This week, at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Defense Minister Galant said that "the gas agreement with Lebanon is one of the turning points in Hezbollah's border stretching and their growing self-confidence." The opposition was surprised that the remarks were based on assessments in the defense establishment, even though a senior Military Intelligence official said that Hezbollah's growing self-confidence stems from a process that began even before the agreement. Definitely could be. Because the frantic race to close the agreement began following an attempted drone attack on the Karish rig.
But the interesting point is that all the provocations on the Lebanese border are carried out in accordance with "territorial" claims, which were greatly reinforced by the failed agreement. Nearly a month ago, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced the points of contention that the international community must resolve while enforcing Resolution 1701 on Israel. He mentioned Kafr Rajar, Har Dov, the hills of Kfar Shuba and point 1B.
This border point actually connects the malfunction, not to mention the omission, in demarcating the maritime border as part of the gas agreement, with the so-called "points of contention" around which Hezbollah is trying to undermine security on the northern border. One person who has been following the problematic nature of the gas agreement since the data on Lapid's negotiations were published, then the agreement, and now that it is becoming an explosive issue, is Gad Ivgi, who has also written about it several times extensively on the Mida website. Some of the Israeli media do not report on the factual geometric issue accompanying the agreement. Either out of misunderstanding, ignorance, or a basic reluctance to challenge Lapid's thesis about the most important historic agreement.
Biden: "The U.S. commitment to Israel's security is strong" // Photo: Reuters
Even now, there is a very basic dispute between Israel and Lebanon over where the border stone that marks the "line of buoys" is located. As far as Israel is concerned, point 1B is north of the marked line. Lebanon claims that B1 is south of the line and dominates the tourist area of Rosh Hanikra. Why not? When there is no such basic consensus on the point at which the land line meets the maritime marking, the entire basis of the gas agreement is undermined. Ivgy in his analysis presents an aerial photograph showing point 31, which is Israel's version, as opposed to 1B, which is Lebanon's version. "Did they tell you that the buoys line is great and the business is closed and blocked? They lied," Ivgy wrote on Facebook a few weeks ago.
The very rush to sign the agreement under pressure from the drones undermined Israeli deterrence. The Israeli government's idea that it makes sense to sign agreements with a virtual state is also very problematic. The negative effect of the gas agreement on security is completely denied, as was the case with the collapse initiated by Ehud Barak in the security zone 23 years ago. It was the main factor that encouraged the Palestinians to launch the second intifada. But in the defense establishment to this day, this abandonment in May 2000 is considered some kind of historic achievement.
Hezbollah operatives on the northern border, photo: AP
Now the problem lies with Netanyahu, Galant and Chief of Staff Halevi. Negotiations, according to experience, will not solve or end anything, because Hezbollah will always find some imaginary Archimedean point on which to base new provocations and aggressions. To enter negotiations on the land border and B1, which are a great potential point of contention, because of the erection of a tent and a folk dance circle on the border fence, would be a serious strategic mistake.
In this respect, the law of the tent and the provocations on the fence is the law of the drones. The disputes cross Israeli communities, like Misgav Am. Recently, there have been signs from the security establishment that Lebanon – an invented non-existent state – should be included in the Mediterranean Gas Forum in order to strengthen Yair Lapid's agreement. Both negotiations and the integration of Lebanon effectively mean negotiations with Hezbollah and the introduction of Iran into the Mediterranean Sea with international legitimacy.
Moral breakdown
The rioters are disappointed that the economy is not collapsing because of them, and call on the president of the United States to rescue them from the hands of democracy
This past week was particularly marked by positive developments for the State of Israel. It can already be said that the attempts of the rioters to collapse the shekel and the economy have not succeeded. Is there a need for a clearer indication of the moral collapse of the separatist group, whose ideological and identity infrastructure is based on hatred against the ultra-Orthodox and bibiphobia?
The attempt over the past six months to bring down the shekel created an opportunity for currency traders' manipulators, and we saw a weakening against the dollar around NIS 3.6 or 3.65, with a rate of NIS 3.7 per dollar more or less the roof. This has mainly made profits for exporters, led by high-tech companies that are thinking about their future.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut. What will the court decide?, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In addition to the strengthening of the shekel and the positive summaries of the month on TASE, came Amazon's announcement that it would invest $26 billion in Israel. It was not in the plans of Ehud Barak, or the Governor of the Bank of Israel, or the groups of lawbreakers and the newspaper Haaretz. Even the rating agencies in the end only blew smoke out of the nostrils, but did not lower the credit rating. The rating companies, with the help of the rotten ruling class, have become, in relation to Israel, what the IMF has become in threshold democratic countries. That is, South American countries or Russia at the time, teetering between a banana republic and democracy.
The density of talk about any possible peace agreement with Saudi Arabia is also generating a positive buzz. It is hard to see such an agreement being implemented at this stage, but the very missions of US State Department officials to Saudi Arabia and the optimistic declarations of Foreign Minister Eli Cohen mainly convey that the US is ready to once again be seen as Israel's partner.
Bin Salman. Positive buzz, photo: Reuters
This, of course, is a double-edged sword. The friendly approach helps deter Israel, but the intention of the Americans in the Biden era is to bind Israel not to spoil the Iranian issue, not to attack. Bear hug. In any case, this is not what Olmert, Barak and the other ambassadors of the rebellion hoped for, who are begging in the US media for the good Americans to come to their aid. Imagine how unpatriotic it would take to stand in front of the U.S. Embassy wing on Hayarkon Street with signs reading: Biden, save us!
Crayfish in Aruba
The public is alert in anticipation of the mouths of 15 people who are disintegrating the very sovereignty of the State of Israel
But the seventh ruling class is encapsulated in the same group of 15 Supreme Court justices. What will they decide in September about the Reduction of Reasonableness Law? There is no point in trying to explain what will happen or what should happen. This is because there is no legal, constitutional, intellectual or theoretical basis that can guide the public the way, and we are like a blind chimney.
This is what tyranny means. The public is alert in anticipation of the mouth of the 15-headed ruler. But one thing can be determined. The Supreme Court erodes and disintegrates the very sovereignty of the State of Israel. If the government of Israel and the Knesset, which are elected in free elections by the people, who are the sovereign, do not have the sovereign right to enact a law, decide on policy, or enact a Basic Law, then this means that the sovereignty in question of the people of Israel in its state does not exist.
Its emissaries can decide and legislate, but there is a mandatory body above the Knesset and the government, and it is the one that will rule. It is, therefore, a gambling industry. This is not a conservative court, which is likely to decide that abortion is illegal. Nor is it a liberal court that will decide according to its worldview that homosexual couples have equal rights as partners. This is a group that represents the ruling class, and in Israel this group of elites is in moral collapse, it is rotten, it turned its back on the people many years ago. But for such a low as it seems today, no one expected.
The Lone Drum
The University of Haifa decided on a labor dispute. Fortunately, there are those who clarify to the senior staff the significance of politicization
Prof. Gur Alroy is rector of the University of Haifa and son of legendary sports producer Yoash Alroy. Even according to testimonies of people who disagree with him politically, he is a man of quality, a Zionist in length and breadth and depth. But it is probably proof that a state of mind due to propaganda bombardment can disrupt the minds of the best. Earlier this week, he said that Ella and others were not his brothers. A loaded statement.
His university is undergoing a process of accelerated politicization. Following an emergency meeting of senior academic staff, it was decided on Sunday to declare a labor dispute "due to the risks in the anticipated legislation for organized labor and the harm to the employment conditions of faculty members."
When the accelerated Bolshevik process in academia is in full swing, it is precisely the individual voices – that lone drum that does not make noise as in demonstrations, but declares resistance as a faint and distant echo – that carry enormous weight. Ahead of the emergency meeting of the ideological academic arm, a mathematician who is abroad asked to say something, with your permission: "In the 20 years that I have worked at the university, not once have I allowed myself like, I hope, everyone, to announce to the students what I think about this or that political events. In my opinion, in these turbulent times we are obliged to be modest and should leave our opinions out of work, because the full trust that there is only one side that is absolutely right and the other side is 'dark, does not understand, fascist,' or vice versa, that the other side is 'the first group of Israel, which is willing to burn the country just to preserve its privileges,' only leads to more hatred and rift. Is that the goal of the senior staff?"
The professor, whose sense of smell for the development of a totalitarian situation is quite developed as a Soviet veteran, claims that faculty policy will make students whose opinions differ feel illegitimate. "Is the faculty's goal to begin student reeducation?" she writes, perhaps alluding to the method of indoctrination. She predicts that some applicants will not want to go to Haifa University, and that a drop, even by five percent, in the number of enrollees would be a disaster.
The King and the Scepter
The attempt by sources in the literature to summarize the history of Israel as a succession of wars attests mainly to their own pessimism
The end of the collection "75, Snapshot" (published by Am Oved) is called "The Story of Our Lives". "In what distant future might all that is happening now in Israel be read as a kind of Shakespearean tragedy about a king who clings to his scepter while his kingdom shakes, and any further shock may tear it apart. And perhaps, God forbid – this fear has also recently arisen – everything that is happening here will be read as another chapter in the history of the Jewish people, in which the terrible cycle of destruction and return will recur." This is the spirit that the writer Yuval Shimoni, who edited the collection with Ayelet Shamir, instills in the entire book in the current context.
The book joins two books in album format that have been released in recent months. The spirit of summary of the state, as Benny Gantz called it, characterizes these 75 books. As expected, they are aligned with a left-liberal trend, especially Shimoni and Shamir's collection. For some reason, the right did not mobilize to release album files for the 75th anniversary. I wonder why. It is not a lack of production initiative, but that the right is preoccupied with life itself, with construction and defense, including sacrifice. The editors and writers of the pessimistic left-wing files have lost very little in the terrorist attacks of the past two years. It is the settlers, the ultra-Orthodox, the Hiri-Biri soldiers and the Border Police who pay the price while the leaders of the quartets sit in the studios or take pictures privately.
But what is surprising about a collection by a working people, which is also supposed to reflect 75 years of literary work, is that it looks rather dreary. There are two stories or fragments of novels that save the collection from the "Great Festive Boring" complex. It's good that they get a new lease of life. One is Yitzhak Ben-Ner's classic story "Nicole," catalogued under "1973." The second is "Dr. Emanuel Nussbaum" by Amos Oz, taken from "The Mountain of Bad Advice." Another shady story that saves the book is Simon Blass's "Life and Witness."
Shimoni and Shamir are basically telling the reader that Israel is a story of wars of different dates, clashes with Arabs who define our identity, and here and there Mizrahi figures who wisely watch, but out of alienation, an institutionalized and organized Israeli society, of which Yuval Shimoni is probably one of its descendants.
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