Understanding Israel’s January 22 Election
Third: Netanyahu made a distasteful alliance with the party of the demagogic Avigdor Lieberman. While Lieberman is corrupt and a poseur, his right-wing militancy was for show and he never actually did anything materially. At any rate, with Lieberman under indictment for corruption, the political careers of his faction’s parliamentarians now depend on keeping Netanyahu happy. Moreover, they represent more of a Soviet immigrant pressure group than right-wing militants.
This leaves the real fear regarding the rising star of Naftali Bennett, head of the genuinely far-right Habayit Hayehudi party. But the problem with the thesis, popular among Western journalists, that there will be a right-wing Netanyahu-Bennett coalition is that Netanyahu loathes Bennett and knows he would be a constant headache. Bennett’s party would attack every pragmatic step Netanyahu took — including those needed to get along with an Obama-led America — and ache for opportunities to threaten to walk out of the coalition or actually do so.
If such a coalition does happen, it will be because Netanyahu could find no way out. It is more likely that he will do everything possible to avoid this outcome and to work with some combination of other parties, including Labor. Of course, such an outcome isn’t certain, but is more likely than an all-right coalition.
The results will depend on the political math following the January 22 voting, with the key issue being how Netanyahu could assemble a parliamentary majority of 61 out of 120. Most likely would be an outcome in which the policies of the next government will be the same as the one ruling Israel for the last four years.
Right now, as Israelis realize, we live in an era when Israeli policy is necessarily more reactive and defensive. There is no diplomatic option for peace, and Israel has no influence over the Islamist direction of Egypt, Syria, the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon.
The big question, of course, is whether Netanyahu would ever attack Iran’s nuclear installations. I think the answer to that question is “no” for many reasons, only one of them being that this would lead to a confrontation with the Obama administration.
After decades of hearing American writers and alleged experts misunderstand Israeli politics and thinking, I can say that nothing has changed in this regard.
It is amazing to see how the election is being distorted: Bennett both demonized and made to seem more important than he is; Israel now being called anti-democratic because Netanyahu will win; etc.
The big question, after the security issue, is that Israel is in danger of following the economic footprints of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
This is unlikely, between Bibi and the head of the bank of Israel ( i forget his name) they are unlikely to abruptly change course now. Given that they have successfully steered the Israeli economy past the recent economic crises, why choose policies that led to those crises
Stanley Fischer.
I think at least 50% of outsiders including media get Israel wrong because Israel does not behave ‘normally.’ What is normal? Think of something basic, such as unruly neighbors behind your home separated by a fence. Those unruly neighbors have thrown all kinds of things including bombs over in your yard. You have asked them many times to please stop harassing you, your family and pets but it doesn’t work and you cannot afford to move. What do do?
1. Make a peace treaty with them.
2. Ask another nation to make a peace treaty and to enforce it, please.
3. Kick them out.
Obviously, #1 and 2 are not working, Israel has been doing that for about 60 years of so. Has it worked? Not a bit. Have the unruly neighbors, while screaming Israel stole their land, murdered any of your family members? Yes.
Most outsiders believe the Palestinians because they behave as if Israel stole their land. They use terror tactics and suicide bombers to make their points while Israel is begging outsiders to make a peace treaty. Who would you believe, the one behaving abnormally or the one behaving ‘normally?
This simple analogy is very harsh, I know that, but that is the reality. I don’t know why you paint Moshe Feiglin as a ‘dangerous extremist.’ Isn’t he one of the few normal Jews who wants to kick out those PA Muslims? Why is that considered ‘extreme?’
If we Jews give up Judea and Samaria so the unruly neighbors will suddenly become peaceful neighors, we hope, what will happen to the West Bank? Exactly what happened in Gaza. I can’t find one person on the right, left or moderate as you say who doesn’t think the West Bank would become another Hamastan. Barry, you know that too.
……”I think at least 50% of outsiders including media get Israel wrong because Israel does not behave ‘normally.’”……….
Shoshana;
I think you are not accepting reality here; they do not ” get Israel wrong” because of what Israel does. They “get Israel wrong” because either they simply hate Jews and/or they firmly believe that Israel was a construct of the imperialist western nations which imposed a Jewish ethnic state in a region where it does not belong; that is Israel is an illicit state that does not have the right to exist at all.
And because almost all “journalists” are liberal progressives, socialists or neo-communists, well, they simply have ZERO interest or intention of reporting the truth.
These reporters have an agenda that is driven by hatred of Jews and of Israel. There is absolutely nothing that Israel can do, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL, that will change the biased reporting that we all see and hear.
In fact, Israel can shrink back to the 1967 borders and the press would report how the Arabs got “screwed” since 1967 (or 1948) and how Israel should pay “reparations” for “forcing” the Arabs to leave their homeland in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Trust me, the media will just accept any propaganda from the Arabs and continue their efforts to destroy, to ANNIHILATE what remains of Israel.
Look, how many times have we seen bogus “news” stories of Arabs being hurt supposedly by Israeli security forces (you know, those Pollywood shows) and the “media” just reporting ALL of it as merely a real live event??
Ask yourself, what type of individual would report this total BS as fact??
Pray tell, in what manner is Israel not acting “normally” that motivates this blatantly false and dishonest reporting?
Ask yourself, why is the media doing this?
Well, because the want to make Israel look like a bunch of Nazis. That is their GOAL, THEIR INTENT. And the only reason anyone can choose to make someone out to be a Nazi is if they hold that person(s) in total contempt.
Those of us who can be considered as “classical liberals” have got to accept the fact that liberal progressives/socialists/neo-communists will do anything, say anything, will lie, cheat and kill – yes kill – to achieve their heaven on earth utopia.
Rest assured, that if Israel had been a very strong ally of the USSR, the media would be gushing over anything Israel did (right or wrong) just as they gush(ed) or simply ignored the murderous, tyrannical regimes of Castro, Ceaucescu, Tito, Honnecker, Mao, Stalin etc.
There is a huge difference betwixt believing that some of Israels policies vis a vis the Arabs is wrong or stupid, and intentionally reporting lies.
We have to wake up folks; there are substantial organized and funded groups that aim to destroy individual freedoms and free nations anywhere and everywhere they can find them. The aim of “global revolution” did not die with the demise of the USSR; it simply has taken on new forms and new agendas (e.g., Israel, global warming, etc.).
Shoshana – wake up. There are folks out there that are willing to kill to achieve their goals.
“These reporters have an agenda that is driven by hatred of Jews and of Israel. There is absolutely nothing that Israel can do, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL, that will change the biased reporting that we all see and hear.”
I agree with you about most reporters but not all of them. I disagree strongly with your point that there’s nothing at all that Israel can do about it. In the last war at the end of 2012 when Hamas attacked Israel with over 2,000 bombs aimed at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, what was Israel’s response?
We bombed plenty of their targets but refused to have our armed forces go into Gaza and wound up letting Morsi, the same extreme Jew hater, set the conditions for the end of that war. Even if Obama ‘forced’ us into this horrible deal, why did we go along with him???? I’m sure Bibi knows that Obama hates Israel. Why not let Iran negotiatate our peace treaty with Islamists?
This action by Israel is completely insane! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. By our stupid, weak, bend over behavior, we encourage even more hate.
What was our message to our many enemies? You can bomb us over and over and over, and expect little retaliation. The worst message possible.
I now realize that the previous comments that I submitted here in reply to Shoshana’s comment were probably not deleted but, rather, were probably just not posted. And I now think that the reason that they were not posted may be because they contained/contain several links and may have been prevented, by what I think may be the automatic blog server, from being posted because they contained/contain several links.
Praying for Israel. May HaSHEM´s choice clearly rise among the other three. May he prove obedience/t to HIS guidelines.
I don’t see how can Netanyahu avoid a coalition with Bennett if Labor refuses to join a coalition with Likud and Lapid refuses to sit with the Haredim. If Netanyahu has to choose between Lapid and the Haredim, rather than have them both, then whoever he chooses he won’t get addintional mandates/seats. Labor said they won’t join a Likud coalition and I believe them — it’s the same (failed) strategy as Kadima’s in the last election: The left thinks that a hard-right coalition will be so disastrous for Israel that in the next election the people will vote for the left, so they don’t want to allow Netanyahu to form a centrist govt. They also think that joining the coalition will not distinguish them enough to make a clear alternative in the next election, so they should remain in the opposition. That strategy failed for Kadima and will fail again. Most Israeli Jews will not vote for the left because it’s suicide. It’s like the Brits reelecting Chamberlain after Hitler already made his intentions painfully clear. The more the Arabs and Muslims attack us and the more the world turns against us, the more we’d feel our only choice is strength and resolve. Because really the Arabs and the world left us no other choice.
Last election I voted for Kadima hoping they will join the Likud coalition to form a centrist govt. I was sorely disappointed when Livni found all sorts of excuses to stay out. I felt betrayed since they put the interest of the party above the interest of the nation, and Livni put her own self interest above both. Most of our leadership seriously stinks. In the end most Israelis are centrists who don’t want either a hard right or a hard left/pro-Arab govt. But these are the only alternatives we have. If Labor wins the election who will they form a coalition with? Far-left Meretz and the Arab parties that are made of Arab nationalists, Islamists and communists. I may as well just decorate my brain with a bullet and get it over with faster and with a lot less pain.
We sure have too many parties, instead of uniting to face the couple of pretty serious existential problems we have on our borders and beyond. Some pols are busy with relatively trivial stuff. And uniting Likud with Israel Beiteinu was the mistake that caused Bennet to rise as the right-of-Likud alternative, whereas before Israel Beitienu was the right-of-Likud alternative. Instead of creating a larger party with more power to govern and less need to compromise with a plethora of odd small parties, which was the original intent, it made the union’s power shrink compared with what each party in it could have achieved independently.
Except Bennett and Jewish Home is a party which emphasizes Religious Zionism unlike Yisrael Beiteinu and, I think, this is the wave of the future in Israel and Israeli politics. I agree that Livni was a complete disappointment in opposition and, in my view, so was Yisrael Beiteinu, my former party. In general, many Israelis feel as you, yourself, appear, disgust with Israeli politics, too many parties and lack of real input by the general populace once the elcted parties form a government. Nonetheless, I want to give the renovated Jewish Home an opportunity. Bennett is a former soldier in a special unit and a self-made millionaire (start-up company). He doesn’t need the money that most politicians desire.
The irony is that Livni’s posters say “the hope will overcomethe fear “, yet in the accompanying poster she looks quite fearsome.
Bennet is a good man, without prejudice.
I agree with you 100%. Bennett talks in a straightforward manner and represents a large group of youth in Israel- namely the religious Zionists. Dati Leumi is only going to grow in the future. It is the likes of the center that are doomed (relatively) demographically.
Bennett also advocates for the positions of a free market economy- something Netanyahu has strayed from lately with his out of control spending. In one interview, he said straight out “the government does not know how to manage” anything. This is popular with the business community.
As for the campaigns, it really doesn’t matter how bad are the leftist ones because the media does their campaigning fot them free of charge. But I actually haven’t seen much of the formal ads because I’m not interested in slogans. I’d like some actual answers to the problems we’re facing, all of which are rather severe. Netanyahu may not bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities. Will Labor? And what are they going to do about the deficit except complain? The deficit is a result of appeasing the protests plus that little war with Hamas. Labor can use the deficit against Likud, but how are they going to make it better if they intend to expand the welfare programs? You can’t cut the security budget at a time like this. Raising taxes won’t be enough, and anyway they attack Netanyahu for raising taxes. So what will they do instead?
And, of course, the Islamo-Western axis and what they call in this Orwellian age the “peace” process, which really means they’re going to kill us. What’s the Labor’s plan there? Simply give in to all the Arab preconditions in return for nothing so they will do us the favor of “negotiating” with us (i.e. making endless demands, but never making any concessions, such as never giving up their demand to resettle millions of Arabs inside Israel) and the world will do us the favor of not killing us right away, but wait a little longer?
I thought about this election for four years, trying to make up my mind. After casting my vote the last election I thought, why did I vote Kadima and not Likud? After all Netanyahu was right about most things and the Left was wrong about everything. Then I thought about the meaning of this election. Voting for the left means suicide, or rather assisted suicide. Voting for the right means that the world will murder us. Is it better to die by suicide or by murder? I opted for murder for two reasons. The important one is that assisted suicide means certain death, while with murder we still have some chance of dodging the bullet. The other reason is that if we do die the world in general, and the West in particular, must not be allowed to wash their hands of our blood by claiming it a result of our own naivety and bad judgement. If the West decided to kill us they must have our blood visibly on their hands and never be allowed to deny their complicity.
Pnina, I know the ‘assisted suicide,’ very good term, is a real option. I’m not so sure about the West murdering us because the West rather see the Muslims murder us and will help them in all ways possible to kill us as they are and have been doing for decades. This is more than obvious.
So if both your 1 and 2 options lead to our collective deaths, then the question is and must be-why not throw out our Muslim killers? Because that will make the West crazy? Yes, how dare the Jews refuse to let our palis murder them. How dare them live!
And what will the West do? Cut off all Israeli aid and loans? Yes but that’s being threatened today while our population is growing which also drives the West crazy. Stop buying products from Israel? Yes and no…..most of the West is addicted to their computers while at the same time, trying to figure out why they’re so very obese.
Thus, I think there’s really only one question: do we Jews choose Life or death?
Of course it will be the Muslims that will do the actual throat-slitting. I don’t expect Westerners to actually dirty their hands physically. The West doesn’t have its own inherent interest in our annihilation — this is a Muslims wish. The West simply decided to sacrifice us to appease the Muslims and sold it both to us and to the Western public as a seemingly neverending “peace process” rather than a gradual war process, otherwise known as the Phased Plan. It’s not like it has no precedence — they did the exact same thing with Czechoslovakia. It’s nearly identical. They gave the Sudetenland to Hitler under the pretense that it will bring “peace in our time”. When Hitler conquered all of Czechoslovakia they did nothing, in spite of being Czechoslovakia’s “allies” (much like they are our “allies”). They hoped Hitler will be satisfied with Czechoslovakia and leave the rest of Europe alone.
Is the West any different today? I don’t believe so. Used to believe so in the past, but not anymore. The leadership is still a calculated, cynical, cold-blooded bunch who won’t hesitate to sacrifice an entire other nation for the sake of their own interests, even narrower and more selfish interests than supposed “world peace”.
What they did to Czechoslovakia they do to Israel now. Just give the Arabs the territories, and when they attack us from there, then well, just let them. Of course, they couldn’t just come to us and to their own public and say they cold-bloodedly decided to sacrifice us. That is why they continue talking about “peace process”, even though they don’t demand any concessions from the Arab side (such as giving up the demand to resettle the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees inside Israel as a condition for “peace”), or that they will meet their commitments from previous agreements, such as stopping the violence, stopping the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement, educating their children on peace rather than the elimination of Israel, and accepting a two-states-for-two-peoples solution, where obviously one of the two states remains a Jewish state. This is also why the anti-Israel propaganda and demonization is always escalating, up to questioning Israel’s right to exist — the West is simply gradually preparing its own public to accept our extermination as morally just, so as to prevent any meaningful opposition from their own public (since, of course, the people are less calculated and cold-blooded and more sentimental than their leadership).
Note also that the 1948 war was not just an Arab-Israeli war. The Brits created and trained the Arab Legion. Its commanders were British. At the beginning of the war the British commanders formally left, but informally remained. And the world imposed an arms embargo on the Middle East, supposedly to prevent war or reduce its damage, except the Brits already armed the Arabs, so the arms embargo effectively targetted just one side, the Israeli side, which was also vastly outnumbered. We were not meant by the West to survive the Arab attack, even though they formally supported the founding of Israel — behind the scenes they had other plans for us which involved very large piles of Israeli dead bodies. If it weren’t for said Czechoslovakia that breached the embargo and sold us weapons we would not exist today. What were the British motives? They wanted to keep air bases and military presence in the Middle East. An Arab-Israeli war would have been useful for that purpose, even if it meant all the Jews will be killed. In 1948 they signed a treaty with Jordan allowing them just that (remove the spaces):
news. bbc. co. uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514379. stm
“In 1948 a treaty of alliance allowed Britain to retain air bases and a small force in Jordan. In return, Britain continued to train and subsidise the Arab Legion which began as a security force and became the nucleus of the army.”
The British had air bases in several other Arab countries. They didn’t get them for free. Then there were revolutions against the British-installed rulers. In the mid 50s Jordanina king Hussein, internally attacked for being a British tool, threw out the last British officer. Arab nationalism was the order of the day and included strong anti-Western sentiments and actions. Then the Brits allied with us — temporarily — in the Suez crisis.
But the British collusion with the Arabs and the Western contribution to the war didn’t end with arming the Arabs and trying to prevent arms from the Jews. The West also let the mufti Amin al-Husseini flee French custody rather than stand trial in Nuremberg for his collaberation with the Nazis. They can’t possibly deny that by that time they knew exactly what was his plan for the Jews in the Middle East. Why did they let him go? Supposedly they didn’t want his trial to have a negative effect on their relations with the Arabs, but according to recently declassified American documents, the British head of Palestine’s Criminal Investigation Division thought it would be a wonderful idea to let the mufti al-Husseini go because he believed he’s the only one who could unite the Palestine Arabs against the Jews — in his words, to “cool off the Zionists. Of course, we can’t do it, but it might not be such a damn bad idea at that”, he told the assistant American military attaché in Cairo. Can’t you just hear the wonderful British accent and glorified taste for understatement as he makes this suggestion supposedly without really making it? Were those the words of a renegade British bureaucrat or did others in higher places put this idea in his mouth?
Earlier in the 40s the British govt. colluded with the BBC to hide the holocaust from the British public while it was happening (remove the spaces):
independent. co. uk / news/uk/why-the-bbc-ignored-the-holocaust-antisemitism-in-the-top-ranks-of-broadcasting-and-foreign-office-staff-led-to-the-news-being-suppressed-says-stephen-ward-1462664. html
Why? Though anti-Semitism probably had a lot to do with it, the other plausible reason for the govt is that they wanted to prevent significant public opposition to their policies in the Palestine Mandate and their decision to avoid attacking the Nazi death camps. They already gave 80% of the Palestine Mandate to the Arabs (today’s Jordan) a long time ago and were now preventing Jewish immigration to the rest of it, while turning a blind eye to Arab immigration. They stopped ships of Jews fleeing from Europe, returned some of them back to Europe to die and arrested others. If the British public had known there was a Jewish genocide going on in Nazi occupied Europe there might have been an outcry to let the Jews go or act to save them. One of the British govt’s excuses for suppressing the info was that the British people were so overwhelmingly and profoundly anti-Semitic that the mention of the Jewish genocide would only inflame their anti-Semitic sentiment. There’s no doubt anti-Semitism was widespread in Europe and Britain, but there is some doubt there weren’t any British people who weren’t THAT anti-Semitic and would complain about the British policies (emphasis mine):
“At other times it was suggested that mention of the Jewish plight in Europe would only inflame anti-Jewish feeling in Britain, even though Eden had noted at the Cabinet committee on refugees in 1944 that the main effect of his Commons statement on Jewish massacres in December 1942 had been to stimulate complaints that the Government was not doing enough to help the victims of the Nazi regime.“
If exposing the massacres resulted in criticism of the British govt’s policies, then most likely hiding the massacres would serve to prevent criticism of the British govt’s policies. Hiding and distorting the truth allows the leadership to carry out policies that would otherwise be opposed by the people.
So you see, when it comes to foreign policy the West isn’t better than anyone else, but just far more hypocritical, and that’s because the West is democratic. In a democracy the leadership — may it be the political or intellectual and cultural leadership — has to con the public into supporting, or at least not significantly opposing, the leadership’s chosen policies. For that purpose they have to pretend to have moral motivations. That is why they talk of “peace” and constantly intensify the anti-Israel propaganda, while hiding what the Arabs say in Arabic and sometimes even in English, and never really criticize them for anything — their purpose is to persuade the Western public these perverse anti-Israel policies are moral. So there’s nothing new under the sun. The Arabs are the same Arabs, the sea is the same sea, and the West is the same West.
Formidable choices, Pnina. You’ve absolutely captured what it means, or may mean, to be an Israeli Jew.
The West can’t kill you. The worst it can do is impose sanctions that would cause a few of your sunshine patriots to move to America or Germany. No great loss, and then you would have your hands free to deal with your Arab Muslim tormentors as you see fit. But that’s just the worst case scenario. What seems to me to be your best course of action is simply to hold on and allow long-term economic and demographic trends to work in your favor. Netanyahu actually seems to be pursuing that policy already.
The West can kill us and will try to. The Arabs aren’t ready to make peace, so the West will do the following:
Try to force us to give in to whatever Arab precondition for returning to the negotiations, including agreeing in advance to go back to the 1967 armistice lines, so the Arabs will do us the favor of “negotiating” with us on the rest of their demands — that is already done. Obama already did it. Of course, the rest of the Arab demands include resettling the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees inside Israel. They’re not going to give that one up and no one will say one damn thing about it even though everyone understands this prevents any possible agreement. Instead they will blame Israel for the failure of the “peace” process. That’s what the West did so far, and there’s ceratianly no reason to hope that may change now that the American president is outright hostile to Israel.
Since this will not work, the West will try to force us to withdraw from Judea and Samaria without peace “on our own accord”. If we do that either Fatah will start a war or Hamas will take over and the Arabs will periodically rain rockets on all of Israel from all directions — from Gaza on the south, from Judea and Samaria on the center, from Lebanon (Hizballah) on the north. Periodically because we will be allowed limited military response that will temporarily stop the shooting until next time, but never to take any action that will uproot the terrorist infrastructure because the terrorist infrastructe will be none other than the Arab-Palestinian authorities and the Arab-Palestinian state. The rocket barrages will cause mass deaths, massive destruction of property, hitting strategic targets, interruption of transportation both internally and externally (rockets from Judea and Samaria hitting the airport, airplanes, ports and vessels), interruption of services, a severely demoralized population living in terror, systemic and personal disfunction, mass emigration. That will eventually cause the collapse of Israeli society, economy and governance. When we have partially collapsed the Arab armies will invade and conquer. That’s the assisted suicide option. It’s hard to see a way out of it. Even WMD won’t be effective as a last resort because of the proximity of the populations. That seems like certain death.
If we refuse, the UN is likely to unilaterally recognize an Arab-Palestinian state and demand we unilaterally withdraw (which is the same as the previous option). Whether that happens or not the West will embark on increasing punitive steps for our refusal to commit suicide as ordered, including but not limited to growing isolation, boycotts, sanctions, arm embargoes. Disarming us and starving our economy — that is the murder option. Of course, the Muslims will be the ones to conquer, destroy and kill when we’re finally too weak to defend ourselves. The West will just aid and abet it. The murder option still allows us some chance to survive if we can find another “patron”.
The West might also try to disarm us from our nuclear option (Obama already went there once, but was restrained by internal American opposition).
Military intervention is not very likely because the aforementioned steps are likely to be enough, but it’s not entirely out of the question.
As utterly hopeless as it will be and I agree with you, there is time for we Jews to take control of the situation. And it’s not through phony ‘peace’ deals. The West is not financially healthy and because of this, it will be busy blaming everyone and everything but themselves, as we’re witnessing now.
And by arming the Muslims to the teeth, it will be financially worse off and the West is digging its own grave by arming Islamists. If the West thinks it can simply arm the Arabs to the teeth who will then slaughter Israel and put down its weapons nicely or give them back to the West, that is stupid policy which makes no sense…….that we’re getting used to.
Pnina, why do you think we need a patron? I think we’ll do much better being independent. We can’t nor should we make deals with the Hamas/PLO/PA Muslims.
You write as if Israel did not have hundreds of nuclear warheads, nuclear submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the best-trained air force in the world. Is it conceivable that Israel would go down leaving all that stuff unused? Of course not: these are the aces that Israel is keeping up its sleeve, wisely saving them for when the circumstances should really call for them. It’s precisely because things are not that bad, because there’s still a lot to lose diplomatically, that the Israeli leadership chooses to act with restraint.
As for the U.N., who cares what they say? This is life, it’s not a game. The difference between life and a game is that, in life, when the current rules aren’t working for you, you are free not to follow them. Any talk of an “international law” that is anything more than a voluntary agreement among equals, including an “international law” that could compel one nation to commit suicide, is sheer absurdity from the standpoint of any social contract theory.
Thank you, Stan, for your common sense! We cannot allow ourselves to become part and parcel of the leftwing paranoia, hate, absurdity, fearmongering and propaganda.
Shoshana,
Please know that not everyone in the West wants to murder Jews or Israelis, or assist in, or condone, their murder by muslims.
Many of us are on your side, and have a focused and somewhat patient rage about this.
We know we are with you.
Bob, thanks for your kind words and I am aware of the fact that a strong minority, especially in the States, do desire the Jewish State to win our war with Islam. But don’t be naive, Bob. What makes you think that the Western arming of the PA Muslims, Hamas, Egypt under the anti-Western, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, HizbAllah, al Qaeda in Syria and on and on is for ‘peaceful’ purposes?
Benett and Bayit Hayudi represent Israel’s future in all fields.
Granted,bibi will try to bypass him to form his coalition
I pray that Benett will get over 15 seats but it might not be the case ….this time yet
If Likud keeps on attacking Bennet, Bennet will be Prime minster. Seriously, the more they attack him, the more seats he gets.
If one looks at demography, the Israeli state appears to be doomed.
Israel is disintegrating. Demographic changes will destroy the State of Israel from within. Never mind Iran’s nukes, the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, terrorism… The Arabs just have to be patient and wait til the parasites have sufficiently weakened the hosts… It won’t be much longer.
Hamevin Yavin.
In 2008, 48% of primary school pupils were ultra-Orthodox or Israeli Arabs.
In 2040, 78% of Israel’s primary school students will be Haredi or Arabs, and only 14% will be in the non-religious State school system – if current trends continue.
A demographic look ahead at Israel
http://taubcenter.org.il/index.php/e-bulletin/a-demographic-look-ahead-at-israel/lang/en/
Layla Tov, Israel.
Re: Netanyahu & Israel’s January 22 election.
Netanyahu isn’t the leader of the country. He is the leader of the Likud — which only has 27 seats out of 120 seats in the Knesset. He is utterly dependent on his haredi “allies” for his political survival. He is a frontman for the haredi political parties. Without Shas (11 seats) and United Torah Judaism (5 seats), Netanyahu doesn’t come close to having a majority coalition.
Netanyahu is a stooge, a puppet of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Gerrer Rebbe, the Vizhnitz Rebbe, the Belz Rebbe and Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman. If he wishes to remain Prime Minister, he must give his masters whatever they demand in return for their support. How much longer can Israel survive this unholy arrangement?
How much longer can Israel survive the hatemongering campaigns of the left-wing parties, nicely shown by your post?
And you don’t even have the demographics correct.
“parasites and hosts”: A phrase used by the Nazis to describe Jews residing in Germany. It disgusts me when it is used again, this time about Israel and its neighbours, especially when we are the only (positive) dynamic entity in the whole Mideast. The plague of Jew hatred remains as can be seen from “Layla Tov’s” indecent response.
You are right to be concerned about the demographic trends. However the Hareidi issue can be solved simply. The hareidi listen to their rebbes. If the rebbes tell them to go to the army or learn english or math, they will. It will take convincing those rebbes that the money will run out. then they will issue the necessary edicts. Now whether Bibi or Bennett is the one more likely to convince the rebbes to make the necessary changes, is anyone’s guess.
The latest demographic data (published yesterday on Israeli TV) say that the Jewish birthrate went up to about 3 children per woman and the Muslim birthrate (of Muslim Israeli citizens) went down from above 4 children per woman to about 3.5 or 3.6. Can’t remember the exact figures. Anyway the Muslim birthrate in Israel has been declining for a while now, — it’s been a long term, decades-long, trend so far, — while the Jewish birthrate has stopped declining at some point and is even rising. All projections based upon the current birthrates, let alone the birthrates of a decade ago, shouldn’t be taken as a certain destiny. If Jewish birthrate will go up to 3.3 children per woman, and Muslim birthrate will fall to 3.3, the Jewish-Arab ratio will remain stable (not taking into account aliya, or Jewish immigration).
Birthrate isn’t an entirely passive thing like an external force of nature. Jews, including secular Jews, may decide, individually or collectively, to have more children if that’s what it takes to keep our state.
Barry – please define for me what you consider “far right” in Israeli politics. Am I far right because I use my common sense and know that the Arabs will never make peace, since they cannot acknowledge the existence of Israel as the Jewish state, and they have proved this over and over again for the past 65 years? Perhaps this just makes me “right wing” (or better yet, just normal!). If so, I am joined by over fifty percent of my countrymen.
There will never be a “two-state solution”. There will be a one-state solution. That is fairly obvious.
In Israel proper, there are 1.6 million Arabs. In the West Bank, 2.6 million Arabs. In the Gaza Strip, 1.7 million Arabs.
5.9 million Arabs vs. 5.9 million Israeli Jews. By 2020, there will be significantly more Arabs than Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. By 2050, the numbers will be frightening for the Zionist state.
An increasing share of Israeli Jews will be ultra-Orthodox — who are ambivalent about Zionism at best, anti-Zionist at worst.
Why is this a (potential) problem? To put it bluntly: charedim are parasites, who survive through government handouts, they freeload off the rest of the country (i.e. the taxpayer).
65% of charedi men do not work. They don’t support themselves. So how do they survive? By freeloading off the government — they get shameful government monthly welfare checks, subsidized housing, subsidized education, child allowances, tremendous discounts in municipal taxes…
In 1979, just 20.9% of charedi men did not work, compared to 65% today.
You are mixing up Zionism with being pro-Israel. Most fo the Leftist appeasers claim to be Zionist. Conversely, most Chareidim, possibly even most anti-Zionist Chareidim are solidly pro-Israel and have not fallen prey to the Oslo religion, even though we will accept a compomise is we think it will save lives.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at Mishpacha magazine, for example, in English or Hebrew. Anti-zionist, solidly pro-Israel. I would put myself in that category. (I used to consider myself a patriotic non-Zionist and celebrate Independance Day as a secular holiday, but I just got so sick of the institutionalized anti-semitism. I solidly back my country anywhere I can, though.)
Bennet is a golden exception, a man truly without prejudice.
I have to get back to work now.
mzk1: I would be grateful if you could elaborate a little on how you see the difference between being anti-Zionist and anti-Israel.
‘Reality’ is obviously the same person as ‘Layla Tov’ — same message, same style, same expression re the Haredim (parasites). Posting as different users to create the impression of a crowd. Probably an Israeli or ex-Israeli far leftist, gloating at the thought of the destruction of Israel.
There is no such thing as a one-state-solution. That’s just euphemism for The Final “Solution” to the Jewish Problem of the Middle East. Of course, I understand the West will demand we’ll either withdraw from Judea and Samaria and give the Arabs another state there so they can attack us more efficiently all over Israel with rockets, mortars, artillery, terrorism and whatever else is at hand, or else we give them all Israeli citizenships so Israel becomes a binational state at the first stage and then another Arab-Muslim state, but don’t call it a solution, call it The Final Solution. Let’s not lie, let’s say the truth — the West has decided to hand us over to the Muslims. The West has decided it’s OK to murder us for the sake of its interests in the Muslim world. Let’s not lie about it. I’m so tired of the lies and the Western rotten hypocrisy.
I’ve already replied to you above about the birthrates inside Israel.
As for the territories — first, we already left Gaza, there’s nothing more we can do about that, we can’t re-leave Gaza if we already left Gaza. We can’t uproot the settlements from Gaza if we already uprooted the settlements from Gaza and there are no settlements in Gaza. We can’t take out the Israeli military posts from Gaza if there are no Israeli military posts in Gaza. Whatever the Arabs decide to do with Gaza is their own choice. They can declare an Islamic caliphate there right now. We’re not there. No matter how much you insist that we’re there, we’re simply not there. You can insist we have settlements and military posts on Mars and we should leave Mars immediately and it won’t change the fact that we don’t have settlements and military posts on Mars and therefore can’t leave Mars because WE’RE NOT THERE.
As for Judea and Samaria — the Arabs can have an Arab state there if:
1. They return to the negotiations.
2. They give up the demand to resettle the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees INSIDE Israel, which is just the same as your “one-state-solution”, i.e. The Final “Solution” to the Jewish Problem of the Middle East.
3. They accept a reasonable settlement in Jerusalem which doesn’t include expelling the Jews again. The Muslims expelled the Jews from east Jerusalem in 1948. Of course, they expelled the Jews from many other places both before and after the creation of Israel, but we don’t demand to return to Mecca and Medina or to what is today Jordan or to the Jewish owned lands in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria and Syria, or to all the Arab states from which they expelled the Jews. However the Jews will not be expelled from existing Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and the Western Wall will not be given to the Arabs to turn it once again into a garbage dump like the Jordanians did after conquering it in 1948.
4. They declare the agreement and the founding of an Arab-Palestinian state NEXT to Israel as the end of the conflict, recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jews that will remain so (that is the meaning of a TWO-state solution — it doesn’t mean two more states for the Arabs, but one for the Jews too), commit to not attacking Israel ever again and not trying to eliminate it or turn it into an Arab or Muslim state by any means, or otherwise trying to change its character or kill its people, commit that they’d just leave us the fuck alone, and educate their children on peace rather than jihad and the elimination of Israel and/or genocide of the Jews.
Didn’t the West guarantee that this is what will happen? Didn’t everyone, including the Arabs, the West and everyone else, talk about a TWO-state-solution in the sense that the Jews keep Israel, and about land-for-peace in the sense that peace actually means peace and not war? Did the West deceive us when they were talking about such things and really meant that the Arabs will just get another state from which to attack us more effectively again and again and again and again? If not, then why isn’t the West ever demanding the Arabs to meet even the most basic criteria and commitments? The Arabs aren’t ready to do any of this and rejected every proposal for a final agreement, so why is it us who have to pay the price? Unless the West are liars, schemers and cold-blooded murderers, which they are.
1) There are 42 political paries, lists, in Israel. Just think any article in America about Israel’s election should note this.
2) It appears that Bennett’s Jewish Home party is getting the under-40 vote.
I get more insight from LatmaTV than here
The LATMA youtube channel is wonderful and a great way to learn Hebrew.
I also recommend MyIsraelHE, which has a few chioce viedos. It is from Yisreal Sheli, an organization of Bennet and Ayelet Shaked, who is a non-religios memeber of Bennet’s religious party. (She is the main part of Yisrael Sheli.)
It is because of that channel that I realzied that Bennet is an exception to the hatemongering of Israeli politics. Letely Likud has tried transferring the attacks on the Chareidim to Bennet. If Likud keeps this up, Bennet will be Prime Minster.
I disagree with you about Moshe Feiglin being a “dangerous extremist”. I think he’s the only hope the country has of still being around in 20 years.
I’ve heard him (Feiglin) speak in public. He is a visionary.
Feiglin is a Mensch and not an extremist.
Bibi would better treat him seriously if he wants likud to remain the main political party in Israel on the forthcoming future !
Mr. Rubin. Here is why I have difficulty wholly trusting your judgment political matters. If I recall correctly, you saw some kind of potential ‘silver lining’ in the forcible uprooting of thousands of law-abiding Jews from Gush Katif, Gaza, August 2005.
You wrote: “This leaves the real fear regarding the rising star of Naftali Bennett, head of the genuinely far-right Habayit Hayehudi party. But the problem with the thesis, popular among Western journalists, that there will be a right-wing Netanyahu-Bennett coalition is that Netanyahu loathes Bennett and knows he would be a constant headache. Bennett’s party would attack every pragmatic step Netanyahu took — including those needed to get along with an Obama-led America — and ache for opportunities to threaten to walk out of the coalition or actually do so.”
“Far-right” is a matter of perspective. What you call far-right, I might term right-leaning or moderate-right. Perhaps you would call what the Republican leadership has done to date in its negotiations with Barack Obama on the debt ceiling, pragmatic. Many conservatives believe it is capitulation. There are some things in which we can compromise. Ceding precious and strategic land to Israel’s enemies is not pragmatic. It is folly. My view is that Israel’s leaders must make clear to American leaders, a Palestinian state in Israel’s heartland is out of the question; it will be a mortal threat to Israel’s Jews. If that is not pragmatic enough for you, so be it. We must deal in reality; not wishful thinking. The reality is there is no end in sight to this war of annihilation of Israel’s Jews and the Jewish state.
A small ally CANNOT interfere in the business of a big brother. The reverse is of course not true.
In a few words, BHO has already demonized BB and told the Israelis that BB is bad for IL.
It should not take too much time for the Jewish democrats to second BHO!
As far as the Arabs, they will refuse anything short of total surrendering of the Jews or they will practice taqyyia with the support of the West.
IL is given one of 2 options: resist or give in and disappear.
The ultimate goal of the West is to destroy the resolve of IL. And we all know the consequences.
I’ve always liked Netanyahu, both individually and as an Israeli war hero and patriot. I’ll be pulling for him again. He’s tough. What must demoralize Israelis, however, is that an overwhelming majority of American Jews voted for Obama’s re-election. For Obama the unknown against McCain in ’08, perhaps understandably. But in ’12 for Obama against Romney? When Obama had a track record? With American friends like these …
Mr Rubin you carefully dissect the ineptitude of the left ; I would like too dissect as well the ineptitude of the centrist Likud and its Netanyahu-Lieberman duo.I agree with you this duo is standing in the center , but not on the political spectrum, This duo is standing in the center of INERTIA exactly as a circus artist is holding up his stance on a one-wheel cycle: a few centimeters forward, a few centimeters backwards and that’s all_You can call that being “centrist ” ; I call that being impotent : And this exercise applies not only on the diplomatic front but also on the social problems inside the country.Concerned citizens are observing such a feat, and they conclude something must change, someone else , a new face, a new will is necessary; The INERTIA of the centrist duo Netanyahu-Liberman is wearing thin the patience of the still zonist majority.Something must change,and if the pressure of Obama and the arab stalemate is too heavy to shake ,then on the social reforms , something got to give. Bennett is not a firebrand , he represents something which is authentic, the zionist ethos, the will to fight, the necessary solidarity inside the society. So my conclusion runs contrary to yours; if Bennett receives more than 15 mandates , Netanyahu will reach a coalition with him, and the whole country will return to a positive, self-centered pride.
Just the extreme highlights of Prof. Barry Rubin’s opinion of each person in this article
• Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu – centrist
• Shaul Mofaz – highly competent general but shown himself to be a bad politician; uncharismatic; hapless
• Livni – failed repeatedly in office
• Yair Lapid – follows father’s political path in bashing the Haredim
• Shelly Yachimovich – radio personality with little political experience
• Benny Begin – honorable man but hard right; among group of Likud nice guys who were terrible campaigners
• Moshe Feiglin – a dangerous extremist [ouch!]
• Avigdor Lieberman – demagogic; corrupt and a poseur [a person who pretends to be what he is not : an affected or insincere person]; right-wing militancy was for show
• Naftali Bennett – head of the genuinely far-right Habayit Hayehudi party; loathed by Netanyahu
” For breakfast just now, I paid $3 for a croissant and $3 for a coffee in a country where income levels average half those in the United States. ”
No. You paid for someone to make you breakfast and give you a place to eat it.
It costs less than twenty cents to make your self a cup of coffee ( including milk and sugar ) and I buy the worlds most delicious croissants for fifty five cents each.
Your breakfast $6. My identical breakfast less than $1.
Living well takes effort. So does living comfortably.
Several commenters have quoted Rubin as writing that “Moshe Feiglin [is] a dangerous extremist”.
I’m not sure he meant that – he was summarizing the conventional wisdom of the Israeli Left. In the preceding paragraph, he noted explicitly that one of the losers in the Likud primary, all “moderates” according to conventional wisdom, is actually hard right.
Perhaps he could clarify?
Mr. Morsi’s quote “to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.” Should not be ignored. Nursed on hatred now and on radiation later?
Our current leader is following in the footsteps of the first Baptist member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jimmy Carter, in setting us up to have the 82nd Airborne defending Egypt while the 101st defends Israel. Sweet!
The Jews are our friends, as long as it benefits them, and we should welcome the friendship as the remainder of the area seems afloat in a sea of camel dung stirred by the nurses of hatred yet from Jefferson we have his inaugural pledge: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none.” Too bad we didn’t listen.
In reference to Morsi: I wrote to my Congress representatives that if my taxpayers money was going to be used for a loan to Egypt, such loan should have as a condition that Egypt has to reform their educational system and STOP THE INCITEMENT AGAINST COPTS, JEWS, ETC.
I hope you’all would join me with such a request and spread the word…….
Correction:
I wrote:
“…in the mid 1960′s, Yasser Arafat was trained in Egypt by the KGB to become head of the PLO…”
Which should be:
“…in the mid 1960′s, Yasser Arafat was trained in Russia by the KGB to become head of the PLO…”