Nahama, the wife of President Reuven Rivlin, died after a protracted illness. She was a great person, well educated and involved in numerous social welfare activities. There was several days of hearing good things about her, and at least one comment that it should have been Sara.
And the parties are ruffling themselves in preparation for the next election. Naftali Bennett may be moving back to Jewish Home, and Ayelet Shaked is pondering her move. There was talk of her joining Likud, but Sara nixed that. Ayelet is too beautiful to be allowed close to Bibi.
There was pressure on the Prime Minister to appoint a Minister of Justice, and a Chief of Police. His own legal problems will keep him from taking on the Justice portfolio.
Donald Trump waded in with comments about the Israeli political muddle, and comments in favor of Bibi. Whether those were thought out more or less than Trump’s preoccupation with migration from Mexico is something we might wonder about.
Bibi appointed Amir Ohana as a temporary Minister of Justice. Ohana is a homosexual, as well as being a firm Likud supporter of Netanyahu, and his appointment should be seen as part of Bibi’s expression that Israel will not accept Halacha as its law. That’s a firm response to Batzalel Smotrich, an outspoken co-leader of Jewish Home, who advocated moving in the direction of the law that served Kings David and Solomon.
Ohana appeared at Jerusalem’s Gay March, was met with boos, and left the parade.
In thinking my way through the commotion that is occurring, I’ve been wondering if it reflects the politics that occasionally marks a parliamentary system in a crisis, or if it reflects something particularly Jewish.
We are in a political crisis. The man who did well in the recent election failed to create a government in the 42 days given him by law. And while pressed by a looming judicial process for criminal violations, he managed a call for a new election rather than return the keys to the President for him to name someone else to try to form a government.
There’s no indication that the September election will return anything significantly different from the election that occurred in April.
Perhaps we can mix the condition of a political crisis to something that is Jewish, i.e., the unending arguments about small and not so small issues. Currently I’m working my way through the Chapter Chezkas Habatim in the Tractate Bava Batra. It is filled with endless argument about the smallest issues and limited connection with the Laws of Torah.
The chapter’s name translates as the ownership of houses, but it rambles through issues of telling the truth, witnesses, thievery and extortion, as well as betrothal and divorce.
Is this among the Talmud’s roots of Jewish quarreling? Or is the Talmud an expression of something older and deeper in Judaic culture? My own vote is that it’s older than the Talmud. Some years ago I published Israel and Its Bible, in which I emphasized the many political and social perspectives apparent in the Biblical text that preceded the composition of the Talmud.
No doubt the Talmud, with its arguments between Rabbis on every page, added to the education that assured our culture is replete with dispute, to the extent that it is among the traits that anti-Semites have accused us from ancient times.
Whatever the origins, here we are, in full crisis, and getting ready for another go-around at the polls.
Among the quarrels, what to do with respect to the Palestinians of the West Bank and those of Gaza. In one case is the issue of Israel’s transfer of taxes collected at the borders for imports to Palestine, and Palestinians’ payment to the families of terrorists. Israel wants to withhold from what it transfers the amounts that Palestinians pay to those families, and encounters the Palestinians’ refusal to accept any money if the Israelis continue the withholding.
In regard to Gaza is the issue of balloons and kites with incendiary devices, and their igniting fires in Israel. So far Israel has extended and contracted the distance that Gazan fishermen can work in the sea, in response to the Gazans’ playing with fire.
Whatever the government and the IDF decide on these issues, there is dispute from political opponents.
There are quarrels from Israel’s right wing on Gaza and the Palestinians, and from within the prospective coalition on the appointment of a temporary Justice Minister. And from the left wing, and its advocates, there is concern for a Two State solution.
It never ends.
That’s politics, with the added component of being in the Jewish State.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World