A Different View on Israel

What Has Become Of Israel?

Last week we got another clear example how far Israel and its goals and beliefs have deteriorated in the past couple of years.

The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, posted a video that shows him taunting the prisoners of the Gaza Flotilla as they are forced to kneel with their hands tight behind their back and their faces on the ground.

He laughs at them, shouts ”Welcome to Israel” while waving the Israeli flag and “this is how we treat terrorists”. With one prisoner, a young woman who shouted “Free Palestine”, he became violent.

The video received worldwide condemnation and several countries already stated that Ben-Gvir is not welcome anymore.

While it needs to be taken into account that the flotilla was a provocation and an attempt to show Israel in a bad light, the disgusting behavior of the Minister is a sign how much Israel has started to believe that  everything is allowed and how the war in Gaza, while justified and necessary, has turned the country, and a significant part of the population, into a crowd of “Super Jews” who believes everyone who opposes them is an Antisemite.

The events around the Gaza Flotilla are extreme but they are not the first sign of extremism by Israelis, led on by their government, which is rapidly destroying all that was built in the past 78 years, while abandoning the few who are still believing in Israel as a democratic state, with equality and justice.

Israel is rapidly turning into a dictatorship, with Prime Minister Netanyahu doing everything in his power to control the parliament which has become no more than a (small) majority of  incompetent and disgraceful creatures who will do what their boss tells them even though it will destroy the country.

This small majority is controlled by the Haredi parties and they are relentlessly working to turn Israel into a Halachic State while at the same time, demanding the passage of a conscription law, that will effectively exempt all Haredi young men from serving in the army. This means many thousands of men will not enlist, even though the Army Chief has repeatedly stated and warned that the army is short of many people after more than two years of war, with people doing reserve duty for months on end.

Another example is the “Judicial Reform” which has been advanced even though is has strong and vocal opposition. Yariv Levin and Simcha Rothman,  two Knesset members who are actively involved in this disastrous initiative, have continued to submit and succeeded to pass a series of new laws including significant changes in the status of the judicial system, allowing a greater control by politicians over the appointments of judges and control over public policies. It will limit the control of legal advisors, change the Judicial Selection Committee, giving the government control over the appointments of judges, and no longer allow the Supreme Court judges to consider laws as unconstitutional, with the Knesset able to override such judicial decisions. Other expected changes will include the appointment process of legal advisors, making them effectively political appointments, and making their advice a recommendation only and not binding.

And several more “modifications” are planned, including limiting no-confidence votes, prohibiting criminal proceedings against sitting Prime Ministers and making public service appointments, positions of trust, rather than professional appointments.

One more frightening example is the refusal of the Prime Minister to appoint a committee to investigate the largest disaster since the holocaust, October 7^th, 2023. He, with his government controlling the Knesset while being blackmailed by the Ultra-Orthodox parties, will not run the risk of being called responsible for these events and he will do everything in his power to accuse others

While it is true that opposition to these changes does exist and demonstrations have taken place against in the past years, it is surprising and worrisome that still, Netanyahu (who is clearly behind all these changes for his own reasons) continues to have the support of large parts of the Israeli population and nothing indicates that will change with elections on the horizon.

Under Netanyahu’s leadership the country has made significant and dangerous moves to the right, and the extreme right and it is difficult to believe that the elections will make the necessary changes.

I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.

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