40 puppets on a string

The unthinkable has become thinkable. The unbelievable is now believable. The leader of the Likud party has forced 40 members of his party to sign a loyalty oath to him declaring him to be the one and only candidate from the Likud party to be prime minister once again.

Forty marionettes dangling from a string held in the two arms of the Likud puppet master. “Sign or risk losing your political life” is a silent threat but 40 cowards signed.

They are ashamed to reveal their names but most of us know who they are. They are 40 weak persons who place their seat in the party ranks above morality and ethical behavior. There was no opposition to the leader’s command. They picked up the pen to sign with an outstretched arm.

This cowardly act brought more intense shame and disgrace upon our country. Politicians everywhere are elected by a ballot freely determined and freely deposited in the ballot box. Signatures of loyalty are not necessary. The number of deposited ballots are indications of loyalty.

This crazy undemocratic act cannot be from the rational mind of Binyamin Netanyahu. The corrupt seed must have been implanted by wife Sara and/or by son Yair. They are his puppet-masters and he swings from their strings. When they tell him to jump, he replies “OK. How high shall I jump?”

The greatest of the Netanyahu family is Avner, the younger son. Bright, well-liked, intelligent, devoted son of a political family inherited his good nature, his warm temperament, his clear thinking, his devotion to truth from his beloved maternal grandfather, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, a brilliant Bible scholar.

Avner in very few ways, other than by family name, is representative of his parents and older brother. He despises politics and the filth and corruption surrounding it. Avner is the one Netanyahu that all of us can love and can embrace. He is one of us

The forthcoming re-election circus is showing the worst in our candidates. My admiration for Benny Gantz and the Kachol-V’Lavan party began to wane yesterday following the negative comments made by Yair Lapid against the ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset.

In my heart I tend to agree with him. The ultra-religious groups tend to be schnorrers. “You want my vote? You want my support? What will you give me for them? How much will you pay for our yeshivot, etc. What percent of the budget will be allotted to us”?

Maybe this is a way that politicians get elected. But it is not the right way. They are concerned parochially with themselves and their institutions rather than with the general welfare of the people in our nation.

I agree with Yair Lapid’s internal feelings but I disagree with him for having vented them publicly. His remarks do not bode well for a rotating prime-ministerial post

The 40 Likud cowards who were coerced by the party’s elected leader are reminiscent of Humpty-Dumpty. He sat on a wall and had a great fall. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty-Dumpty together again.

A crack has been made in Likud’s integrity. And as the crack widens and the puppet-master pulls tighter on the strings, the 40 dancing marionettes will feel the string around their necks choking them from following virtuous ways. And like Humpty-Dumpty, there will be a great fall and the broken pieces will remain broken.

The 40 Likud puppets on a string should cut themselves loose from the binding strings and return to the role of respected politicians with independent minds, allegiance to the best welfare of the entire nation. People before party.

Likud is not our nation. It is one (the largest) of the 42 separate political parties which make our country so unmanageable.

Likud must remain loyal to the valiant founders of the party, Vladimir Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin.

They will live on for centuries to come in the lives and the history of all Jewish citizens of Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu’s name will fade away shortly after he fades away.

His contributions to our country will be honored and remembered. His personal life will be denigrated and disrespected.

That is the price that every puppet master must be prepared to pay. And the cost will be very great.