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
