GEORGE FLOYD: THE IMPLICATION FOR POLICING AND POLITICS

The unequivocal conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of an African American suspect, George Floyd, evokes consideration in so many dimensions that it is difficult to know where to begin. On the surface accountability has been served to the satisfaction of the victim’s family and all those who believe that to date the police have brutalized, victimized, persecuted, injured and murdered blacks with little or no consequences. The other first is that the all Chauvin’s supervisors, trainers and the head of the Minnesota Metropolitan Police Department himself, who had fired him after seeing the bystander’s video, testified powerfully for the prosecution. The decision has laser like focussed attention on the crisis that deaths of blacks at the hands of police has evoked. Jay H. Ell will attempt to briefly cover some of the aspects of this central problem in American politics - racial justice.  

The Chauvin trial outcome has resulted in an investigation by the Federal Justice Department of the Minnesota Police as to their practices as even on the face of this tragedy three policeman stood by while Chauvin in the cold light of day methodically squeezed the life out of a pathetic and helpless victim. Not only did they not interfere but rather aided and abetted him. To add to the Minnesota Police Department woes before the Chauvin verdict was announced another cop shot and killed yet another African American suspect, Dante Wright. She has been charged with manslaughter and as a metaphor to the whole sorry saga the initial police communique on Floyd’s death was that he died of natural causes in hospital after being arrested, 

The trial verdict has drawn attention to policing in general as there are eighteen hundred departments of various sizes throughout the country. Finally, there are four other reactions that reverberate on the national and local scenes - the response of the populace themselves, the growth of the Civil rights Black Lives Matter Movement, the actions taken by local, State and Central Government and legislation that has been proposed.

 It will also be instructive as to what the impact of societal views, which have overwhelmingly agreed with the outcome and that policing requires more transparency and accountability, on the Republican and Democratic Parties. They have decidedly different views as to what the legislative action should be. Whichever way this is looked at, this single event will have a profound impact on American Society and its politics and policing.

THE CHAUVIN TRIAL ITSELF - A BLACK SWAN EVENT THAT BROKE THE MOULD

The trail blazing trial of the murder of George Floyd was unique in that the facts were undisptued. Firstly the crime took place in open daylight in front of very brave onlookers some of whom attempted to intervene. It occasioned 911 calls to the police both from the dispatcher who viewed the scene with horror and a spectator - the police reporting the police. The bystanders who randomly represented all age groups from a nine year old to a saddened old man who wrongly perceived that Floyd was resisting and instructed him to give up as he tellingly told him you can’t win. Then there was an off duty trained EMS firefighter who offered to render resuscitation who was brushed off, a martial arts expert who frantically scolded the “bros” and then conclusively there was the brave recording, by a teenager using the modern means of communication, the cell phone. Very soon her recording went viral via the modern day social media platforms. The murder in all its brutality, cruelty, torture, sociopathy, casualness, indifference to the pathetic appeals of a dying man to cease and desist was witnessed by a nation. 

All this coupled with their subsequent heartrending testimony juxtaposed to what appeared to be an indifferent Chauvin, his lack of emotion concealed by his face mask scribbling away on legal notepads as the damning evidence rolled on, contributed to the unanimous decision of the jury of lay people.  

If that was not enough the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a man of color himself assembled together a top class legal team with endless expert witnesses including pulmonologists, cardiologists, pathologists and a world renowned expert in breathing. All this as the unprecedented line up of every supervisor that Chauvin came into contact with whether it be the highest ranking in the police division, the chief of police himself and police trainers particularly in the area of force testified for the prosecution.  

What persuaded the police to break the thin steely blue line that they have stuck too with sickening monotony is not quite clear. Perhaps it was the clear cut compelling viral video of the brave teary seventeen year old Danielle Frazier, who couldn’t fall asleep at night because she didn’t intervene or the ever growing multiracial street protests accompanying the death or the growing power of Black Lives Matter. Perhaps they were finding it extremely difficult to espouse the value system that is written into their procedures and this case provided an ideal opportunity to do so. Whatever the reason their decision is an important and groundbreaking contribution to the debate and was an important thunder cloud to the perfect storm.

THE ENORMITY OF THE PROBLEM AND THE CHAUVIN IMPACT ON SOCIETY

With in quick succession deaths at the hands of police followed Dwante Wright, just ten miles from the Court room where the Chauvin trial was unfolding, a thirteen year old boy in Chicago was shot, in Jackson Florida the police fired and killed a thirty - year old man in a hotel, a forty year old man in New Hampshire succumbed to police fire and a sixteen year old black girl was felled in Columbus Ohio. The largest storm was created by the incident in North Carolina where State law does not allow body camera video to be shown without a court order. Ten members of the police department have left for one or other reason and this is the next hurricane in the making. With the exception of Dwante Wright in Minnesota no allegations have been made nor are the circumstances fully available, however they magnify society’s awareness that there is a problem. 

There is a recent history of a number of nation wide protests following deaths where the perception has been that the police have had to take no accountability or responsibility when it appeared blatantly obvious that there was probable cause for legal consequences. Black Lives Matter was initiated in 2013 and since then the deaths have evoked a flood of nightlong protests into the streets. Most notable were Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown in 2014, Walter Scott in 2015, Alton Sterling and Philande Castile in 2016, Stephen Clarke in 2018 and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Finally, George Floyd’s plight lit up not only America but the world in protest.  It is interesting to note that in these and scores of other instances, the only mechanism that the aggrieved could employ to redress the obvious wrong was by civil suits. The compensation awarded runs into the millions of dollars. Even though Chauvin was criminally charged the Municipality paid out twenty - nine million dollars prior to the outcome of the trial. 

A study emanating from NorthWestern University researchers revealed that the commonest cause of death in all young men in America was police violence with blacks having statistically higher numbers. One in a thousand blacks between the ages of twenty and thirty - five can be expected to be killed by the police. The deaths in women, native Americans were also significantly higher in people of color. There were more police deaths in the USA in three months than in Wales and England in ten years. All in all there are, annually, a thousand police deaths in America.

The question now is does the Floyd/Chauvin cause celebre have any impact on societal opinion and the behavior of political entities? It is fair to say this dilemma is not going to go away.

RESPONSE BY SOCIETY

Certain circumstances in history become symbolic of a problem changing attitudes of chunks of society. One far reaching example was the trumped up show trial of Alfred Dreyfus in France which together with the anti semitic protests became the forerunner of Zionism and eventually the State of Israel. 

On the announcement of the verdict racial justice activists declared it as their “Selma” moment. The latter being the protest march, led by Martin Luther King, from Selma to Montgomery which was hailed to be the final push to enact the Civil Rights Bill signed into law by President Johnson in.1964. The Attorney General and Governor of Minnesota signaled the trial outcome as the beginning of change and acknowledging the unjust status quo. The enormity of the development occasioned a nation wide address of the President of he United States of America - let that sink in - a verdict of murder in an open and shut case merited the leader of the most powerful country in the world, that prides itself on its justice system, to have a national address. 

The Ipsos poll following the Chauvin verdict revealed a stunning result in a populace that can agree on almost nothing. Seventy - one percent concured and only thirteen percent didn’t. Fifty - five percent of Republicans accepted the verdict as opposed to eighty - five percent of the  Democrats. The other startling figure in this day and age of competition for audiences nearly every American watched some part of the trial and or had seen the video

This appears to be yet another catharsis by the electorate with the Breona Taylor death, the Dwane Wright shooting and the video of the blatantly abusive and dangerous behavior of the officers in the Zimmerman civil litigation. When it is realized that the Republican Party has shrunk already having lost a large number of suburban white women with Trump’s border policy of separating children from parents with no apparent system to ever reunite them again, the “Republicans” such as they are going to be hard put to win back the House and Senate in the midterms.

POLITICAL RESPONSE. 

The Democrats, some time ago, passed the House Resolution entitled, “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act”. This included some crucial changes to the status quo as well as creating a standard across the fifty states and the eighteen hundred entities across the country. To date the criminal standard is “willful” behavior of the officer. The suggestion that the criterion as to criminal liability will be whether the defendant knew that the action was “illegal” or was reckless in carrying out his/her duty. Also in the Act police immunity against civil litigation is lifted while a national registry of disciplinary action against police be installed. Some of the components of the Act are already policy in several departments. These include the reporting of all force and the wearing of body cameras, and training including awareness of racial bias.

The Act has been languishing in the Senate for almost a year. Initially because Mitch McConnell ignored it and then made it quite clear that he would not provide the ten votes needed to make it law. However McConnell is not deaf to public opinion so there are negotiations taking place between the one Republican African American senator who is as conservative as the best of them and Corie Booker a Democrat who is also an African American.

In short the Republican response reflects the chaos of the Republican party at the moment. The majority, the Trumpists, are against change and are for “law and order” except when democracy itself is attacked and the Capitol and its police are attacked. Then there are the Bush Republicans in and out of the party who are ready to negotiate. Finally, there are the McConnell Republicans who have two objectives, non co operation with Democrats on everything and carrying the water of their major donors - big corporations and the evangelicals. This translates into appointing conservative judges and lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations. The latter have had enough of Trump as reflected in McConnell’s attack on Trump following the impeachment trial.

In effect, the Republicans have been largely silent in this crisis leaving it to Fox News who have ducked the central issue. Rather they believe that Chauvin will win his appeal because Democrat Maxine Walters called for increased protests while the trial was in progress and Biden maintained, while the jury was sequestered, that the nation was awaiting the outcome anxiously. Fox can do what they like as they don’t need to be re elected. 

THE POLICE AND POLICING

The Policemen and women are mighty powerful individuals. Although it is argued that one is innocent till proved guilty what happens at the initial point of contact goes a long way in dictating what the course of the defendant’s burden is going to be. If, for example, the officer interprets your attitude as obstruction or your swing around when he tries to put the handcuffs as resisting arrest that is what you have to answer to. Also try and persuade the Judge that you weren’t speeding… The “innocent” is always led away in handcuffs and better get a good lawyer. 

However the good news is by far the minority of nearly a million cops have a history of abuse -  approximately seven percent. Derek Chauvin had seventeen complaints against him. Some of those complainants were interviewed and the allegations were pretty serious. However sociopathic behavior of the type demonstrated in the Floyd trial has to be rare. Recklessness and deviations from protocol are more likely to be the cause of police infractions. Also it is argued, understandably, that cops have to make split second decisions and it is easy to spend months analyzing and criticizing them. 

The black Americans since the time of slavery have had a stormy relationship with police. In fact the first time “police” came on the scene in 1702 was the police patrol to hunt down escaped slaves in North Carolina. The history continues through the free reign of the Klu Klux Klan, and the non prosecution of the lynchings. To this day the research shows that people of color are discriminated against whether it be for alleged drug offenses or for “stop and frisk” to the statistic that they are more likely to end up dead having been stopped by the police for whatever reason. A most concerning observation is that many of the fatalities resulted from escalation of what was a minor offense. 

Rosa Brooks, a Law Professor has just published a book on her training as a reserve police officer entitled “Tangle Up in Blue”. She writes that much of the problems can be ascribed to two factors - their training and the plethora of guns in America. Brooks argues, “If one learns over and over that there is no such thing as a routine stop and anyone can kill you at anytime” in a world awash with guns it is inevitably going to get the current situation. She discusses “The Blue Wall of Silence” in addition that it is a “you versus them” culture that the training creates. 

 SOLUTIONS

The George Floyd Act has many positive aspects to it which if carried out will alleviate the situation. It is obvious that the bad eggs need to be weeded out as quickly as possible but the focus as Ms. Brooks points out is on training. Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel Prize winning work on thinking processes provides a framework for solutions. He simplistically frames all thinking into fast and slow thinking. The former is the intuitive response that is mostly in use in day to day interactions and the latter the more reasoned thought. The police incidents involve mainly the former. It was so much easier to convict Chauvin, even under the current legislation, as obviously a nine minute murder is not a split second decision. Malcolm Gladwell has written about how all police killings are different. 

However to take up the Law professor/cop arguments that fear and guns cause the problem and then add racial bias you have a lethal situation. Kahneman  and his collaborator Twerski point out that intuitive fast thinking can be taught as in learning to drive. With experience driving becomes intuitive and doesn’t require “slow thinking”. It is ridiculous to train cops that stopping some one for speeding as a potential life or death situation when they know that is rare. They have already checked the number plate of the car before they even venture out limiting the risk even further. Some of the video material that has been produced show cops as out and out confrontative from the word go resulting in a response from the African American driver who expects “brutality” form the cop. In training it is no use pretending that racial bias doesn’t exist.

While it would take ten volumes to outline “Solutions”, social workers should be sent to domestic altercations and psychiatric social workers should administer to those with mental issues, not the police. Just one last gasp any accused who has not committed a violent act should not be shot at.  

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Obviously this is highly complex subject but hopefully, now that there has been a cathartic moment and a realization by society that this amounts to racial discrimination of the most dangerous degree, the politicians will act. 

ARE SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND COVID DEATHS JUST A STATISTIC?

Joseph Stalin famously claimed, when confronted with his murdering of millions in the Soviet Union, “A single death is a tragedy and a million deaths are a statistic”. America has now nearly six hundred thousand fatalities out of three million dead deceased from Covid worldwide. The country is still recording up to seventy - five thousand cases a day, and nearly a thousand deaths. In twenty - two of the States the infection curve is upwards. Yet representatives of the Republican Party persist that the mitigation factors recommended by the Public Health officials are an assault on Americans’ freedom. The question is whether Stalin was right with his cynical calculation that massive mortality numbers are so mind numbing that they are regarded as statistics rather than a million single causes for outrage, mourning and empathy. 

Forty percent of the country, in spite of the warning from the Director of the Center for Disease Control, Dr. Rochelle Wolensky, of “Impending doom” are calling the pandemic over. In fact they have denied there ever was a threat from Covid and lead by Trump, himself a Covid victim who subsequently was vaccinated in secret, have described the contagious deadly disease  a “hoax” and made its existence a political divisive issue. Although since Biden has assumed office in a vaccination drive conducted like a military operation a quarter of the country has been fully vaccinated “Making America Great Again”, the threat as the increasing numbers indicate that the danger is far from over. The peril has been exacerbated by the growing number of variants of the virus. Some scientists fear that sooner or later the current vaccines will not prove effective against the mutating menace.   

The “Never Vaccers” and the Republican politicians argue that it is “The Deep State” led by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Democrats who are creating a crisis for political gain, not the virus. The  battle against attempts to mitigate the pandemic is being framed as “taking away of freedoms”. Fauci who needs security as the result of the death threats against him is still the focus of attack including vitriol from Donald Trump who lumps him with the other “traitors” such as Mitch McConnell and the Governor of Georgia whom he maintains failed to prevent the Presidency being stolen from him. 

WHERE THE REPUBLICANS STAND ON THE PANDEMIC

A heated scene took place during a committee hearing in the House of Representatives on the pandemic between Republicans and public health officials last week. What was most instructive as to where the Trumpists stand was the interaction between Congressman Jim Jordan and Dr. Fauci. The latter has been the face of Public Health ever since the crisis started fifteen months ago. (Incidentally, in papers relating to the Covid Crisis Management Team it was Fauci not Trump who proposed Operation Warp Speed). Trump relegated him as the months ground on and Fauci didn’t hesitate to contradict him. He has become more of a flashpoint since President Biden appointed him as his Chief Medical Advisor, regularly being attacked by Republican politicians and Fox News. 

Jordan’s main claim to fame is his aggressive in your face support of Trump. He has been in Office since 2007 and has not introduced one piece of important legislation. Trump rewarded him with America’s highest honor for civilians, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In so doing Jordan joined George Gershwin, Neil Armstrong, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, Frank Sinatra, Mother Theresa, Lech Waleska, Colin Powell, Elie Wiesel, Thurgood Marshall, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to name but a few.  

In the over six minute altercation Jordan, his mask ostentatiously hanging below his nose, conducted himself in his characteristic aggressive in your face style. Fauci started off in his customary listening mode but as the Congressman pressed him harder and harder and louder and louder he took a more definitive determined defense of his position. A key fact deliberately ignored by Jordan is that Fauci and the Center for Disease Control can only make recommendations, the decision makers are in the main Governors of States and the President and his Administration has the bully pulpit. 

Below are some of the key snippets from the hearing.

JORDAN: When can the nation begin relaxing physical distancing measured and mask wearing.

FAUCI: It….

JORDAN INTERRUPTING: What measure, what standard what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back.

FAUCI: The (recommended) restrictions will ease when the infections, which are rising across the country are low enough… 

JORDAN INTERRUPTING: What is low enough give me a number. Fifteen days to slow the spread turned into one year loss of liberty, (The fifteen days was Trump’s personal recommendation).

FAUCI: You know your’e indicating liberty and freedom. I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to hospital. Your’e making this a personal thing and it isn’t.

JORDAN: It’s not a personal thing. 

FAUCI: You know that is exactly what your’e doing. We’re not talking about liberties. We’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans.

JORDAN: I get that……. 

JORDAN: …….You don’t think American Liberties have been threatened this year Dr. Fauci?

FAUCI This will end for sure when we get the level of infection low…

The back and forth continued and even when Congressman Jordan’s time ran out he continued and had to be admonished by the chair.

The bottom line is that with more Americans dead from this virus than died in all the wars of the the twentieth century Jordan “gets that” but the wearing of masks, distancing and therefore not being able to gather in large numbers are freedoms more important. In fact the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient doesn’t “get that”. Does it register that FEMA  have had nearly a million requests for financial assistance for funerals following Covid deaths? Did he hear Dr. Birk, who was Trump’s “more compliant” replacement for Fauci as the scientific front, claim that had the Administration acknowledged and acted on the crisis hundreds of thousands of lives may have been saved. 

So Jordan attacks Fauci and scapegoats him for the mess the Republicans are in. Fauci who has no decision making power. In fact the Governors are already opening up the States as a result of the high vaccination numbers, in spite of Dr. Fauci and the public health officials exhorting them not too. Rather than their elected representatives supporting life saving measures they are cheering them to “go back to normal”. Not wearing a mask is considered a badge of honor. Jordan is fighting for their deprived “liberties and freedoms”.

PRESENT SITUATION

Seventy - five thousand cases a day is way above the objective Dr. Fauci finally quoted to Mr. Jordan as “low enough”. Fauci postulated that at ten thousand a day it would be reasonable as that is the number which would be expected at the height of an influenza epidemic. The situation is complicated by the variants and the long time The FDA are taking to assess the J and J vaccine where six cases of severe clotting  have occurred in the eight million doses administered. Even though vaccinations are up to four million a day that are being administered in a military type operation, it is not enough to prevent severe morbidity and deaths to continue in the next few months.  

The Republican attitude is hard to fathom. The public in general is in favor of the mitigation initiatives. Of course the base of the GOP see this like their right to have guns of any sort or any type. It is a miracle that safety measures such as drunken driving, seat belts. and other “restrictions to freedom” ever became law. The irresponsible behavior of risking others lives by not being prepared to wear a mask is inexplicable and can only be because a public health issue became politicized. This effort was led by Trump and like in everything else for the most part the spineless Republicans just went along for the deathly ride.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Stalin’s dictum appears to be spot on.

It is hard to believe that this debate is rational. Rather it is part of the surreal landscape of Trumpism. The fight to control Covid and eradicate it is hampered by these, at kindest, bizarre definitions of freedom. More than likely they are part of the more bizarre attempt to keep the Trump mythology and cult alive. After all Presidential Medals of Freedom aren’t dished out lightly. 

There is not going to be a soft landing from this crisis. Variants will continue to pop up. There are those businesses, places of entertainment and public places where there is going to be an insistence of ongoing mitigation. Even if by some miracle the disease was completely eradicated in the USA, other than Israel, the UK, Bahrain and Chile there is no place safe to go. Normalcy as once was known will never return. Maybe before getting onto a plane not only will Americans have to take off their shoes they will need a rapid Covid test.

ISRAEL’S ELECTION WAS ALL ABOUT NETANYAHU

Israeli politics and all that is happening in Israel devolves around their populist right wing leader Bibi Netanyahu. The central issue in the recent election and the previous three was whether or not Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the right wing Likud Party and the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel’ s seventy odd year history, should remain as Prime Minister. Netanyahu’s situation bears uncanny resemblances to his long time friend Donald Trump who recently was ousted. While Trump has lost his electoral battle to escape legal jeopardy the Israeli Prime Minister is fighting for his life to cobble together a coalition following an election that for the fourth time failed to give him a clear cut win. Meanwhile his trial on corruption has already begun.

THE CURRENT POLITICS FOLLOWING THE MARCH 2021 ELECTION

The Israelis have just completed their fourth election in two years which like the other three has resulted in deadlock. No less than thirteen parties gained seats in the 2021 election. At present the only topics close to consensus is that Netanyahu must go or he must stay. The coalition that could oust him would have to include right wing factions that ran in the latest election on the platform that Netanyahu must go. Netanyahu to stay in office would have to include Arab representatives of the Knesset as well as a right wing fringe that has its roots in a rare phenomenon in modern Israel, home grown Jewish terrorism. 

Following the election President Rivlin reluctantly called on Netanyahu to form a Government, claiming that under Bibi’s legal circumstances that it was a morally difficult decision.  It seems highly unlikely that the current Prime Minister will garner sixty - one votes in the one hundred and twenty member Knesset with his trial on corruption trial having just started. Netanyahu however is a survivor. He also like his mentor, Trump, will stop at nothing to retain power. His future literally hangs in the balance. As the unsavory evidence of his corruption is ringing through Israel he has twenty - eight days to form a Government. For Bibi it is duck or no dinner. He hopes to be reelected and persuade the Knesset to give him immunity. That is a long long shot. Otherwise he faces a prison term. 

For the first time in fifty years the Arab parties have shown interest in forming part of a government. As matters stand it is almost impossible for a government to be formed without them. The fact that some of their Knesset members have committed themselves to the mission of the State of Israel represents a seismic shift in the dynamic of Israeli politics. 

It is also the first time in history that unashamed racists have coalesced, at Bibi Netanyahu’s behest to form a unified party, the Religious Zionists. Bezalel Smotrich leader of this extreme right wing group, who has stated that he would not want his wife to deliver a baby next to an Arab, threatened an Arab member of the Knesset that he would throw him out of the country if he didn’t accept that all the land belonged to the Jews. Smotrich’s six man party are crucial to Netanyahu being reelected as Premier. 

THE THREE MAIN CONTENDERS FOR PREMIERSHIP - NETANYAHU, LAPID, AND BENNETT

Netanyahu, highly articulate and educated in America  is a populist and like Trump has that invincible look about him. The only difference with regard to the law is Bibi is under indictment already and his trial has already started. Another variable is that Bibi is bright. Netanyahu is as desperate as Trump was to remain as Head even though the Israeli legal system does not afford him nearly as much protection as the Presidency did Trump.

 If Netanyahu called it quits his Right wing Likud Party would have less of a problem in forming a Government as that would pave the way to amalgamate the other right wing parties headed by Naftali Bennett and New Hope’s Gideon Sa’ar who despise Netanyahu. (Ditching Bibi by Likud is as unlikely as the Republican Party abandoning Trump).  However, in spite of his electoral stance, Bennett is still in conversation with Netanyahu. Even if the old master pulls a Bennett rabbit out of the hat he would still not have the sixty - one seats needed to govern. There is no way Sa’ar will join a BiBi government as he is the reason that he defected from Likud and took five other members with him. Bibi will have to have the support of one of the Arab coalitions. His problem in that regard is that the Religious Zionist Party would refuse to be a part of the Government and that again may leave Netanyahu short. Interestingly the most religious of the thirteen Knesset parties, United Torah Judaism’s spiritual leader, ninety three year old Rabbi Kanievsky, stated he would rather form a coalition with religious Arabs than left wing secular parties.

If Bibi’s rival, Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party ultimately reaches the coveted sixty - one seats the change to Israeli politics could be as transformative as Biden’s election in the USA. Yesh Atid is a center right party. Lapid’s background is in television and he also exudes charisma. He has some credibility as he has never been seduced into a Netanyahu coalition as so many in the opposition parties have.

The uncommitted variables at the moment are Bennett, who vowed never to back Bibi again and the two Arab parties. As matters stand at the moment a few of the latter’s ten members are poised but far from committed for the first time in history to become part of an Israeli Government. Netanyahu has been courting them vigorously for his 2021 coalition having thrown dog whistles of racism in the last election, less than a year ago, with the allegation that that his opposition were herding them to the polls. Lapid would need Bennett in addition to members of the Arab lists to back him.

Finally there is Bennett who split off from Bibi’s coalition who fancies himself as the next Prime Minister. He is right wing but extremely opposed to the influence that Netanyahu has afforded the religious parties. A Bennett/Lapid led coalition is probably the likeliest outcome if Netanyahu fails to create a Government. The fact that this is a serious option shows a bipartisan desire to axe Netanyahu once and for all. They would probably alternate the Premiership with Bennett going first.

Not surprisingly the most predicted out come of all of this is gridlock and a fifth election.  

THE ARAB PARTIES IN ISRAEL

The Arabs in Israel, who represent twenty percent of the population, are as divided in priorities as are their Israeli counterparts. In the last Knesset they were “united” in The Joint List and had fifteen members. This time round they split into two groups which combined left them with only ten representatives, The more left Joint List, (JL), gained six seats where as the conservative religious United Arab List, (UAL), four members. The UAL is lead by a shrewd Islamist Mansour Abbas who rocked the Israeli public, speaking in Hebrew, with his post election announcement: 

“I Mansour Abbas, a member of the Islamic Movement, an Arab and a proud Muslim, extends my hand … tolerate an opportunity for a shared life, in the holy and blessed land of the three religions and both peoples. I carry a prayer of hope and the search of hope based on mutual respect and genuine equity. What we have in common is greater than what divides us”. 

Abbas could carry one or two of his group to form a government with either Bibi or Lapid. In addition should Bennett decide to join Netanyahu, that would be enough to extend the current Prime Minister’s fourteen year reign. But the Religious Zionists could never live with that option.

The Joint List, (JL),  which is far more radical, left wing and secular than the newly formed UAL, have had discussions with Lapid. The JL were represented by the leader Atman Odeh and Ahmed Tibi. They stated that they would be open to join a Lapid Government if he received a commitment from fifty - five Members of the Knesset, However if Lapid joined right winger Bennett,  Odeh has indicated he would not be interested. Odeh’s demands included re examining The Jewish State Law, which declares Israel a Jewish State ignoring the non Jewish population, support in eliminating organized community crime, more support for Arab municipalities and the elimination of so called “illegal” Arab construction. Members of the JL created a ruckus when some of them included a desire to end the occupation of the West Bank in the Knesset oath taking ceremony. 

Whichever way this is viewed there is an interest by the Arab representatives to get involved. They have to interpret that the the thirty three percent drop of support in the recent election as a growing frustration by their constituents that they are getting nothing done, They stand to lose even more support if there is a fifth election. If enough of them back a Lapid/Bennett coalition it will go a long way in solving Israel’s internal strife. 

THE RELIGIOUS PARTIES

The two religious ultra orthodox parties Shas and the United Torah Judaism won sixteen seats between them. Secular Netanyahu much like secular Trump has lined them irrevocably on his side. Much of the antagonism towards the longstanding Premier is that he has paid a high price for the religious backing. He has subsidized their schools and granted them concession after concession. A key grievance is the fact that after seventy years of the State of Israel the ultra orthodox or Haredi are objecting to serve in the army even after a Supreme Court ruling that it was “unconstitutional” to exempt them. Needless to say Bibi has fought for them and backed them to the hilt. Recently the Government admitted that they had inflated the number that had joined. The other major issue that sticks in the craw is that only fifty percent of the Haredi men earn a living. The rest as students of the Torah are subsidized. 

According to Dan Ben - David of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research in Israel nearly half the Israeli children don’t receive an adequate education, with no compulsory, math, science and computers. The largest group of the latter are the children of the Haredi who are by far the fastest growing population, the average family having seven children. Ben - David claimed that this was an existential issue and that a future government should implement constitutional and other changes to force the Haredi to play by the same rules. This would prevent a future government mortgaging the country for short term political gain, he argues.

The Religious Zionist party, which is way out right wing with direct connections to Meyer Kahn, Israel’s modern day infamous terrorist, needs no coercion to back Netanyahu. However their presence makes it almost impossible for Netanyahu to obtain any Arab support.

MODERN DAY ISRAEL

The internal political strife belies the fact that Israel is in a more powerful position politically and economically than it has ever been. They formed political alliances with the Sunni Arab countries which circumstance was midwifed through their common opposition to Shia Iran. This alliance opens up trade possibilities particularly in technology where Israel is second only to America in start ups. The change in alliance of the oil rich neighbors in addition to Egypt and Jordan have helped to take external pressure off their position on the Palestinian territories. The world in general has grown tired of the impasse now tending to apportion as much blame to the Palestinians as they do to the State of Israel

The health care system is such that they had the infrastructure to lead the world in vaccinations against Covid. Their unique desalination program provides water for the region and is a model for the world. In addition, again notwithstanding some disgraceful prejudice towards the indigenous Arabs, they do represent the only democracy in the Middle East with universal franchise, (and no gerrymandering), and a highly independent judiciary. The country has responded remarkably to the influx of Jewish immigration following persecution or prejudice from every continent in the world. The greatest challenge was to absorb and integrate close on a million Russian jews following glasnost. 

THE FUTURE

None of Israel’s successes take away the urgency of sorting out their internal political problems. A country cannot survive unless it has a common mission. Currently according to President Rivlin there are just four power blocks. Like America, Israel’s democratic constitution has been threatened by a powerful cult leader. 

While Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the earth that is not going to happen with the current line up against the theocracy. The problem that is screaming to be solved is the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians territories. The need for the Palestinians to get their act together is even more urgent than the Israelis. Both sides have to come to terms that neither is just going to go away. The State of Israel is a legal fact. Jews in the diaspora who disapprove of the government recognize that if they are threatened they have a place to go to. In their conscious and their subconscious is the knowledge of the outcome of the 1938 Evian Conference when twenty - two countries gathered together to face the fact that the Jews were under life or death pressure from Germany. They all concluded that they could not take on any additional immigration.  

The Palestinians don’t want to go anywhere else and in any case no one would take them en masse. All those neat resolutions of support and BDS and other counter productive solutions will not give the Palestinians a roof over their heads. The neighboring countries who used them in the past as a battering ram against Israel in countless attacks are not ready to open their borders. The Palestinians are being used again by Iran through Hamas to wipe Israel off the map. Efforts would be best directed at getting both sides to get their acts together and then face reality. Israel would be in a very powerful position if it had a unified government of all its peoples to effect a two party solution.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Unless Israel moves away from the country being all about Benjamin Netanyahu it will not solve its internal problems. Netanyahu has shrewdly aligned religious groups on his side which give him twenty - two Knesset members. With his own Likud Party having thirty that totals fifty - two of the sixty -one he needs to continue. To beat him there has to be a coalition of all the other parties left and right. For the first time in fifty years the ten Arab Knesset members have shown an interest in forming part of the Government. 

With Israel’s position having been stabilized in the Middle East once the internal problems are sorted out and possibly with Arab representation in the Government, the two State solution can be faced and translated into reality. Somebody should whisper in the ear of Netanyahu’s party that if they are finding difficulty to assimilate the relatively small indigenous population, who have full rights, that annexing the territories whose peoples will have no rights, is not only immoral but would land the country in the mess apartheid brought upon South Africa.

HISTORY AND LEADERSHIP - SOUTH AFRICA’S APARTHEID AND AMERICA’S JIM CROW,

 

There has been forever a fight for equality and justice against power and greed. One of the most overriding factors in the outcome of this struggle is leadership. Then there are the prevailing belief systems and the types of government that reflect the way society operates. The current American societal fight is between racial equity and white supremacy. In confronting this dilemma one is comforted by Martin Luther King’s observation that, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”. 

As morality advances the remaining inequities and injustices stand out even more. Those that oppose change in turn become more and more desperate as they confront the reality of losing power. Finally, in spite of King’s hopeful prognostication there is no guarantee that the arc of the moral universe will continue to bend towards justice and whether any of those attempts to forestall progress will succeed. It is with this as a background Jay H. Ell will examine where America stands in 2021in relation to the future of true racial equality. In this regard it would be apt to compare the apartheid racialism manifested in South Africa, (RSA), with that of Jim Crow of the United States of America, (USA). 

WHAT SOUTH AFRICA AND AMERICA HAVE IN COMMON 

Both the USA and RSA were settled by Europeans in the seventeenth century who then assumed ownership of the respective countries without any thought of the indigenous peoples. The settlers both fought wars of independence against the British who had incorporated the two countries into their Empire. Two of the four provinces in RSA at the time of their war of independence at the turn of the twentieth century had already put into provision some form of voting rights for those who were of color. However in the amalgamation of the four Provinces of South Africa following the losing of their war of independence each Province continued with their franchise policies. 

The USA all but eliminated the indigenous peoples but had provided voting rights for the freed African slaves in1869 following their war of Independence and a Civil War to liberate the slaves. The geographical division of those who supported the franchise of the slaves and those who didn’t were in the South. 

So much like in South Africa there was a split among the white enfranchised for the rights of those citizens of color. Both in the RSA and the USA determined efforts were made either to nullify the franchise or not allow it to expand. In the 1948 RSA General Election the United Party led by General Smuts, who had been the only architect both of the League of Nations and the United Nations, was poised to expand the voting rights of those of color, was surprisingly defeated by those who strongly opposed this move and were in favor of apartheid. However Smuts handled the whole issue politically ineptly and South Africa was under the cloud of apartheid for the next fifty years), (BLOG:SMUTS: THE MAN WHO MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED APARTHEID) 

The rationale used by the Apartheid segregationists was the same that underlies the American Jim Crow 1 and is unashamedly being used by the Republican Party in attempting Jim Crow 11. The motive for those wanting to limit the voting rights of their non white compatriots was the fear that the coalition of the white liberal elements and those of color would drive them out of power and hamper their way of life of privilege and domination. The objective was the same - whites only vote RSA by not allowing to expand and evolve in the first place and USA preventing its execution via Jim Crow. 

THE ENDING OF APARTHEID AND JIM CROW 1

RSA saw the ending of the racist apartheid laws as a result of a number of factors including the growing influence of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Protracted negotiations took place between them, liberal white leaders and eventually members of the apartheid government who recognized that apartheid had failed. Incidentally a little recognized fact is the role big business played in the planning. Spearheading the Nationalist Apartheid initiative was President de Klerk who recognized that the only solution was for a unified non racial South Africa. He successfully obtained a mandate via a referendum from the whites to go ahead and negotiate a constitution which in effect would give franchise for all. Mandela’s statesmanship has become legend. He and de Klerk shared the Nobel Prize for peace. It must be emphasized that nobody but not nobody had the empathy, gaged the fear of the whites and exhibited the Statesmanship in the Twentieth Century like Mandela. Not short of principle he sat in jail for twenty - eight years, having told the Judge that he was not only prepared to live for his principles he was prepared to die for them. He also recognized that Rome was not built in a day as his autobiography title indicated - “The Long Walk to Freedom”.

The USA got rid of Jim Crow 1 as a result of the Civil Rights Protest movement lead by Martin Luther King. Legislation was enacted by a the Johnson Presidency which was helped by the Republicans led by their Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott. Since the 1960’s till now the political advancement of the African Americans has been significant reaching a zenith in the 2020 elections where their intervention was decisive in securing the Presidency for Biden and the Senate to the Democrats. Their political strength can dictate which party will be the Government.

JIM CROW 11, LEAD BY DONALD TRUMP, EMERGED FOLLOWED BY GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICANS. 

The Republican Party recognized in 2012, with the changing demographics in America and the re election of Barack Obama that they needed to become more inclusive of citizens of color as well as the youth. Donald Trump who hijacked the Republican Party in 2016 made it quite clear that he wanted to return to white America. His euphemism for his mission was entitled Make America Great Again. He changed the direction of the GOP heralding a return of the Jim Crow era. 

The African American growing influence firmly established the desire of the Republicans to reintroduce Jim Crow 11. Trump and his motley crew attempted to do this retrospectively in the 2020 election which he lost. Then following the failure of Trump to stage a coup and hang onto the Presidency including his inciting of an insurrection in the Capitol, the Republicans proceeded to introduce widespread voter suppression laws that would impede the ability of African Americans to nullify the influence of Jim Crow forever. The very outrageous allegations used by Trump and his co conspirators alleging fraud conducted in the 2020 elections have been introduced as laws. The legislation to limit African American voting is so blatant that in Georgia the Governor signed it behind closed doors. 

Jim Crow 11 is the last ditch stand to return to retain white supremacy. Can the moral arc of history be stopped? There are vast sums of money to assist those with racist authoritarian intent. The question is whether they will succeed. 

THE FORCES ARRAIGNED AGAINST JIM CROW 11 - IS BIDEN A TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER?

Jay H. Ell has time and again argued that leadership matters. America would never have been in the mess that Biden inherited if there had been no Donald J. Trump who demolished the Republican Party establishment. However as Jay H. Ell has blogged for as long as he can remember Biden was the only candidate that could beat Trump in 2020. (At one stage he was terrified that, Biden, desperately short of money was not going to win the Democratic nomination when another statesman of history Jim Clyburn whipped the African American electorate behind him). However the fact that Biden beat Trump and the Democrats won the  Senate via Georgia is illustrative of the fact that the Jim Crow 11 crowd have an up hill fight and the landscape of  America has changed. 

Biden has his pulse on the American electorate as well as being unafraid to lead. Those who believed he was nothing but a political hack and functionary have been proved wrong. His first go at legislation which he passed with only Democratic support in a fifty - fifty Senate plus the tie breaker Vice President Kamala Harris was universally popular, seventy percent of Americans supporting it. Seventy percent of the public supported the nearly two trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill. The fact that Mitch McConnell let it almost sail through and is relying on court challenges is indicative of the fact that his Republican constituency backs it.

What could end the survival of Trump’s and McConnell’s white supremacy state are two pieces of legislation, HR 1 and HR 4, that ensure voting integrity across the nation which would negate the over two hundred efforts by State Republicans to ensure white minority rule. The New Yorker magazine ran a sensational piece which was backed by a recording that the Republican big money funders had come to the conclusion that the Democratic legislation keeping dark money out of elections as well as making it easier to vote had Conservative electorate support. The report also revealed why McConnell is powerful enough to challenge Trump’s leadership. The Republican billionaires have relied on him to protect white supremacy and their money. 

So it is obvious that Biden’s bold moves with the help of Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer is leading America to a more equitable society. Biden’s subsequent two trillion stimulus legislation for jobs, infrastructure and climate change has rocked Republicans. All this combined with an attack on white supremacy has unleashed a fight to the death by the conservative billionaires that control the Republican Party and the Trump militia,

What else is happening in America to challenge the return to Jim Crow?

THREE VIDEO(S) THAT ARE EDUCATING AMERICA AS TO THE IMPACT OF JIM CROW RACIALISM

There are three iconic video(s) that represent the racism that exists in America today that are being played again and again on television and receiving millions of hits on social media. They are so profound and send a clear message of the current racially slanted American society. The circumstances that these video(s) represent have shocked and stunned  the majority of the electorate, 

The video(s) of the alleged murder of George Floyd which are being played again and again in the trial of a police officer have shattered the nation as to the sheer clinical  brutality of the police officer towards an African Americans suspect. Implicit in the presentation is that it is unimaginable that a white man could have succumbed in similar fashion at the hands of a black officer with the public looking on. In addition the lengths that the prosecution feel they have to go to prove that Floyd isn’t the bad guy is indicative of their fear that still lingering not far below consciousness in the American society is that if Floyd was a thug the homicide would be justified.  

Regardless of the legal outcome of the trial the incident which precipitated the national and international Black Lives Matter movement, was akin to a lynching of a black man. The consequences of white supremacy of Jim Crow and apartheid is violence. This was demonstrated in the trial of the police officer and his apparent disregard for a black life. The whole sordid alleged murder, with the heartbreaking evidence from bystanders including children has become a metaphor for racial supremacy in America. The fact that the whole incident has been met with horror and disgust across the nation is hardly fertile soil for Jim Crow 11 to thrive. 

The storming of the Capitol by tens of thousands of white supremacists who were regarded by Trump and his crowd as peace loving patriots provides material for the second video(s). Trump claimed that the rioters embraced the police and took selfies with them. None of this jives with the visual facts as the police had their heads cracked open, one dying and four hundred injured to a lesser or greater extent. One of the civil litigation complaints by an African American policeman includes that he and his colleagues were subject to racial slurs to an extent they had never experienced the whole of their lives.

The failure to send the National Guard to protect the legislature and allow this crowd to run amuck without the means to immediately arrest them has been the subject of endless debate. The Capitol videos are juxtaposed with the video of an elected African American lawmaker, Park Cannon, being arrested for knocking on the door where the Governor of Georgia was signing into law their Jim Crow 11 voter restriction legislation The woman was seized bodily by several patrolmen and dragged out of the building in handcuffs and locked up. She was immediately charged with two felonies. In this video there was a split screen. On the other side there were six white men, hiding from the public, behind a locked door with a painting of former slave plantation in the background signing the voter suppression legislation into law. You couldn’t make these things up.

All these videos have not made their full impact although several versions of the near ten minute incident where the accused police officer is seen putting his full weight on a handcuffed victim’s neck has already been played again and again as the Floyd trial is televised live. With the criminal and civil litigation still to play out of the insurrection of the Capitol with one of the defendants being Donald J Trump where there were also racial slurs hurled at the African American Capitol police the public will once again be exposed to white supremacists attempting a coup. Like in the Floyd trial there will be even more video angles. Finally the litigation that will follow as a result of a State Representative dragged out in handcuffs from the people’s place to which she was elected and was legitimately entitled to be has not begun to play out will allow for more visual confirmation of racial inequity in America. 

JOE BIDEN THE UNLIKELY TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER

Joe Biden had been lampooned as an inarticulate, bumbling, anti intellectual party even demented apparatchnick. He has articulated a vision which aims to further the ark of the moral universe. Not only has he detailed legislation to pull the country out of its health and economic mess he has set about to make his administration more reflective of all the people’s of this country. He started off by appointing a woman of color as his running mate, appointing a cabinet from all sectors of American society and is about to nominate a whole host of African American women Federal Judges. 

He has vowed that if there is a Supreme Court vacancy his nominee will be a qualified African American woman jurist. In addition, his bold infrastructure, climate, health and welfare initiatives, which have been detailed to the last comma, seek to equalize the yawning wealth gap that exists in the country. He has added in increasing numbers to his coalition Republican voters and is regaining the support of the “workers”. For those who believe he has no philosophical basis to his policies and just flies by the seat of his pants they will be surprised at the rave reviews of the group of historians and constitutionalists he assembled  to discuss where America is now and the directions it can go. 

Indeed history will reflect that Joseph Biden Jnr. not only prevented Jim Crow 11 he bent “The Arc of the Moral Universe” towards justice. It is worth reminding that the powerful business community in RSA played a crucial role in the South African transformation. American business needs to take note and follow the lead of Coca Cola and Delta airlines. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The attitude of the prosecution witnesses in the murder trial of George Floyd has been depressing, heartening and striking. All of them exhibited frustration, anger, sorrow and horror at what they witnessed. From a nine year old to a martial arts expert, from the cashier who reported the alleged counterfeit note to an old man passing boy, from an EMS trained firefighter to a young girl who videod the whole scene and who now lies sleepless at night at not helping more, they all expressed their pain. In spite of the efforts that they were able to effect they all felt guilt at not being able to stop the passing of George Floyd. They acted as a moral community. The only one who could have, in that court room, avoided this senseless tragedy, Derek Chauvin, has shown no such remorse.