Saturday 7 October 2023

What "The Protest" is all about (Draft)

When I started writing this post (which is not finished yet) I intended to try and explain the political upheaval that we in Israel have been experiencing since January this year. By Israeli political standards the upheaval is quite dramatic. All this fades into insignificance this morning when hundred of Palestinian terrorists burst into Israel, and have killed over 100 Israelis and kidnapped many. I'll be reporting about this in separate posts.

Draft of the original post
Israel had 5 elections in the last 5 years. In the first three, Netanyahu just about held on to power, but with a very fragile coalition.  In the fourth election the result was a draw, or deadlock and the only (just viable) government was one led by a high-tech liberal right-winger called Natalie Bennett.   For the first  time in Israel's 75 year old history  he took an Arab (even Islamist) party into the coalition and left the Jewish religious  parties out. For the liberal secular half of Israel's population it was a dream government.  But it too was fragile with a tiny parliamentary majority (61 to 59) and suffered great strains with nationalist Jewish parties (including settlers) at one end and an Arab party at the other. It only needed one or two ideological members of the Knesset at each end to topple the government.  The Bennett/Lapid government had lasted 18 months. 

Then came the 5th election in which the right-wing/religious bloc got a small but workable majority (64 to 56) at the price of having to include an extreme right wing nationalist Jewish party "Jewish Power". Being the key to forming a Netanyahu government (even more critical for him because of the court cases against him, Bibi was prepared to pay the price. The price was (and is) heavy . He agreed to appoint the 2 leaders of the "Jewish Power" party to key ministerial posts (Ministers of Finance and National Security) even though neither of them had any government experience and both had previously been convicted of extremist offences. The religious parties..........

Coalition negotiations were difficult  and the latest Netanyahu government (he has been Prime Minister for most of the last 15 years) was finally formed in late November 2022. Less than 2 months later his new Minister of Justice publicly proposed a very radical program of legislation which, if passed, would dramatically reduce the power of the courts to review legislation.  Yariv Levin......Supreme Court is Israel's only backstop

Protests
In the beginning.....
150,000 Kaplan
All around the country 
Ministers homes, Neve Ativan, Teska factory,  New York


As of the start of October the protests and demonstrations are nominally about retaining democracy ( see Poland and Hungary) and stopping Israel becoming a dictatorship 

What they are really about is:
- For the secular half of Israel's population to keep Israel as a modern, liberal, West-leaning rich economy based on the rule of law
- To stop the increasing religiousation of Israel......חלוקת הנטל
- to get Bibi's incompetent extreme government out of power
- to get Netanyahu finally out of power and Israeli politics 

In the opinion of this writer these are valid and worthy objectives but I have some reservations 
- The leaders of the protest demand total victory regarding the judicial reforms i.e a public climb down (humiliation) announcement of the abandonment of the judicial reforms....compromise.....in polls 70% (a huge majority) want compromises on the judicial reform.  I reject the argument that "One cannot compromise democracy ". Democracy is not monolithic or binary.....look at Freedom House....Hungary 70-60% over 10 years (with no opposition ) Israel is still less is not so dramatic.  It's a long way from Iran or North Korea


Losing some democracy is not the end of the world. There are bigger dangers....
- The protesters have 

Friday 6 October 2023

Ben Gurion's prescience about the religious divide in Israel (draft)



An alleged quote from Israel 's founder David Ben- Gurion has been published on Facebook 

" I must tell my religious friends that any attempt to Cover us with things that we do not want will ruin the zionist movement ,ruin the state of Israel  will create enormous damage for religion,  And will diminish the ray of tradition amongst the people. All of us like the torah and are proud of it but the Torah was given to Israel and not Israel given to the Torah"

These words are so appropriate in view of the current religious culture wars in Israel. More of this later

Monday 2 October 2023

Religious Culture wars

The latest salvoes in the religious culture wars 

 Consuming non-kosher food impairs mental faculties' - Chief Rabbi Yosef.

https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/article-761245?utm_source=jpost.app.android&utm_medium=share

It's all because of 4 ministers in the government TBC

 


Just as the US Admininstration has recently (30 Sept 2023) beeh held to ransom by 12 rebel Republican senators, so the Israeli government is held hostage by 3 ministers in Netanyahu's government and one Knesset committee chair

They are 

Yariv Levin, Minster of Justice

Bezalel Smotrich

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security (equivalent to Homand Security in the USA)

Simcha Rotman



None of them held any official or ministerial posts in Israel previosu to the current Netanyahu government , which has only been in power since November 2022

Judicial revolution 2023 - this blog awakens TBC

 After many years of dormancy, it's time for David to talk about whats' going on in Israel. The trigger for this is the so-called "Judicial Reform" or "judicial Revolution - depending on whom you ask.

It was started by Israel's Justice Minister in the new (November 2022) Netanyahu government. His name is Yariv Levin , he's a lawyer and for at least 10 has tried to advance an agenda of major changes to the judicial system in Israel , most of which would severly curtail the power of the courts in favour of givimg much more power (and freedom to act indiscriminately) to the government of the day and the Knesset (israel's parliament).

More soon

David

Tuesday 30 June 2009

The King is Dead


The King is Dead
Originally uploaded by dlisbona
When a British king died, the courtiers used to cry out on the steps of the Royal Exchange "The king is dead, the king is dead, Long Live the King" meaning the king who inherited him.

But who will inherit Michael Jackson who is here commemorated on the front page of Maariv , an Israeli daily newspaper? The last time I can remember that people spoke in Israel of a king was in the cries of support for Ariel Sharon, the now-comatose ex-Prime Minister. His supporters used to cry "Arik, Arik [his nickname], King of Israel". How the kings are fallen....

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Waiting for an interview


Waiting for an interview
Originally uploaded by dlisbona
These last few days I've been helping Irit and Einat find a room for Einat to rent in Jerusalem for the coming academic year, and it ain't simple. It seems that demand seriously outstrips supply in the nicer areas of Jerusalem and the market adjusts. It seems the way to rent out an apartment (or find a new flatmate) these days is to advertise on one of the Internet sites . most popularly www.homeless.co.il - and then invite all interested people for a 2 hour open house. Interested candidates are then "interviewed" bu the owners or flatmates who announce their decision a few days later.

Here we are in an apartment in Rehavia with Einat waiting to be interviewed.