BLUF: "In 2018, Navon – then part of the right-wing Kohelet Policy Forum – wrote a piece for The Jerusalem Post defending Israel’s Nation-State Law. Through that law, Israel implicitly confirmed that it operates an apartheid system, in which Jews are given a higher status than people of other religions or ethnicity.”
At the risk of offending National Conservatives/Traditional Conservatives here who are in fact aligned ideologically with, and therefore, allied to, Ben Gvir, Bezal Smotrich, and their fellow fascist Settler Yoram Hazony, that Nation-State Law was in large measure moved forward by Yoram Hazony and his book “The Jewish State.” Which served to further instill a Jewish National Conservative “worldview,” the highest stage of “Cognitive Warfare” when a change in “worldview” is achieved. As it is regardless of whether that “thought control” is called in the alternative Political Warfare, Psychological Warfare, Psychological Operations, or most accurately, Perception Management. All terms used over the years by the U.S. Government since the end of WW II. With practitioner Willmoore Kendall in the forefront of inculcating in the U.S. population an extreme militaristic and authoritarian world view, that he and his fellow CIA militarists called “Conservatism,” as perception management. Or what is called in some country’s, like Israel today; “fascism.” Per Mussolini’s definition.
How many years now have I been using the term “fascist” to correctly describe in “political theory” terms the Israeli fascists, dba “Conservatives,” and “National Conservatives,” and their U.S. fellow ideologues self-described the same? And been severely denounced for it here, and mocked for my “stupidity” by a Kendallian Trump/DeSantis supporter/promoter and his supporters? Who obviously don’t want it known that that “political theory” of Trump/DeSantis/Hazony, representing the “New Right,” is what Mussolini called “Fascism.” But adapted by “Thought Control Conservatives” to post-WW II circumstances. Beginning as they did by using perception management tactics, beginning with what they called themselves: Conservatives.” When in fact, ideologically, they were virtually identical to the fascist “Conservative Revolutionary Movement” of Weimar Germany. Perception Management tactics the one-time CIA officers founding the “Conservative Movement" had adapted from their work with CIA. That “mockery” especially followed when I correctly showed the “genealogy” of the “ideas” of the political theorist of National Conservatism, Yoram Hazony, to that of whom has been correctly identified and celebrated here as Trump’s ideological precursor; right-wing political theorist Willmoore Kendall.
And just like how “Libertarian Fusionists” adapted themselves to support “Thought Control Conservatives” then, just as ludicrously they do so today, as this paragraph explains of Frank Meyer:
"Frank Meyer, eventually the leading exponent of ‘fusionism’ (the attempt to unify the traditionalist and libertarian wings of the conservative movement) but then
still firmly on the libertarian wing, also criticized Plato’s over emphasis on the state.
In an essay originally published in 1955, Meyer attacked the traditionalist conservatives as statists(‘Collectivism Rebaptized’),whose works were filled with
words like 'authority’ and ‘obedience’, but which rarely mentioned ‘freedom’ or ‘the individual.’ Consequently, Kendall was predominantly attacking the ‘open
society’ consensus because it had even ‘infected’ the conservative movement, through its proponents’ use of Socrates. His response to Popper and Mill was aimed
at those libertarianl eaning conservatives sympathetic to Popper’s liberalanalysis."
Willmoore Kendall’s ‘McCarthyite’ Socrates in conservative free speech debates of the 1950s and 1960s
Author(s): John Bloxham
Source: International Journal of the Classical Tradition, MARCH 2018, Vol. 25, No. 1 (MARCH 2018), pp. 72-88
And we see of libertarians here today, as Meyer would come to do in alliance with Willmoore Kendall (who held him in contempt), staying silent or even joining with our “Thought Control Conservatives,” to “chill discussion” of the inherent fascism of Willmoore Kendall and his ideological descendants of Yoram Hazony and his National Conservatives. And their representative New Right politicians, the extreme “Conservative Zionists,” Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, and their like-minded New Right ideologues. All standing steadfast for Willmoore Kendall and his life’s work of instilling a world view calling for censorship so as to create or maintain “Consensus,” in the way that Fascists did, and do!
BLUF: "The "storm" du jour, provided by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who, in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet, cynically said that the fate of 134 hostages in Gaza is not "the most important thing." He repeated this three times, surprised that he was even asked. By the way, this is not just the opinion of many of his colleagues, but a directive of the prime minister himself.
"The question directed to him was on the moral/humanistic level, even if limited to Judaism in miniature (the virtue of redeeming captives). But to expect this man to display morality/humanity is like expecting Likud thug Rami Ben Yehuda to speak in euphemism. It's not in his nature. This is "religious Zionism." The "Zionism" of Smotrich, Orit Strock and their ilk. It is fascism that puts people behind the state. The adjective "religious" is messianic and racist.
. . .
"At any given moment, Smotrich will cross the line for the sake of a kippa-wearing lawbreaker committing a pogrom against Palestinians. At any given moment, he will threaten sanctions if the bulldozers warm up their engines on the outskirts of a criminal Jewish "settlement" with two mobile homes and a goat. That is the important thing. And as he works tirelessly as a minister at the Defense Ministry to ignite a war in the West Bank that will lead to the annexation of the territories, as his former partner Ben-Gvir does against the Arab-Israeli community. This is his life's mission.” Stop
With the above making it clear, as it is true, that these Kohelet Policy Forum/Tikvah Fund affiliated “Conservatives,” to especially include Hazony’s National Conservatives and their U.S. allies, fellow-idologues, all, are in fact: fascists. As Gideon Levy readily agreed with me that they were, in a 2018 oral history interview I did with him, though we were speaking then more of Netanyahu, at the peak of his receiving gifts from his fellow ideologue, Donald Trump!
Gadi Eisenkot's letter to the cabinet on the conduct of the war, parts of which were leaked to Yaron Avraham of Channel 12 news, were characterized by the journalist as an "indictment" (against the prime minister). It seems to me, however, that the document could just as easily be termed a midterm report card with a barely passing grade. Its language is measured, but the bottom line confirms what everyone already understood: The captain is incompetent and his actions are based on ulterior motives.
The opening sentence says, "In practice, for three months no definitive decisions have been taken. The war is being conducted according to tactical goals, without any serious effort to achieve strategic aims." The words are accurate but imprecise. There are decisions, but they are made in other forums. They are based on the personal, political and legal considerations of an irresponsible, cynical and out-of-touch prime minister, an egotistical madman who believes that he is the nation – and now that he is the war.
'Israelis are rejecting Netanyahu. That doesn't mean they are embracing left-wing views'
Those close to Eisenkot believe that the leaker sought to hurt both him and Netanyahu. It was part of a right-wing Bibi-ist campaign that seeks to portray him as soft-hearted and a defeatist supposedly pushing for the end of the war (the rest of the letter is actually quite warlike). Netanyahu, of course, looks bad in his destructiveness and fears while texting about the army's achievements and spewing out idle slogans about "total victory."
Gadi Eisenkot, an observer in the war cabinet, in March 2023.Credit: Sraya Diamant
Eisenkot's critique of the prime minister may indicate that his fuse is getting shorter – that, lacking any influence, he and his partner, National Unity leader Benny Gantz, are already packing their kit bags. But no. They aren't there yet. They continue to hope that if they can steer Netanyahu in a responsible direction. For example, to send a senior delegation to Paris now; to rein in Itamar Ben-Gvir, who longs to see both the Temple Mount and Arab Israelis aflame, and Bezalel Smotrich, who wishes for a third intifada; to have a say in regional developments within the framework of a "day after" for Gaza; and to take charge of the tinderbox on the Lebanon border, a place they both know very well.
Wednesday night there was supposed to be a protest in front of Eisenkot's Herzliya home calling on him to quit the government. He wasn't home. If he'd gone out to meet the protesters, he would've asked them, Who do you want in the war cabinet? Benny and me, or Smotrich and Ben-Gvir? When the West Bank threatens to catch fire, when someone tries to incite violence in mixed cities? Do you want us there, or a bunch of Kahanists? Agreeing to the national security minister's demand to limit Muslims allowed to pray on the Temple Mount during Ramadan to those age 60 and over would be no different than restricting Jews under that age from entering the Western Wall plaza. He is convinced that despite Ben-Gvir's power over Netanyahu, the proposal will be rejected.
Netanyahu's failure to inform him and Gantz about not sending a delegation to Cairo was, in his eyes, meant to signal to them that as far as he was concerned, they could go. But Eisenkot examines things in a businesslike manner. He doesn't look at polls. If he comes to the conclusion that Netanyahu has given up on freeing the hostages – and this will soon be tested – he will get up and leave.
On one issue it will be hard for him to make an argument. If National Unity was ever under the illusion that its presence in the government would be aimed at maximizing wartime goals, it has long since been replaced by the sobriety of minimizing the damage. After the war, a state commission of inquiry will have to be given a double mandate – one to examine what brought October 7 upon us, and the other on how the war was conducted. Regarding the second, there is only one address. Netanyahu is the leader, the culprit. He will have no one to share the disgrace with. He won't be able to blame the army chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet security service for the failure of his 15-year policy on Gaza. The minutes of the meetings will speak for themselves.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in the Knesset this week.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
On evil and intolerance
The "storm" du jour, provided by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who, in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet, cynically said that the fate of 134 hostages in Gaza is not "the most important thing." He repeated this three times, surprised that he was even asked. By the way, this is not just the opinion of many of his colleagues, but a directive of the prime minister himself.
The question directed to him was on the moral/humanistic level, even if limited to Judaism in miniature (the virtue of redeeming captives). But to expect this man to display morality/humanity is like expecting Likud thug Rami Ben Yehuda to speak in euphemism. It's not in his nature. This is "religious Zionism." The "Zionism" of Smotrich, Orit Strock and their ilk. It is fascism that puts people behind the state. The adjective "religious" is messianic and racist. The young people at the Nova festival or the kibbutzniks who are rotting in Gaza do not pluck at the chords of his soul. It's also possible that if students of any hesder yeshiva were among the captives, his response might have been no different. The artful dodger Smotrich who arranged for himself an easy military service demands supreme dedication and sacrifice from everyone. In the name of God.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this week.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
In the past year, we have learned about his priorities. Impose an across-the-board budget cut of 67 billion shekels ($18.4 billion) on all ministries in order to find a way to thread the coalition funding into the budget base – that's the important thing. To retract a promise to allocate 20 million shekels to victims of the rave on the night of October 6-7 and send hundreds of millions of shekels to the Ministry of Settlements and Strock's illegal outposts – that's the most important thing. What the people at Hostage Square think about him, or the president who rose to respond (implicitly) does not move his kippa even a bit.
After the comment, Smotrich made the rounds of media interviews just to emphasize that he will not apologize. He is polling at the vote threshold to enter the Knesset. Every provocation and offensive comment that inflames the atmosphere is welcome, so long as they have the power to win back a Knesset seat from Ben-Gvir. That is why, on Wednesday, he said from the Knesset podium that "the only person to blame for the fact that the hostages are still in Gaza is Yair Lapid." No scurrilous act is too small for him.
At any given moment, Smotrich will cross the line for the sake of a kippa-wearing lawbreaker committing a pogrom against Palestinians. At any given moment, he will threaten sanctions if the bulldozers warm up their engines on the outskirts of a criminal Jewish "settlement" with two mobile homes and a goat. That is the important thing. And as he works tirelessly as a minister at the Defense Ministry to ignite a war in the West Bank that will lead to the annexation of the territories, as his former partner Ben-Gvir does against the Arab-Israeli community. This is his life's mission. Meanwhile, he is failing at it, just as he fails at everything else he touches. But this pyromaniac has an endless supply of fuel and convenient opportunities to set it alight under the cover of a prime minister who is also seeking Knesset seats that were taken from him, and whose paramount objective is to fight for his seat in the government. The worst-case scenario in Netanyahu's nightmares is that Ben-Gvir will force elections and run in them from the opposition.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the scene of a shooting attack in Ma'aleh Adumim in the West Bank on Thursday.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
At the start of this war, Ben-Gvir hoped for a scenario of Operation Guardian of the Walls 2. To his regret, that dissipated. He now sees another opportunity to inflame Israel's Arabs. The majority of the Arab community was shocked by the October 7 massacre, especially by its adherence to a jihadist mission in the name of Islam. The scenes of mass death and destruction in Gaza have not sent the masses into the streets. "That's because of me," brags the good-for-nothing Kahanist. "We don't let them."
Because Hamas and Hezbollah are enemies who endanger everyone, Ben-Gvir needs a different forte. His actions and remarks indicate a fantasy to repeat the events of October 2000 with live fire against Israeli citizens, after which he will be established as the ultimate leader of the extreme right.
The draconian edicts that he demands be imposed on the entry of citizens to the Temple Mount during Ramadan are a characteristic, unnecessary, dangerous provocation. The prime minister should not have convened the cabinet on this issue three weeks before the date (March 10), and his doing so sums up the deliberate carelessness of allowing anyone to give his own interpretation to what is meant.
Such a discussion should have happened a week before the holiday, and a decision on quotas of worshippers should have been taken on the basis of intelligence information, or out of consideration for the worshippers' safety (from the threat of overcrowding). Ben-Gvir might have ranted, cursed the "conceptzia," but he will not quit. He is now in an ideal position: both as a senior minister and as the man who speaks out against and fights the "old guard," and increases his Knesset seats to 8-10, depending on the poll.
These are not just Knesset seats. His failures and barbarism are balanced against the extreme faction of de facto supporters in the Likud backbenches, for example; and he compensates for his failures with his hatred for the Arabs and for Islam, which surged in the wake of October 7. Just like Netanyahu knew how to mobilize fear as the key factor in his campaigns, Itamar Ben-Gvir has taken over a no-less toxic resource – hatred.
Unilateral spin
The Knesset convened twice this week to deliberate and vote on populist measures empty of all content. On Monday, it voted on whether to expel MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta'al) for signing a petition supporting South Africa's genocide claim against Israel in The Hague. Eighty-six MKs voted in favor, four short of the 90 needed; the measure failed.
The second time was on Wednesday, when the agenda was something no less ridiculous: A symbolic declaration against America's supposed plan to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. Ninety-nine MKs supported the call. The vast majority knew that this was a complete invention, a muscle-flexing exercise by Netanyahu that came in the absence of real political activity.
MK Ofer Cassif at a hearing this month on a motion to expel him from the Knesset.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
Let's examine each of them. Ousting an MK is a serious affair that must have a legal basis. That his act was "outrageous" or "unbearable" does not constitute a case against him, as the attorney general and Knesset legal adviser explained. But the base was pushing for it and so the bill sponsored by Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu) won the support of the coalition of 64 MKs and a handful from the opposition.
Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, the faction heads of Hadash and Ta'al respectively, were not happy about Cassif's spiteful step, but they came to his defense. Odeh approached Benny Gantz, with whom he has been on good terms since the time he headed the Joint List (when it still had 15 MKs, including Balad) to recommend Gantz for prime minister. Tibi appealed to his old friend Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) and to Yair Lapid, the opposition leader.
With Gantz, Odeh pulled out the judicial overhaul weapon: "If Cassif is expelled, the High Court will reject the decision. Even if a minority of judges vote to reject it, the right will use it to attack the Supreme Court again." That worked. Most of the National Unity lawmakers were absent from the vote, thereby causing it to be defeated (four New Hope MKs voted yes). Tibi succeeded with Lapid. Most of the Yesh Atid MKs were absent. But he failed with Gafni. "The right probably went to his admor [spiritual leader]," Odeh told me. In the end, however, you won, I said. "But it's a bitter victory. Despite everything, 86 voted yes. They preferred to forget that we [the Arab MKs] all condemned and continue to condemn the massacre."
This brings us to the "unilateral recognition" vote. Netanyahu, the champion spinmeister, managed to mobilize a huge majority against something that doesn't really exist. There is nothing like him for ascending from the hard earth of reality into the air of imagination. "This is a transparent attempt to divert attention from the draft-evasion law, the terrible budget and from the 'You are the leader, you are to blame' campaign," Lapid said to the prime minister, but then voted in favor of the resolution. He, too, understood that he should get with the spin and move on.
Ayman Odeh, seated, and Ahmad Tibi at a caucus meeting of their Hadash-Ta'al alliance this month.Credit: Oren Ben Hakoon
Netanyahu claimed he heard about the American plan from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the latter's last visit here. But Blinken also met Lapid, Gantz and Eisenkot, and they didn't hear a word from him about it. It doesn't matter. It was a golden opportunity to move the public discourse into his comfort zone, the one in which he rose to power during the Oslo Accords. The "threat of the Palestinian state" is the soul of his base.
The man is an ideological Ponzi scheme: He sells nothing to everyone, and when everything collapses, he recycles the same nothing to more fools.
New life for Lapid?
During the nine months of the judicial overhaul controversy until October 7, two trends were detectable regarding the local elections. First, turnout would be higher than usual, spurred by anti-Likud sentiment (the election for the bar association chief provided a taste of things to come). Second, a high turnout usually favors the challengers.
The war changed everything; the country is depressed. The fallen soldiers, the hostages in Gaza and the tens of thousands of evacuees in the north and south have made the municipal elections an even more marginal concern than usual.
Campaigning for the local elections in Haifa, where Mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem has been in free fall since she was elected in 2018.Credit: Fadi Amun
In addition, the extra time – the local elections this coming Tuesday were originally scheduled for October 31 – has given incumbent mayors a structural advantage. They've done their jobs, provided services to residents and kept their cities running. The municipalities' effectiveness has stood out against the paralysis gripping the central government.
Meanwhile, the challengers' hands have been tied. It would have seemed almost illegitimate to campaign as usual. So in some cities, incumbents are poised to be reelected.
Not in Haifa, though. Mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem has been in free fall since she was elected in 2018. Another precedent: The person expected to win there is the man she previously defeated, 79-year-old Yona Yahav. If there is a second round of voting, the polls show that the race will be between Yahav and a young unknown named David Etzioni.
The more intriguing race is in Tel Aviv. There, Lapid's Yesh Atid, the most Tel Avivian of the parties, chose its No. 2, Orna Barbivay, to run against Ron Huldai, who is seeking a sixth term. She entered the race with all the cards – a woman (later joined by another woman, Tzipi Brand), a general in the reserves, a former Knesset member and minister with a record of accomplishments. Her rival is 79 and already signaled he had enough of the job when he made an abortive leap into national politics in 2021.
Yair Lapid speaking to lawmakers of his Yesh Atid party on Monday.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
The race is reminiscent of the left-wing Mapai party's bid in the '50s to conquer the city from the General Zionists. Mapai put the only woman among its leaders, Golda Meir, at the head of its ticket. She lost.
"Changing the leadership after 25 years is democracy" is the third and final Barbivay-Brand election slogan. Huldai (with former Tourism Minister Asaf Zamir) has run under the slogan "Tel Aviv must remain Tel Aviv." Never has such a great political struggle been waged between two nearly identical contenders so disconnected from the real affairs of the city.
A Huldai victory will be welcomed by the liberal camp no less than a Barbivay win. The only difference is that one represents a large party faltering in the national arena and longing for some new life. For Lapid and his Yesh Atid, which means "There is a future," a victory in Tel Aviv could mark a new future indeed.
A new kind of low
In the Netanyahu era, every value, norm and government institution has been reviled and tarnished in politics – the Supreme Court, the Israel Prize, military cemeteries, state ceremonies, the torch-lighting ceremony on Independence Day and the National Library. Only one institution escaped this fate: the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum.
That is, until this week, when Foreign Minister Israel Katz decided that this was the place to reprimand the Brazilian ambassador for his president's outrageous comparison. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Lula, had said: "What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."
Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Brazil's ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, at Yad Vashem on Monday.Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP
Yad Vashem had never been used as a setting for an outside event, but Katz didn't ask for permission. He announced his arrival three hours beforehand, with the media of course. A sanctified institution became a photo-op venue for the foreign minister in name but not in practice. (Much of the job is done by Netanyahu's strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer.) It used to be that a low armchair was enough to humiliate an ambassador.
I asked Yad Vashem how the minister obtained authorization. The response: "We would have preferred if the reprimand had not been given here. Under the rules we have adopted, Yad Vashem does not host external events. However, the tour with the ambassador of the Book of Names was relevant to the president's speech and was certainly not unreasonable."
