The Israeli left has always hated Netanyahu because he favors free-market reform, opposes concessions to the Palestinians, and stands up to pressure from Democrats (see the Iran deal). But Netanyahu was ultimately done in by defections from the right. I have yet to hear a good reason for any of it. The fact that he is facing criminal charges might be the best possible reason, but no one really seems to think that they are serious, and we hear nothing about them in the media nowadays, suggesting that the prosecution's case is not great. Basically, the complaint appears to be that he has been in power too long and is not a nice guy when it comes to other politicians. This is not really a persuasive argument for changing governments, in the contexts of the threats Israel faces and given Netanyahu's recent successes from a policy perspective. In that sense, one cannot rule out corruption -- and possible pressure from the U.S. Obama tried funding the Israeli left; perhaps Biden has found a more subtle "Never Trump" type of path to influence and entice factions on the Israeli right.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
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This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
