Hamas/Gaza War Musings #47: Bibi, The Worst of Menachem Begin

This is related to War Musings #46, so if you haven't read it, I recommend that you do so. Both of these posts show how we're suffering from the mistakes made and never corrected decades ago. Here I concentrate more on one of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin made. No, I don't get into Begin's Sinai withdrawal and destruction of numerous Israeli communities in the Sinai, aka the Camp David Accords.

What concerns me the most is how Begin's, and more recently, Bibi's avoiding cleaning the bureaucracy of those who obviously want to sabotage their government policies. In Begin's time, the Foreign Ministry, stocked with Leftist Labor supporters, didn't advise him according to his supporters' and voters' policies. People didn't vote him in to withdraw from the Sinai and destroy Jewish communities. It's very probable that Begin's depression towards the end of his rule, wasn't just because of the death of his beloved wife, but because his policies had alienated his closest friends and supporters.

When Begin's party got the most seats in the 1977 elections, it was a surprise for all. As I remember, none of the polls predicted such a political upheaval. Begin didn't have an "army" of followers to take over the bureaucracy. I don't think he had a real plan for an eventual win. For nineteen years, Herut and Liberals felt that they'd be permanent Opposition.

Upon establishing his government, instead of doing what was technically legal, replace government workers involved with policy. Instead he tried to make "friends" with them, called it being "noble," by not firing the Labor followers and Histadrut members. So political appointees became permanent policy makers, and they made sure the "right" people succeeded them, "a friend brings a friend." That's how the Judicial, the IDF, Foreign Ministry and the Shabak etc still follow Leftist Labor policies, even though the Labor party hasn't had a Prime Minister for decades. The only real ideological success/change was that Begin's Liberal-- meaning non-socialist--political partners did what they were elected to do by breaking the power and monopoly of the Histadrut in economics.

Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu continued the path Menachem Begin. That's why Judicial Reform never got done, nor did he put his own people in important security positions, so on October 7, 2023, he wasn't informed about the signs of Hamas Gazan preparation for war against us. Shabak head Ronen Bar has made it clear that he considers himself over the government and refused to recognize that he had been fired. My big question is why did it take so long for Bibi to even try to fire him...

Here we are a year and a half after that murderous invasion, no closer to #TotalVictory #ניצחוןמוחלט than we were on October 8th. Despite Bibi's brave bombastic speeches, his policies are weak and failing. Our soldiers are being killed, maimed, wounded and are exhausted. We don't act like victors. We haven't returned to Gush Katif. Bibi thinks we can just be policemen aka targets. Bibi doesn't have a vision for a greater future. I predicted this when I heard him speak in 2008.

Israel is at war for its very survival. We must achieve victory. Victory must be combined with Israeli SOVEREIGNTY over all the land we administer, otherwise we'll be at war again and again until we collapse, Gd forbid. Along with sovereignty, we must allow settlement all over. Illegal Arab building must be destroyed. Minimally, don't allow Arabs to build where the Oslo Accords forbade them. More about the Oslo Accords... another time. That's another story.

Pray for strong leadership which is needed for VICTORY, the only way we'll ever see peace and the return of the remaining hostages.

Something Good: "Media" Sure Changing in Israel

Dancing to Jewish music during a morning talk show

Here in Israel it wasn't all that long ago, when the only time you'd see an obviously religious Jew on Israeli television news was when  one was being interviewed. Those holding the microphone were uniformly bareheaded.

In the days when I was a young mother, we'd advise each other to encourage our children to "go into the media" as careers. It was a very sturdy "double-glazed glass ceiling" in terms of both religious observance and politics. Until not all that long ago, the Israeli media was strictly secular-Left. If anyone didn't "fit in," he or she'd be relegated to technical staff at best.

The Israeli media, first radio and later on television, shaped opinion and had a lot of influence. So when we talked of encouraging our children to break in and make careers in the media, it seemed rather revolutionary, more Don Quixote, than a practical profession like teaching, nursing, engineering and computers.

A few years ago, Bibi Netanyahu's Likud Government disbanded the old Leftist government Israel Broadcasting Authority and established a few "private," though government backed television/radio companies. Even though some of the old veteran media stars are still featured, there are many new ones. This new media revolution broke the hold the Histadrut, Israel's powerful labor union, had on the media.

Today, Channel 11 seems to be dominated by men who wear kippot, and many of those kippot are cloth, usually black, not the crocheted favored by the religiously moderate Bnai Akiva, NRP.

True change is always slow, and of course nothing will ever be perfect. But I think that we're going in the right direction. Religious women, married with hair covered in various styles, are also now seen on television even giving opinions. Gd willing I'll try to take photos and write about them, too.

Yes, I see wonderful changes and improvement here in Israel. This isn't the way things were half a century or even twenty years ago, Baruch Hashem, Thank Gd.