As the war in Gaza drags on without an end in sight, Israeli politicians are at a loss as to how they can get some media attention and their name in the paper and their face on our TV screen. Some are more successful and some are less so, and among the latter, there are those who seek attention through loud, controversial statements or actions mostly absurd and even ridiculous, as may be expected from mediocre politicians with limited understanding of the needs of the people and of Israel in this time of war.
However, some of these useless politicians, (whose salary is our burden), do not have limits and the number one on this list of useless loudmouths is Orit Struck. Struck, a mother of eleven, living in the Occupied city of Hebron, turned at some point towards politics to spread her fascist and Jewish Supremacist ideas and she found an ideal political home in the Religious Zionist Party where she, together with her buddy Betzalel Smotrich, was able to enter the Israel parliament and to become even minister in the Netanyahu government that was established a year ago. Struck became Minister of Settlements and Jewish Missions but that has not stopped her from spewing dirt on whatever appears to her inappropriate.
Only a month ago, when discussions were held in the government and Knesset to transfer the so-called “coalition money” from the various useless personal hobbies of government ministers to the war effort, Struck screamed, after it was decided that part of the money allocate to the nonsensical “projects” she is trying to promote (mainly related to illegal settlement activities) that Army personnel were stealing her money through illegal pensions that they supposedly were given. And this in the middle of a war where these soldiers were giving their lives to protect hers.
But the events of last week, during a meeting of the cabinet, where attendants received updates from a senior Army officer on the war in the Gaza strip, were beyond anything imaginable (even though with people like Struck and her cronies, nothing seems beyond limits). Struck asked the Army General if it is true that Air force pilots showed too much of a conscience during attacks in Gaza and thus did not give ground troops the necessary support, and are not bombing when required.
After the General had recovered from his astonishment, he commented that her question was “horrible” and that there is not the slightest truth to her allegations. She rebuked him by telling him that she can ask whatever she likes and does not need judgement from him about her questions. And all Netanyahu could say was that even while the General’s answer is correct, it is not his place to comment on a ministers questions. In other words, he did not have the guts (or the will) to stand up against his minister’s outrageous allegations and maybe even agrees with them.
What did Struck have in mind with her atrocious remarks (except of course getting her face on TV)?
Did she mean that the “elite” Air Force does not really care about the lives of their Golani colleagues that they are supposed to protect and prefer to not kill Arabs? The insinuation and implications of this go way beyond accusing the Air Force of having a conscience. It causes a rift between different Army units similar to the rift in the Israeli population that kept the country occupied before the war broke out. Does Struck really want to exploit the war to deepen the divide in the Israeli population now that the war has put these issues on a back scale?
Or is Struck of the opinion that Air Force pilots are not Jewish enough because they do not want to kill unless it is necessary? In her Jewish Supremacy view, the population of Gaza is a mere nuisance for the Jewish people that need to be eradicated anyway.
Whatever the reasons for the disgusting remarks of the “honorable” member of the Knesset, it is high time somebody shuts her up. If Netanyahu is not capable of controlling his members of government because of fear anything he says or does will cause the fall of his government, which is the last thing he wants, maybe the Knesset chairman should interfere, but chances for that to happen are also not large.
It appears we will just have to learn to live with people like Struck because, even if she is an extreme, she is certainly not the only one with a loud mouth and the confidence that she can say anything she wants.
When she attacked the Army in time of war, it might have been expected to receive some more condemnation that it did but maybe this says more about where we stand today than anything else, and I didn’t mean from a military view.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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