What Does Bibi Have Against Hanegbi and Erdan?

It's perfectly understandable that Tzachi Hanegbi and Gilad Erdan are fuming at the power snubs against themselves.

Gilad Erdan Photo Credit: Flash 90

Tzachi Hanegbi 
Photo Credit: Channel 2 News

Hanegbi has spent most of his adult political life in the Likud. He did go with Sharon and Olmert to Kadima, but was possibly the first prominent MK/minister to return to Likud. Erdan, who is younger, has always been in Likud is extremely popular with its members. Look at their rankings in the most recent Likud Primaries.

2 – Minister Gilad Erdan (#3 in 2013 and 2009)
12 – Deputy Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (#17 in 2013, Kadima MK in 2009)

So, why has Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu given them such low level cabinet appointments?

Hanegbi, davka, got the most difficult parliamentary position there is, Coalition Chairman. It requires major and unabashed arm-twisting, along with enormous doses of charm. With a razor-thin margin, the bare-bones 61 member coalition does require an experienced, talented and expert politician like Hanegbi, but Bibi should have sweetened the package and prepared him better.

Erdan is a generation younger than Netanyahu, (Bibi and I are the same age, and Erdan was at Bar Ilan with one of my daughters,) so considering his popularity in the Likud it's obvious that he expects to succeed Bibi as party head and  Prime Minister. It seems that Netanyahu isn't thinking of retirement quite yet.

Netanyahu's cabinet appointments has only made Hanegbi's job more difficult. One wonders what Gilad Erdan has up his sleeve.

From left to right: Gilad Erdan (Likud), Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union), Yuval Steinitz (Likud) and Yair Lapid (seen from the back) at the Knesset during the presentation of the new government, on May 14, 2015.
Photo credit: Isaac Harari/Knesset Spokesperson

Erdan, Don't be Naive

The following headline in Arutz 7 got me going this morning:

Erdan Slams U.S. 'Naiveté' Over PA Government

Unfortunately, the naiveté' comes from Israeli leaders like Gilad Erdan.

Although many American people sincerely love the State of Israel for various reasons, the American State Department and most of its presidents haven't. They really don't give a royal hoot what happens to Israel, and the present President, Barack Hussein Obama is  definitely a fan of the Arabs and wants to be considered a midwife of the Palestinians sic helping them get recognition as a state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) meeting his America counterpart, Barak Obama (R), at the White House / Photo: CC
That's the photo caption on the site from where I got the picture

That's the truth and it's dangerous for the State of Israel to believe and fantasize anything else.

Sorry Charley...

Lieberman As Lightning Rod To Barack Obama

Could Second Try Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu have positioned Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman as his lightning rod to get the flack, while he tries to steer the country into safer waters? Please forgive me for the mixed metaphor.

If that's the case, it's good news. Lieberman's the right guy for the job. He loves attention and knows how to rile and tease the media. Too bad this isn't some movie or TV series. It's a casting director's dream.

At this point it seems that they're the two most skilled politicians in the field here in Israel. Both are masters at composing great "sound bytes." But I can't imagine them saying the same things.

They're like mirror images of each other. Bibi's gut instinct is more Right, but he talks Left, and Lieberman talks Right, but in terms of Israel, he's more Left. The big problem is that neither seem to have much of a religious, spiritual connection to our Land and People.

None of the inner circle of Bibi's bloated cabinet are religious. Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan admitted at the Jerusalem Conference that he's a graduate of an elite yeshiva high school. He's ambitious, but at this point, young enough to be Bibi's son, he must wait his turn.

Many people are demanding that we protest to the United States about Obama's statement in Turkey:

"Let me be clear: the United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Mr Obama said in a speech to the Turkish parliament.
"Now, we must not give into pessimism and mistrust. We must pursue every opportunity for progress," he said, weighing in on the Middle East peace issue for the first time since rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power and formed a new government.
Mr Obama promised to actively pursue a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (complete article)

I don't think that's the right strategy at all. Obama, with all of his power and media backing, isn't the problem. The problem is here in Israel where most politicians and the media are supporting the same thing. They all want a new Arab state in our Holy Heartland. Israel wouldn't survive, and once it's in place, there's no turning back.

The result would be a hundred years or more of suffering, death and destruction until with G-d's help we're again in a position to rule in our HolyLand.

There's no "conflict" here. Compromise wouldn't help. The Arabs are uncompromisingly and very clearly aimed to destroy us. Just listen to what they say, not other people's pretty words. The only "peace" they promise is the "peace" of death.

I Must Admit...

I must admit that though I predicted that Bibi Netanyahu would not form a Right Wing Nationalist pro-Eretz Yisrael for Am Yisrael (The Land of Israel for the Children of Israel) government, I had thought that Kadima would be more amenable to being part of the coalition. In the end, Barak and what's left of the Labor Party grabbed the goodies Bibi was offering. Ben Gurion must be rolling in his grave so strongly, that if there's an earthquake in the south, you'll know why.

And if the earthquake is centered more in the Tel Aviv area, it'll be from Tsippi Livni's parents moving around in their graves all upset that their daughter's idea of "principles" is establishing an Arab state in the Land of Israel.

Placing principles above politics also has kept Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni out of power after she refused to buy coalition partners with budget allocations and Cabinet posts while demanding that all parties accept the creation of a PA state. (complete article)

I'm not bothered at all by the fact that the Ichud Le'umi isn't part of the coalition. It doesn't belong there. We need a political "conscience." We need politicians who don't twist and spin with the "wind." Last night young MK Gilad Erdan was on the news rationalizing why Bibi was doing the right thing. That performance deleted the good impression he had made at the Jerusalem Conference.

Moshe Feiglin did a terrible thing by telling pro-Land of Israel Israelis to vote Likud. Bibi is taking their votes to the Left. You'd think that Feiglin would have learned from Sharon's and the Likud's Disengagement, but he hasn't.

At the course I just took at Matan, we learned about the ancient Biblical prophets and the Israelite Kings of the times. Nothing's new, unfortunately, nothing at all.

Reporting On The Jerusalem Conference-- Part 1

Last night I attended the opening of the Jerusalem Conference. I sat next to Arlene Kushner and agree with her report on Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon speech, which you can find on her site. She left soon later and probably would have been as disgusted and disappointed as most of us were at Ketzaleh's clown-like behavior. He treated it like an election rally and never answered the questions he was asked, nor did he pay any attention to what the others were saying. Some people would say that the conference was "his baby," and he thought that he was above all. No, it won't affect my plans to vote for Ichud Le'umi.

And even while I was very impressed by the two young Likud representatives, MK Gilad Erdan and Tzipi Hotobeli (Likud candidate/hopeful,) I don't think that they will have any real influence on the Likud. Bibi Netanyahu is controlling it very tightly. Erdan lost his cool when discussing the fact that most of the Likud MK's supported Disengagement. He couldn't explain it, and I was among those entirely incredulous, not quite comprehending his defense of the Likud. I would love to see Erdan and Hotobeli in Ichud Le'umi. I think they're wasting their energies and talents in the Likud, where they will be stifled.

MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) was his usual obnoxious, illogical and irrational self. He insists we need "two nations for two Peoples," but he wouldn't transfer Arabs from their homes and fled the conference before questions to the panel. He mocked all those, like Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon and Katzeleh, who "enter politics at sixty," after successful careers in other spheres, claiming they don't know anything about being politicians. I kept thinking of what one newspaper editor told me:

"I prefer to hire those who have degrees in history, science, economics etc, because any intelligent person can learn how to write an article. Those who study journalism don't know anything about what they're supposed to be writing."

Too many politicians just learn how to be elected, and they really don't understand the issues, history and background.

I'll just return to Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon and MK Gilad Erdan before closing this post. Yes, they did say all the right things, but I still have my doubts. I didn't hear Ya'alon's shouting and leading anti-Disengagement demonstrations after resigning. Nor did MK Gilad Erdan forcefully voice and publicize his opposition. As Likud MK's they don't (won't) have the freedom to do as they please, as they believe.

That's another reason why I'm voting Ichud Le'umi and consider it the wisest choice. I don't want to vote for people who must guard their tongue and compromise.