to save his own political skin. Netanyahu orchestrated his joint running ticket with lesser-extremists on the far-right to ensure he would get into Knesset. He then sought to calm fears by saying that Ben-Gvir was 'not fit' to be a Minister. This was 2021. In 2022, Netanyahu appointed him 'Minister of National Security', granting him an unprecedented portfolio of security responsibilities over Israel’s internal security matters.

 

Not enough has been made of the fact that Ben-Gvir's top-aid, Chanamel Dorfman, established a 'charity' that raises money for Jewish terrorists. We've long complained (rightly) about Palestinian Authority stipends for terrorists and their families. Yet, here, Dorfman and co. have outdone them - not only do they bankroll those who've committed acts of terror against Arabs, they also reward Jews for killing other Jews! They raise money for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, and Haredi extremist, Yishai Schlissel, who stabbed 16-year-old Shira Banki to death during the 2015 Jerusalem Gay Pride parade. Dorfman is sadly but one example of Ben-Gvir’s empowered criminal gang of fundamentalists.  

 

Once upon a time, in 1984, then Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir led a Knesset walkout upon the election of Ben-Gvir’s ideological father, the late Meir Kahane. Today's Likud is unashamedly partnered with the hateful Kahanists, normalised and empowered – it is a different party, not worthy of the name.

 

Terrible Ministers Appointed and Unpunished

 

Aside from Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu's government has so many ministers whose statements and actions, under normal circumstances, would have prompted immediate dismissals. Here are some highlights:

 

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi told Israel's air-force pilots threatening to halt reservist duty to "go to hell".

Settlements Minister, Orit Strok, compared the IDF's Chief of Staff, Mossad Chief, and Shin-Bet Head, to the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. 

Finance Minister and Second Defence Minister, Betzalel Smotrich, called to "wipe out" the Palestinian village of Huwara days of a settler rampage in response to a Palestinian terror attack.

Second Justice Minister, David Amsalem, called to arrest anti-judicial overhaul protest leaders.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli made an obscene gesture to fellow-Jews protesting his attendance at New York's Celebrate Israel Parade, and compared Israeli and Jewish pro-democracy demonstrators to BDS activists. 

 

And, let’s not forget that Netanyahu fought tooth and nail to keep twice-convicted fraudster, Aryeh Deri, in his position of double Minister of Health and the Interior (one portfolio for each prison sentence): an appointment the Supreme Court annulled. 

 

As for dismal coalition MKs, the list is too long, and their names don't merit mentioning. Highlights include directing slurs and animal noises at Arab MKs in the Knesset, blaming the Supreme Court chief justice for a deadly terror attack, calling for soldiers to shoot unarmed Palestinians, and claiming that homosexuality is a bigger threat to Israel than Hezbollah. 

 

Firing the Defence Minister

 

With ample choice of heinous ministers, Netanyahu instead chose to fire just one: his Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant. His crime? Calling on the government to pause the 'judicial reform' in the wake of mass-unrest among army reservists. "The growing rift in our society is penetrating the IDF and security agencies. This poses a clear, immediate, and tangible threat to the security of the state. I will not lend my hand to this." In the face of mass outrage, nobody knew whether Netanyahu would rescind the firing. For weeks, it was unclear whether Israel had a Defence Minister. Security of Israel be damned. 

 

Causing and Condemning Reservists' Refusal

 

The government is tearing up the basis of this country's social contract - that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Widespread refusal to serve among reservists would have been unthinkable before the government launched its 'judicial reform'. Why should we kill or be killed for a non-democratic regime, they ask, and how we can trust this government to issue and oversee commands that are moral or serve the national interest? As angry air-force reservists told their commander this week, they serve the kingdom, but will not serve the king. 

 

The government has the audacity to condemn these reservists and incite against those demonstrating, many of whom have served in Israel's wars. To see how perverse the situation has become, see here pro-government protestors near the Kotel chanting “leftist traitors" at protesting veterans of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade who liberated Jerusalem in 1967, singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. 

 

The government is filled with ministers and MKs who themselves have shirked military service, including Ben-Gvir (whose extremist views kept him out the army) and Smotrich (who delayed conscription and completed a shortened service), not to mention the Haredi ministers, whose communities enjoy sweeping exemptions from national service. The government is further entrenching the 'status-quo' of draft-dodging and state-benefits. It takes a special kind of audacity for this government to incite against its soldiers – and indeed, its taxpayers.

 

***

 

This is all without discussing the looming economic crisis as investors pull out or pause further investment, an unparalleled social crisis, skyrocketing crime including multiple murders a week among Israel’s Arab communities, increasing international isolation, abuses of taxpayer money, blatant cronyism, and domestic policy failures from education to the environment. 

 

Over twenty years ago, in an angry phone call with a Likud activist, Netanyahu's wife, Sarah, tore into supporters of triumphant Likud leader Ariel Sharon: "Bibi is a great leader, greater than this entire country... Come on, why does he need to try so hard? We'll move abroad. Let this country burn!" 

 

The country's burning, and the Netanyahus' high regard for themselves and disdain for the country remains the same. 

 

It is incumbent on us to boycott the government of Israel – to save the people of Israel.

To partake in protests.

And consider donating to the Jerusalem protest movement here. (For those in Israel, here; or the national movement, here).

 

Help us win this war – or it will be our last. 

 

Feel free to share.

 

Shabbat Shalom 

 

P.S. On a personal note, the situation in Israel is heart wrenching. The miracle of Israel – my home – is unravelling before our eyes. Yet, I am privileged to be part of a protest movement – the largest in Israel’s history – that is saving the country. I have never felt more Zionist than marching among a sea of thousands upon thousands of blue and white flags at the Knesset and in the streets, and collectively singing Hatikva at the end of each protest. Last week, on a mass march to the Knesset, protestors blew the shofar from atop the bridge to the Supreme Court, to the jubilation of us all below – secular, religious, left, and right – loyal to the founding principles of the greatest project in Jewish history.

Shehehianu v’kiamanu v’higuyanu lezman hazeh

 

#ENDS

 

 

1. One of the dispiriting phenomena of life in Israel is discovering how shabbily we treat strangers among us. These are mostly foreign workers who take care of our elderly or pick the vegetables we eat. They have few rights and are far from home and their own culture. And this does not even reference Israel's appalling occupational health and safety record in construction which mainly impacts the Palestinian Arabs.

High Court of Israel Orders Annulment of Law Allowing Confiscation of Migrant Workers' Pension Funds

Then there is this. Jewish louts in cars knocking over foreign workers on their way to work.

 

2.     Will someone tell The New York Times that Mahmoud Abbas does NOT want to end Israel’s “occupation” and has rejected viable plans put forth by Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon, and – even Trump (read the plan before you smirk).  Only thanks to the IDF did he have the capacity to visit Jenin. It is time for him to go and take his corrupt, financially bloated coterie with him.

Palestinian Leader Visits City Israel Raided, Trying to Signal Strength

A resource in the face of Netanyahu’s putsch for regime change.

The judicial overhaul – everything you need to know from the Israel Democracy Institute

3

For now, electricity flows normally on Shabbat, and those who want to disconnect from the grid must make their own arrangements. But as Haredi/Hardal power grows, there may come a time when every household in Israel will need to make special arrangements for “kosher” electricity on Shabbes.

הפוסק: כך תנהגו במקרה של הפסקת חשמל בשבת קודש בגלל עומס החום הכבד

4.     

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T     🇮🇱 Biden’s Israel Problem? The Wall Street Journal editorial board slams President Joe Biden’s approach to the Israeli government, accusing him of using worse rhetoric against the Jewish state than he does against the Islamic republic. “The President’s Israel policy has been counterproductive. U.S. aid to anti-Israel international bodies has resumed, and all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is treated as ‘occupied territory.’ This is now a liberal article of faith, but how does it advance peace to indulge Palestinians in the belief that Jews are interlopers in Judea and at the Western Wall? While Mr. Biden undermines the Netanyahu government, Hamas and other Iranian proxies are gaining power in the West Bank, activating another front against Israel. The new wave of terrorism against Jewish civilians will set back the Palestinian cause but advance Iran’s.” [WSJ]

T        The WSJ misses the point. Biden's refusal to meet Netanyahu is not over the two-state business but because of Bibi's putsch and because of retaliatory settler violence. While scores rioted, only two people have been arrested for the attacks against the Arabs, and Bibi is moving full speed ahead on "judicial reform." That is why there will be no White House parlay for Netanyahu and why President Herzog has been invited instead.

I         I guess the Journal's ideology got in the way of its analysis.