By Jan Willem van der Hoeven
A former top official once confided to me that the nation of Israel at this moment is basically ruled by the “elite” in three interconnected circles of power: the judiciary, the police and the media.
Interestingly, these were the very groups berated by Mr. Moshe Katsav, Israel’s former President, in his recent speech before the nation’s television cameras. It was almost comical to see the media’s reaction as they were stung by the former president’s charges against them.
These journalists, who for three years – cruelly and often unethically – submitted Katsav to a virtual lynching in front of the whole nation, cried like babies that they themselves felt ‘lynched’ by him.
If it turns out that Katsav is truly innocent of the charges heaped upon him, and that he did not receive his due protection from these three groups of power and influence – who should have treated him as innocent until proven otherwise – then his attack on them after long being victimized and publicly vilified was definitely understandable. In his place, almost anyone would have done the same.
It is certainly not the first time that these very institutions, which the former president attacked in his longwinded speech, have been instrumental in smearing and attacking what is holy and private to a great many people in Israel. Numerous men and women rightfully believe that they have been abused or at least treated unfairly by these groups.
I recall a press conference called by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who went on the air after corruption charges exploded against him and his sons. In the middle of his response he was prevented from further explaining his case to the nation by none other than Chief Justice Michael Chesnick who, in front of the whole country, ordered Israeli television to cut him off.
And what about former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who one day saw Israeli TV crews arriving at his private home after Israeli police had apparently leaked about an imminent police raid into the privacy of that home to search for gifts given to him by heads of state while he was prime minister, and which they believed he had illegally stored away? Who tipped off the cameramen to be there even before the police themselves arrived?
And how come – and what a revelation of the bias of these elites – that when Ariel Sharon took the advice of his son and his friends, and implemented his “Disengagement” plan: uprooting the Jews of Gush Katif in order – as investigative reporters Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelach wrote – to circumvent and derail the criticism and investigation of the “elite,” they virtually all let him off their hook? So radically did their behavior change that the Sharon they had hated and criticized for so long suddenly became their “darling.” Even others from Israel’s left publicly admitted that they would support Sharon’s finance minister (Netanyahu) – whose reforms were so unacceptable to them – only out of their fervent dislike of the fine and courageous settlers of Gush Katif.
Suddenly, these journalists all had nothing more to say about Sharon’s alleged financial irregularities concerning Martin Schlaf etc.
So this is the extent of the “Israeli elite’s” ethical concerns: when it suits them politically they will be silent!
Were they not – together and in combination – responsible for the molestation and forceful invasion of the privacy of thousands of Gush Katif homes and lives? Did they – the press, most of the judiciary and the police – not give certain groups, some of them the best of Israel’s citizens, the feeling that they were lepers, treating them as not equal to other Israelis because of their fervently-held beliefs that are at loggerheads with those of these “elites?”
Is that the real reason why there is such opposition to Professor Daniel Friedman – because he has endangered their privileged positions and liberal convictions? Professor Yaakov Ne’eman, one of Israel’s leading lawyers now chosen to replace him shares these concerns himself as Arutz Sheva (13.3.2009) reports:
“Ne’eman has criticized what he says are investigations against politicians whom the justice and law enforcement establishment does not want to see in office, like Reuven Rivlin (who was a candidate for Justice Minister) and the late Rafael Eitan (who was a candidate for Minister of Police). He is a severe critic of Israel’s State Prosecution, and has accused the police and media of cooperating in hounding public figures despite the harm that this does to Israel’s image.”
One need only observe, during the many interviews conducted on Israeli TV and radio, how those who speak contrary to the opinions of Israel’s liberal elite are often viciously interrupted, whereas those who often endanger the security and wellbeing of the state are left to freely, uninterruptedly, express their vicious criticism of more patriotic Israelis!
And, speaking about the threatened collapse of Israel’s justice system, now cleverly brought as a charge against those who finally speak their minds against this stronghold of Israel’s choice liberals to what is private and holy to them: Are they not allowed to scream that they feel raped – invaded – and shattered by their own elite? What about the civil war these very “elites” nearly brought upon the whole nation as they agreed to the cruel evacuation of their own people from their homes and livelihoods, while from their positions of power and influence cheered on this cruel process as the right thing to do, when most Israelis today realise now it was a wrong and ill-conceived plan that saw the violation of some of the best of Israel’s people?
So Israel’s offended elites cry like babies now that the criticism they have so often freely heaped upon others is being served to them today. Maybe – just maybe – a few men and women among them will rise out of all this mess and choose from now on to serve their people and nation in a truly open and unbiased way!
May it be so!
© Israel My Beloved
