It is the evening of Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”, which is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar; a day on which Jews are asking for forgiveness from God and from those they have wronged.
The whole of Israel, while preparing for Yom Kippur, is also anxiously awaiting (as is the whole world) for Israel’s response to the missile attack by Iran a week ago, when 130 missiles were fired at Israel, causing little damage but a lot of anger.
At least as far as is reported in the news media, Israel has already decided to respond to the attack but is still discussing what to concentrate their force on, the nuclear activities of Iran, or their oil infrastructure while the United States is urging Israel to limit itself to military in order to prevent a overall war in the Middle East, an economic crisis, or both.
However, for the Israeli government these important questions are of little relevance because as far as the government is concerned, this is a political issue. Defense minister Gallant was planning to travel to Washington to discuss and coordinate Israel’s actions with the Pentagon but Prime Minister Netanyahu did not approve the trip of Gallant, even though it is understood that both are in line as far as the planned response is concerned.
But Netanyahu is mostly worried that by traveling to the U.S., Gallant will receive most of the credit for any action that Israel will undertake, in particular if this action is coordinated with the U.S. Netanyahu will never allow anyone to take, or receive, credit for any issue of relevance since it will undermine his position and make him and his government weaker and the chances of its collapse bigger.
Even in these day of war, with Israel being attacked from several fronts, Netanyahu continues to think of himself and his political survival, while putting everything else aside. And his government ministers are following in his footsteps without hesitation. For their own survival and the survival of their scandalous government. Small example: Transportation Minister Miri Regev, did not lift a finger to enable reservists being called up during the Rosh Hashanah holiday to reach their units, even though on religious holydays and Saturdays there is no public transportation in Israel (which is scandalous in itself, but that is a different story). Bur when thousands of Haredim were stuck in Uman after visiting their idol’s grave, all efforts were made to arrange flights to bring them back home. The reason? The reservists do not have political cloud and are “only” tying to reach their units during wartime, while in the Knesset, Haredi parties used their usual threat of quitting the coalition if the Haredim weren’t brought home.
It is high time the Israeli people put a stop to this scandalous behavior by Netanyahu and his cronies, even though elections are still unlikely to take place any time soon, mainly because Netanyahu is preventing their happening. It is time to start thinking of other means to stop this process of destruction of Israel’s democracy.
A growing group of Israeli soldiers is threatening to refuse to serve unless the government undertakes (finally) serious action to get the remaining hostages in Gaza released. And while refusing duty during wartime is a serious offense, in the eyes of these soldiers the release of the hostages has been purposely neglected by Netanyahu and his government, again for political reasons and something must be done before it is too late.
Defending the democracy through drastic measures like refusing to serve in time of war may sound like a rebellion but that is probably because that is what is needed.
Will Netanyahu listen? Doubtful, but it will make it utterly clear who is responsible for Israel’s downfall. And it is not the worried soldier or the hostage in Gaza.
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