The Newspaper Wars

I take the train every day to work now – so I have about twenty minutes of “quiet time” in the morning before I arrive at the office. (I call it “quiet time” because sometimes it is not so quiet – many people like to use their cell phones on the train, and frequently don’t realize that their voices are quite loud. I have heard more about certain people’s backed up toilets and the hospital stays of other people’s families than I care to…..)

I usually take the time to say my daily Tehillim, but afterwards I usually have some time left over. I started to take the free daily newspapers that are given out at the station. There is competition between two – Yediot Achronot (sometimes called Idiot Achronot by those who don’t like the rag) and Yisrael Hayom. I of course take Yisrael Hayom, since it has a right wing stance.

I can’t tell you how important this newspaper is. It used to be that the public was exposed just to the left wing point of view. Then Makor Rishon came along and started to change things. The problem with Makor Rishon is that it is still only bought by the dati leumi public, with a smattering of charedim and traditional Jews joining in. It doesn’t really reach most of the Israeli public.

The free daily newspaper does reach the Israeli public – and it can be a game changer.

The coverage of the financial situation and the budget cuts are a prime example. Yisrael Hayom had full coverage – and it skewered Yair Lapid. It had a full page spread just on what Lapid said about the economy in his campaign promises before the election, and what he says now that he is in a position of responsibility. It showcased a middle class family – and how much more they will be paying now in taxes, etc.

In the past the newspapers would do the same thing – but the left wing papers would put all of the blame on the Likud and especially Bibi Netanyahu. Now, with a more objective stance, the newspapers are putting the blame on both the Likud and Yesh Atid – as it should be.

You can’t underestimate the power of this communication tool. Those of us who are somewhat politically active and aware of the media and its power can see how important media bias is. Most people don’t think about it too much – they are too busy working and raising their families to get really involved. These people do read the papers though – especially if it is free and handed to them at a gas station or a train station. What is written in these papers has a lot of power.

The people behind Yisrael Hayom are doing a great service to Israel.

Putting the Money Where His Mouth Is

After about five weeks of yada-yada-yada, the inevitable happened – Yair Lapid compromised on most of what he had requested, and a new Israeli government is about to be officially started.

The man with the big mouth, who arrogantly claimed that he was going to usher in a new era of politics, did what all politicians must do – he had to compromise. I have nothing against compromise, I think it is a positive aspect of working with people with different views. This is why I bristled every time I heard Lapid open his mouth and make claims that he was somehow going to be above “politics as usual”.

Lapid compromised on the following: There will be 25 ministers instead of the 18 he had requested (with a law being put into affect that the NEXT government has to have no more than 18 – how lame is that?). The induction age of religious men will be 22 and not 18 as he had wanted – which means that those who want to learn for a while before doing army service will be able to. The numbers of complete military exemptions will rise from his request of 400 to 2000.

In addition Lapid will be taking the Finance Ministry, probably the least popular ministry of them all – which to me is exquisitely ironic. No matter how he tries – someone will be disappointed in him, because he won’t be able to give out financial goodies to everyone. He will now actually have to balance a budget. In other words, actually take responsibility, instead of playing “armchair politician”. It will be even worse for him than anyone else in the new government, precisely because he promised to be so “different”. A lot of people are going to be angry at him, since he raised their expectations so high. I can’t wait until I hear him sputter, “but you have to be realistic…..”

I am happy about the other ministries also. Moshe Yaalon will finally be defense minister – something that in my opinion should have happened four years ago. Bennet as Labor and Trade minister sounds like a good fit. Education is still up for grabs – but the two likely candidates are both good (either Gidon Saar of Likud or Rav Shai Peron of Yesh Atid).

I was hoping that Tzipi Hotobeli would receive something – but it looks unlikely at this point.

They Are Very Afraid

The religous Zionist segment of Israeli society is disproportinately represented in the officer’s corps in the IDF. We comprise approximately 12% of Israeli society, but 35% of the officers in the IDF wear the knitted kippa (skullcap).

This disproportion is very frightening to some secular Israelis, especially in academia - so much so that it has been studied. Israel HaYom has an interesting article about this topic, which is essentially a book review of a collection of essays.

The essays are written from various viewpoints. I find it ironic that those who are most frightened of the fact that so many national religious young men are now officers are mistaken about the viewpoints held by these officers. They assume, wrongly, that those national religious soldiers hold views that are, for want of a better term “extremely right wing” concerning future borders of Israel, and that these viewpoints will seriously affect how they act in the army.

Perhaps it is all relative, but from my experience I see that the men in the national religious camp that are extremely right wing either do not serve at all, or serve for a very short time, and are most certainly not the ones who go on to become officers. They usually sit and learn in yeshiva, and do the minimum of army required by the hesder program (14 months, versus the committment to three full years for officers).

The religious men who do go on to become officers are committed to the army for the best of reasons, and with the guidance of their rabbis serve to the best of their ability while following the halacha. For the most part their motivation for being in the army in general and their desire to be officers in particular comes from an overarching ideal – that of serving Klal Yisrael and protecting their fellow Jews. This ideal then makes it easier for them to perhaps follow a more lenient interpretation on some halachic issues where others would take a more stricter view.

Therefore the fear by many in the secular camp in Israel about the national religious in the army is misplaced and completely blown out of proportion. It comes from not understanding the nuances of a different sector of the country.

Third Iron Dome System Operational in Northern Israel

The IDF has set up the third Iron Dome battery in the northern part of Israel.  The other two were set up within the past few weeks. This is a sign that Israel expects rocket fire coming from the north – either from Hizbollah in Lebanon or from either Assad or the rebels in Syria – or perhaps even both.

This comes in a addition to the anouncement that President Obama will (finally) come to visit Israel next month. He is coming supposedly to further peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians (good luck with that….) but I think he will be speaking more about the problems in Iran and Syria.

The fact that Ahmadinejad is visiting Egypt now – the first time an Iranian leader has done this in three decades – is a warning sign too. For those of you not familiar with history, the sliver of land called Israel has been in the middle of wars between the ruling powers around Egypt in the southwest and Syria in the northeast for centuries. The players change frequently but the fight for supremacy is the same. The fact tha Iran has backed Assad in Syria has made it in conflict with Egypt – but perhaps now that there is a new ruler in Egypt Iran wants to warm up relations.

In any case the IDF is making preparations for the next round.

The Blessing of Rain

Israel is always thirsty for rain. The Kinneret is our only source of “sweet” water – there are desalination plants that process some of the water from the Mediterranean Sea, but we are mainly dependent on the Kinneret and the underground reserves.

The heavy winter rains both last year and this have added precious centimeters to the level of the Kinneret – so much so that it is at its highest level in more than seven years. Most predict that it will reach its full capacity by the end of the winter.

Another blessing that the rain has given Israel is the fact that Hamas has ordered the closing of the  smuggling tunnels (from Egypt to Gaza), since the rain has caused more than one to collapse. These tunnels are used to smuggle in drugs and weapons used against Israel.

The blessings of rain.

Beautiful Video About Jerusalem

Danny Ayalon, the deputy Foreign Miinster, has created another wonderful video, this time on Jerusalem. (Thanks to Carl of Israel Matzav).

This is Going to Be Fun

I am going to enjoy the next four political years very much. I have been following Israeli politics since I made aliyah 22 years ago, and one pattern emerges over and over. Someone starts his political life by claiming that noone represents the “center”. He then gets popular by proposing that he is a centrist, creates a new party, gets voted in with a lot of mandates (but not the majority, of course)….and then has to hit Israeli reality. Israeli reality in this case is that the Arabs will not let us alone, ever, and you have to choose sides – either you are right wing and security comes first, or you are left wing and you are willing to risk your security and make concessions. Being in the middle and not choosing is not an option for the majority party. After the first few years in the Knesset this “central” party gets less popular, until it completely dies. (Kadima is the latest party in the cycle.)

There is also another pattern that repeats itself. Journalists criticize politicians mercilessly, and make it sound as if they know better and could do a much better job themselves. Then they actually start to believe their own propaganda, run for the Knesset and sometimes get in….and then hit Israeli reality. Israeli reality in this case is that it is fiendishly hard to unite Israeli Jews enough to get anything done, and that you cannot please everyone all of the time. You also cannot ignore the responsibility of seeing the whole picture and just do what you want with the resources at hand – you have to work with other people and compromise (which these journalists have always called “selling out”).

Yair Lapid has followed both of these patterns. I don’t like him at all because I think he is a pretty boy with very little substance, and I resent how he came to power on so many people’s naive belief that he is the “savior of the middle class”. I am going to enjoy watching him learn a lot of things: that it really is harder than it looks to be a good public servant, that the people who love you when you first start running have very little patience with the realities of governing, and that there are no magic cures for the problems we face here. I hope he realizes how arrogant he was and learns a bit of humility. It might happen naturally while he actually works as a politician, or it might come as a shock after the next time he runs for Knesset and doesn’t get the same number of mandates – but it will happen at some point. Maybe I will like him a bit better then.

In the meantime it is going to be fun.

A Nice Profile Piece on Danny Danon – and Another Reason to Vote Likud

There is a nice profile piece on Danny Danon (not to be confused with Danny Dayan) in the Times of Israel website. Danon is a secular right wing candidate on the Likud Beitenu list. For those of you who are hesitant about whether to vote for Likud Beitenu or Bayit Yehudi, this article is worth a look. Danon is typical of the character of the Likud list.

The Likud has an excellent list of right wing candidates this time around, and it would be a real shame not to vote for them because of the desire to support a sectoral party. All of the members in the first twenty spots on the Likud slate, except for Moshe Feiglin, have been Knesset Members before. They have experience and know how to pass legislation.

The Bayit Yehudi list does not come close. The head, Naftali Bennet, is a newcomer to the Knesset, as is the rest of his list except for three members (Uri Ariel, Nissim Smoliansky and Uri Orbach). This means that if Bayit Yehudi gets 14 seats, 11 of them will be filled with complete newcomers. I don’t doubt their sincerity, but I do doubt their political savvy and their ability to get things done.

 

The Second Zionist Revolution – Im Tirzu Leads the Way

Im Tirzu, the pro-Zionist movement, has published a booklet called “The Guide to the Zionist Revolutionary”. This guide is only in Hebrew, as the organization is mainly geared towards young Israelis, especially those in college and university.

The guide states that it is time for a second Zionist revolution. The first returned Jews from the Diaspora to its homeland and rejuvenated the holy language of Hebrew. The second Zionist revolution’s goal is to return the Jewish nation to the original Jewish culture and values. These values have been undermined by the post-Zionist culture in Israel and it is time to turn it around.

The booklet covers a wide array of topics and suggests a number of actions. Some major points include:

“Don’t be afraid to demand academic pluralism!” This means that in the twisted academic culture that exists in Israel today, the pro-Arab point of view is usually the only one being voiced, and it is incumbent on the students to fight back.

“Join the culture war” It is time to push back at the post-Zionist culture in Israel, not by demanding censorship, but by putting forth something pro-Zionist.

“Bring Zionist ideas to the schools” The booklet suggests volunteering in schools to bring Zionism back to education.

I urge those of you who can read Hebrew to read the booklet. I found it inspiring.

Yom Yavoh….The Day is Coming

Latma prepared a special song about the future – when building in Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) is not condemned but accepted as our right. This version has English subtitles, with the comic section before the song. Enjoy!