Fascists Take To The Streets Reject Laws

I'm glad I don't live in a large city right now. Fascist mobs are demanding government changes trying to use their power to overrule the elected government.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not like I support all government policies, and I certainly don't support any blindly. But the way to change the government is through elections, not massive demonstrations in the streets.

Thank Gd, Israel is a democracy.

• We've had better governments, and we've had worse governments. 
• We've experienced better policies, and we've experienced worse policies. 

In all honesty I think that Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu's decision to make a broad disparate coalition with Benny Gantz's Blue and White ended up backfiring on him. One crucial aspect was successful in that Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi have lost a major part of their voter support.

But Bibi's attempt to hold the extremely heterogeneous coalition together was an unmitigated disaster. Blue and White got an unprecedented percentage of powerful positions, which angered pretty much everyone on all sides of the political spectrum with exception of the recipients themselves.  

Not only can't Bibi control the Blue and White MKs' voting power, he has lost control of his own Likud Party. Apparently he gambled that giving less veteran MKs cabinet posts would make them more loyal, and he took for granted that his more veteran MK ministers would play ball with him. The result wasn't as he planned.

We're now suffering another round of what I call Korach demonstrations meaning that those demonstrating/rioting don't have the same aims other than to destabilize the government. 

If the rioters get their wish and force Netanyahu out, then they'll just fight among themselves, since they have no real leader other than the secret money source coming from abroad. 

The financial backers have unsuccessfully promoted Ehud Barak and more recently replaced him with Benny Gantz. Who will be their next figurehead?

The only real advantage of the present instability here in Israel and in the states is that the horrid "Trump Deal" has been put on the back-burner.

Good News: Blue and White Disintegrated

Many people are describing Benny Gantz joining a coalition with the Likud and the disintegration of Blue and White as:

"Gantz blinked first."

Gabi Ashkenazi at Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions football game,
when our sons played on the same team, 12/2010,
Photo by Batya Medad

But I really think that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's "I'm too busy running the country in these difficult times" actions, ignoring Gantz was even more powerful than the classic "staring contest." Honestly, how long can even a political newbie/lightweight like Benny Gantz stare at a blank wall?

I also wonder if Gabi Ashkenazi had anything to do with Gantz's finally giving in. Ashkenazi is the only one of quartet to be joining Gantz in the coalition.

Gabi Ashkenazi at Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions football game,
when our sons played on the same team, 12/2010,
Photo by Batya Medad

Gabi Ashkenazi at
Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions football game,
when our sons played on
the same team, 12/2010,
Photo by unknown. That's me with
the pink gloves.

As you can see in the photos, there was a time when Gabi Ashkenazi and I cheered together for the same football team.  Our sons were top players together on the IFL Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions, that's American tackle football. He liked to sit right behind us, and never put on "airs." At the time Ashkenazi was head of the IDF, but he made time for cheering the team.

At this point most Israelis are sick and tired of all the political bickering and shenanigans, and we certainly don't want more elections.

The corona virus aka COVID-19 lock-down is causing us enough stress, and here in Israel, even the less Torah observant want to prepare in some way for Passover. Few people have sympathy for the MKs and party leaders who are looking for ways to gain political power during these difficult times. Even those who didn't vote for Bibi/Likud are impressed by how hard his team is working to get us through this epidemic with minimal casualties.  Other countries are in much worse shape.

It's Friday, and corona/COVID-19 or not, Shabbat will be in a few hours. May it be peaceful and healing.

Gantz-Arab Gov't, Not a Purim Joke

Benny Gantz making his big announcement
(yes, we still watch an old-fashioned tv set)

Things are looking worse and worse for Israel as Benny Gantz seems to be crossing his original "red line" in terms of counting on the extreme Left anti-Israel Arab party aka the Joint List to shore up his coalition. I don't know what deal/promises the backers/funders/organizers of Blue & White demanded of its so-called leadership, but Gabi Ashkenazi isn't letting principles get in his path to power.

MK Gabi Ashkenazi, one of the four leaders of the Blue and White party, expressed his opposition to the establishment of a minority government with the support of the predominantly Arab Joint List party in closed talks between the four leaders, Channel 13 News reported Monday.
However, if such a move is promoted, Ashkenazi does not intend to vote against it and prevent the establishment of such a government, the report said.

Some of Blue & White's Telem MKs are also having trouble accepting such a coalition, and their leader,  Moshe Bogie Yaalon wants them to resign, rather than stick to their principles.

Here in the Jewish Calendar, the Jewish World, it's Purim. Purim celebrates the story of how a Jewish woman, in disguise, ended up reversing an evil decree against the Jewish People.

Gd willing, we will see some Blue and White MKs act as true leaders and not followers. I just hope that that very male party has the strength, daring, cunning and strong principles of the very female Queen Esther.

"Blue & White," Follow The Money

As is the norm for professional, full-time soldiers in Israel, Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon retired rather young. Of the three, only Bogie went searching for another strenuous career. Bogie has been in politics, first teasing Likud supporters by posturing as on the Right and strong on security. But it didn't take long for him to disappoint his Right/Likud supporters.

One shouldn't ignore the simple fact that Gantz, Ashkenazi and Bogie made their ways up the power ladder in the IDF when the "rungs" were sawed off for anyone even marginally on the Right of Israel's political spectrum or wore a kippah full-time. Truth be told, the IDF of their time was much more secular and Leftist than today.

Many people were surprised at the sudden appearance of the three with Yair Lapid, as they heralded a new "Centrist" party, which they cleverly called "Blue & White," the colors of the Israeli flag. Lapid the more dedicated and successful politician surprisingly gave up the top spot to Gantz. Political pundits, "anyone but Bibi" supporters and quite a few others on all sides of Israeli politics have commented that the four don't look like a comfortable mix. But in politics there are agendas and backers. I'm interested in the backers. Follow The Money

Who crafted/assembled this "knock out Bibi" party? Who's funding this "knock out Bibi" party? 

Shades of V15, the not very subtle American interference in the 2015 Israeli Knesset Elections. Four years ago it seemed pretty clear that the Obama administration and Obama's backers were interfering in Israeli politics to get their nemesis Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu out of office. This year, with Donald Trump as American President, the "anyone but Bibi" forces aren't connected to POTUS. They've regrouped, and I suspect that they're funding Blue and White. Of course, I can't prove anything.

Politics is complicated and not all that simple, nor clean. Gd willing, we'll survive.

 "Blue & White?"