Israel is the Nation in Need of a Constitution

 

Israel is not going to change all that soon as the thirty to fifty people who run the nation are quite happy to fiddle while things slowly burn down. Part of the problem, and it is a large share, is that over half of those who run the government are not elected but all but self-appointed. There are the Justices who sit on the Supreme Court and the Attorney General, The Supreme Court selection for replacing a retiring Justice is one of, if not the, item which should top the list of systems which require change. Currently the Supreme Court Justices are chosen by a committee consisting of nine members. These are the Justice Minister who acts as the Chairman, a Cabinet Member chosen by the Cabinet, a Pair of Knesset Ministers usually one from the coalition and one from the opposition, two members of the Bar Association and finally the Chief Justice and two other Supreme Court Justices who are often chosen due to seniority. This starts to look like a conspiracy to continue the same policies with no real ability to alter the path when one additionally looks at the committee for selection of the Attorney General which consists of five members; a retired Supreme Court Judge, a former Justice Minister or Attorney General, a Knesset Minister tapped by the Constitutional Affairs committee of the Knesset, an attorney chosen by the Israeli Bar Association, and one legal expert chosen in the subjects of civil and criminal law chosen by the heads of the university law schools in Israel. When all it takes to select a Supreme Court Judge is five votes and three are cast by current Justices, one vote from the current Attorney General who is themselves appointed on the advice partly of a retired Supreme Court Judge, a former Justice Minister and an attorney from the Bar Association and you have what can be conveniently called an echo chamber and it becomes sufficiently evident why the Supreme Court votes almost to the Justice exactly the same as the Supreme Court has since its inception. Add to that the interpretation of the law such that the Justices operate under the auspices of the concept that everything and anything may be brought before the Supreme Court for a final decision.

 

One interesting thing is the Israeli Supreme Court consists of fifteen Justices where one could fairly say that the majority, vast majority, are left leaning or so far left the middle ground cannot be seen through the fog and rose colored glasses. The Supreme Court may appoint any number of judges to hear cases often with as few as three to as many as all fifteen for the most serious of cases brought to the court. Further, for the decade from 2000 through 2010 the Israeli Supreme court heard over 11,000 cases each year. The Israeli Supreme Court can be petitioned directly to hear a case without having it first heard in a lower court. This process is abused by NGOs, often NGOs registered in Israel but primarily funded by foreign governments. Quite often if an NGO states as its aim to serve the support and importance of human rights and/or the rights of minority and oppressed peoples, then you can bet that NGO is financed by the European Union, European governments and foreign NGOs so as to conceal their actual financiers. In any other Western Democratic or Republic such NGOs are required by law to be registered as foreign agents and are not granted official standing as an NGO representing that nation. Israel has twice passed such legislation only to have these very same NGOs bring suit in the Supreme Court where the laws were shot down and nullified. One need keep in mind that the Knesset input in selecting Supreme Court Judges is minimal when one remembers that should the opposition Knesset Minister vote with the Chief Justice and two other Supreme Court Justices and any one of the Bar Association lawyers that makes five votes and the judge has been appointed. The Prime Minister gets no real input and the Knesset does not need to ratify the choice, or simply put, the people have little if any influence on the Justices sitting on a court which has ruled that it can strike down any law, rewrite any law and all but, and possibly including, write laws they feel are necessary or would further empower the Judiciary over the remainder of the government and the people. We have also seen instances where the heads of the Police forces have banned people from visiting areas of the country including the currently extended ban forbidding Ministers of the Knesset from ascending to the Temple Mount. There was a recent case where the Security Shin Bet under the guise of investigating a crime rounded up teens and young men as young as twelve and held them without legal counsel at a secretive location refusing to allow their parents information about their child and used what in many nations would be considered at the least coercive measures and at the extreme torture to try a force confessions from youths they knew were innocent but whose suspected political leanings were not to the head of the Shin Bet’s liking.

 

One young man was held for almost ten months, refused to be permitted to attend his first son’s birth, ritual bris (circumcision), and whose major crime was supporting the Hilltop Youth, a group of youths who support nationalist and Zionist policies and desire a return to Davidic Rule, have never committed an act against the government, most serious offense they commit is camping out and building rudimentary outposts on hilltops overlooking trouble spots which are less dangerous when being surveyed by these youths. The young man in question though had committed a grievous crime, Meir Ettinger committed the crime of being the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Zionist and Nationalist Rabbi who argued for his causes and predicted the future extremely accurately before being struck down in New York City after giving a talk. His murderer was acquitted as his act of assassination was seen by the Jury as justifiable as the Rabbi had “extremist views” deserving of being shot. These “extremist views” were best expressed as “Am Yisroel Chai” (עם ישראל חי) , the People of Israel Are Alive, and he also continued the cry of “Never Again” which is a chanting that means the Jews will not go silently to their deaths ever again and murdering Jews will have a price. As was known by even the average Israeli who pays attention to anything political, Meir Ettinger and his friends in the Hilltop Youth were innocent of any wrongdoing and they were hauled in, denied council, denied parental access, held in a secretive location, arranged orders to allow stressful interrogation and extreme interrogation techniques and were sleep deprived for up to three days until their bodies shut down from exhaustion, placed in uncomfortable position, stripped of clothing and made to sit in metal chairs and even denied to have showers or change of undergarments. This was beyond anything used on actual terrorists who when denying and refusing to cooperate have been released for lack of evidence while here their evidence was they knew these kids were guilty of something even if it was not what was being investigated.

 

Another problem are the Basic Laws, laws passed by a simple majority just as any other legislation but deemed special and thus take their place as part of an ever growing excuse for a Constitution. Most of the Basic Laws were passed from 1948 through the early 1960s when Israel was an agricultural socialist society with many Israelis residing on communal farms. These Basic Laws have their place but as they can be amended, refuted, and new ones passed should the Knesset decide any law passed belongs incorporated into the Basic Laws such that they tend to lose their importance and meaning as they can be rescinded by a simple majority vote. Then there is the problem that the Supreme Court can also decide which ones can be amended, removed, added, deleted, twisted, beaded, braded, twisted, spindled and mutilated at will by a majority vote of the Knesset or orders from the Supreme Court. This again placed the judges of the Supreme Court as the ultimate rulers of the land and the Supreme Court had granted the Supreme Court absolute authority over all parts of everyday life including silencing us if they so choose to do so as it was Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak (August 13, 1995 to September 14, 2006) stated that all things are in his writings some of the following:

 

Aharon Barak, “Judicial Philosophy,” pp. 477 and 485

In my eyes, the world is filled with law. Every human behavior is subject to a legal norm. Even when a certain type of activity-such as friendship or subjective thoughts-is ruled by the autonomy of the individual will, this autonomy exists, because it is recognized by the law…. Wherever there are living human beings, law is there. There are no areas in life which are outside of law.

 

Barak, “The Constitutional Revolution,” p. 30

The basic values of Judaism are the basic values of the state. I mean the values of love of man, the sanctity of life, social justice, doing what is good and just, protecting human dignity, the rule of law over the legislator and the like, values which Judaism bequeathed to the whole world. Reference to those values is on their universal level of abstraction, which suits Israel’s democratic character, thus one should not identify the values of the state of Israel as a Jewish state with the traditional Jewish civil law. It should not be forgotten that in Israel there is a considerable non-Jewish minority. Indeed, the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state are those universal values common to members of democratic society, which grew from Jewish tradition and history.

 

Barak, “Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation,” p. 208

When the attempt fails, and the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state cannot be reconciled with its values as a democratic state, there is no escape from the need to decide. This decision must be made, in my opinion, according to the views of the enlightened community in Israel. This is an objective test, which refers the judge to the full set of values which shape the character of the modern Israeli.

 

Barak, “The Constitutional Revolution,” p. 34

If up until now judges were given “conventional weapons” to deal with legislation by way of interpretation and the creation of Israeli common law, now judges have been given “nonconventional weapons,” which allow nullification of legislation which does not observe the Basic Laws’ criteria.

 

This was a definitive part of Aharon Barak’s judicial philosophy which devolved, not developed, as his tenure on the courts and in practice where he gained contempt for the Zionistic, nationalist conservative swing the people of Israel took over his lifetime. The gaining of a distinct and traditional Jewish, and in many cases Israelite, determination and movement from secularist to a religious Zionistic populace where he saw the only way to salvage the utopian leftist dream was for ultimate power to be vested in the Judges which by their manner of selection remained stuck in 1958 Israel with its collectivist society and socialist governance could be maintained even if that required the judges to decide on each law if it should stand or be struck down or even rewrote to the judicial review standards which precluded change. His view of such is further described as we continue.

 

United Mizrahi Bank, p. 352

With legislation of [the new Basic Laws] a substantial change occurred in the status of human rights in Israel. They have turned into constitutional rights. They have been given supra-legal constitutional status. A “regular” law of the Knesset cannot change them. Regular legislation cannot infringe a protected human right unless the demands set out in the Basic Laws are met. Nonobservance of the constitutional demands turns the regular statute into an unconstitutional statute. This is a statute which bears a constitutional flaw. The court can declare its invalidity.

 

There is this infamous quote often attributed to Barak is that “everything is adjudicable,” which was often presumably the motivation and empowering ideal through which the meaning was taken that the High Court should be able to rule on any matter, including cases involving Israeli military activity in Judea and Samaria and breaches of civil liberties, and not just on issues relating to national laws. Even if Aharon Barak had not stated such, the courts in Israel today, and especially the Supreme Court, are acting as such and seldom refuse a case where they are the sole practitioner of whether legislation passed duly by the representatives of the people who instructed the members of the Knesset with their support to produce legislation as an unwritten contract bound in the ballot box now sits beneath the raised gavel which determines whether or not the people and their elected officials are capable of self-governing or are they merely children who have no right to address the issues of the day as they see fit. This is why it is long past time for the Knesset to appoint a select committee, they may wish to make sure the Supreme Court does not get wind of this as they would strike down the committee as a threat to the state and its omnipotent judiciary, and direct them to draft a Constitution based on the theories of limiting the power for a King such that he collects no amassed wealth and must serve the people faithfully and beyond their best abilities. A solid Constitution which places all before the people’s elected officials to decide and limits judges except in the most drastic and obvious of errant departures into forbidden grounds protected by the constitution and not the will of the adjudicator, are left to apply the law faithfully and with the intents of the people. A Constitution which places the police, military and secret services under civilian control and where any officers or enlistee speaks out defaming the state or its elected and appointed individuals which are empowered by the people is punished under codes of proper conduct for military personnel in uniform or representing the State. The Knesset should remain as the house which appoints the Prime Minister but the second half of the legislature should be directly elected by the people. The nation of Israel could be divided into proper districts. These Israeli Voting Precincts for Upper House might be considered as the Negev, Jerusalem & Area, Coastal Plain & Dead Sea, Tel Aviv, Sharon Valley, Western Galilee & Mt. Carmel, Sea of Galilee & Valleys, and Upper Galilee & Golan with each receiving with Five Seats Each for forty seats plus, Three Super Districts; The North (Western Galilee & Mt. Carmel, Sea of Galilee & Valleys, and Upper Galilee & Golan), Central (Jerusalem, Sharon Valley and Tel Aviv), and the South (, Coastal Plain & Dead Sea with the Negev) with Five Seats Each for a Total of Fifty Five.

 

Israeli Voting Precincts for Upper House Totaling Fifty-Five

 

The Upper House described above, let’s call it the New Sanhedrin, will ratify appointments to the cabinet and senior appellate judges including the Supreme Court. The Knesset (lower House) as stated will appoint the Prime Minister. This method allows the Parties to make their coalition and the Knesset would run exactly as it does now with elections when their term ends after four years while the New Sanhedrin terms will not be dissolved should the Knesset coalition crash and burn, they will serve three year terms with the vote being taken every three years on a set date on the Hebrew Calendar. With the Prime Minister who was appointed as the leader of the coalition and was initially tapped by the President, who will remain being chosen as they are now, after all, we would not want to end the good old party people never change ever and the same problem people show up just in a different Cabinet Ministerial location so that the incompetence gets spread through all of the government. That is why the small adjustment where the Cabinet Ministerial position first have to be validated by both houses thus there will be less if any invent a cabinet post to make this one feel important and receive additional pay while preening around. Then the people placed in these positions must be approved by the New Sanhedrin upper legislature. Hopefully this will lead to placing people from outside the Knesset body into Cabinet posts such that the person responsible for an area of the government actually knows something about the work the department actually performs.

 

The shuffling of the deck chairs on the HMS Knestitanic sailing the icy-waters of incompetent Ministerial appointments will come to an abrupt end. One example is the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, who during his career thus far he has held Minister of National Infrastructure, Minister of Transport, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Strategic Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and currently is Minister of Defense. Either Avigdor Lieberman is one of the most intelligent and diversely capable or he had to be ill-prepared in at least one of his positions. Ehud Barak is another regular Minister having been elected not only to hold many varied positions but also served in cooperation or as a member of a number of parties. Israeli politics can confuse even those familiar with parliamentary systems as politicians make new parties, merge parties and change parties sometimes like they change socks. Tzipi Livni has headed two parties while serving in four, where one was a merged pair of parties. Her Career began and appeared steady and content with Likud but then Ms. Livni got the idea that she was destined for greater things and saw her opportunity with Ariel Sharon and his breakaway party from Likud forming Kadima which has a mixture of numerous Ministers from other parties across the political spectrum from Likud to Labor. Kadima started to fail after Ariel Sharon fell into a coma eventually passing. Rather than bite the bullet and join a party Tzipi Livni founded her very own party with some of the remnants from Kadima and a few others who believed there was opportunity as the signs were right, well, almost. Her party was called Hatnuah, meaning “The Movement.” Then she saw this party sinking fast and she made herself an opportunity to share the Prime Minister position with Labor Leader Isaac Herzog. Then problems began as it was noted she was not bringing the numbers of voters hoped and the Labor rank and file felt they were sacrificing too much to gain too little and the Zionist Union, the merger of Labor and Hatnua which the media wanted to defeat Likud that there found Zionist Union defeating Likud going into election day by a margin of 24 to 21 on average. The election result was slightly different with Likud garnering 30 seats while Zionist Union did receive their 24 but obviously insufficient to lead a coalition. This bode poorly for Livni who if she desires a future may have to simply swallow hard and join Labor and hope to rank sufficiently well enough to gain a seat in the Knesset. Tzipi Livni has been Leader of the Opposition for which she is eminently qualified as she has spent much time opposing everything while sitting in the opposition or in the government. Her other positions is a list of many positions including Minister of Regional Cooperation, Minister Without Portfolio (for which she is eminently qualified), Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Housing and Construction, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Justice. She must be a very capable person. The advantage of having a bicameral legislature which divides responsibilities and a Constitution which defines every branch of government with specific capabilities, responsibilities and limitations, and it is the limitations which often are the most important. The described government arrangement for Israel with a bicameral legislature with the Knesset remaining as currently configured but with the courts made at least indirectly controlled by the people rather than controlling the people and everything else it desires while all but replacing its Judges all but by themselves without any limiting factor within the control of the people. The arrangement was just an idea for the sake of offering and starting the discussion and not a serious suggestion unless the Israelis, my fellow Israelis, read and decide that the framework described has potential as an idea with which to start a national conversation. The described system also would encourage the Prime Minister to find some ministers from outside the government or assure that those chosen from within the government actually are competent and not just blindly pretending to manage something they actually do not understand. The real reason for this discussion is to limit the judges, especially the Supreme Court which even cancelled the financial agreement made on order to start production of the offshore gas fields demanding that the profits be invested in welfare and other socialist, virtually communist, programs because the people who invested in the drilling and took all the chances and took the risks should not reap benefit from their venture, not when foreign funded HGOs can petition the Supreme Court to spread the wealth making sure they get a share with which to further attempt to destroy Israel. That should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Terror War to Resume by End of Week, Will We be Ready?

 

News of terror attacks on Israelis have been curiously missing from the news since elections were announced after the vote in the Knesset to dissolve the last government largely due to acts against the government by two Ministers leading two of the parties in the coalition. This set up a situation where Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed Deifs, Marwan Barghouti, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal as the leaders of Hamas, Fatah and the PLO have called for a ceasefire of sorts where terrorism is silenced until the Israeli elections. This is done so as to give Israelis a false sense of security and has occurred in the run-up to elections like clock-work. If it wasn’t for the political ads on the television, radio and in our mailboxes we would probably call for elections one week after each government took power thus having waged a successful war against terrorism. This would have a secondary effect of also making the government so dysfunctional that there would also be very few if any new laws and regulations and perhaps taxes might get reduced at some point. But the sad thing is that whoever gains the position of Prime Minister will attempt to hold power at all costs and that is where the problems lie.

 

There are a group of dangerous leaders of parties in the mix and some people running under parties which have merged to form what is being titled as the Arab block which includes a number of candidates who actually work to destroy Israel and support terrorism such as Haneen Zoabi and Ahmad Tibi, one actively supports Hamas and sailed on the Mavi Marmara and despite knowing of the plans to ambush and murder any IDF forces who would be required by the actions to prevent the ship from successfully running the blockade and the other had served as a top advisor to Yasser Arafat yet are permanent figures who have had the courts protect their rights to sit in the Israeli parliament of the Knesset. This alone should remove any and all claims of discrimination in Israel against Arabs but is ignored by the leftist who have decided the derision of Israel is their raison d’être. Also included in this Knesset list are communists, a party standing for the rights of alternate life styles and other small parties who will be able to be represented solely due to joining this group of assorted misfits of the political system. Then there are Tzipi Livni who heads a party whose name, Hatnua, translates to mean Party which means when the news refers to her party as Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua Party they are actually saying the Tzipi Livni Party Party which accurately defines the party as it was founded so Tzipi Livni could chase after her defined self-fated role as Israel’s Prime Minister. Another Party is Yesh Atid headed by Yair Lapid, a former television news anchor and another who entertains delusions of glory and a new future if only the Israelis would see things as he does which would include his sitting as the Prime Minister of Israel for life. The translation of Lapid’s party name of Yesh Atid is “There is a Future” which translates better as being there is a Lapid defined future which I would rather avoid.

 

The final piece of the election puzzle is this merger calling itself the “Zionist Camp” of the combination of the Labor Party and Livni’s Hatnua Party. What makes this an interesting scenario is that both Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog would be best described politically as being Post-Zionists who like Post-Modernists exist more for what they oppose than what they stand for. The Post Zionists no longer hold that Israel is the state of the Jews as much as it is a multi-ethnic multi-cultural democracy which is defined by its combinations of peoples and not so much by being the Jewish State. They do not believe that the Torah defines a Mitzvah to settle all of the land and are still enamored with the idea of “Land for Peace” in which if Israel would only give Mahmoud Abbas and his Arab Authority what they claim they want currently which consists of Judea and Samaria along with half of Jerusalem including every ancient Jewish holy site which would then be beyond the ability for any Jews to visit and mostly to be destroyed once again after being reclaimed and restored after the Six Day War when these lands came under Israeli control being liberated from Jordanian occupation after Jordan joined the war in the hopes of sharing the riches of a destroyed Israel. They do not believe Abbas when he speaks to Arab audiences in Ramallah and other Arab controlled and semiautonomous regions within Judea and Samaria where he calls for the liberation of all of his imagined Arab State from the “river to the sea” which translates to from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and includes all of Israel being conquered and made Judenrein, Jew free; a condition he also addresses when he speaks of the cleansing of this Arab entity and purifying its lands with blood flowing until the river run red. Such speeches can be found by searching the MEMRI data base or choosing items at random from their collection of Arab and Muslim speeches, news, television shows and more from the other side of the Arab and Muslim world which is mostly uncovered and unrevealed to the Western world as doing so would destroy the façade of a reasonable Arab and Muslim world ready to live at peace with the West. The Zionist Camp is calling for cooperation with the desires and demands from the White House and placing Israel’s future on the whims and fancy of President Obama and mending the rift caused by Prime Minister Netanyahu. This would entail an almost complete surrender without gaining even the slightest hint of peace or an end to the terror war.

 

So, who do we believe would make a better alternative than the Zionist Camp and Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog, Netanyahu? The answer is not Netanyahu nor is it Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog, remember that the last two come in a single package and as things stand they would take their turn as Prime Minister in that order. That in and of itself gives a great indicator of the lack of character strength of Hertzog if as the leader of the dominant party in their coalition he still allowed Tzipi to be the dominant one taking the lead even if her presence is mostly ignored by the campaign they are running. So, where could Israel seek a leader who might prevent a disaster and is not Benyamin Netanyahu? Eli Yishai would make an exceedingly good choice though he is too obscure to ever be considered and his party had merged with another and their combined parties will only barely make it into the next Knesset. So we have had to rule out the most desirable candidate, then who might be chosen by President Reuven Rivlin initially to form a coalition? The entire package which might be made which would be difficult unless every religious or leaning religious Zionist voted for their first preference instead of voting Likud out of fear of Hertzog and especially Livni getting their hands on the seat of power, then Israel might honestly have a possibility to find a leader who is dynamic and capable of standing up for Israel on the international scene and against the coming storm from the White House. This is also the person and party, Jewish Home “הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi” leader Naftali Bennett, we have chosen to support though we also fully understand and agree with those who choose to vote for Eli Yishai and applaud their choice as well. We are also tired and truly fed up with Netanyahu all too often playing at being the true diplomat and polite in persona in dealing with United States President Obama and the leadership of the European Union as well as the independent governments of Europe and the entirety of the anti-Israel world, they will never be appeased as long as Israel exists. The unofficial but still deadly building freeze which Netanyahu has enforced is very much to blame for the rising price of housing and needs to be terminated. Hertzog/Livni will do worse, they will encourage and support demolition of Jewish communities beyond the Green Line to genuflect before and appease the White House. Naftali Bennett should be granted a chance to put his “No more apologizing” slogan into use as Prime Minister. He would hopefully stand as proud in the seat of power as he has on the campaign and be just as unyielding as he has portrayed himself and the members of his party. Perhaps Jewish Home really is our home and the home of all Zionists.

 

Some will point to the fact that Naftali Bennett himself has said he is not yet ready to be Prime Minister. Who is? Naftali Bennett has the drive and the willingness to directly address the problems Israel faces and has already addressed the biggest of them all, the overbearing drive for Israeli leaders to be constantly apologizing for Israel existing and that must stop. That will not happen with Netanyahu or the other choice of Hertzog/Livni that the media and power brokers have told us are the only choices. Hey, guess what? We can vote anybody into the top position simply by voting bravely for our true hope for the future, the religious Zionists who have the bravery of those who believe they have a real answer for the challenges Israel faces. Naftali Bennett if actually listened to and if one actually researched the voting pattern of his Jewish Home members in the Knesset one would see they represent responsible positions on economic challenges as well as on defending Israel and her right to exist as an equal amongst the nations of this world. The one challenge is Bennett claiming he is not ready to be Prime Minister. That statement was made as deference to Netanyahu more likely than any other reason. Truth be told, in many ways Bennett represents potentially the Israeli Churchill. People may not realize that Winston Churchill did not feel comfortable with becoming Prime Minister of England, especially as they were headed into a war, a very costly and difficult war. Israel has been in two wars, one with the Arabs who wish to destroy us and the other with the Western powers who believe by sacrificing Israel they will have satiated the Arab and Muslim appetites as all they desire is Israel and as the Europeans and President Obama see it, rightfully so do they desire Israel. Many in the West see the establishment of Israel to be a bad response to the sins of World War II and they are mostly ignorant of the San Remo Conference and all the rest of the history behind the formation of the Jewish State dating back to 1920 or even earlier to include the Balfour Declaration. Most of the history behind Modern Israel traces back to just after World War I and have nothing to do with World War II or the camps or the Nazis, it has to do with a debt by the nations of the world to allow the Jews to return to their brethren who remained in Israel surviving the desecrations and dissolution of the Jewish People by scattering them to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Bennett may not feel ready but he will never be ready as being the Prime Minister is a huge step for anybody and Naftali is no different. What Naftali has proven is he speaks English well and gives an accomplished presentation of the truths about Israel and her history which included three-thousand-plus year history of residing right here between the Jordan River and the Sea with two tribes residing on the east bank of the Jordan River where they grazed their herds. Naftali Bennett may require having the mantle of leadership of our nation of Israel thrust upon him and then we can watch him either shrink, quite unlikely, or more likely, blossom into a great and historic figure placing him on a near par of the pinnacle the founders of Israel are placed. The best argument to vote Jewish Home and thrust Naftali Bennett into the Prime Minister’s seat is because other than Eli Yishai, Naftali is as close to Ze’ev Jabotinsky as we are likely to see in our times. So, if you deep in your heart would want Naftali as the next leader of Israel and were thinking of voting Likud because Naftali has no chance to win the Prime Minister’s chair, that will be true if you are too afraid to vote with your heart and love of Israel, take the chance, all of those who actually desire another choice than Hertzog/Livni or Netanyahu, then vote הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi and then we will see a new leader and a capable leader if my gut feelings are correct. I see Prime Minister Bennett as the beginning of a whole new period in the life of Israel and the Jewish People. We owe it to the history and the future of Israel to vote exactly what our hearts and minds tell us but many refuse to accept, that we need to break from the rut of Labor or Likud, we need a fresh and new start. That fresh and new start is with הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי, HaBayit HaYehudi and Naftali Bennett.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Leftist Conspiracy, Israel, Europe, the United States, and Beyond

 

Elections, media hype, political mass rallies, press control, universal currency and world governance are all leftist fronts where the extreme leftists are pushing the implementation of their socialist humanism ideals no matter the cost or the great dangers of potential dire results. The initial target in the West is the redefinition of religion from Judeo-Christian to Secular Socialist Humanism which seeks to establish a new world religion that will serve their aims to make a better world. This has led in many Jewish congregations in the United States and Europe to the redefining of Tikkun Olam from being a form of self-improvement first and having a communal accomplishment of improving each member leading to a more righteous community and thus making a more fair and caring world instead to improving the world which is designed as a socialist paradise where income inequality has been reduced, providing it does not impinge on the level of luxury of the leftists lives who are implementing this new equality of incomes, and the setting of a livable minimum wage instead of an actual simple minimum wage. They often demand that there be green areas set where there can be no building, limits on the heights for buildings and building freezes within cities and at the same time rent controls and affordable housing and rent subsidy housing but usually not near their neighborhoods. They pass completely meaningless nuclear free zone laws despite the fact that there have been absolutely no intentions to construct any such power plants. Sometimes they also pass zoning restrictions against coal or other carbon based power plants despite there being no power generation plants placed or proposed to ever be placed within their neighborhoods. There is a perfect example representing the nuclear free zone concept exists straddling the border between Montgomery County, Maryland and Washington D.C. in the Nuclear Free Tacoma Park which was declared a nuclear-free zone in 1983 by then-mayor Sam Abbott. Unfortunately for the Takoma Park library which had purchased new computers to replace their relics in June of 2012 they realized they had made an unforgivable error, the computers were Hewlett-Packard computers and Hewlett-Packard had been contracted to work on nuclear weapons thus making these computers not kosher for use within their nuclear-free zone. The city council gave the library a waver after a couple of months of severe hand-wringing. Strange but true. Another classical case of leftists hoisted with their own petard.

 

What I have noticed is that more and more as time passes is that leftists will use the world media, which they largely control, and other resources even to the point of populating rallies paid for by leftist groups or even other government agencies under leftist influence or from nations already under leftist control in order to influence elections in other Western nations in order to assist leftist parties to win elections. This has become very evident in the current Israeli elections and has an interesting twist which proves that this has been set-up and planned for quite some time leaving only exactly how deep this conspiracy had reached. First off to get back to the front end of this what very well might be a mad and crazed conspiracy theory we need to get back to the reelection campaign of President Obama. Throughout the campaign there was a theme that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was actively supporting Republican Mitt Romney in an attempt to unseat President Obama by instructing the Jews and supporters of Israel to put Romney into the Presidency because Prime Minister Netanyahu could not get along with President Obama. This little theme kept creeping into the campaign despite repeated denials in interview after interview by Netanyahu. Reality did not interfere with the story as it was just a given that Prime Minister Netanyahu personally could not get along with President Obama no matter how much President Obama gave in to Israel on, how much he worked to protect Israel, often even from herself and specifically from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own extremist demands and attitudes which will only destroy Israel and lose her all the nations which used to be her friends. Nobody could quite understand this false conspiracy between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama.

 

Move back a bit before going on to the Israeli elections in 2013 to the government of Prime Minister Sharon in its post-Likud Kadima mode when the disengagement from Gaza was imminent and it was not until the last possible moment and only after great amounts of needless debate and hemming and hawing before leaving the government. This caused many to question which Netanyahu valued higher, his friendships especially when being called into question and his Zionist views which he claims are so central to his political life. Then came his winning the Prime Ministership in 2009 and his appointing of Ehud Barak as his Minister of Defense which led to some to question how deep Ehud Barak’s influence was being felt in cabinet decisions and how far the fact that Ehud Barak was Bibi’s commander in the IDF. This came to a head when President Obama demanded an extended building freeze beyond the Green Line which ended up being enforced for ten months despite support by the public to resist making such a sacrifice. Then came the elections in 2013 which returned Benyamin Netanyahu to Prime Minister and his first move was to include Tzipi Livni and her new Party’s paltry six mandates and appointed her to be Minister of Justice and made her the lead negotiator with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Authority government in Area A of Judea and Samaria. There have been rumors and even some unconfirmed reporting that there was another building freeze put in place to please President Obama and to placate Mahmoud Abbas and company. Now we are entering the last stretch of another election which this time places Tzipi Livni in direct opposition to Prime Minister Netanyahu as she has allied herself with the Labor Party and Yitzhak Hertzog.

 

It seems to be almost a theme in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political career to have former Likudniks who have drifted, some even fled, away from Likud and the Zionist and right leaning camps to post-Zionist, and in Tzipi Livnis’s case, far leftist camp about as far as one could get from their Likud beginnings as they possibly could. This election has become a three ring circus with every ring and every act being some version of the theme, “Anybody but Bibi.” This has been the theme from Yair Lapid, Tzipi Livni, Yitzhak Hertzog, Zahava Gal-On and who knows how many other party leaders and NGOs. Where this Israeli election has the normal interference from the European Union and numerous European governments but there is a repeat of the Netanyahu opposition in 1999 when President Clinton sent James Carville and company to do everything possible and funded their efforts against Bibi. This election it is President Obama who sent Jeremy Bird and a group called either V15 or V2015 which is organizing as massive a grassroots door knocking army and has virtually unlimited funding as OneVoice which was recently awarded $200,000 for future projects by the United States State Department. This may be the first time that the United States State Department has financed the efforts to unseat a sitting Prime Minister of an ally in his nation’s elections. The efforts being put forth to beat Prime Minister Netanyahu is code-named “Anybody but Bibi” but is all about electing Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Hertzog and prevent the formation of a Zionist or right wing government. This has gotten to the point where even President Reuven Rivlin has come and spoken of his desire if the election appears to be close and no clear victory is won to bring the two main parties, Labor/Hatnua and Likud together to form a so-called unity government with the intended design to formulate some new manner of electing the Israeli governance which will make it more difficult to topple a government and force the government to function with the elected people rather than holding elections every year to year and a half as so many Parliamentary governance like all those dysfunctional across all of Europe, or that is how it is being sold. All of these different packages are all designed to assure that there not be another Bibi dominated government and to prevent the formation of a Zionist and right wing government which will not cooperate with President Obama which is the result most sought by the leftist interference from the United States and Europe.

 

The really odd thing about the V15/OneVoice campaign theme is based on a simple word, “Change,” just change without the pairing with hope. Maybe the campaign genii from the Obama reelection campaign and also veterans from the 2008 initial election of President Obama using the mantra of “Hope and Change” and the so very rhythmic chanting of, “Yes We Can!” was just too easily recognized so instead they decided to go with something appropriate and simple but definitely unrecognizable, new, fresh and completely original so they came up with, “Change.” No hope included, just change, not even yes we might, just change, but everybody knows the real chant is anyone but Bibi. The V15 people necessarily never mention OneVoice and try not to allude to President Obama or overtly that they are campaigning for Hertzog and Livni, they just stick with the change of government and anybody but Bibi though everybody knows what that means, and it does not mean Deri from Shas, Bennett from Jewish Home or any of the others though most would be acceptable as long as they would not include Bibi in their coalition. But the truth is if you are attempting to defeat Bibi Netanyahu then you are campaigning for Hertzog and Livni. Further, if anyone cares to listen to what Hertzog and Livni were screaming about for the weeks leading up to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent addressing of the United States joint session of Congress then you heard their entire campaign platform. Their plan is to repair the relations between Israel and President Obama by dutifully obeying any and everything that President Obama demands from them.

 

This means that they will gladly withdraw all Jewish Israelis from all of Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem and pull back behind the Green Line even without meeting with Mahmoud Abbas. This they will perform so as to allow President Obama to force Abbas to then agree to take the lands and hopefully accept them and agree to end his demands and make peace. Perhaps this is when the hope enters the formulas. Thus far nobody has addressed one little potentially troubling scenario, what happens should Mahmoud Abbas take the now purged lands which have been made Judenrein as he demands and refuse to make peace demanding instead that Israel accept some five-million Arab refugees within their now truncated borders and even then he actually says that he will still not make peace until all the Jews have been removed from his greater Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Is this where the Hopeless Changes would be enforced and Israel made to accept every last Arab claiming to be a refugee regardless of their ancestral history? As I said, nobody has addressed this and I can assure you this will be exactly what will occur should Livni and Hertzog be given the opportunity to form and coalition and they succeed in forming a government predicated on accessing to every wish of President Obama in his mad quest for peace in the Middle East and his winning another Nobel Peace Prize.

 

If this interference in the Israeli election works for the international forces of the socialist extreme leftists then all of the Western nations can expect a full court press to place leftist government into power wherever it proves possible and then the attempt to impose a One World universal currency, a deal that the Russians have been very strongly proposing and supporting and have run into a singular blockade, the Chinese thus far are refusing to accept such a currency and are willing to continue using the dollar as their currency is defined as a set value against the dollar so it behooves them to retain the dollar as the petro-dollar and the reserve currency of the world. If for a moment anyone believes that the making of a universal currency will work please take a long and hard look at Europe and the Euro. The same problems that Greece is facing as their economic plans did not fare well when compared to Germany or any other Euro nation. One cannot have a common currency unless every nation using that currency agrees to centralize their economic governance. That simply means if there is a world currency then there must be a world governance. That is the desire of the leftists and is why they are allying themselves currently with the forces of Islam as they view their militancy as the fastest route to a single governance over the world except the leftists believe they will be able to redefine Islam to transform it into their secular social humanist governance and have overlooked the slightest of problems, the Islamists will be so very busy murdering these very same extreme leftists for their beliefs, especially for their liberal views over women, abortion, same sex marriage, alternate lifestyles, drinking of alcohol and virtually everything else they accept even to the way they dress. The misadventure starts with the election coming within two weeks in Israel, March 17, 2015 to be exact, and if in any way Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is not chosen to form a Zionist coalition, or if he does not choose a Zionist coalition, then there will be endless interference and meddling in every election coming for the foreseeable future.

 

In some manners and ways even should Netanyahu be chosen to form the next government that is far from guaranteeing that he will form the kind of government required from him if Israel is to survive the calamities coming in the next few years. Obeying every dictation out of Washington, the White House in particular, would be a recipe for disaster and could very possibly signal the end of the Jewish People. In some ways it might be better for the survival of the free world and the Jewish People if one of the following were to be chosen though all are a longshot but are probably necessary for Netanyahu to choose in forming his government and the parties and their leaders are Jewish Home and Naftali Bennett, United Torah Judaism and Yaakov Litzman with Moshe Gafni, Yachad – Otzma and Eli Yishai and finally Yisrael Beiteinu and Avigdor Liberman. As things appear currently the polls are showing the race too close to call and in many ways it appears that whichever side between Netanyahu and Livni/Hertzog is given the nod to form a coalition will very probably succeed. Should Netanyahu allow his seeming personal problems with Naftali Bennett force him to refuse to bring Jewish Home in at all then he would be faced with accepting either a unity government which will cause problems and lead to a short-lived governing coalition which could easily be brought down. If the fears that some have expressed that Netanyahu’s Zionist streak may not be as wide or as deeply held as many have been led to believe and that his wavering on that point might cause him to make a unity government to honestly address the election processes and make a new and less fragile manner of governance might mean more to him. Additionally, there have been reports of some difficulties between President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu which also could come into play. Thankfully we have only a matter of days to scrutinize the elections and then all will be revealed and the die cast and our fates determined.

 

Beyond the Cusp