Another proof: the feud with Rotem Sela
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved Israel to the far-right. Another proof of this fact: his feud with the model and reality TV host Rotem Sela.
In 2009, when Tzipi Livni did not want to give in to the extreme nationalist right and/or the extremist religious parties, Benjamin Netanyahu gladly stepped in and formed a coalition which moved Israel further and further to the right. Maybe the lowest point in this direction was the July 19, 2018 Basic Law which officially defined Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People. It was adopted by the Knesset with 62 against 55 votes, with 2 abstentions.
The Basic Law ignores a tiny little detail: some 20% of all Israeli citizens are Arabs. In addition, there are other, non-Jewish minorities.
Such details have never bothered Bibi. He lives in his own parallel universe where you can strike a deal with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper boss Arnon Mozes to promote legislation to weaken Yedioth‘s rival, Israel Hayom, in exchange for more favorable coverage of himself by Yedioth Ahronoth, and get away with it! At least until now. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit may change this because, on February 20, 2019 Mandelbilt announced that he had accepted police recommendations to indict Netanyahu on three of the charges presented against Netanyahu, the Yedioth Ahronoth case being one of them.
Back to Netanyahu’s social media feud with Rotem Sela who, on Sunday, March 20, 2019 wrote on Instagram: “What’s the problem with the Arabs??? Dear god, there are also Arab citzens in this country. When the hell will someone in this government convey to the public that Israel is a state of all its citizens and that all people were created equal, and that even the Arabs and the Druze and the LGBTs and — shock — the leftists are human.”
Netanyahu fired back on his own Instagram account: “Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the nation-state law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people — and not anyone else.” Netanyahu then added: “As you wrote, there is no problem with Israel’s Arab citizens. They have equal rights and the Likud government has invested more than any other government in the Arab Population.”
That is of the incoherent nonsense because, above he had just mentioned the opposite: the July 19, 2018 Basic Law which officially defined Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People.
Then, Wonder Woman aka the actress Gal Gadot with her over 28 million followers stepped in and defended Rotem Sela on Instagram: “This isn’t a matter of left or right, Jew or Arab, secular or religious, it’s about dialogue for peace and equality, and our tolerance for each other.” Gal Gadot added: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin stepped in today, on March 11, 2019. In a speech at a Jerusalem conference about the Egyptian-Israeli peace, Reuven said: “I refused and refuse to believe that there are political parties that have surrendered the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic, democrati and Jewish, state. Those who believe that the State of Israel must be Jewish and democratic in the full sense of the word must remember that the State of Israel has complete equality of rights for all its citizens.”
President Reuven Rivlin did not mention Prime Miniser Netanyah, his Likud party and his coalition allies, but it was clear to everyone whom he meant. Rivlin made clear that there are no second-class citizens. But that is exactly what Netanyahu, his Likud, right-wing and extremist religious allies are thinking: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” (George Orwell, Animal Farm).
In the Times of Israel, Raphael Ahren rightly quoted Orwell and reminded readers of the July 2018 cartoon by Avi Katz who, a few days after the Jewish Nation-State bill was voted into law, presented a cartoon in the Jerusalem Report magazine presenting the legislation’s champions as pigs from George Orwell’s 1945 Animal Farm. Because of this drawing, the longtime cartoonist Avi Katz was fired. Presenting Jewish lawmakers as pigs was too much for some although the essence was absolutely correct: for Bibi and his allies, all are equal, but some are more equal.
In this feud with Rotem Sela, where is the opposition? Finally, today, on March 11, 2019 the oppositional party leader Benny Gantz has woken up and said that the Likud party founder and leader Menachem Begin would have kicked Netanyahu out of the Likud party, that Bibi would be considered “an enemy of Israel”.
Previously, Netanyahu had accused Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid of concealing that they were leftists masquerading as centrists, and that they wanted to establish a government with the help of Arab parties. The opposition has not been keen in the past to be associated with Arab parties and political leaders in Israel. Rotem Sela had to step forward and ask what the problem with the Arabs was.
In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu has moved even further to the right. When his coalition risked to fall apart because his ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked left the Jewish Home and created a new party, he made disciples of the late Meir Kahane (1932-90) join the coalition.
Meir Kahane of the supremacist Kach party was an ultra-nationalist and extremist to the point that, in Israel, he was the first Knesset candidate to be barred from election for racism.
Benjamin Netanyahu can see no problem in working with followers of Meir Kahane and their Otzma Yehudit party made up by extremists such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Michael Ben-Ari. Already in the current coalition, he has been working with extremists such as the Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel from the Jewish Home who, previously, had served as Minister of Construction.
In the 2019 election, Benjamin Netanyahu made sure that the Jewish Home will run a joint list with Tkuma and Otzma Yehudit. The prime minister thinks he needs all kinds of fringe people to join his coalition to stay in power. We can only hope that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will find enough evidence to end him up in a prison cell.
When the previous prime minister Ehud Olmert was indicted, Benjamin Netanyahu publicly asked him to step down. Olmert stepped down in 2009 and, in 2012, was convicted and ended up in a prison cell. In recent weeks, Olmert reminded Bibi of his 2008-2009 position and demanded him to step down himself. Netanyahu has of course no intention to do so.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. Photo: US State Department. This photo is in the public domain.
Article added on March 11, 2019 at 20:39 Ukrainian time.
