Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon, whose political affiliations are far removed from those of Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, agrees with him with regard to the Supreme Court, which he says has become too politicized and disrespectful with regard to the legislative arm of government. Speaking on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, Ramon said that the court has no right to interfere with legislation that has been passed by at least 61 members of the Knesset, especially legislation related to Basic Laws. In overruling the Knesset, he said, the court shows disrespect for the legislative arm of government.
■ THE MANY friends he made in Israel will be sad to learn of the death of former Lithuanian ambassador Edminas Bagdonas, who served here from 2014 to 2019. A career diplomat, the very personable and popular Bagdonas served as consul and ambassador in several countries, as well as doing a stint at home as director of protocol in Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While in Israel he was diagnosed with cancer, and preferred to be treated by Israeli cancer specialists rather than cut short his posting and return home.
In an interview that he gave to The Jerusalem Post, he said that he felt very much at home in Israel, where there are at least 200,000 people of Lithuanian heritage. He noted that when he presented his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin in September 2014, the president told him of his own Lithuanian roots, and shortly afterward when he accompanied then-Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevicius to a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the latter also mentioned his Lithuanian ancestry.
Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s first-ever female president and the first president of Lithuania to serve two successive terms, also came to Israel during his tenure.
Bagdonas and several of his predecessors tried to label president Shimon Peres a Litvak, although Peres is generally listed as having been born in Poland.
Peres was born in Vishnyeva, which is today in Belarus, but was part of Poland at the time of his birth. Poland is bordered by Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Belarus is bordered by five countries, one of which is Lithuania. As borders kept changing over the years, it’s easy to see why Lithuanian ambassadors tried to claim Peres as one of their own. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein sometimes quips that his grandfather lived in four different countries without ever leaving home.
As ill as he was, Bagdonas continued with his diplomatic activities, and people who in February 2018 attended the reception at the Tel Aviv Museum marking the centennial of the restoration of the State of Lithuania could not tell that he was seriously ill. Wearing traditional Lithuanian costume, including a large hat, Bagdonas was able to camouflage his appearance and to exude a hail-fellow-well-met persona.
■ THE VICTIMS on the different sides of any war see the loss of human life, the traumatic impact and the damage wrought to infrastructure, housing and industry solely from their own perspective, often ignoring the pain caused to people on the other side. Retaliation and revenge are natural emotions.
Israel and its supporters, while acknowledging that much of Gaza’s civilian population is being held hostage by Hamas, did not spare much thought for the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. Likewise, people in Gaza, other than the few who had personal contacts of friendship in Israel, did not give much thought to the suffering of Israel’s civilians – including Arabs, who account for more than 20% of the population – who were subjected to barrages of rocket fire from Gaza. Yet anyone who read Palestine news bulletins, purely from a humanitarian standpoint, could understand how terrifying Israeli retaliation was to innocent civilians living in Gaza. The human-interest stories emanating from Gaza were similar to those published in Israel. The two entities could easily have been transposed to tell the same story.
In the final analysis, neither side won. Lives were lost on both sides, homes were destroyed and, economically, the cost factor went into the multimillions, which could have been used to better the quality of life on both sides.
Even before the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, organizations and institutions working for peace and coexistence among Jews and Arabs came out of the woodwork, and it was heartening to see that they are far from few in number. There have also been numerous coexistence rallies such as the one last Saturday night that was organized by Breaking the Silence and Standing Together, two organizations that are like a thorn in the side of ultra-right-wing nationalists who earnestly believe that Israel can do no wrong.
The rally, which began in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, attracted some 1,500 participants, who marched from there to Habimah Square, where they were addressed by prizewinning author and political activist David Grossman, who said that the struggle is not between Jews and Arabs but between those who desire peace and the hate-mongering radicals, who don’t. He warned that as a result of mutual antagonism, a whole generation of young people in Ashkelon and Gaza will grow up with the trauma of warning signals and explosions.
“We refuse to understand that the era in which our strength enabled us to determine policy that was most convenient for us and us alone, in accordance with our needs and interests, no longer exists,” said Grossman, who added that he was dedicating his words to the children who are held hostage by extremists on both sides.
In Jerusalem, the anti-Bibi’ists, with megaphones blaring, again disturbed the peace of the prime minister’s neighbors, after a brief hiatus, in which for a few weeks quiet had returned to the streets of Rehavia and Talbiyeh. Demonstrators came nearly two hours prior to the conclusion of Shabbat without the slightest concern for the traumas that their noise might be causing to the elderly or to very young children.
■ WHILE MOST newspapers in Israel focus on the same news events, when it comes to features, each newspaper has its own agenda. Whereas the Post is largely politically and health oriented in its features, Haaretz has a lot of coverage of injustices done to Palestinians on the one hand, and little known chapters in Jewish history on the other. Its two major writers on Palestinian issues are Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, and on historical matters Ofer Aderet and Yossi Melman.
After a long spell at Haaretz, Melman, who is also an intelligence expert, and frequently writes on this subject as well, joined The Jerusalem Post Group in 2013, writing for Maariv, the Post and The Jerusalem Report. He returned to Haaretz in 2019.
In the most recent weekend edition of Haaretz, Melman wrote a fascinating story based on a book by Romanian Ambassador Radu Ioanid, The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of the Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania and Israel.
It may be remembered that Romania was the only Soviet Bloc country that did not sever relations with Israel after the 1967 war, and allowed its Jews to emigrate in return for money, with which the Romanians purchased livestock, oil drilling equipment, agricultural machinery and military equipment.
The book was published in 2005 by Rowman and Littlefield, which is in the process of putting out an updated edition that contains many documents of the Securitate, Romania’s Secret Service, that were not accessible to the general public, including academic researchers, when the book was first published.
Ioanid, the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, has also written extensively about Romanian Jews during the Holocaust. When Melman asked him, in relation to the updated book, if he did not find trade in human beings distasteful, Ioanid replied: “There is a huge difference between selling people and redeeming them.”
■ NOT ALL the fans of Tom Aharon, who used to host a satirical program called Pa’am BaShavua, are aware of how fluent he is in English. Aharon was somewhat disgruntled by British-American comedian John Oliver, whose criticism of Israel was illogical, eliciting angry reactions from writers in both traditional and social media. In a well-thought-out response which can be downloaded from YouTube, Aharon appears to be even-tempered and very serious, but his text is punctuated with subtle jabs of humor. He doesn’t mind Israel being criticized, considering that a major part of his own stock-in-trade is criticizing Israel, but he doesn’t want Israel to be unjustly criticized, and gently hacks away at Oliver’s school of thought until no bricks are left.
■ LISTENING TO the press conference on Friday in which Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz thanked each other and praised each other for cooperation at the highest professional level proved that when the cause is sufficiently important, people who are not only rivals but enemies can work together.
This was demonstrated not only during the recent military operation, but also when fighting the forces of nature. In this respect we’ve seen Israelis and Palestinians working together in harmonious cooperation.
Looking back at history and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, for so many years it was attributed to Mordechai Anielewicz and his followers, without any reference to Pawel Frankel, until the late Moshe Arens, a former foreign minister and minister of defense, decided to look into the matter and write a book about it. Anielewicz was a true leftist. Pawel Frankel leaned heavily to the political right. The two could not reach an accommodation with each other, so instead of fighting the Nazis together, they fought them separately, and each died in combat. How different history might have been had they joined forces.
Netanyahu and Gantz put their animosity aside, and worked together in mapping out military strategies. By the same token, Netanyahu also worked hand in glove with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (whom he also praised at the press conference) in getting Israel’s message across to world leaders.
■ SDEROT MAYOR Alon Davidi and other heads of municipal and regional councils in the South are not happy about the ceasefire, because for them it means more of the same. Young people along the Gaza Strip have grown up against the backdrop of rocket fire all their lives. Many residents of the South are willing to put up with even greater hardship, if Israel puts an end to Hamas once and for all and doesn’t stop short after a few days of fighting.
Davidi sees the residents of the cities, towns, villages, kibbutzim and moshavim who have experienced missile attacks as true Zionists because they are not running away from an intolerable reality, but continue to grow and establish new neighborhoods, new homes and new sources of income.
The main thrust of Israel’s retaliation, he believes, should have been the return of the remains of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oren Shaul, who fell in action seven years ago, and the repatriation of civilian prisoners Avera Mengistu from Ashkelon and Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin from a village near Hura. But the fallen soldiers have not been brought home for a Jewish burial, and the two captives remain in the hands of Hamas.
Regardless of whether he had agreed to a ceasefire or had continued with the fighting until all of the Hamas leadership had been killed, Netanyahu would have been severely criticized. Too many people believe that the fighting was part of his political strategy to save his own skin. Others say that he always promises to finish the job in Gaza and never fulfills the promise. The worst part, of course, is the Gaza death toll, with too many civilians, especially women and children, being sacrificed on the altar of power. Inasmuch as Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties, there are always those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time or who had nowhere to go for shelter.
On the Israeli side, many people who needed a respite from what was happening in southern areas, and whose children were suffering the traumatic impact of the frequency of rushing to shelters, took advantage of the open arms hospitality of Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael in the north of the country.
Ma’agan Michael, with a resident population of approximately a thousand people, is a self-contained community with various industrial and agricultural sources of income, schools on the kibbutz or within walking distance, shops, cultural outlets and more. It also has its own TV outlet, and in a video on its website, viewers can see people from southern cities happily playing with their children on the sprawling lawns of the kibbutz, or watching as their children became engaged in the myriad of games and activities.
Ma’agan Michael is among the wealthiest of kibbutzim, and not for the first time has opened its gates to accommodate people from the South who need a breather. One man who was interviewed, and who had come with his family, when he asked how long they could stay, was told that there was no time limit. They could stay as long as they wanted. That’s part of the beautiful Israel that we don’t always see. Other kibbutzim, such as Ramat Rahel in Jerusalem, also took in families from the South and generously catered to their every need.
■ DURING HIS stint as defense minister, Amir Peretz suffered derision from political rivals, army top brass and the media, especially when he was caught holding his binoculars the wrong way. But it should be remembered that it was Peretz who, against the objections of senior army officers, insisted on going ahead with the development of the Iron Dome, which has intercepted so many rockets and saved untold numbers of lives. That decision by Peretz was one of the most important in the history of Israel’s defense establishment. Perhaps it was made precisely because Peretz lives in Sderot and is a former mayor of the city.
■ MANY JOURNALISTS, especially those working for television and radio, had long, almost sleepless days and nights over the last couple of weeks, while trying to give coherent reports as they responded to red alerts about rockets or tried to avoid being caught up in the chaos of domestic violence. Lack of sleep can cause a reporter to say things he or she didn’t really mean, mispronounce names or jumble facts.
If any of the above does little or no damage, it’s an acceptable excuse. But if even one of the above does damage, there is no excuse; there is only an explanation which does not get the culprit off the hook, as Kobi Finkler, the former military reporter for Channel 20, discovered to his cost.
Reporting on a rocket attack from Lebanon that hit an empty soccer field in the Arab town of Shfaram, causing no bodily injuries to anyone, Finkler voiced regret that it had not led to a lot of Arab deaths. Response from Jews and Arabs alike was swift in coming, with demands all round that Finkler be fired. Finkler apologized, but it didn’t do him any good. He had said something utterly deplorable which he could not disavow, though not for want of trying, and he was dropped from the Channel 20 payroll.
Outraged MK Ahmad Tibi tweeted to his followers asking them to imagine what would have happened if Furat Nassar on N12, or Ali Mugrabi on Channel 13, or Suleiman Maswadeh of KAN 11 were to make such a remark about Jews.
Apropos Maswadeh, there was a thought-provoking interview with him in the weekend edition of Haaretz. Born and raised in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Maswadeh, 25, had no contact with Jews until he was 20, and the only word he knew in Hebrew was shiputzim (repairs or restoration), because as a teenager he used to help his uncle who is a shiputznik.
Maswadeh, like everyone in his family is stateless. He holds a Jordanian passport and an Israeli ID card, but is neither a Jordanian nor Israeli citizen. He can vote in municipal elections, but he can’t vote in national elections.
Many Arabs consider him to be a collaborator, because he aims to be as neutral as possible when reporting clashes between Arabs and Jews, and many Jews don’t trust him, because he’s Arab. But putting his identity problems aside, he’s a true professional and an asset to public broadcasting. Considering how far he has come in a short period, and how much he has managed to learn, he has a very bright future ahead of him, which could be made even brighter if he would be given citizenship.
■ DURING HIS visit to Israel last week, several days prior to the announcement of the soon-to-be-canceled COVID-related restrictions, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, when meeting Netanyahu, was not sure whether to knock elbows or knock knuckles, and registered surprise when Netanya put out his hand for the pre-COVID traditional handshake. “I think we can shake hands,” said Netanyahu. “The Covid is under control.”
■ IT’S ALWAYS nice to have a reason to congratulate former colleagues. Award-winning writer Kelly Hartog, who very early in her career as a journalist worked for the Post, to which she still occasionally submits an article, is also an editor, book coach and speaker with more than two decades of experience. Her byline has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Post, The Washington Post and NBC. She has covered natural disasters and terrorist attacks and, while still at The Jerusalem Post, survived and later wrote about an al-Qaida suicide bombing, while on assignment in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002. After moving to California, she launched the monthly Orange County Jewish Life magazine, and successfully ran four online news sites. She is a former managing editor of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
Together with other award-winning journalists, Hartog has conceived SoCal Jewish News, highlighting achievements and shortcomings within the community and covering a panoply of Jewish-themed subjects and issues that somehow escape the attention of mainstream media. There will something for Jews of every stripe, age group and gender. The launch date is July 19.
■ RIVLIN’S CALENDAR is filled with farewell appointments, in addition to meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries, such as Maas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Rivlin even made time for a farewell meeting on Zoom with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which he unfailingly addressed when they held their annual meetings in Jerusalem.
The Zoom meeting, whose participants included Conference of Presidents chairwoman Dianne Lob, CEO William Daroff and vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, was not only one of farewell and appreciation to Rivlin but also one of solidarity with Israel.
On the previous day, Lob, Daroff and Hoenlein had issued a statement condemning antisemitic attacks across the United States, saying that they were shocked and horrified by the dramatic rise in reprehensible antisemitic attacks by anti-Israel agitators across the country, and considered them to be an affront to basic American values.
Although Israel and several nations that are friends of Israel see anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism as antisemitism, many of the people in America and beyond, including public figures, who condemn antisemitism in all its forms, have spoken out sharply against Israeli policies, and would be insulted if accused of being antisemites.
A case in point is US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose tweet that there is no room for antisemitism in the movement for Palestinian liberation was reported in numerous publications, including Newsweek. Ocasio-Cortez, who has frequently charged Israel with human rights abuses, tweeted that this is not an excuse for antisemitic hate crimes. She was not the only pro-Palestinian Democrat to come out loud and clear against antisemitism.