The State of Israel is in a strategic crisis. We lost control over the Arab sector, and it's not just the terrible massacre in Yafia. The police are in advanced dismantling processes, and the minister in charge is one of the accelerators. A government elected solely on the promise of restoring personal security is failing at precisely this point. In this case, there is no one to shout "Shame!" Those who protest the judicial reform ignore governance because of political necessity on the left, and those who support the government also ignore because of political necessity.
The police were and remain the punching bag of Israeli society. Wherever the political echelon is afraid to decide, they are. In the face of riots by ultra-Orthodox, Arab, leftist and right-wing demonstrators. The number of people leaving the police service in the past six months is astronomical. The wages are shameful, and the attitude and political attacks don't help either. When the senior command retires, it's already a dangerous situation.
The police remained a punching bag in the face of the riots. Demonstration in Bnei Brak (archive),
Netanyahu's meeting this week with the Joint List is the essence of the problem. For five years and five elections, the Likud has been campaigning that members of the Joint List are supporters of terrorism. Mansour Abbas, once the coalition with him failed, became a supporter of terrorism himself. And that's after embracing the current ministers.
What do we do with terror supporters in Israel? The only answer I know of is a meeting of intentions. No hugs, no advice on civic activity, and no demonstration of membership in the "horseshoe" – the area behind the Knesset plenum. As such, there are only two possibilities: the first is that the ruling party is in contact with terror supporters, or that the Likud is lying to its voters.
In recent years, I have opposed a joint meeting with the Joint List. I still oppose, not because of terrorism but because of damage to the integration process.
In my view, we have been running away from responsibility for decades. Responsibility means citizens with individual rights and obligations; Responsibility means enforcing law and order, collecting illegal weapons, fighting the import of women from Gaza and Hebron to the Bedouin sector in the Negev, a tough hand in the mixed cities, an economic struggle against tax offenses and education, education for integration; Responsibility means tolerance on the part of the majority towards the minority, the Jews towards the Arabs, but also of the minority towards the majority.
His encounter with the common is the essence of the problem. Benjamin Netanyahu (Archive),
There is no reason why anyone should not feel comfortable with Israel as a Jewish state. There are many democratic nation-states in the world, where there is a minority that lives in peace and quiet. A minority that is comfortable with the anthem, or at least gets along with it and does not see it or the flag and its symbols as defiance. A minority that does not see an army defending its country as an adversary.
In all of them, the majority determines the character of the public space. The symbols, the symbols, the anthem. Like the Star of David in the Israeli flag, which many in Arab society are uncomfortable with, the flags of Australia, Denmark, Britain and New Zealand have a cross. In all these democracies there are Jewish and Muslim minorities, who salute and stand with the raising of the flag, without any sense of offense or coercion.
In Italy, the anthem was written about the War of Independence against Austria. The words at the end are aggressive, but the German-speaking population identifies with him. In the Protestant Netherlands, the anthem glorifies the war against Spanish Catholics. What does the Catholic minority do? Gets the roots of writing the anthem with understanding.
With what brainwashing have they convinced us that it is reasonable that only here is there a leadership that cannot tolerate the symbols of its state? On the other hand, how were we convinced that the government has no responsibility to create integration and encourage an Israeliization process? We don't use a stick, nor a carrot. The more "full right" it is, the weaker it is.
Three decades ago, most Bedouins in the Negev at the age of 18 enlisted. Today they have become a minority. Whoever enlists, the state ignores him, and whoever is nationalist, the state ignores him.
Netanyahu's meeting with the joint venture is the worst of both worlds. Israeli Arabs who believe in Israel become the enemy, while Arab nationalists sit with him, and this is after claiming to be supporters of terrorism. The Joint Party sanctifies nationalism and fights Israelization. The Israeli government sanctifies the stalemate.
Let me be clear: the chaos in the Arab sector is first and foremost the result of education and loss of leadership there and here. The unfortunate truth is that we have no chance—not this government, nor those before it. I also have a responsibility as a former minister, I am in favor of bringing in the Shin Bet, but before the Shin Bet, let the government come in. Not just in statements. When talking about a new contract, it cannot deal only with the integration of the ultra-Orthodox, and not include an all-out war against chaos in the Arab sector, a war on evasion of responsibility, and no less important – hypocrisy.
This is what government corruption looks like
For many years, the Israel Postal Company suffered severe losses of hundreds of millions of shekels. One of the main reasons for this was unnecessary workers. Not one or two, but close to 2,000 out of about 5,000 employees. How did this happen? Political chaos. Years of "postal ministers", who turned this company into a political appointment enterprise. Corruption under the auspices of political power. In the last two decades it has been the Likud, but before that there were other parties, dating back to Mapai's days. Thus, when I became Minister of Communications, I found a company on the verge of insolvency.
I won't give you boring details, but the company has entered the privatization process and a new chairman has been appointed: Mishael Vaknin. Not an associate of anyone, but an excellent professional. A month ago, the company became profitable for the first time, and the process should continue.
Now Shlomo Krei, the Minister of Communications and the man of the umbrellas, needs the mail for the activists. The money from the public. Therefore, he is trying to fire Vaknin despite the opposition of the professional echelon and the legal counsel, and to bring in a man of his own, many people of his own. What did Vaknin, a brilliant skullcap-wearing manager from Ashdod, do wrong? He was simply appointed by me last term, and apparently did not declare that he supports the Likud. This is what government corruption looks like.
Good corner: Every parent knows the excitement of having a child. But there is also the opposite phenomenon – every year hundreds of babies are abandoned in hospitals in Israel, without families and a primary fever that affects for many years. In 2004, Michal Koriat founded the "First Hug" association - 500 volunteers who give abandoned babies touch, warmth and love, which, according to all studies, save lives and change lives. There is no reward in contact with a baby, no gratitude - just doing good.
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