Commentary… Otherwise Preoccupied

בס״ד concerned. Thanks to עש"ק פרשת שפטים 4 Elul 5781 ISRAEL NEWS the spread of the Aug 13, 2021 COVID-19 Delta A collection of the week’s news from Israel Issue number 1358 variant and a return to all kinds From the Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee of Jerusalem 6:45 of previously lifted restrictions, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation most Israelis—other than those Toronto 8:06 living along the northern and southern borders—have been Commentary… otherwise preoccupied. Indeed, their criticism of the government has centered more on its handling of Iranian Aggression and Israel’s Fragile Coalition By Ruthie Blum the pandemic than on Iran. At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli This distraction from armed enemies in favor of microscopic Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addressed the country’s security ones makes sense on a practical level. People’s lives are directly situation. affected by the question of whether the fast-approaching school year Referring to the Israel Defense Forces attack on Hamas targets in is going to commence on time, for instance. And excessive Gaza following the latest wave of incendiary balloons, he warned the coronavirus coverage in the media has only served to magnify the terrorist organization that it will be held accountable for any such dread. flareups, no matter which group is behind them. Yet every now and then, a reminder of why the self-dubbed “We’re not interested if they’re dissidents, or bored or whether “change coalition” is so problematic pops up in the press. Take a they have any other excuse,” he said. “Hamas is responsible.” radio interview on Sunday with Meretz Knesset member Ghaida Referring to Lebanon—without specifying the missile attacks on Rinawie-Zoabi, for example. northern Israel on Saturday or Israel’s retaliatory strikes—Bennett Rinawie-Zoabi told Kan news that according to the coalition pointed to the “very important awakening by many citizens [there] agreements, the government is only supposed to deal with economic against Hezbollah and Iranian involvement.” and civil matters. He added that “even during the severe economic and political “Bennett knows that if the government enters into a military crisis in Lebanon, Iran and Hezbollah are entangling [its] citizens in a confrontation, the coalition will fall,” she said, “because Meretz and front against Israel.” Ra’am will not agree to such a thing.” The Israeli premier went on to caution “Lebanon and its army” Referring to Hezbollah’s rocket barrage on Friday, she said that if that they “must take responsibility for what is happening in their Netanyahu were still holding the reins, Israel would have reacted far backyard,” even if the perpetrators of the recent rocket launches hailed more forcefully. from a Palestinian organization, belonged to a dissident group or acted “Bennett understands today … that his right-wing voters have left independently. him and will not return, and therefore he needs to understand that he “The State of Israel will not accept firing at its territory,” he is getting closer to the left,” she concluded. stressed. Her honesty, which is ironic considering that Netanyahu and his Turning to Iran’s deadly suicide-drone assault on the Israeli- supporters have been saying that about Bennett all along, caused managed Mercer Street tanker on July 29, he commended the G-7 fellow Meretz members to flinch. countries for having condemned the attack, which was proven by the “[Rinawie-Zoabi] may be speaking for herself, but I don’t accept United States Central Command (CENTCOM) to have been carried what she said,” claimed MK Mossi Raz in a radio interview on out by the Islamic Republic. While on that topic, he invoked Iran’s Monday. “We want to strengthen the government, not topple it.” new president, Ebrahim Raisi, the “‘hangman of Tehran,’ a brutal Twisted in knots, he clarified, “In general, military decisions are extremist even for the Iranian regime,” and cited “Iranian aggression made by the Cabinet, and neither I nor MK Rinawie-Zoabi has a say throughout the Middle East—on land, at sea and in the air.” in the matter. As an aside, I believe that it is the government’s Iran, he said—reiterating the mantra of his predecessor— responsibility to do everything it can to avoid a military conflict, God “constitutes a clear danger to the stability of the region and the peace forbid.” of the world, and the world must not accept this. The Iranians need to He hastened to add, “Even though we should avoid military understand that it is impossible to continue running amok without conflict, when it is necessary, the government must respond. We did paying a price.” so [following the recent Hezbollah attack], and it was a proper Here’s the rub, however: Members of his coalition aren’t exactly response to an unnecessary provocation.” on the same page, to put it mildly. That the Muslim Brotherhood- Another Meretz member, Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi affiliated Ra’am Party opposes expanding military actions in Gaza and Frej, was similarly ill at ease when probed on Rinawie-Zoabi’s Lebanon beyond the minor ones, aimed more at muscle-flexing than remarks. beating the drums of war, is neither new nor a surprise. Calling the framing of her comments “unfortunate,” he told In fact, it was the advent of “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in Channel 13’s Amnon Levy that his party has no intention of toppling May that caused Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas to back out of coalition the coalition. He conveniently skirted the question of whether what negotiations with Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. she had asserted about Meretz and Ra’am was true, preferring to Abbas was already in hot water with many Arab citizens for mumble something about differences of opinion and interpretation. breaking with tradition and even considering becoming part of a That’s all well and good for internal consumption, perhaps. But Zionist government. Had he not halted talks to this end while the Iran and its proxies within and surrounding the Jewish state are Israeli military was bombing Palestinian terrorists and their paying attention—not to Bennett’s admonitions, but to Israel’s deeds. infrastructure in Gaza, he knew that he’d be toast. And not only So far, the former have outweighed the latter by miles. electorally. If his acting in this manner were based solely on military He also realized, however, that he’d have to become a member of assessments and preparedness, it would be justified. In this case, the government once the fighting was over. Otherwise, the risk he took sadly, the calculations and considerations appear to be political. It’s by splitting from the Joint Arab List and running on a platform geared not only Ra’am, Meretz and other coalition parties that are bent on towards procuring a place at the table—and a budget to go along with preventing the fall of the nascent government, after all. Bennett has it—would have been for naught. even more of a reason than his partners to cling to his seat and status. His precarious position, along with the desperation of the disparate Holding on to power for dear life is what politicians do. We collection of parties who banded together for the sole purpose of know and accept this, on the condition that they protect our dear lives ousting then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made him a key in the process; it’s what kept Netanyahu at the helm for so many player without whom Israelis would have been sent back to the polls years. for a fifth round of elections. The trouble with Bennett is that he cannot pull off both tasks Since June, when the anti-Netanyahu government became a done simultaneously, regardless of his pronouncements to the Cabinet. deal, Iran hasn’t been too prominent where the public interest is (JNS Aug 10) The Bombing of Sbarro’s and Why Oslo Failed Barak sweetened the offer in talks at the Egyptian border town of By Jonathan S. Tobin Taba. Contrary to the expectations of many Israelis and most foreign Next month, Americans will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 observers, the goal of the Palestinian nationalist movement he led attacks. The trauma lingers in the memory of everyone who was then wasn’t an independent state alongside Israel, but a Palestinian state alive. But while that day of terror will never be forgotten, as an event instead of the one Jewish one on the planet. that informs foreign and defense policy, it is fast becoming as But by the time Arafat had turned down Barak for the second irrelevant as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The last American time, he had given a more definitive answer to Israeli peace offers by troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan as Washington is reacting launching the orgy of terrorist murder that was sanitized by the with indifference to the evidence that the Taliban—the group that neutral-sounding term “Second Intifada.” hosted and enabled the 9/11 attackers—will soon be back in charge in In the years that followed, subsequent U.S. administrations tried Kabul, two decades after U.S. troops routed them as part of a response the same “land for peace” formula again with similar lack of success to the terrorist attack. because Mahmoud Abbas—Arafat’s supposedly more “moderate” But a little more than a month before 9/11, Israel suffered a successor—was no more capable of making peace even if he was terrorist attack that, while smaller in scale than the assault on New inclined to do so.

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