Two Netanyahus – Both Political

Two Netanyahus – Both Political By Sherwin Pomerantz Two very newsworthy events hit the press this week. The first was the passing of the Prime Minister’s father, Ben Zion Netanyahu, on Monday morning at the ripe old age of 102. A historian of note, a confident of Ze’ev Jabotinsky who advocated no compromise in dealing with the Palestinians, resided in the same home in Jerusalem for decades. That home’s backyard and our backyard abut each other but I’ll have more to say about that later. The second piece of news was this morning’s announcement by the Prime Minister that he will move to have the Knesset dissolve itself next week. In our parliamentary system, that means that elections for a new Knesset must be held as soon as possible as, until that happens, there is no sitting legislature in Israel. Later in the day it was announced that elections will be held on Tuesday, September 4th, conveniently after the summer school vacation ends and before the fall holidays begin. Why do I bring these two into the same blog? Because they both illustrate different sides of the political animal called Bibi. Taking the election issue first, this will be an election that is absolutely unnecessary. This Knesset was elected in 2009 and is slated to stay in office for four years until 2013. Today in Israel we probably have the most stable government the country has ever seen. The coalition is strong and secure, the opposition can only be described as pitifully incompetent, and there is no ground swell of public opinion demanding new elections. As a matter of fact, current polls show that Netanyahu is a hands down winner to become prime minister once again. In addition, there are a slew of current legislative initiatives that are critical to the economic and social well-being of the country that will now be shelved as once the Knesset dissolves nothing else happens until after the elections. And here we are not even talking about September because after the elections the majority party then has six weeks to hammer together a coalition. So, at best, the new government will probably not be seated until November 1st or so. However, opportunist that he is, Bibi sees lots of advantages to going to elections now. First of all, the main opposition party, Kadima, has just elected a new leader, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, who beat out Tzipi Livni for that position in primaries just a few weeks ago. Moving elections forward would give Mofaz less time to prepare his campaign and puts him at an electoral disadvantage. In addition, there are a number of tacky issues facing the prime minister, including the elimination of the Tal Law which gave yeshiva students the right not to serve in the military as well as demolishing possible illegally built homes in the settlements in Yehuda and Shomron (i.e. the West Bank) to name just two. Now he does not have to deal with those until later in the year either. So we will go to elections even though one of the Shas (i.e. Ultra-Orthodox) Knesset members was quoted in the paper this morning saying that “if a secret ballot were taken 118 of 120 members of the Knesset would vote against doing so.” This clearly demonstrates the major weakness of the parliamentary system in a societal framework such as ours. But back to the prime minister’s father’s passing. In observance of Jewish Law, the prime minister is observing the 7 day mourning period, Shiva, at the home of his father. You can just imagine the level of security in our neighborhood as a result. There is a constant stream of high powered politicians, foreign dignitaries (both those stationed in Israel and those like US Senator Kerry who are just visiting the country this week) and corporate executives traipsing through the property on a regular basis to express their condolences. That is, of course, all very nice and very proper. We even have police snipers on the roof of our apartment building 24 hours a day watching the property behind us. The political “party” of course begins every evening when it is time for the late afternoon and early evening prayer services during which the prime minister and his brother Iddo say the words of Kaddish, the sanctification of God’s name which is recited every day for 11 months after the death of a parent. But this is the prime minister of Israel so the service is held in the back yard in order to accommodate the crowds, with temporary lighting and a sound system as well. Because we live just 50 yards from that location we get to hear this every night. Of course, not just anyone leads these services. So far the prayer leaders have been from the ranks of senior rabbis in the country and other respected religious figures who are deemed worthy enough to be invited to lead the assembled congregants. Between the two services there is also a break of about 20-25 minutes while sundown descends. During this period it is traditional for a learned scholar to deliver words of inspiration or words of Torah in memory of the deceased. And here too, it is not just anyone who was asked to do this. The other night it was Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the Knesset, who was given this honor. Each night it has been some similar political figure who is either a close political associate of the prime minister or someone to whom the prime minister owes a favor. On the one hand, all of this is very respectful to the memory of the deceased and, from that vantage point, it is all very proper and appropriate. However, when you look at the players, you see the same political Bibi operating in this venue just as he does in government. Aristotle had it right when he said “Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.” Sad it is that this is what drives our leaders and would that it were otherwise. The world would be such a better place.