Werther: Netanyahu looks like a drunken clown (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not stop lying all this week, to Americans at times, to ultra-Orthodox Jews at times, and to the families of Israelis detained in Gaza at other times.

But his silence about the situation in northern Israel was very clear, at a time when the conscription exemption crisis constitutes a turning point in Israeli policy and in the relationship between Haredi voters and the parties that are supposed to represent them.

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With this introduction, Haaretz summarized a long article by Yossi Verter, which began by describing the panic that descended on the Prime Minister's Office after the "group of incompetent employees" occupying it realized that they had no more tricks to use against the High Court of Justice and the Attorney General.

The writer likened the atmosphere of the ruling coalition's loss of power to "resurrection," as there is no more time for delay and trickery.

The reason for this is that tens of thousands of religious school students - who are evading military service on the orders of their rabbis - will begin receiving conscription notices from April 1, and they will refuse it, demonstrate, block roads, and set fire to garbage cans.

However, what is truly horrific - according to the writer - is that in the future, money will stop flowing to these religious schools, because the budget allocations for religious institutes, which greatly inflated under Netanyahu’s sixth government, will suffer a severe blow, when continued funding for religious schools that have not yet been established will be banned. The recruitment status of students therein is settled by the Supreme Court of Justice.

No longer ready

The writer believed that the leaders of the extremist parties - whom he described as arrogant - failed to read the deep hidden currents that dominated Israeli society during the past year, and their blindfolded eyes were unable to see the raging volcano that was about to explode, and therefore they supported judicial reform, seeking to make government corruption a part of It has been integral to Israeli governments for generations, before the events of October 7 came.

Due to the conditions of war, the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers, and multiple losses in the army, the public that serves, fights, dies, works and earns a living - according to the writer - is no longer willing to swallow things that were accepted with some complaining or weak protest, so that it is no longer possible to accept what is planned. Netanyahu and his companions have a law that exempts the Haredim from military service and institutionalizes their avoidance of sharing the burden with the rest.

According to the author, Haredi voters view the crisis of the exemption project as a turning point in the face of the parties that represent them, after they failed to present a new law and a new, strong exemption, and they are now thinking that perhaps another, less hateful, government can provide a better result.

Although the date of April 1 was not a surprise, Netanyahu continued to procrastinate as usual, until the last minutes before midnight, and when all roads were closed, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs wrote a pathetic and shameful letter in which he attacked the government’s legal advisor, Gali Baharav Meara, and the Minister of Defense. Yoav Galant, the former responded with a sharp message saying that the “plan” that the government wants to present to the High Court of Justice is devoid of any professional or legal foundations, and Galant, from the United States, simply says that the envoy’s words were a lie derived from political considerations.

And then the well-known modus operandi began, involving a campaign of lies and deception, in which Mira and Gallant were immediately designated as targets by the toxic apparatus serving Netanyahu.

The Supreme Court of Justice also quickly became a target, so that all the services provided by these parties were ignored when they were an indispensable pillar of support for the government in everything related to managing the war and dealing with major crises, such as the court in The Hague.

The lying doesn't stop

The writer saw that Netanyahu's tantrum and confusion were perfectly expressed this week when he said to a Republican senator, "I have decided not to send the delegation to Washington, as a message to (the Islamic Resistance Movement) Hamas, which cannot rely on the pressure" created by the Security Council resolution after it Washington abstained from voting on it, as if to say - to play the role of masculinity with Hamas - that it put its finger in the eye of President Joe Biden, the “Zionist” who loves Israel and is its savior in this terrible war.

Thus, Netanyahu continued to lie throughout the day, as he lied in saying that Hamas’ response to the broad outlines of the hostage deal came after the UN resolution, even though it came before it.

Then he lied to the same senator to minimize harm to the United States. On the same day, he continued to lie about not agreeing to the delegation’s departure. The really big lie is that Netanyahu did not postpone the delegation’s departure because of the United States’ vote, but rather used it as a pawn, just like the draft law, and like the meeting with the families of the soldiers detained in Gaza.

Werther described Netanyahu as being like a drunken clown, juggling all the balls in the air, and he cannot catch them all, so he is limited to holding on to what causes him less harm.

After 6 months, it seems that his most painful and criminal procrastination - as the writer sees it - is not heading towards the south, but rather towards the north, where an entire region is still in a state of desperate oblivion.

Because the liar cares not only about what he says, but also about what he does not say, Netanyahu, despite the “comprehensive victory” lie and all the nonsense about Rafah, rarely talks about the north, and leaves the threat of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to the Israeli army or Gallant, so as not to trap himself in a potential agreement. there.

Sa'ar's resignation

Israeli Emergency Government Minister Gideon Sa'ar was intent on announcing his resignation on March 20 if he was not included in the war government, but he received a call from Netanyahu asking him to extend it for a few days.

The reason for this - according to the author - is that there are three obstacles to Sa’ar joining the war government, the first of which is the veto of war government member Benny Gantz, then the requirement of Ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich that they join the war government with him, and finally Sara Netanyahu’s objection to his entry.

However, Netanyahu told Sa'ar that the situation would change if he committed to supporting every bill presented by the coalition to maintain religious school students' exemption from the army and remain in the government after the war ended, so Netanyahu could go to his coalition partners and say to them, "Look what we got from Gideon?" "He promises us life," Sa'ar rejected.

According to the writer, Sa'ar was ready to give some legitimacy to the prime minister who fed him bitterness and knew his faults better than most people, but he left, and his departure is not limited to the calculations of his party's four seats. Rather, he will meet in the opposition with his former partner Gantz, whose last vestiges of influence are evaporating at a rapid rate. Alarming.

Source: Haaretz