While the country came to a standstill in a traffic jam, Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox again cut a deal: enlistment laws, budgets, and political moves that deepen the rift, while the IDF and the public bear the burden of the war and the national cost.
The giant traffic jams that clogged several of Israel's main roads on Monday were the result of a serious head-on car accident. An accident between Benjamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel. An accident in which the country's leaders rise up to destroy it. An autoimmune event. An acquired immune system failure.
The rotten deal Netanyahu is weaving in public with his non-Zionist partners allowed one of their senior figures on Monday to cruise in his luxurious car, equipped with a security siren, in order to block Israel's roads. All this in the name of a huge sector that is trying to keep milking the state's dwindling udders, yet insists on contributing nothing to it.
I am, of course, speaking about Yitzhak Goldknopf, the ultimate symbol of the immune-system failure from which we have suffered.
He represents a large Hasidic stream within a huge ultra-Orthodox community, growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the community. That community is drawing enormous resources from the state at an increasing rate. If it were possible to calculate what has been showered on them during the Netanyahu era, and especially recently, we would reach crazy numbers.
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All this is happening while the IDF, the body that is supposed to protect our existence here, is collapsing inward. When we will soon, to our horror, mark 1,000 IDF fallen since October 7, not including civilian murders, tens of thousands wounded, and tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands suffering from mental injury and post-traumatic stress. In light of all this, one could expect a bit of modesty. Tightening the belt in certain sectors, especially those not taking part in the effort.
What we got was the opposite. An uncontrollable binge. A headlong rush. A mass assault on the public coffers, or what is left of them. All this is being done with authority and permission, in broad daylight, head held high and with pride. If we were living in biblical times, I suppose God would already have brought down a flood on us. In fact, He already did: "Tufan al-Aqsa," translated as the "Al-Aqsa flood," the "Jericho Wall" plan.
There were once days when just the details of the stinking deal unfolding before our eyes would bring down governments here. The ultra-Orthodox receive Basic Law: Torah Study, the kashrut law, and a whole host of other benefits, all at our expense. Aryeh Deri will soon be able to appoint another 3,500 kashrut supervisors to the state's payroll, a move that will also raise prices at restaurants and hotels. What's the problem? There are suckers paying for all this. We are.
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What does Netanyahu get? What he needs: the continuation of the anti-democratic legislative spree he needs in order to keep wrecking state institutions and create an option to escape the fear of judgment. Everything, until the last moment: subordinating the Police Internal Investigations Department to the justice minister, for the first time a politician will run investigations here, splitting the attorney-general's post, the law weakening the media, and a host of additional coup laws.
After October 7, there was a brief period when this gang was ashamed. Yariv Levin fell into depression in cabinet meetings; his legs and hands trembled. The screamers, such as Miri Regev, made an effort not to leave the house too much. Silman, the direct cause of the destruction, was not seen. Smotrich, in a rare burst of honesty, explained that in two days they would be called on to resign, and they would be right. That passed. The appetite returned, and in a big way. And all this under the direction of the ultimate responsible party, Netanyahu.
Yesterday, his testimony on the thousands of files finally ended. That's it, it's over. He no longer has to return to court until the verdict. Which makes his pleas for clemency, that is, cancellation of the trial, unnecessary. He is now left alone with his fate.
The problem is that he does not accept his fate. He is trying to change it. He is the first to know that the cases have not collapsed, on the contrary. The question is what else he is capable of in order to escape the fear of judgment. I do not know the answer, and I am afraid to think about it.