Benny — Can You Hear Me ?

Dear Alternate Prime-Minister, Minister of Defense, Bibi’s puppet-on-a-string, dear Benny Gantz:

I am writing in large letters so that you can hear me. In the past few months you have lost your sense of hearing. You have become deaf to the voices of the people who voted for you in the third election. I was one of them but you didn’t hear me shouting.

I voted for you because I believed in your morality, in your strong love for country first unlike the present prime-minister who puts himself first. He likes to think of himself not only as the messiah and savior of Israel, but also as God. “Ani ha rishon v’ha acharon”…. I am the first and I am the last.

Voting for you turned out to be my mistake. Your joining in an “emergency” unity coalition was your bigger mistake. You promised that you would never sit in a government under Netanyahu. But you lied to us. You very much disappointed me.

The two of you signed an “agreement” (written no doubt in invisible ink!!!) which assured you of a rotation after eighteen more months of Bibi’s folly. You were assured that following his first role as leader you would succeed him to the seat of the prime-minister of Israel for another eighteen months.

You believed him. Most of us ordinary folks who have followed his history since he first entered national politics do not believe him. The truth lies dormant in his mouth. And in eighteen more months you will witness it for yourself.

Dear Benny… please don’t walk away from me. I am still talking to you. Can you hear me?

In a very few more hours we will turn the page in our calendars. June fades away and gives birth to July.

And on the first day of the new month Mr. Bibi has declared that we will annex territories and settlements in the West Bank of our biblical Judea and Samaria.

When you expressed your opinions and those of the Blue and White party, which you lead, to Mr. Bibi his ignorant reply was heard around the world “you are not relevant in this matter. It is I who will decide, not you”.

He rubs your face in the soil of holy Jerusalem and you are unable at the moment to wash it away.

Have you so quickly forgotten the words of an ancient Hebrew prophet—“wash you, wash you, make yourselves clean. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Relieve the oppressed”.

Our people are oppressed. In the midst of a dreaded and deadly disease the Trump-Netanyahu plan will cause the blood-shed of thousands. As Alternate prime-minister you have the obligation to speak up and to make your feelings and opinions known to the sitting prime-minister.

It is your concern and you are required not to remain silent but rather to make your voice heard.

I am still talking to you, Benny. Can you hear my voice?

The president of the Palestine Authority, Mohamed Abbas (Abu Maazen) has shocked us with his willingness to meet with you and the prime-minister, among others, in a face-to-face direct personal meeting… the only direct meeting since 2014. Has much changed in the last six years?

Commentators in Israel have viewed it as the Palestinian ploy to delay the announced July annexation.

Be that as it may, a face-to-face direct personal meeting of the two sides is a welcome opportunity to find some agreement on new borders and security.

If that proposed meeting takes place you will be among the most prominent seekers of peace.

Cut the strings that bind you to Mr. Bibi. You are not his marionette.

There are people in Israel, millions of them, who have not broken faith with you. Do not disappoint them.

Benny Gantz… I am talking loudly to you. Can you hear me?