Sunday, January 15, 2023
In bed @ 9:30, woke at 4:30, rolled over & slept till 5:30, drawing I worked on the maintenance staff at the Knickerbocker, and got a second job as a bellboy but uniform, just my denim shirt & jeans. 26 degrees out, high of 37, cloudy, 15 degree wind chill with wind from S. Winds expected to be 8 to 17 mph, gusts to 32 mph. Windiest year I can remember. Sunrise at 7:20, sunset 4:41, 9+21.
Sunrise on Wakefield Court
My Fear or Hope: As Israel goes, so goes the U.S. After the last election, Israel, under Benjamin Netanyahu, came under fascist rule. In order to lead the government, 'Bibi' accepted into his ruling coalition far-right partners favoring annexation of the West Bank, Itamar Ben Gvir. a West Bank settler and leader of the Jewish Power Party, and Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas Party. Ben Gvir is now the national security minister and Deri the minister of the interior and periphery. The government has proposed "judicial reform" which gives the Knesset power to overrule the Supreme Court by simple majority vote and otherwise gives more power to the legislature over the judiciary. Tens of thousands Israelis have taken to the streets to protest. “If you continue the way you are going, the responsibility for the civil war brewing in Israeli society will be on you,” Benny Gantz, former defense minister, told Netanyahu in a televised statement this week, calling on Israelis to take to the street. In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted on multiple charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and is currently on trial in three cases of corruption. In January 2022, Aryeh Deri, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party who has been appointed interior minister and minister of health, was convicted of tax fraud. Ben Gvir, a West Bank settler leader who has for decades defended Israeli youths accused of violently attacking Palestinians, was deemed unfit for mandatory military service because of his extremist activism and was convicted for racist incitement against Arabs and support of terrorist groups. A government of criminals. Who will prevail, the fascists or the others? Will 55 years of occupation of the West Bank result inexorably in annexation in the name of historical rootedness and entitlement? Why am I reminded of Putin and his theory that Ukraine does not exist, that the land is part of Mother Russia? May a person be forgiven or at least understood for questioning whether the creation of the state of Israel was an historic mistake leading to perpetual conflict between Israelis and Palestinian and other Muslim Arabs? Is Benny Gantz perceptive in referring to "the civil war brewing in Israeli society?" Will it ever be possible for Israel to be both a "Jewish state" and a democracy?
On the other hand,
No comments:
Post a Comment