With the country facing a rise of extremism, where is Netanyahu? – opinion

YAAKOV KATZ

With protests, terrorism and settler riots plaguing Israel, why are we not seeing a stronger presence from Prime Minister Netanyahu?
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SOME LIKUD members wonder where the prime minister has disappeared to.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

On January 23, 2020, more than 50 heads of state and members of royal families traveled to Jerusalem to mark a momentous occasion – the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Vice-president Mike Pence, Prince (at the time) Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, King of Spain Felipe VI, and many more were all there. It was a recognition of the victory over the Nazis and the tremendous accomplishment the Jewish people, in general, and the State of Israel more specifically have seen in the years since.

As Herb Keinon pointed out in Tuesday’s Jerusalem Post, in less than 60 days Israel will mark another 75-year anniversary, this one more joyous – the country’s 75th Independence Day. Nevertheless, there is no joy in the air right now and there does not seem to be any plans to host foreign dignitaries at this year’s state celebrations. As one foreign diplomat told me this week: “We know of nothing going on.”

Even if they were invited now, it does not seem like any foreign head of state would want to travel here. The feeling in Israel this week is one of anarchy and as if there is no one in charge of the country.

There are the weekly protests (and sometimes more) that are bringing hundreds of thousands of Israelis out to the streets screaming against what they perceive as the end of democracy; there are the images from the Knesset of MKs jumping on tables and being pulled by ushers out of committee rooms; there are the terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of 14 Israelis in just one month; the settler pogrom in Huwara; the weakening of the shekel; the hike in the interest rate; the tech executives who are pulling money out of Israel, and more.

Israelis block a road and clash with police as they protest against the Israeli government’s planned judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, March 1, 2023. (credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)

Each of these events on its own would be a national crisis. When they all happen together there is something seriously wrong.

After the tragic murder of Hillel and Yagel Yaniv in Huwara, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich used the phrase “the landlord has gone crazy,” an expression meaning that it is time to show the Palestinians that there would be an escalated IDF response.

Benjamin Netanyahu

The question, though, that remains is what has happened to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Where is he? Why is his presence not being felt? Why is his voice barely being heard?

A look at the front pages of newspapers is telling. They reflect events in the country and their importance. The Netanyahu-led government has been in office for a bit over two months – all of January and February. The newspapers from that time period though are not filled with stories of Netanyahu, his policies, speeches or meetings with foreign officials. A look at the 51 front pages we published during those months shows Netanyahu only about 12 times on the front page.

This is in comparison to previous periods when he served as prime minister and he seemed to be everywhere. He was speaking at public events, conferences, doing media interviews, traveling the globe and hosting world leaders in Jerusalem. Every statement was setting the national agenda – whether about Iran, the fight against COVID-19 or another economic policy that his government was unveiling.

Netanyahu, in the past, was the face of Israel. What he said opened up radio broadcasts and the evening news. In the last couple months, though, his presence is not felt. Members of his own party wonder out loud where he has disappeared to. He is not setting the agenda; that is being done by others like Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who is driving the judicial reform steamroller, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is the one getting the headlines when it comes to West Bank terrorism.

It is true that after the election when asked about his new coalition partners – Ben-Gvir and Smotrich – Netanyahu said that he would be in charge, but in practice that does not seem to be the case. Even his past critics could appreciate knowing that his hand was on the wheel and that he was running the show.

NOWADAYS, IT is unclear where he is. His voice is not heard on the main issue that is dividing the country – judicial reforms – and while he can claim that it is because the attorney-general has banned him from doing so because of his trial, that is just an excuse.

If he wanted, Netanyahu could be speaking daily about the need for unity, the need to slow down the process and the need to compromise. While he occasionally throws out a call for dialogue, it is then followed by declarations of how the protesters are anarchists or that the government needs to “slam them” with the truth.

Just watch his speech on Wednesday night, when he compared the protesters in Tel Aviv to the Jewish terrorists who rampaged through Huwara. Does that advance the country toward a solution?

And even regarding terrorism, his voice is barely being heard and his presence is not being felt. In the past, Netanyahu knew how to create a sense of calm, but after 14 people were killed in a month, it feels like he is not even trying.

Instead, Israelis are walking down the streets of this country looking over their shoulders in fear of another stabbing or shooting attack. This government claimed to be the “real right” and to know how to restore security. So far, it has only made the situation worse.

Why isn’t Netanyahu visiting the scenes of the attacks? Except for the attack in Neveh Ya’acov, he hasn’t gone to any, not even to the one at the Ramot bus stop where the Paley brothers – Ya’acov and Asher – were murdered. Why isn’t he calling one of those special prime ministerial 8 p.m. addresses like he did regularly during COVID, to address the nation and try to ease their concerns?

It is strange and unclear. Some politicians explain that it has to do with the advisers who are around him. He does not yet have full-time spokespeople, diplomatic advisers and more. Others claim that it is just not that important right now and that his focus is on passing the judicial reform, which he wants to advance out of a personal vendetta against the judiciary.

Others say that he is controlled today more than ever by his wife and son, and that he has become closed off to the more moderate players who used to surround him.

And then there are those who claim that Netanyahu’s real plan is to create chaos so that he can then strike a plea deal that will allow him to remain prime minister. The situation will be so bad, this theory goes, that the prosecution will agree to a deal just to stop some of the craziness.

Which is it? Impossible to know, but what is clear is this – Netanyahu is currently absent, and if he still cares about this country he needs to wake up.

***For more than 55 years, Israel has controlled the West Bank and has ruled over another people through military force. Some periods were better than others, but for the most part, terrorism and violence have always been part of the story of the West Bank and the lives of the residents who live there.

The violence that broke out in Huwara on Sunday night – the burning of homes, cars and the attacks on residents by Israeli settlers – was nothing less than a pogrom. Yes, the pogroms of Europe were often state-sanctioned and this attack was not, but unofficially, it had the backing of senior members of the ruling coalition.

When Smotrich calls on the state to go crazy, what are his supporters meant to understand? When he says that Huwara needs to be “wiped out” after his supporters tried to do that, what lesson do they learn? When Ben-Gvir is silent as his supporters rampage through a Palestinian village, what is that if not passive approval? And what about MK Zvika Fogel, who praised the attackers? The IDF should be embarrassed that he was once a brigadier general.

Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and Fogel all ran on a platform ahead of the November election that the state had lost control in the Negev, the North and mixed Arab-Jewish cities. They promised to restore security.

The truth needs to be said: Yes, there is lawlessness in the Negev, but for 55 years – alongside the inexcusable terrorism by Palestinians – there has also been Jewish lawlessness in the West Bank.

Illegal outposts can be built and no one bats an eye. Land is grabbed – oftentimes private Palestinian land – and the residents are allowed to remain there for decades. Settlers and hilltop youth stone Palestinian cars, torch olive groves and attack left-wing activists, and nothing happens to them. Just look at how many people are in jail after the Huwara violence on Sunday. Barely a handful.

This situation is unacceptable. If Palestinians rampaged through a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the IDF would have been shooting at every single infiltrator and somehow that would have been acceptable. When Jews do the same in Huwara, the IDF and the police do nothing. More extreme police force was on display in Tel Aviv on Wednesday against the judicial reform protesters than in all of Huwara.

We have to recognize the fact that we have terrorists among us. They are a minority but they exist and they need to be rooted out.

With that said, we need to remember something. While this minority exists, for almost the entire country, their actions are unacceptable and were immediately condemned. Even Smotrich and Ben-Gvir eventually paid lip service to condemnations of their own.

On the other hand, when a Palestinian kills three people in Jerusalem or two in Huwara, the Palestinian Authority says nothing. Instead, we all know what will happen. Eventually, the terrorists will be caught or killed, and their families will get a PA-sponsored stipend. This is not incitement. This is state-sponsored terrorism.

And here is a simple fact: When a Palestinian stands at a bus stop he or she doesn’t have to worry that an Israeli car will ram them. When a Palestinian drives through the West Bank, its passengers don’t have to worry that the driver coming at them with the Israeli license plate will roll down a window, lean out a machine gun and open fire.

When it is the opposite, though, the feeling is different. That is the reality.

Israel Daily News – March 2, 2023

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Israel Daily News – February 28, 2023

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Elan Ganeles, American Jewish victim of terror, remembered by friends

JACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA, BEN SALES/JTA

Ganeles was killed in a shooting attack on Monday near the West Bank city of Jericho while on a short trip to Israel for a friend’s wedding.

Elan Ganeles, the American Jewish victim of a terrorist shooting attack near the Beit HaArava Junction on Highway 90 in the Jordan Valley, February 27, 2023 / (photo credit: CONSULATE GENERAL OF ISRAEL IN NEW YORK VIA TWITTER)

Playing saxophone in the sukkah. Discussing Judaism over coffee. Hanging out with his brothers and friends in the basement on Shabbat.

These are a few of the memories that have emerged of Elan Ganeles, 26, the recent college graduate, raised in Connecticut, who was killed Monday when a gunman shot at him on a road near the Palestinian West Bank city of Jericho. Those who knew Ganeles remembered him as quiet and loyal, funny and down-to-earth.

“He was the kind of guy you could call, and you’d be sure he’d pick up and have a few minutes to talk if you needed something,” said Rabbi Yehuda Drizin of Chabad at Columbia University, who knew Ganeles as an undergraduate there. “For everyone that knew him, this is a kick in the gut. This really hurts.”

‘A sweet boy with a great sense of humor’

Ganeles grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, where his family attended the local Orthodox Young Israel synagogue a block away from their home. As a teenager, Ganeles read Torah for the community. The synagogue has launched a fundraiser for his family and is bringing in grief counselors to help the community.

“Elan HY”D was a member of our [community] when we lived in Connecticut,” Shimshon Nadel, a rabbi in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, wrote on Facebook, using a traditional Jewish acronym denoting when someone is murdered. “I remember him as a sweet boy with a great sense of humor. He played the saxophone and we would ‘jam’ together in the Shul’s Sukkah, during Hallel on Chanukah, and musical Havdalahs. Heartbreaking.”

Israeli security forces guard at the scene of a shooting attack in Bet Ha’Arava Junction, in the Jordan Valley, February 27, 2023. (credit: JAMAL AWAD/FLASH90)

Ganeles attended Modern Orthodox schools and the local Camp Gan Israel, and was involved in NCSY, the Orthodox youth group. At Hebrew High School of New England, he was an honors student and volunteered with the local Jewish Family Services, according to an article published about him in 2014. At the time, he said he was deferring enrollment at the University of Michigan and enlistment in the US military to spend a year in Israel. 

“Everything he did and said came from a place of kindness and sweetness. But he had the most ridiculous sense of humor.”

Penina Beede, friend of Elan Ganeles

“You see so many different people,” he said, according to the 2014 article in We-Ha.com, a local online publication. “You can’t judge them. Everyone has their own story and you need to be more accepting of all.”

That year in Israel turned into more than two, as he enlisted as a “lone soldier” in the Israel Defense Forces and lived on a religious kibbutz in northern Israel with his fellow recruits from abroad. A compilation video of photos from the group’s time together, on Ganeles’ YouTube channel, is filled with pictures of him smiling as the group toured Israel. According to his LinkedIn page, Ganeles also worked for several months in the kibbutz dairy farm. 

In the IDF, according to his LinkedIn, Ganeles rose to the rank of sergeant and worked as a computer programmer on financial monitoring systems. He did work for the Knesset Finance Committee and Israeli Ministry of Finance. 

Penina Beede, who was in the class above Ganeles at their high school and spent many Shabbat afternoons with him and his brothers, said Ganeles stood out for his sense of humor. 

“Everything he did and said came from a place of kindness and sweetness. But he had the most ridiculous sense of humor,” Beede said. “It was so uniquely Elan. … He would just say things that if anybody else said [them], you would be like, ‘Why would you say that?’ But his delivery was so perfect.”

Like Ganeles, Beede too, served in the Israeli army, and they compared notes and experiences.

Years after Beede finished her service and returned home to Connecticut, she tutored Ganeles’ youngest brother in Hebrew, and found herself back in the basement on Shabbat, hanging out with the family like she had back in high school. “It was good to see him that night,” she recalled.

‘A good and loyal friend’

Ganeles returned to the United States in 2018 to attend Columbia University where, according to a statement from the campus Hillel, he threw himself into student activities. He was involved in Tamid, a student group focused on Israeli business, as well as Jewish learning programs. The statement said, “We will miss his wry humor and thoughtful manner of discussing challenging or controversial topics.” 

He spent a summer in Beijing and worked as a geospatial analyst at a campus center. Ganeles graduated in 2022 with a degree in sustainable development and neuroscience, according to his LinkedIn account.

He had traveled to Israel this week to attend a wedding, according to a statement from the Jewish Federation of West Hartford.

“He was a very good friend, and a loyal friend,” Drizin said, describing Ganeles as “a nice person, an easy person. After every interaction with him, you walked away feeling happy.” 

Ganeles is survived by his parents Andrew and Carolyn, both physicians in West Hartford, and two younger brothers, Simon and Gabriel. The rabbi of Young Israel of West Hartford traveled to join the family in Israel, where Ganeles will be buried, and accompany them home to Connecticut later this week to sit shiva.

Israel Daily News – February 27, 2023

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