Letters

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Please note: The views of the letters do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper. Letters may be edited and publication is at the discretion of the editor.

Devar Torah by the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP

(as told by Cllr Rabbi Arnold Saunders)

THE PALESTINIAN FLAG

Dear Editor As my late father used to say “what goes round comes round”.

Interestingly, none of the footballers who displayed the Palestinian flag were in successful teams in the last few weeks - Leicester City (Fofana and Choudhury) came fifth in the Premier League , Manchester United (Pogba) lost to Villa Real in the final of the Europa League and Manchester City (Mahrez) lost to Chelsea in the Champions League Final. The A-lmighty was clearly watching them and on our side!!

Am Yisroel Chai! Jonathan Metliss

OBSCURING COMPARISONS BETWEEN DISTANCES IN CHARITY EVENTS

Dear Editor You obscure comparisons between distances at different charity events by using a kilometres for some and miles for others (“Kisharon boosts ‘challenges’ programme”, p27, The Jewish Weekly, 27 May 2021).

You used kilometres for Maccabi Fun Run routes and International Jerusalem Marathon races but miles for walking challenges, London to Brighton Cycle Ride and Royal Parks Half Marathon.

You could have made life easier for readers by using kilometres throughout. It would help potential participants compare distances effortlessly without conversion factors and calculations. It would also help them to choose an event that suits them best.

Yours sincerely

Ronnie Cohen

Yes - you have read that heading correctly! Let me explain!

When I was a candidate in the General Election in December 2019, I had an audience with the PM to have a chat and have an official photoshoot.

I introduced myself and told him that I was a rabbi as well as Tory councillor. I compared him to Joshua as he would be the one to lead his people into the Promised Land of Brexit.

He thanked me for the flattering comparison. He told me he remembered a ditty he learnt in school ( presumably Eton!) about Joshua and the spies ( hence the connection with this week’s Sedra)

The ditty was as follows;

Joshua the son of Nun And Caleb the son of Jephunneh Were the only 2 spies allowed Into the Land of Milk and Honey

Right wing votes to left wing governments

OPINION PIECE BY JAMES J MARLOW

In 1992 Labor’s Yitzhak Rabin came to power with an overwhelming 44 seats against the Likud’s 32. Yitzhak Shamir suffered a major defeat and soon after resigned, which is when Binyamin Netanyahu won the Likud leadership contest.

Rabin built a coalition with the brand new Meretz party (12 seats) which was a merger of 3 parties (Ratz, Shinui and Mapan) and the religious Shas party (6 seats) to reach 62 in the 120 seat Knesset.

“Oslo One” was the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho where a handful of Jewish families lived and were subsequently expelled under the Accords. The agreement had the support of 62 Knesset Members in the plenum and the withdrawal took place.

Then came “Oslo Two” - the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Nablus (aka Shechem).

Shas couldn’t bring themselves to support another significant withdrawal, especially as Palestinian nationalism was becoming more fanatical and the security situation was rapidly deteriorating.

Suicide bombers across the country were striking at least once a week in coffee shops, pizza parlours and on buses and the Rabin government, now with 56 seats, found itself short of a majority in the Knesset.

Rabin believed the only way to beat the terrorists and achieve peace was to press ahead with faster withdrawals, but he desperately needed to find an extra 5 Knesset members who would support him.

The Prime Minister observed discontent within the right-wing secular Tzomet party over party finances and its leader, Rafael Eitan refused to allow his colleagues to view the book-keeping.

Three of the 8 Tzomet MK’s promptly broke away with their own faction and Rabin naturally reached out.

Esther Solemovitz refused to support Oslo Two, but Gonen Segev couldn’t resist becoming Energy Minister and he convinced his colleague Alex Goldfarb to join the Rabin government.

In the meantime, Rabin secured support from the Arab Hadash party (3 seats) and with the two right-wing MK’s, Rabin pushed through “Oslo Two” in a vote of 61-59.

In other words Segev and Goldfarb took almost 42,000 right-wing votes and handed them over to Labor and Meretz to pass “Oslo Two”. Needless to say, the suicide bombing attacks hugely increased soon after.

Last week Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, released a survey that showed 61% of Yamina supporters would not vote for Yamina again if there was another election. Now that a coalition deal has been signed, I would not be surprised if that figure had risen to around 80%.

Naftali Bennett who describes himself as much further right than Netanyahu claimed before the election he would NOT allow Lapid to become the PM and even called upon Netanyahu not to rely on the Arabs for government support.

The Gaza war broke out and Bennett withdrew from the negotiations with Lapid. However the Yamina head returned to the table, to find a way to form a Right-Centre-Left-Islamist government if he could become Prime Minister for part of the time.

The problem being, Bennett has taken around 250,000 right wing votes and handed them over to Lapid on the left, who is now able to form a government with Labor and Meretz.

It’s not the fact that Netanyahu could only reach 59 seats with the Yamina party, it’s that Yamina voters never imagined that Bennett would take them into a coalition with Meretz and Labor.

The coalition if it is voted into office, may well agree on passing a budget. It will certainly agree on passing a law that prevents a PM under indictment to form a government and it may also introduce a bill that a PM can only serve two terms, to prevent Netanyahu from ever returning to the political arena.

But it is unlikely to ever agree on social and economic issues, funding for learning in Kollel and Yeshiva, talks with the Palestinians under a new US proposal and never agree on settlements, Iran, Gaza or Lebanon.

The Likud will eventually hold a leadership contest and with 12 candidates lined up to run, the party could fall into a civil war, which is exactly what destroyed Labor.

This coalition may well be known for bringing down Netanyahu through “dirty tricks”, but let’s remember, under his leadership, Likud received 30 seats – that 13 more than his nearest rival.

I recall when the conservatives were in opposition after a devastating crush from New Labour led by Tony Blair in 1997, the former leader William Hague said, “I believe once Tony Blair is gone, it will be easier for the conservatives to beat Labour. He was right.

The objective of these parties was to oust Bibi from the international stage, so everyone else now has a chance at the next election. But this is a kick in teeth way of doing it and Bennett has given up on his principles and betrayed his voters, just to become PM.

Naftali Bennett

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Naftali Bennett who describes himself as much further right than Netanyahu claimed before the election he would NOT allow Lapid to become the PM and even called upon Netanyahu not to rely on the Arabs for government support.

James J. Marlow is a broadcast journalist previously working for ITN, EuroNews, LBC Radio, Daily Express and a number of Jewish publications. In addition, he ran a Media and Communications Training Operation and was a consultant at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. He was also responsible for the training of Shlichim at the Jewish Agency and Bnei Akiva.