After at least a decade of searching, investigating and more, the legal authorities here in Israel think they have found something crooked in the way Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu conducts the government. Attorney general Mandelblatt has announced that the Prime Minister will be indicted.
Do I think he's guilty? I'm not really sure. I'm not a legal expert, nor a judge. To be honest, I don't think I'm qualified to give an opinion, and I don't think that the media is qualified. We're not judging after hearing both sides. And we aren't judges.
Netanyahu isn't getting due process at all.
The media and too many others consider themselves judge, jury and executioner.
Honestly, I'm suspicious of the entire collection of "charges," because never before had there been such efforts to search for a crime, just to get the Prime Minister out of office. They couldn't beat him in elections, even when the Likud got fewer votes than Kadima. Only Netanyahu was capable of forming a ruling coalition, and since then, he's still the Prime Minister.
Quite a number of years ago, when Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister, I went to a hearing/trial in the Supreme Court, in which he was accused of corruption. And this was a real charge, proven, but the judges let him off, claiming that although it looked and smelled dirty, he was allowed to do it. None of the charges against Bibi are as serious as that one against Arik.
Not only is it three weeks to Purim, but we're just over a month to the 2019, 5779 Israeli Knesset Elections. Generally these two topics generate some very interesting Jewish Israeli blog posts.
I hope you enjoy the selection of blog posts, I've chosen. Please check them out, comment and share, and if you have any additional blogs to suggest, please let me know in the comments, thanks. As is my custom, I'm just listing titles here. Enjoy.
Which was your favorite and least favorite post? You can tell me in comments, thanks.
If Jared Kushner wants to play Peacemaker, he should keep himself busy with Lego and Tinker Toys. His self-proclaimed "Peace deal" or "deal of the century" will only fill more cemeteries.
We all know that you can't impose a "deal." This isn't post-World War Two, when the Allied Forces led by the United States defeated the Nazis and the Japanese and then imposed a "new order" on them.
Israel is a peaceful, vibrant, miraculously successful modern country which is being literally terrorized by Arabs, some rather recent to the area, a contradiction to the popular legends and lies being propagated. These terrorists are being backed and encouraged by foreign agitators, agent provocateurs, to do whatever they can to terrorize and destabilize the State of Israel.
No "deal," regardless how "creative" and "detailed" it may be can rectify the present situation.
Rumor is that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has been informed of the details of this "deal" and just requested that Trump tell his son-in-law to wait until after the upcoming Israeli elections. If this is true, it's bad news x2, times two or doubly bad. It looks like it's time to go into post-Bibi rule.
Is there anyone in Likud who will be better for the security and sovereignty of the State of Israel? Bibi's successor also must be capable of negotiating a ruling coalition, or we'll find ourselves suffering through continuous successful elections.
To pull Netanyahu in the Right direction, we need a strong showing for the New Right, the Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Caroline Glick party.
The State of Israel needs leaders, not followers. We need a government that has no problem telling Kushner and Trump what they should do with their "deal."
Last Sunday we attended a gala Betar reunion in the Jerusalem Theater, and part of the program was singing the old Betar songs. Of course, שתי גדות לירדן Shtay Gadot LaYarden, Both/Two Sides of the Jordan was included.
I always get a kick out of that song. I always wonder if there's anyone besides us whose house faces that very view. Our house faces east. That's why I can take pictures of the sunrise. East of Shiloh is the Jordan Valley, and east of that is the Jordan River. And on the other side of the Jordan River is the British invented Hashemite "Kingdom" of Jordan, which is on the eastern bank of the river.
Yes, on a clear day or night, we can see both sides of the Jordan from our house, including lights at night. Sorry for illustrating this post with a morning photo, which doesn't the eastern mountains.
But I was afraid that the "internet police" would find it offensive. Honestly, I find all these so-called Peace Plans sic worse than offensive and foolish. They are dangerous and only encourage the Arab terrorists to murder more Jews.
One of the most veteran of Israeli political parties, those that predate the Establishment of the State of Israel, is NRP (Mafdal) aka Jewish Home Party. It's traditionally Center Left, religious, but not too extreme, Zionist and always in the ruling coalition.
In the early days of the State of Israel, their aim was to establish and strengthen the Mamlachti Dati, State Religious School system and add Jewish Tradition wherever possible to Israeli life and law. In many ways they seemed closer to mainstream Labor Party, because both had kibbutzim and moshavim to protect and coddle.
As time went on, and especially after Israel's totally miraculous victory in the 1967 Six Days War, the NRP began to change. Its first generation raised in the State of Israel became the most enthusiastic in Israeli society for settling the Land liberated in the war and Israel's increased security and prosperity enabled more and deeper Torah learning.
Children and grandchildren of old NRP leadership and graduates of the Mamlachti Dati, State Religious Schools began looking to emulate the heavy Torah learning of the chareidim, even establishing full-time Kollel programs and chareidi-like elementary and high schools for boys, where the graduates wouldn't be qualified to pass Bagrut tests for a high school diploma, which is necessary for university and certification in most vocational studies.
At the same time, in the political sphere, they've established numerous other political parties, more religious and Right ideology then the venerable NRP aka Jewish Home Party.
That's why unlike Likud, descended from prestate Revisionist Herut, the veteran Labor Party and the chareidi parties, there's no internal competition or primaries for the leadership role in the NRP aka Jewish Home Party. There's a leadership bankruptcy; its graduates have moved on and away.
Every few years a new "leader" is recruited from various other occupations or parties. The NRP backroom mafia controls the party and all the property that has been in the "family" for probably close to a hundred years.
The words behind NRP are "national religious party." Honestly I, like Naftali Bennett and many others, some who vote Likud, are ideologically against a party that labels itself as dati, religious.
I believe that we all, no matter how many and how carefully we keep Gd's commandments, must work together to govern and steer the State of Israel. I look for a political party with vision and commitment to the Torah, Land of Israel and the entire Jewish People.
Gd willing, I'll be voting for the New Right, although I honestly don't like the name Bennett and Shaked chose. And it's reassuring to me that Caroline Glick has chosen to run for Knesset in the New Right. Gd willing, we'll see her in the Knesset soon.
Americans, please connect the dots. Recognize that support for Palestine means the destruction of the State of Israel. There can never be a Two State Solution, sic. Palestine=terror and instability for the region and the world.
American Jews, your welcome mat in the USA is badly ripped and won't be replaced or repaired all that soon. It's time to move again. I suggest moving to Israel for many reasons. Contact Nefesh B'Nefesh to consult with them.
Today's the Likud Primaries. Somehow even though I've never voted Likud in Knesset Elections, I must have signed up as a Likud member. That means that out of some bank account, we pay dues. That gives me the privilege, and I'm not being all that sarcastic, to influence the rankings/chances of politicians and wannabes in Israel's ruling party.
In previous primaries, I'd had a pretty good idea of whom to vote for. But this time I really haven't paid much attention. But in a few hours I'm going to have to make a choice. There are a few "no ways," and some people I do want in.
The last thing I look for are the platforms and promises they make. That's because, are you shocked, people lie and/or hire slick writing teams.