** 09-Apr-2023 World View: The Two Israels
Things have been quiet today (Sunday) at
the Jerusalem holy sites, but in the
region as a whole the violence appears
to be spreading. Israel is exchanging
rocket and missile file with the
Palestinians in Gaza and southern
Lebanon refugee camps. What's new today
is that Israel is also exchanging fire
with missile sites in Syria.
So far, the role of Hezbollah (and Iran)
has not been reported. In particular,
it's not known whether the Palestinians
in southern Lebanon launched rocket
strikes with or without the permission
of Hezbollah. If it was with
permission, then a wider war would be
more likely. I believe that I heard one
analyst say that Hezbollah was planning
anti-Israel protests on Friday.
Today's JTA (Jewish Telegraph Agency)
newsletter contains an article about
"Two Israels," describing some of the
contradictions in Israeli society. The
point of the article is the massive
street protests going on in Israel today
are animated by many more issues than
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
proposed judicial reform of the Supreme
Court.
https://www.jta.org/2023/04/09/opinion/ ... ing-israel
Here are some of the issues and
contradictions described in the article:
- Supporters of judicial reform
claim that under the current system,
unelected judges too often overrule
elected lawmakers. Opponents say that
the reforms would give unchecked and
unprecedented power to legislators.
- There are disagreements over
Palestinians and the occupation. The
Palestinian Authority is weakened and
ineffective, Palestinian youth lack hope
for a better future, and Israeli
settlers feel emboldened by supporters
in the ruling coalition.
- There is a resurgent patriotism
among the center and the left.
- There is a Jewish Diaspora
emboldened to weigh in on the future of
Zionism.
- There are divisions over the growing
power of Israel’s haredi Orthodox
sector. Secular Israelis especially
resent that the haredim
disproportionately seek exemption from
military service and that non-haredi
Israelis contribute some 90% of all
taxes collected.
- There is a divide between Ashkenazi
Jews with roots in Europe and Mizrahi
Jews whose ancestry is Middle Eastern
and North African.
- Conservatives insist that Israeli
“elites” — the highly educated, the tech
sector, the military leadership, and
others — don’t respect the will of the
majority who brought Netanyahu and his
coalition partners to power. This is
why Netanyahu's opponents refer to him
as "Israel's Trump."
- There is a split between those who
believe that Israel should be a more
religious country, and those who want it
to be more secular. This is between
those who see Israel’s founding vision
as a European-style, rights-based
democracy, and those who see that vision
as the return of the Jews to their
ancient homeland.
It's clear from this list that Israel is
going through lunacy just like America.
This happens because both countries are
in a generational Crisis Era, and the
lunacy will end when these countries
face an existential crisis in the form
of World War III.
