ISRAEL'S BIBI IN LEGAL JEOPARDY AS CHANGE LOOMS

Israel celebrated its seventieth anniversary having established itself as a modern day miracle in the Middle East. However, accompanying this economic and geopolitical success, stark impasses still loom large threatening the peaceful future of the Israeli State. There have also  been a rising cost of living with a failure of key services such as education and health. With the divide between the secular and the religious still simmering, the difficulty of integrating the Jews from the West and East is ever present and the realization that, in government, the age of Zionist idealism has been sullied with corruption charges. 

The two key unresolved issues - integration of their own non Jewish citizens and a settlement with the Palestinians still await solution. The latter problem has defied healing as both sides still have to come to the full realization that neither the Israelis or Palestinians are going to go away. Atop of these burning concerns is the existential threat of survival that so permanently hangs over Israel namely Iranian hatred with threats of annihilation and the terrorist incursions of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The past decade has seen stagnation on the internal Israeli political front which has been wracked by scandal. This in spite of a strengthening of their geopolitical status. However the cumbersome Israeli political system allows for rebirth and rejuvenation and hope abounds with the emergence of a new political party Hosen L’ Yisrael, (Resilience Party), which has already captured the imagination of the electorate.

CURRENT EVENTS PERTAINING TO ISRAEL

There was a coming together of secular, religious and political input this last month on the crises facing Israel. The death of Israel’s Shakespeare, prophet and peace advocate, Amos Oz saddened the world that had been spellbound by his prose, intellectual honesty, peace narrative and fierce Zionism. However in the flood of tributes to Oz his activism, optimism and love of Israel were revisited. Then the religious were quick to point that the current Book of the Torah that is being read is Exodus which relates to the Birth of Israel as a nation. Former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written extensively as to the connection between the Torah and modern day dilemmas and his commentary on all of this is instructive to believers.

But from an Israeli political point of view the nightmare of the investigation into Prime Minister Netanyahu was to be ended one way or another by a decision from the Attorney General as to whether to indict the Premier or not. Whatever the outcome for Bibi the sands of time are running out for the teflon Premier. Serendipitously, the stale political divisive logjam was broken by the entry into the political arena of a charismatic former Israeli Chief of Staff, General Bennie Gantz, leader of the newly established political party, Hosen L’ Yisrael, (Resilience Party).

AMOS OZ

Amos Oz told a remarkable story in more ways than one. He was born in Palestine. His parents had fled, in the thirties, from anti semitic Poland, not because the destination was the family’s first choice but rather because no other country would have the Jews. The family even applied for citizenship in Germany and were refused. He was also quick to remind that the cry of the anti semites in those days was that “Jews should go to Palestine” and now it is “Jews get out of Palestine”. 

Like all writers true to his craft he was fiercely honest, paid attention to detail and had a deep intuitive insight into psychology, a feature of so many of the great writers. His ability to tell a story made him one of the most celebrated writers of the last century. His works were translated into forty - five languages and made him a winner of endless literary prizes except one - the Nobel Prize for Literature, which apparently he had been nominated for again and again.

 He took all these literary attributes into his activism activities. 

Oz was a founder member of the “Peace Now” Movement in 1978 which followed on Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel. “Peace Now” was the first major body to advocate a two state solution. He was close friends with Yitzhak Rabin the Nobel Peace Prize Winning Israeli Premier conversing with him on a weekly basis. He had quipped that he never ever voted for him which was illustrative of his fiercely independent streak. He supported Israeli defensive action when he felt appropriate such as the initiation of the Lebanon war and the building of a wall to stop the daily incursions of suicide bombers who murdered thousands of his fellow citizens. 

On the other hand he pertinently pointed out that you cannot have an occupation force that does not become corrupt, being empathic to the daily lot of the average Palestinian. Like the prophets of old this non believer spoke truth to power. 

His take on the Palestinian dispute was practical. He saw the carving up of the Middle East and its subsequent chaos as a result of the parent colonial forces - reminding that his first activism was to tell the British “to go home” during their Palestinian Mandate. He felt that the two siblings of the callous “parents” vented their anger on each other rather than the parents that had caused their pain. 

Interestingly the sibling rivalry concept was a theme developed on a religious level by former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his book “Not in God’s Name - Confronting Religious Violence”. Sacks argued that the psychological basis of the dispute was sibling rivalry. Both founders of the religion were sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. The dispute was as to who was the legitimate heir. The Rabbi quoted biblical texts as to how the two half brothers became close in later life and believed that this could be the basis of future understanding and eventually cooperation. Oz made it quite clear that he didn’t believe that religion was the root cause but rather “real estate”. 

At the end of the day the Israeli poet laureate maintained that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would grudgingly be ended with a two Party State solution. 

RABBI SACKS AND ISRAEL’S CURRENT DILEMMAS

Rabbi Sacks, the internationally recognized theologian and proponent of inter religious cooperation has commented extensively on Exodus which relates to the Birth of Israel as a nation. This includes that the Jewish nation was instructed to be a nation of laws, morality and covenants. As he writes, two of the themes in this last week’s portion of the Torah relate to helping your enemy, when he is in distress, and love of the stranger. The argument as to the former injunction is that your enemy is also a fellow human being and if he needs help assist him. Also there is a hope that this behavior will help overcome estrangement and ill feeling between the rivaling parties. As to the “law”, love of the stranger, it is a motif that runs through the Torah being mentioned, in several ways. no fewer than thirty - two times. “Do not oppress the stranger; you ourselves know how it feels to be a stranger because you were a stranger in Egypt” and “Do not ill - treat a stranger” are but two examples of the cardinal directive.

Sacks, to the frustration of some of his supporters, refuses to venture into the political arena and make the obvious connections with his own interpretations of the biblical texts to current events. However, in a recent address to the Barilanun University in Israel, he called, in effect, for the creation for a new political/philosophical paradigm in Israel. This would need the cooperation of the Universities with the different institutional entities in Israel. He maintained that Jewish tradition and philosophy had much to contribute to a “New Jewish Thought”. Jewish intellectuals had always been reactive to other thinkers and philosophers as they never had a state of their own. Now they had their own nation and could put into effect a unique political system. 

Sacks contended that historically there were connections in the Hebrew Bible with the Enlightenment theories on morality - Kant, (law and categorical imperative), Hume, (emotions) and Bentham, (actions that would benefit the most). He argued that Kant's morality of law and reason could be aligned with the biblical priests' area of action, the Humian philosophy of feelings and sentiments to the rationale of the Prophets and that the basis of Benthamian morality, being centered on doing the best for the most, was the job definition of the biblical kings. He made it quite clear as to which morality he would defer to - Hume and the Prophets, so as to speak truth to power. 

The former Chief Rabbi also alluded to the fact that President Rivlin had recognized the need to integrate the four minority groups, twenty percent of the population of Israel, into society with equal rights and resources. While the latter were full citizens they did not enjoy the same benefits as the Jewish Israelis.

 In an unrelated talk sponsored by the Templeton Foundation the Rabbi was deeply critical of the fact that Israel’s clergy were active in the politics of the country.

GENERAL BENNY GANTZ LEADER OF THE NEW HOSEN L’YISRAEL, (RESILIENCE) PARTY

The entrance of General Gantz into the political arena is indicative of two characteristics of Israel’s civics -   Generals as Prime Ministers and the regular sprouting up of new political parties in Israel. With regard to the former it is not unsurprising that those from the armed forces are held in high regard. Israel has been under constant threat since its inception. Every Israeli citizen is conscripted into the army for two years. It is also the Generals, usually the Chiefs of Staff of the Israeli Defense Force, that have been in the forefront of nearly all of the abortive peace processes with the Palestinians. Rabin, Peres and Barack coming from right wing political positions sacrificed their political careers in trying to realise a two state vision. Rabin paid with his life for his troubles. With the current dissolusionment of the populace Gantz has picked the right time to enter into the political arena.

Like all politicians he tries to be all things to all people but he identifies with the despondency of the citizens which they attribute to cronyism causing the high cost of living, health care inadequacies, lack of educational opportunity and the astronomical rise in real estate. While Gantz is no flaming liberal his appeal to drain the Israeli swamp has a receptive audience. To those in America his attack on the divisive nature of the current administration and their criticism of the judicial, cultural, defense and media institutions rings a familiar tone. He criticizes the authoritarianism of Netanyahu who he claims is not a “King” and attacks the latter’s assertion that he could run in an election if he is indicted. by the Attorney General 

On the cultural and religious issues such as who can pray at the Wall he is answering the disenchantment the second largest Jewish Community in the world, the American Conservative and Reform movements, who are resentful at the snub the Netanyahu Israeli government has inflicted upon them by not allowing them to pray at the Western Wall, in a manner consistent with their own traditions. For the local Israeli populations travel on the sabbath will be decided regionally, the covenant of “couplehood” would be respected as would be “gays. His election platform sounded like a manifesto for the MeToo movement as well as for the equality for women everywhere. 

His cultural mantra is in sync with the emerging generations and his tentative moves to accommodate the secular lines him up against the hard line ultra religious Haredi who are causing resentment by refusing to go to the army.

While Gantz makes it quite clear that he will brook no aggression and will hang onto every piece of ground that defines modern day Israel, he will seek peace. He invokes the heroism of “Israeli Patriot”, Begin, Rabin “of blessed memory”, and even Netanyahu, for their guts in seeking peace at one time or another. The Former IDF Chief promises that he will give humanitarian aid to Gaza as well. With regard to the other hot intergroup issue Gantz has this to add, “Israel is a State of the Jewish people, all of whose citizens are equal. 

The General stakes his claim to the moral high ground , juxtaposing his life with those in the Administration with their morass of indictments and accusations of corruption, “I have always kept my hands clean. I owe nothing to anyone but my people. I will neither support nor will I close my eyes in the face of any violation of moral standards.”

THE RESPONSE TO THE FORMATION OF THE RESILIENCE PARTY

Within a day of Gantz launching his new party there has been an outpouring of support and for the first time in a decade Netanyahu’s firm hold of the Government is slipping. Not unexpectedly there is no rightwing swing to the Reslience Party. The polls are already predicting that if he forms an alliance with the centrist left party of Yair Lapid this coalition could have the highest number of Knesset seats. Lapid formed his party six years ago illustrating the fluidity of Israeli politics. So far Lapid, a charismatic leader in his own right, is not budging as he sees himself as the inheritor of the mantle of premiership. However that is not the way the polls forecast it. 

It is early days in Israeli electioneering as there are two and a half months to go before poll day. Benny Gantz’s position can only grow as his bona fides are water tight. Israel’s understandable love affair with their military leadership will be to the benefit of the new Resilience Party. The cost of living and inequity have soared in the Holy Land and there will be no sleeping easy till the internal issue of equality and the external dilemma of a two party state has been settled. On the latter issues there has been a serendipitous coming together of  secular, religious and political thought. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

One thing is for sure the Israelis are there to stay and after seventy years, baring some miracle solution, so are the Palestinians.