The Netanyahu “Gang”

First it is Bibi, the Prime Minister and “gang” leader, a man with a good brain but a poor heart, who has alienated tens of thousands here and across the globe.

In turn he is followed by his brash and arrogant son, Yair, who declares that all left-wingers who oppose his father’s policies are Bolsheviks.

And last but never the least, Sara, the “real” prime minister (but not in absentia) who, according to some reports, called the bereaved parents of their son, a soldier who was killed in Gaza, “ingrates”.

This is Israel’s “royal family”. To abdicate or to depose from power? Zot ha sh’aila. (That is the question).

How long can the people of Israel endure a  nation’s leader who lacks compassion, feeling and understanding for the many thousands of non-Jewish citizens in our country?

Although many have called him a racist, I disagree. He is not a racist. Just a man who clings to power and who will turn right or left to follow the power wherever it leads him. He is not a bad man. But he is a foolish man. He does not listen to the vox populi, the loud voice of the people.

To alienate 150,000 loyal and dedicated Druze citizens is unforgivable. He may claim that the new law, his “baby”, does not discriminate, but the people who feel discriminated cannot agree. And they are right.

We cannot have a country which classifies its citizens as #1 and #2.  Jewish population may be the majority but we cannot make it superior over others. The Declaration of Independence specifies that all citizens…Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians and Beduin…are equal in the eyes of the law.

In Bibi’s “kingdom”, his law does not mention equality nor democracy. Two vitally important words have been omitted.

When Jews were 2^nd or 3^rd class citizens in many Christian and Muslim countries, though they had lived there for centuries, they were deprived of all rights and privileges that were freely given to those non-Jewish majorities.

Now it appears that we are copying that anti-social pattern. We are placing one group high above all other groups.

I do not know any Beduin or any Circassians.  But because they serve Israel faithfully and defend her with their life-blood, they are deserving to be blessed with the same blessings given to the Jews.

As for the Druze, I am honored and privileged to have known many. For me, no finer people walk on the face of the earth. Family love, devotion, care for the community, trust, truth and honesty are the virtues by which they live and are enshrined in the very essence of their religion.

When they are in pain, I feel their pain. When they suffer, I suffer. When they are humiliated, so too am I.   They, of all our citizens, do not deserve a Nation-State law which inflicts upon them pain, suffering and humiliation.

There are thousands, nay, tens of thousands of Israeli Jews who rally in defense and support of the Druze and other minority groups.

In an e-mail that someone sent to me it mentioned that during the years of the Vietnam war, thousands of American citizens burned their draft cards in a wide protest. He suggested that Israelis should burn their national ID cards (Teudot Zehut) in protest of the mal-treatment of our minorities.

God forbid that I should ever do such a thing. My Israeli ID card and my Israeli passport are sacred to me.   I waited two thousand years to obtain them.

And our minority of non-Jews are more beloved to me than any of our haredi ultra-Orthodox Jews who take everything from the State and give little or nothing in return.

Our Druze, Circassian and Beduin citizens give their very lives for the well-being, peace and security of the nation…. A nation of all its citizens.

The Netanyahu “gang” should remember it and should act justly and righteously as all Jews should do.