Yom Rishon
Sunday
15 Tevet 5783
January 8 2023
Egregious Photos: Last Night’s Demonstrations in Tel Aviv
Somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 demonstrated in Tel Aviv last night against Netanyahu, the new government, Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s proposed judicial reforms, and anything else they could think of. Here are a few photos:
PLO flags were everywhere to be seen along with signs reading “Palestinian Lives Matter.”
And:
Levin and Netanyahu with Nazi symbols inscribed with “murdering democracy”. Can you imagine what the outcry would be if conservative demonstrators pictured Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz in this way?
Two of the leaders of the demonstrations Yael Lotan and Avner Gavrihu of the loathsome “Breaking the Silence” group said they are building a new intersectional “democratic” movement made up of “Jews and Arabs, women and men, straight and LGBT, secular and religious.”
The News on the Israeli Street
More from “moderate” Jordan . . .
The new 50 dinar currency note issued in Jordan yesterday.
If you drive along the roads of Jordan, you are frequently met by giant billboards that alternately tout King Abdullah in western dress with his family, or King Abdullah in Bedouin garb with the accoutrements of the desert (to emphasize his “Palestinianism”).
Yesterday’s new currency pictured above opts for the latter as a scruffy bearded Abdullah adorns the note along with representations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (left background) and Kipat HaSela (right background).
The clear message is that our Temple Mount is Jordanian–a message that has been reinforced by numerous Israeli governments over the years.
A few days ago, however, a largely unreported story appeared that suggested that Israel might be willing to turn over administration of the Temple Mount to Saudi Arabia in return for Saudi recognition of Israel.
What do you think would happen if Israel made this move?
A refreshing wind is blowing from Jerusalem . . .
Yesterday was a day on which we could begin to see the exciting new direction in which our government is heading–a new direction that is long overdue.
**The Prime Minister’s Office announced that in response to the Palestinian move in the United Nations: Israel will withhold tax fees collected, freeze Palestinian building in Area C, deny “VIP” travel certificates to PLO officials, and take action against NGOs “involved in diplomatic warfare” with Israel.
**Defense Minister Yoav Galant denied Israel entry permits to three PLO officials who visited the home of recently released terrorist Karim Younis who murdered IDF soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1983.
**Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has canceled the system of security prisoner visits by members of the Israeli Knesset which was established by his odious predecessor Omer Bar-Lev.
**Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered today that 139 million shekels of tax money for the PLO be deducted and distributed to victims of terrorism in Israel.
Let’s hope that the government can continue moving in the right direction.
TODAY’S BLOG
“Where was Aharon Barak when his Court arrogated power and trampled democracy?”
The last 24 hours here have been consumed with a battle between retired Supreme Court President Aharon Barak and new Justice Minister Yariv Levin concerning Levin’s proposed legal reforms.
Barak fired the opening shots of the battle in interviews on Israeli television last night during which he accused the new Netanyahu coalition of initiating an attack on the Court. Barak solemnly intoned that Levin “has collected all the bad proposals made over the years and connected them into a sort of chain that will strangle Israeli democracy.”
The Israeli father of judicial activism, Barak went on to say that Levin’s proposals could not be worse and that they are like “a revolution with tanks” and “a war against democracy.” And on and on.
Of course, what Barak failed to address was how he was the person who turned the Israeli judicial system upside down in a power grab during his time as head of the Court.
Later in the evening, Levin answered Barak: “I have a great deal of respect for the retired supreme president. I have no doubt that he did what he saw as good and right, but I think that in the end he brought a great disaster upon Israel because he chose a path that contradicts basic democracy . . . We all know what the courts look like, what a disaster. We all experience the unbearable bureaucracy in which no government agency is willing to take responsibility and take action because it immediately receives a restraining order [from the Court].”
Finally, Levin lambasted Barak with this simple question: where was Aharon Barak when his Court arrogated power and trampled democracy?
Where was Barak? He was the person leading the trampling.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.