The debate about dissolving the Knesset proves that the joke is actually at our expense
The 37th Israeli government has always been responsible for the greatest disaster in our history, but its dissolution — if it occurs — would have nothing to do with it.
By Netta Ahituv • Translated by Sol Salbe
The joke at our expense
In 1927, a new interpretation of tax laws was adopted in the US, and the American tax authorities grabbed the opportunity as if it they had struck gold. Thanks to the fresh reading of the law, they were able to accuse America’s greatest mobster, Alphonse Gabriel Capone, of tax evasion. Al Capone, who was responsible for the murders and torture of many, engaged in gambling, prostitution, and the illegal public sale of alcohol, eventually went to prison for a minor financial offence. Incidentally, his death is also a farce of the same genre — as one of the most feared people in the US criminal world, he was expected to be killed in a dramatic account-settling, but Al Capone died of syphilis.
The debate about dissolving the Knesset today is reminiscent of the Al Capone paradox. The 37th Israeli government led by Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and the Haredim is responsible for the greatest disaster in Israeli history, for the massacre, rape and kidnapping of Israeli civilians; for the needless killing of many soldiers, for the evacuation of tens of thousands from their homes, for the most heinous war crimes in Gaza, for the starvation, thirst and denial of basic health services to Palestinian people, for the greatest corruption Israel has ever known, for the destruction of the country’s civilian infrastructure, for Israel’s political isolation from the world, for the highest cost of living, for people flight from the country, for the crushing of the education system, for division, incitement, lies, sowing despair and degrading the discourse; or in short: for the darkest period in the history of the State of Israel and also for the destruction of the Israeli future. And in the end, it may fall not because of all these grave matters, but because the Haredim do not want to serve in the military. This causes bursts of laughter, which is interrupted by the realisation that the joke is actually at our expense. It always has been.
And here are two more paradoxes in Netanyahu’s government, which are like syphilis at our expense: a prime minister who is on trial, instead of resigning from the prime-ministership and properly standing for trial, announced today that he is sick and cannot testify, on the very day that his fatuous Knesset may be dissolved. Interesting timing. To this we can add that the government includes senior ministers who are subject to international sanctions following “incitement to extreme violence” (according to Lisa Rozovsky, this is just the beginning). The peak of this paradox is embodied by Bezalel Smotrich, the Treasurer [AKA Minister of Finance in the local parlance], who, as usual, is taking a childish, cruel, and perilous to our defence step in response. This time he decided to knock down the Palestinian Authority financial system, precisely the reason why he is now subject to sanctions.
Nati Tucker demonstrates another way in which this paradox is to our detriment, this time in a literal-financial way: “When the Treasurer is under a sanctions regime, various actions of the Treasury vis-à-vis other countries may be blocked, even though the sanctions are personal.” For example: The Israeli Citizens Fund, which manages Israel’s gas tax revenues, will not be able to act legally because its chair is the embattled treasurer.
And yet, just as many must have breathed a sigh of relief when they heard about Al Capone’s arrest, whatever the reason for his arrest, so too will many breathe a sigh of relief when they hear that the government is falling, whatever the reason. But what certainly does not lead to a sigh of relief is the knowledge that out of the 68 members of the coalition, there is not a single righteous person, not a single one(!) who believes that this government does not deserve to exist for moral reasons. How is it that there is not a single member of Knesset, or God forbid, one of its 33 corrupt ministers, who would have a basic conscience and say, “I’m in this government, which is responsible for this thing, because of which the captives do not return to their families, because of which people die various callous deaths, because of which many people do not see a future and hope and a dream in the State of Israel, am not willing to take part. How is it that not even one of these has been found? This is indeed a question which is beyond the ability to answer by any person with a heart.
