100,000 Protest in Tel Aviv against Immunity Bills for Netanyahu

May 27, 2019, The Israeli Communist Party http://www. maki.org.il המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית‎  الحزب الشيوعي الاسرائيلي‎ (Israel)

CPI

A hundred thousand Israelis protested on Saturday night, May 25, proposed legislation that would grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution on a series of corruption charges. The protesters outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on called for protecting Israel’s democratic sphere against far-right government overreach.

The demonstrators rallied against legislation being pushed by Netanyahu’s incoming coalition to shield him from criminal prosecution as well as restricting the power of the Supreme Court.

Speakers at the protest included Kahol Lavan chairman MK Benny Gantz, Kahol Lavan co-chairman MK Yair Lapid, Kahol Lavan MK Moshe Ya’alon, Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh, Labor chairman MK Avi Gabbay, Meretz’s chairwomen MK Tamar Zandberg, Kahol Lavan’s MK Ofer Shelah, retired Arab-Druze general Amal Assad and attorney Sagit Peretz Deri.

MK Odeh told the gathered masses that efforts to safeguard Israeli democracy amid brewing initiatives by the incoming coalition to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution would only be possible when Jewish and Arab citizens work and struggle together. Addressing the crowd, Odeh said, “I am here today because I believe that Jewish-Arab partnership is the only way to achieve hope and change.” “Arab citizens alone cannot enact change, but without us it is impossible,” the Hadash MK continued. “I am here today because I believe that without equality there is no democracy.”

Odeh was a last-minute addition to the Saturday evening lineup of speakers after a phone call hours earlier with Gantz, whose party was the primary organizer of the rally.

On Friday, Haaretz reported that after Odeh accepted a formal invitation to address demonstrators last week, he was told that “the list of speakers was already closed and there was no room for additional ones.”

The organizers of the protest, which bills itself as a pro-democracy rally, included all Jewish opposition parties – Kahol Lavan, Labor and Meretz – but not Hadash and the Arab parties. The rally was the first time since the April 9 election that Israel’s opposition parties joined forces.

After significant criticism that no Arab was included in the rally, Gantz called Odeh several hours before it was to begin and asked him to address the demonstrators. “The struggle against Netanyahu’s attempts to destroy the democratic space is a joint struggle that all democratic forces share,” Odeh wrote in a post on his official Twitter handle.

 “We won’t have an alternative for a corrupt and destructive regime without broad cooperation by all citizens, Jews and Arabs. Only thus will we be able to replace the regime, only thus will we be able to pose an alternative to his destructive policy.”

Meretz chairwoman Zandberg tweeted that “there is no democracy without equality and the struggle for democracy cannot be for Jews only.” She added “all opposition members will be on stage tonight.” Labor’s MK Shelly Yacimovich tweeted that “a protest without Arabs is surrender to racism and to the incitement from the right.”

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Estamos en 2016. Digamos adiós al sionismo de una vez por todas

28 10 2016, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (Mexico)

Noam Rotem

972mag

Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por J. M.

Actualmente el sionismo es la valla que rodea al pueblo judío, otorgándole supremacía sobre las demás personas de esta tierra

El Estado de Israel es un estado sionista. Todos nosotros, los graduados del sistema educativo israelí lo sabemos. El primer ministro del primer gobierno de Israel lo dijo, Ehud Barak lo dijo, incluso el primer ministro Benjamin Netanyahu lo ha dicho. Esta declaración se puede encontrar en nuestros planes de estudios e incluso en el plan de estudios del ejército de Israel. Todo está bien, pero en ninguna parte he sido capaz de encontrar una definición formal

B'Tselem's response to Prime Minister's attack

17/10/2016, B'Tselem בצלם http://www.btselem.org (Israel)

In solidarity with the B'Tselem Human Rights organization, targeted in a vicious campaign by the Prime Minister as by Netanyahu's satellites in the media and political system. we publish here verbatim the press release issued by B'Tselem Spokesperson Amit Gilutz.

B'Tselem's response to Prime Minister's attack: We will continue saying the truth in Israel and abroad; the occupation must end.

Unlike the Prime Minister and his slander, we believe that the Israeli public is worthy of meaningful discussion of the occupation. And, contrary to the complete overlap the Prime Minister establishes between the occupation and Israel, we insist on saying loud and clear: the occupation is not Israel, and resisting it is not anti-Israel.

The opposite is true. At the U.N. Security Council on

Lieberman Compares Iran to Nazis, Iran Deal to Munich Pact…Again

August 6, 2016, Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)  

By Richard Silverstein

Lieberman: “This is what we’ll do 

to Khamenei if we get our hands 

on him!” (Jonathan Sindel/Flash90)

Over the past few days, a tempest has been brewing after Pres. Obama defended his Iran nuclear agreement by correctly noting that the entire Israeli defense and intelligence leadership acknowledges that it has improved Israeli and world security. This apparently angered defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, who couldn’t

Netanyahu and Son Investigated for Using False Passport, Money Laundering Via Panama Account

July 16, 2016, Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)

By Richard Silverstein*

Winston Churchill said after one of the earliest Allied victories during WWII: this is not the end, not even the beginning of the end.  Rather it’s the end of the beginning.  I think we’re more advanced in the case of Netanyahu.  We may have just entered the beginning of the end of his seemingly endless reign over Israeli politics.

Israeli social media has lit up with news of a new investigation of Bibi Netanyahu, his son Yair, and the PMO’s former chief of staff, Ari Harow.  This story has not yet been reported by an Israeli mainstream publication and

The female conscientious objector who just made Israeli history

July 12, 2016, + 972 Magazine 972mag.com (Israel)

By Noam Sheizaf*

Following her sixth trial, Tair Kaminer has become the longest-serving female conscientious objector in Israel’s history. This is her story.

Young Israeli women Tair Kaminer and Tania Golan pose for a final photo outside the Tel Hashomer induction base where they announced their refusal to serve in the Israeli army, January 31, 2016. Kaminer was sentenced to prison.

DF military prison number 6 lies in one of the most picturesque spots in Israel, at the bottom of the Carmel Mountain, between green fields and banana plantations. The prisoners can see the mountains from the yard, but there is no view of the Mediterranean, less than a mile away.

The prison includes a separate unit for officers and, since 2011, a female unit as well. Prison life is boring and discipline is harsh. Most prisoners’

Netanyahu's Africa tour: A spit in the face of those Israel helps oppress

July 6, 2016, +972 Magazine http://972mag.com (Israel)

The Israeli public and its government need to internalize that ‘Israel’s pride,’ its wildly successful military export industry, has been an unending nightmare for the people of Africa. How can Netanyahu look the Rwandan and Ugandan people in the eyes?

By Itay Mack*

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on a tour of African states of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

For decades, Israel’s relationship with the African continent, from South Africa to the Sahara, has been almost entirely based on military and arms exports that have fueled oppression, civil wars and murderous

Four Generals and a Netanyahu

29/06/2016, Tlaxcala http://www.tlaxcala-int.org (Mexico)

Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity

Yacov Ben Efrat יעקב בן-אפרת يعقوب بن افرات*

They are not just four generals. They are former chiefs of staff, and they are outraged by the fact that their intractable prime minister has appointed an inexperienced Moldavian as defense minister. Of this man it is said: “The closest he ever came to a bullet was a tennis ball whistling past his ear."

The amply decorated generals are soldiers of demonstrated heroism: this one held his fire till he saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, that one took part in assassinating Abu Jihad on the shore of Tunisia. In stark contrast, the newly appointed defense minister immigrated, settled in the West Bank, and got rich; his heroism has been confined to stonewalling numerous police investigations for corruption. The contrast between Avigdor Lieberman and the group of military men

Avnery: THE CORRECT NAME FOR THIS WAR IS "OPERATION SHORT MEMORY"

16 November 2012, Gush Shalom http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)

The name chosen for the new war in Gaza is "operation Cloud Pillar". A far more appropriate name would have been "Operation Short Memory" Said former Knesset member Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom activist. "Prime Minister Netanyahu is counting on the public's short memory. Netanyahu counts upon people forgetting that dozens and even hundreds of "liquidations" had been carried out and they did not solve any problem - always there was somebody replacing those who were killed, and more than once the new one was more capable and more radical. Netanyahu counts on people not remembering that four years ago Israel went to war in Gaza, killing 1300 civilians in three weeks – which otherwise did not make any significant change in the situation. Netanyahu counts on people failing to remember that just yesterday morning the media reported on people in the communities of the South heaving a sigh of relief at the complete cessation of missiles from Gaza.

"Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak have taken the decision - for the second time in a row the State of Israel will conduct general elections under the shadow of war in the Gaza Strip. The cease-fire which already started to stabilize had been broken and shattered to pieces. The inhabitants of te communities of southern Israel, who just started to breathe freely, are sent right back to air raid alarms and the running to shelters.

At the price of great suffering on both sides of the border, the government's aim had been accomplished: the social issues, which threatened to assume prominence in these elections, have been pushed aside and removed from the agenda of the elections campaign. Forgotten, too, is the brave attempt of Mahmud Abbas to address the Israeli public opinion. In the coming weeks, the headlines will be filled with constant war and death, destruction and bloodshed. When it ends at last, it will be revealed that no goal has been achieved and that the problems remain the same, or perhaps got worse."

Likud/Israel Beiteinu bloc prepares ground for war and savage austerity measures

1 November 2012, World Socialist Web Sitehttp://www.wsws.org (Australia)

By Jean Shaoul

Days after the announcement of an early general election for January 22, the Likud party has overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s plan for an electoral bloc with the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu (Israel is our home), led by Foreign Secretary Avigdor Lieberman.

According to the polls, the bloc with Israel Beiteinu will give Netanyahu between 35 and 42 seats in the 120-member Knesset, more than twice the number Labour is expected to win, and an unprecedented third term as prime minister. It paves the way for an extremist government based on authoritarianism, militarism and xenophobia. It will be one committed to an attack on Iran and any country deemed a threat to Israel’s interests, a further assault on the position of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and, above all, a social and economic offensive against the Israeli working class.

Netanyahu’s objective in calling an early election and forming this electoral bloc—put on hold after an abortive attempt to bring the opposition Kadima on board last May—was to sideline his religious coalition partners and limit their ability to push him into making budgetary concessions on behalf of their social constituencies. Since Israel’s electoral system requires the electorate to vote for political parties not candidates, Likud will determine the position of its members on its list while maintaining the Knesset seat ratio between the parties: Likud 27, Israel Beiteinu 15.

In his speech unveiling the electoral bloc, to be called Likud–Beiteinu, Netanyahu declared, “One ticket will strengthen the government, it will strengthen the prime minister, and it will strengthen the country.”

He added, “We are asking the public for a mandate to deal with the security threats, at the top of which is stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and fighting terrorism. We are asking for a mandate from the public to continue the changes in the economy, in education and in the need to lower the cost of living.”

Lieberman said, “The merger is a combination of experience, force and unity. This is what Israel’s citizens expect. Given the challenges, we need national responsibility.”

Born in Moldova, Lieberman was in his youth a member of the right-wing Kach party outlawed in the 1980s. Since 1988, he has worked closely with Netanyahu and Likud, becoming Netanyahu’s chief of staff during his first term as prime minister in 1996. He left Likud in 1997 after Netanyahu signed up to the Wye River agreement that made some concessions—on paper—to the Palestinians, later forming his own ultra-nationalist party based upon Israel’s one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Israel Beiteinu became the third largest party in the 2009 election.

Lieberman supports the “transfer” of Israel’s Arab population to any putative Palestinian state, demands a “loyalty oath” to Israel as a Jewish state as the basis for citizenship, and labels Israeli Arab legislators as “traitors” and “terrorists” who should be executed for meeting leaders of Hamas, the group that rules Gaza. He has sought to introduce a raft of anti-democratic legislation aimed at outlawing dissent.

He is under investigation for corruption and may yet be charged with fraud, money laundering, breach of trust, witness harassment and obstructing the course of justice.

His opinions, once considered marginal, have now become part of the mainstream and respectable political discourse in Israel. His role has been to shift the entire spectrum of Israeli politics to the right.

A recent public opinion poll, not the first or only one, showed that 33 percent of respondents said they did not want Arabs to vote in parliamentary elections, 42 percent did not want an Arab neighbour, with a similar proportion saying it would bother them if there were an Arab student in their child’s class. It found that most Israelis would support apartheid-type conditions if the government were to annex the Occupied Territories, although most people oppose such annexation.

The response of Labour party leader Shelley Yacimovich was to say, “This step turns the Likud into Lieberman’s party. Tonight, Likud disappeared and instead there’s an extreme Lieberman party.”

She called on Israel’s “centrist” parties to unite to provide “an alternative to this extremist leadership.”

But most commentators agreed that such a coalition was unlikely, despite the fact that the opposition parties are expected to take around 60 seats. As Ma’ariv’s Shalom Yerushalmi pointed out, “There is no agreed-upon [opposition] leader and no consensus, and almost no union seems possible there”.

More importantly, that Yacimovich called for a pact with Kadima—the personal political vehicle of former prime minister and war criminal Ariel Sharon who split with Likud in 2005—demonstrates just how right-wing Labour has become. Labour no longer has any independent political existence or raison d’etre and is incapable of articulating any opposition to Likud’s domestic or foreign policy.

The same goes for all Israel’s small nominally left parties, including Meretz, the so-called Party of Peace, and the Stalinist-led coalition Hadash, which have endorsed the call for a centre-left bloc against Likud-Beiteinu.

Just last week, Yacimovich articulated positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are indistinguishable from Netanyahu’s.

She said, “We support the form of territorial compromise, the two-state solution, keeping settlement blocs, and oppose the right of return”.

However, settling Israel’s economic problems—by which she meant the demands of Israel’s financial elite’s—came first. She also supported Netanyahu’s attacks on Gaza which have killed at least seven people in the last week, saying, “These are complex operations that require a great restraint. I will not call the prime minister to initiate a military escalation, and I won’t criticize him. I stand behind his actions.”

Unable to articulate any policies to address the profound social and economic problems faced by Israeli workers, it is not surprising that Labour has made little headway in public opinion polls, despite the largest ever protests last year over housing costs and social inequality. There is enormous anger over the increasing poverty as wages have fallen in real terms for more than a decade, resulting in 1.7 million of Israel’s 7.8 million population living in poverty and 837,000 children going hungry every night.

While the opposition parties may feign outrage over some of Israel Beiteinu’s more blatantly racist and anti-democratic policies, they share the same standpoint, their commitment to Zionism. The Zionist project of establishing the state of Israel as a “homeland” for the Jews was based firstly upon the ethnic cleansing of close to a million Palestinians and systematic discrimination against those who stayed, and secondly, on capitalism where Israeli Jewish capitalists exploit, divide and police the working class of the region in its own interests and those of its patron, the United States. Such a state was and is fundamentally incompatible with democracy.

This perspective has left the former left parties incapable of challenging the more aggressive Zionist perspective that came to dominate under successive Likud-led governments. As both Zionist tendencies, right and left, recognised that the prospect of the Palestinians becoming a majority in a state whose citizenship is based upon religious identity constituted an “existential threat”, the nominally left Labour party joined Ariel Sharon’s Likud government, the most right-wing government Israel had known—and later Ehud Olmert’s Kadima-led government. Labour’s former leader Ehud Barak still sits alongside Netanyahu as defence secretary.

ACUERDO BIBI-LIEBERMAN: UNA LLAMADA DE ATENCIÓN AL MUNDO SOBRE ISRAEL

31 octubre 2012, Rebelión (México)

Larry Derfner*

972mag

Traducido para Rebelión por J. M. y revisado por Caty R.

Al unirse personalmente y llevar al partido gobernante del país a alinearse a nivel internacional con un despreciable neofascista, Netanyahu ha dado un paso importante para que Israel se acerque más a los límites de la tolerancia occidental. En última instancia, esa es una buena noticia.

La única manera de que Israel renuncie alguna vez a la ocupación y a su hábito de agresión militar es que vaya demasiado lejos y se convierta en un Goliat, de tal manera que el mundo occidental finalmente le pida que limpie sus actos o busque otro tipo de aliados. La unión anunciada esta noche entre el Likud de Bibi Netanyahu y Avigdor Lieberman de Yisrael Beiteinu para formar un gran Likud, "Likud es nuestro hogar", marca un paso importante en esa dirección.

Netanyahu tira piedras a su tejado. No sé si el nuevo partido va a ganar más escaños en la Knneset en las elecciones del 22 de enero de los que el Likud e Yisrael Beiteinu podrían haber ganado por separado, pero Netanyahu se ha ensuciado a los ojos del mundo, incluyendo a muchos de sus principales partidarios judíos en los Estados Unidos. Avigdor Lieberman tiene bien merecida una reputación internacional de que odia a los árabes e incluso de amante neofascista de la guerra (esta última etiqueta se la puso Martin Peretz, el estridente exeditor pro israelí de The New Republic).

El canciller Lieberman pide la expulsión, por medio de un intercambio de tierras, de cientos de miles de ciudadanos israelíes simplemente porque son árabes. Hizo una campaña electoral destacando el lema: "Sólo Lieberman entiende árabe”. Fue miembro del partido Kach a finales de 1970, algo que comprensiblemente niega, pero que los veteranos de Kach de aquella época lo juran. Lieberman fantaseaba en voz alta en la Knesset con la ejecución de los diputados árabes y amenazó con bombardear la presa de Asuán en Egipto. Además, por supuesto, ha estado bajo investigación de la policía de Israel por corrupción durante casi 15 años y podría enfrentarse a la acusación muy pronto.

Y ahora Netanyahu, que hizo de Lieberman su brazo derecho durante su primer mandato como primer ministro, se ha identificado totalmente con este tipo. Hubo un informe de esta noche en Canal 2 del buen comunicador Amnón Abramovitch anunciando que el acuerdo de unidad incluye que Lieberman ocupe el cargo de primer ministro al cuarto año de la próxima legislatura, ya que se supone que Likud Beiteinu ganará las próximas elecciones.

Mucha gente en Israel, Estados Unidos, Canadá y tal vez en otros países, y ciertamente muchos judíos en todo el mundo, creen que Netanyahu es un centrista, aunque sea por la mínima razón de que representa el consenso israelí. Pero incluso estas personas se dan cuenta de que Lieberman no es un centrista, sino que es la réplica israelí de Jean Marie Le Pen, del fallecido Jörg Haider, de Geert Wilders y otros entusiastas detractores de los musulmanes, sólo que es más militarista.

Y ahora hay una diferencia más, al contrario que Le Pen, Haider y Wilders, Lieberman y su partido se han unificado con el primer ministro de su país y con el partido gobernante.

¿Qué dice esto sobre el indiscutido líder político de Israel y sobre el propio Israel? Muchas personas de ideología moderada, aquí y en el extranjero, que estaban dispuestos a votar a Bibi, al que incluso llegaron a admirar, creo que ahora se sienten un poco enfermos. Es una noche terrible para este país, pero por desgracia no hay otra manera de que cambie la situación que se está dando en los últimos años si no es dándose la cabeza contra la pared, llegando al límite de la tolerancia occidental. Hay peores y más dolorosas maneras de que esto suceda que por el ascenso de Lieberman por lo menos en el Israel actual. Lenin tenía razón cuando afirmó que las cosas tienen que empeorar antes de que puedan mejorar, y seguro que esta noche se agravaron.

*Larry Derfner, escritor y columnista, trabajó para The Jerusalem Post, ha sido corresponsal en Israel del U.S. News and World Report durante muchos años y escribió artículos para el Sunday Times de Londres durante la Segunda Intifada.

Fuente original: http://972mag.com/the-lieberman-deal-a-wake-up-call-to-the-world-about-israel/58501/

Ex-chefe de segurança critica premiê de Israel e ação contra Irã

28 de Abril de 2012, Vermelho http://www.vermelho.org.br (Brasil)

Em um pronunciamento sem precedentes, o ex-chefe do Serviço de Segurança do governo israelense, Shin Bet, ridicularizou a figura do primeiro-ministro Benjamin Netanyahu e advertiu que um ataque de Israel ao Irã pode "acelerar dramaticamente" o projeto nuclear iraniano.

Em um encontro com dezenas de pessoas nesta sexta-feira (27), Yuval Diskin, que foi chefe do Shin Bet entre 2005 e 2011, disse que não confia em Netanyahu nem no ministro da Defesa, Ehud Barak, e que não gostaria que "essas pessoas" conduzissem Israel para uma ação "da dimensão de uma guerra com o Irã".

Ainda não está claro se Diskin sabia que o encontro estava sendo gravado, mas rapidamente o vídeo com seu pronunciamento começou a ser divulgado por redes sociais na internet e, algumas horas depois, as duras criticas que fez aos lideres do país se tornaram manchete dos principais veículos de comunicação.

Diskin ridicularizou Netanyahu e Barak, chamando-os de "messias de Akirov e Keisaria", em referência aos bairros luxuosos onde o premiê e o ministro da Defesa possuem propriedades. "Eu os vi de perto, e posso dizer a vocês que eles não são messias", afirmou, questionando a imagem que tanto Netanyahu como Barak tentam criar de si mesmos como "salvadores do povo de Israel".

Em termos duros, Diskin fez ataques pessoais aos principais líderes do país. "Sabemos que cachorros que latem não mordem. Infelizmente tenho ouvido latidos demais ultimamente", disse o ex-chefe do Shin Bet. Diskin afirmou que os lideres do país apresentam ao público um "quadro incorreto sobre a questão iraniana, tentando criar a impressão de que se Israel não agir, o Irã terá uma bomba atômica".

"Eles se dirigem a um publico tolo ou ignorante, dizendo que, se Israel agir, o Irã não terá a bomba, mas isso é incorreto", afirmou Diskin.

"Muitos analistas dizem que uma das consequências de um ataque israelense pode ser uma aceleração dramática do projeto nuclear iraniano. O que os iranianos fazem hoje devagar e silenciosamente, (depois de um ataque) terão legitimidade para fazer muito mais rápido", afirmou.

Escândalo
As declarações de Diskin, um dos mais respeitados militares israelenses, criaram um escândalo no país. O vice-primeiro ministro, Silvan Shalom, declarou que tem "muito respeito por Yuval Diskin, que foi um ótimo chefe do Shin Bet". "Porém seu pronunciamento foi um erro, coisas assim não precisam ser ditas", acrescentou Shalom.

O ministro dos Transportes, Israel Katz, qualificou as palavras de Diskin como "grosseiras e inadequadas".

Diskin não é o primeiro militar importante em Israel que critica o plano, atribuído a Netanyahu e Barak, de atacar as instalações nucleares do Irã. No ano passado, o ex-chefe do Mossad, Meir Dagan, qualificou o plano como "estúpido".

Na semana passada o chefe do Estado-Maior do Exército israelense, general Benny Gantz, também fez um pronunciamento que foi interpretado como discordância ao plano de ataque ao Irã. Gantz afirmou que não acredita que o Irã vá produzir armas nucleares.

Segundo o general, o governo iraniano é "racional e sabe que seria um erro enorme produzir armas nucleares". Gantz também afirmou que as sanções econômicas contra o Irã "começam a dar resultados". (Fonte: BBC Brasil)

Former Shin Bet Chief, Diskin Loses Confidence in Netanyahu, Barak Leadership

27 April 2012, Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)

Former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin told an Israeli audience that he had no confidence in the leadership of Bibi Netanyahu or Ehud Barak:

“My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us into an event on the scale of war with Iran or regional war,” Diskin told the “Majdi Forum,” a group of local residents that meets to discuss political issues.

“I don’t believe in either the prime minister or the defense minister. I don’t believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings,” he added.

Diskin deemed Barak and Netanyahu “two messianics – the one from Akirov…and the other from…Caesarea,” he said, referring to the residences of the two politicians.

“Believe me, I have observed them from up close… They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off. These are not people that I would want to have holding the wheel in such an event,” Diskin said.

“They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won’t have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race,” said the former security chief.

Considering that this was the fellow who ran Israel’s domestic security services during the entire reign of the current government, I’d say his dismissal of Netanyahu’s judgment and leadership is, or should be, a lightning bolt for Israelis. What’s more, Meir Dagan, the former Mossad chief has already voiced almost precisely the same views. Until now, Diskin had maintained a discreet public silence on the issues though it was common knowledge that he joined Dagan in opposing an Iran attack. This latest salvo will (hopefully) open the floodgates of criticism even farther.

Also, considering that neither the prime minister or defense minister are religious, attributing messianic motives to both should also be a warning. What is any leader, let alone one who doesn’t profess religious beliefs, doing falling back on such wild-eyed notions to govern national policy? Why does any leader believe his actions will save not just Israel, but the entire Jewish people?

These are the thoughts of megalomaniacs, not national leaders. And if they are national leaders they will lead to national catastrophe, rather than national salvation.

THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S BADGE OF SHAME

23 April 2012, EDITORIAL Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

If Netanyahu feels he lacks the political power to obey the High Court's directives he must dissolve the government and demand an electoral mandate for its peace and settlement policies.

The behavior of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most of his ministers with regard to Beit El's Givat Ha'ulpana neighborhood recalls that of a career criminal who is undaunted by condemnation or punishment.

Despite the harsh response from the High Court of Justice, led by Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, to the government's request to postpone yet again the evacuation of the Migron outpost, Netanyahu has told Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to "find a solution" that would allow the state to violate its promise to the court to demolish Givat Ha'ulpana's buildings by the end of the month.

As with the recent case of the so-called Machpelah House in Hebron, which settlers moved into without the necessary permits, our elected officials are competing with each other in attacking Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who dares to try to meet the state's commitment to the nation's highest court.

A year ago Netanyahu himself signed off on the state's promise to evacuate the dozens of families living in Givat Ha'ulpana and demolish their homes. He now says the court order is "a decree the public cannot tolerate." The prime minister should now explain to the Palestinian public how it is supposed to tolerate the theft of its land and to the Israeli public how it is supposed to tolerate the repeated lawbreaking in the territories for as long as it serves the interests of the settlers.

The size of Givat Ha'ulpana and the duration of its residents' use of the private Palestinian land on which it was built, with state support, are not mitigating circumstances but rather a badge of shame for the rule of law. The government's repeated postponements of its legal, moral and international obligations to evacuate the illegal outposts - particularly those built on privately owned Palestinian land - is no substitute for good policy.

If Netanyahu feels he lacks the political power to obey the High Court's directives he must dissolve the government and demand an electoral mandate for its peace and settlement policies. One can only hope that the public will shake off its apathy and cry out against stealing land from the helpless, breaking the law and spitting in the face of the justice system.

Read this article in Hebrew