Smotrich Must Pay the Price for His Repeated Calls for Genocide of Palestinians

[Israeli]

Apr 30, 2024
Haaretz Editorial

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, ought to be fired immediately over his latest remarks. That's how any properly run country would act, and all the more so a country against which the International Court of Justice in The Hague has issued provisional measures requiring it to refrain from genocide, including one requiring it to deal properly with incitement to genocide.
On Monday, Smotrich urged Israel to destroy its enemies. "There are no half-jobs," he said. "Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total destruction. 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.' There is no place for them under heaven." Plain and simple – total destruction. There is no room for interpretation.

In any normal country, five minutes after his remarks were reported, the prime minister would have convened a press conference, fired the minister in disgrace and publicly declared that this isn't his way, and that people with such a worldview have no place in the Israeli government. But in Netanyahu's Israel, in the midst of the Kahanist Spring, the leader of the far right is openly advocating genocide, but there's not one person in the government willing to stand up and say "enough – it's either the despicable Kahanists or us."

Let's recall that South Africa's application against Israel at the ICJ in January was based on a plethora of dangerous, inflammatory statements by a long list of public figures – from the president through the prime minister, other ministers and Knesset members to famous singers and media personalities – following Hamas' attack on October 7. The application cited these statements, and the fact that the legal system hasn't punished the inciters, as being indicative of an intent to commit genocide.
The weakness that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman have demonstrated in dealing with such inflammatory statements forms part of the basis of South Africa's application against Israel. A few days before the court heard South Africa's application, Baharav-Miara announced that she had started to take action against incendiary statements by senior officials. Smotrich's latest remarks require her immediate intervention.

In today's rotten Israel, not only does a man like Smotrich not feel threatened, he even dares to threaten to leave the government if Israel signs a deal that would free the hostages and thus postpone the planned operation in Rafah. That happened on Tuesday, while he was presenting his party's position on the deal. Smotrich also never misses an opportunity to continue inciting, this time against the United Arab List. "Today, everyone sees the ties between the UAL and Hamas," he said. "I was willing to pay a political price back then, and I'm willing to pay a heavy public price this time as well to prevent this existential danger," he said of the proposed deal.

In fact, we can only hope that Smotrich will "pay the price" of quitting the government, and the sooner, the better. Until that happens, the attorney general must do her job and take action against him.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

Source : Haaretz

Link ( no paywall ) : https://archive.md/s9sbz

[Violet_Crumble]

1. Hello! I have a random question about Israeli politics

It's all pretty random brain farts, so it might be more than one question.

Why are there so many bat-shit.crazy extremists in the Knesset? Not as bad as US politics, but bad enough. Is it because the multiparty system is just too fractured to work effectively, or was too much power given to religious folk from the start? The extremists would be entertaining if it was like.here and they rarely get further than the back benches, but in Israel they've got power and that's not good

Here's one of our bat-shit politicians talking about marriage equality. It's super funny. Maybe one day everyone will be able to laugh at powerless extremists in Israel

?si=kAFmhhgqfC7C2SRa

[CincyDem]

4. Several reasons.

Parliamentary structure without an executive branch combined with party fragmentation among at least 7 different factions (with another 25-30 parties scrambling for enough nationwide votes to get a Knesset seat).

England is probably the most familiar parliamentary structure we see and it’s relatively straight forward since they only have 2 substantial parties - Labor and Conservatives (Tories). So England is usually a majority government but there have been times, most recently in 2010, that the top vote party has to form a coalition government to create a government…that could be with the opposition party (usually) or with a lesser party.

In contrast, Israel has 7 primary parties with Knesset seats and another 20-25 rattling around the periphery hoping they’ve eventually get enough votes for a single seat. As a result of that fragmentation - Israel is virtually always a coalition government, a delicate balance of alliances required to hold the government together.

In a parliamentary coalition government, any one coalition party can pull a Matt Gaetz. Instead of vacating the speaker, in israel it would result in the government “falling”. Instead of 435 house members voting on a new speaker, in Israel it would result in the entire country going back to the polls and electing a new Knesset - with the top vote getting party charged with creating a new coalition government. Imagine instead of going to the polls every 2 years to elect the house - we had to go to the polls and elect a new house every time MTG or Gaetz or Gossar had a snit about something.

When Likud forms the government, Bibi has consistently looked to the right to form his coalition and this gives voice to the wackadoodles. He’s forced to give them a voice because without them, it’s new government time…but instead of our House shutting down for 435 to find a speaker, Israel effectively shuts down while 9 million people schlep out to vote 4-6 weeks later. Every time a coalition party throws a snit - about anything. And with 7 parties in the mix, along with some minor players, both sides have to reach out to the more extreme edges to get to - and then hold together - a government.

It also gives these more extreme parties substantial political power because any one of them can topple the government. The most notable version of that was Germany (80’s I think ???) when the 2 major parties split the vote 49% each and the Green Party won 2%. The Green Party effectively ruled the county for several years since major party needed them to form the government.

The combination of parliamentary plus party fragmentation makes for some strange political calculus that makes me say thank god for a strong Executive Branch.

[Israeli]

7. Thank you

Very good explanation .
We need to change our system and we need a constitution.
ref : https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-730474

For the next elections , hopefully soon , we are hoping that Yair Golan will be able to unite the Left parties
into one large bloc .
ref: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-deputy-idf-chief-yair-golan-enters-labor-party-leadership-race/

[CincyDem]

9. Unite the left. Agree. Yair Golan...less obvious.

I would love to see him have a future but if I recall he’s struggled to hold his Knesset seat and party leadership role. Is that right? If so, he’s got a lot of bridges to cross before he becomes the left’s rally point. IMHO of course.

[Israeli]

10. We will see

Elections for leadership are on May 28th .

He has already been endorsed by Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi and by the Kibbutz Movement, whose secretary-general, Lior Simcha, and Kibbutz Economic Organizations Union CEO Yaakov Becher, both said they would act to form a new “social-defense” party led by Golan, that will unify Labor, Meretz, protests movements, and civil organizations.

[sabbat hunter]

12. the UK

does not have a formal constitution, like Canada, or the US. They do just fine with their system of government for the most part. Israel could easily go to a first past the post system, which would cause most of the tiny parties to no longer have a seat in the Knesset. I think that would provide with more moderate, and stable governments to boot.

[Israeli]

8. Read this

https://www.jta.org/2022/12/21/israel/whos-who-in-israels-new-far-right-government-and-why-it-matters

Notice the date ....DECEMBER 21, 2022.

Among the most worried observers are the U.S. government and Diaspora Jewish groups, who warn that, should these ministers get their way, Israel would be placing its status as both a pluralistic Jewish and democratic state at serious risk.

[lark]

2. I hope this silences some of the Israel is perfect in it's response to Hamas BS.

This one politician had the idiocy to say the dark part of bibi's plan out loud. He said zero that l"ittle murderer" would object to because they share the exact same goals.

[GB_RN]

3. Bezalel?

Sounds like the name of one of the arch-dukes/demons/devils of the mythical Hell. You know, like Beelzebub, Azazel, Azrael, Belial…

Of course, based on his calls for genocide, my description might not be too far off in terms of his actual personality. Sounds like such a seriously, big-time douchebag that even other douchebags point at him and say, “Yup, he’s a major douchebag. Gives the rest of us douchebags a bad name.”

[tornado34jh]

5. I don't want to hear anyone tell me that there are not extremists in this government

This bastard is exactly who I am talking about. The media and most of Congress are too fucking cowardly to admit it that there are people like this guy in the Israeli government. How are these statements going to convince the Palestinians to not support Hamas? I am in no way supporting Hamas, but I am calling out people like these to point out that the Israeli government is no saint in this matter.

[atreides1]

6. No words

Smotrich is a racist and a bigot, and like many American Evangelicals uses his religious "beliefs" as a shield.

"Anyone who wants to protect the Jewish People and opposes mixed marriages is not a racist. Whoever wants to let Jews live a Jewish life without non-Jews is not a racist." He added that Jews are the ones deprived in Israel because "they don't get free land in the Negev", a reference to Bedouin. "I believe in God's words. I prefer that Jews make a living and wouldn't sell a house to Arabs."

I'm just going to say it, many of his beliefs are in line with those of Nazi Germany.

In a leaked recording of a private conversation published in January 2023 by Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, he said: "I won't stone gays [to death], and you won't force me to eat shrimp", and, in an apparent sarcastic remark, said: "I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, racist, fascist, but my word is my bond"

According to Ron Ben-Yishai, in his dual role as Finance Minister and adjunct Minister in the Ministry of Defense, Smotrich intends to implement ideas set forth in his "Decisive Plan" (2017)[36] which, according to Ben-Yishai, foresees: “Flood[ing], simply so, the areas of Judea and Samaria with settlements and Jewish settlers. When this happens, the Palestinians are supposed to understand that they have no chance to get a state of their own, and they would have to choose between one of the three options – a life of subjugation under Israeli rule, emigration, or a shahid [martyr] death”

[sabbat hunter]

11. the far right wing

and the ultra orthodox parties have way too much power in the Knesset. I think a big chunk of this is due to the threshold of getting seats in the Knesset is way too low. Not to mention that not too long ago parties like Otzma Yehudit would have been banned for being like the Kach party. It is a fascist party IMHO. Along with the Judeo-fascist parties of Noam, and National Religious Party–Religious Zionism parties. The latter two using Judaism like the christo-fascists do here in the US.
The National religious party and Noam have a total of 8 mandates in the Knesset, but because of how Bibi crafted his coalition, those 8 votes, along with the 6 from Otzma hold the power in the coalition. Without them his coalition falls apart, and they have zero power under just about any other coalition government.

I know Israeli knows all about this, being a citizen of Israel. But this is more of general information to everyone else.