Why Are Israelis Protesting? An Overview (March 2023)

T. Belman. I have added my chat with Ido and my daughter below the video.

My daughter brought this to my attention and said “This is from my friend, Ido Aharoni Aronof, former Israeli Consul General to NY. I dare you to post it on your blog to get the other side”.

I took the trouble to listen to the whole thing and was glad I did. Ido is very articulate and easy to listen to. He explained the controversy on the highest level and avoided the acrimony that was in the public square. He focused on the forest and not the trees.

He accused the Right of adopting radical and toxic ethno-centrism thereby detaching itself from the international community. In my words he thinks nationalism is retrograde and globalism wonderful. He fears the reaction of the international community also.

He was also critical of Trump and said Netanyahu has the same problem. But, on balance what he said bears consideration.

My What’s App test message with my daughter and Ido

Why Are Israelis Protesting? An Overview (March 2023
T. Belman. My daughter brought this to my attention and said “This is from my friend, Ido Aharoni Aronof, former Israeli Consul General to NY. I dare you to post it on your blog to get the other side”.
I took the trouble to listen to the whole thing and was glad I did. Ido is very articulate and easy to listen to. He explained the controversy on the highest level and avoided the acrimony that was in the public square. He focused on the forest and not the trees.

But he disturbed me by amplifying how the international community is against it. He was also critical of Trump and said Netanyahu has the same problem. But, on balance what he said bears consideration.

I posted this comment:

Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valour.
If negotiations lead to a consensus, great. Both sides will get something. The Opposition will have to decide whether they are getting enough to consent. The right has to decide if they are giving up too much for consensus.

Perhaps a constitution can be agreed on. Bibi has promised a Bill of Rights. The role of the courts must be better defined. The checks and balances can be better defined and so on.

During the negotiating period, the Right will plan how to take to the streets and the government will prepare for confronting the illegal protests more effectively and how best to deal with the insubordination in the IDF and how to force the unions to not interfere with air traffic. Plus how best to keep the universities open.

The debate will shift to the pros and cons of each sides position from the current propaganda.
Perhaps the Government can plan an omnibus bill which includes all the legislation it wants in one bill so that the process of approving Judicial Reform can be quicker. I don’t know if this can be done.

Ido responded:

Thank you. Please tell your dad I am actually very friendly with Trump (and recently even with him on the day of the Super Bowl. I am not against Trump or Netanyahu… I am in favor of Herzl…)

I responded:

That may be so but in your monologue you were critical of both and I thought unfairly so
What I meant was that Trump in my opinion was right. His problem was not that his people shielded him from the truth but that many of his circle were his enemies. He wasn’t prepared for the Rinos.

Ido responded:

I have known him for over 20 years. He has always been very nice to me. . Trump is the ultimate narcissist who is surrounded by people who only tell him what he wants to hear…

My response

Tell him I appreciated that he responded.

There were a number of things he said that I disagreed with but I did not focus on them. Instead I wanted my readers to focus on what we could learn from the remarks.

He said the right has adopted the radical and toxic ethno-centrism which detaches them from the international community.. In my words he is against nationalism and favours Globalism and the NWO. For him and you, nationalism is retrograde. I take the opposite position.

Ido:

I am a nationalist. I am a zionist. But i am not an ultra nationalist. I dont think sovereignity should be absolute so that a government can do whatever it wants to its people.

I am probably more of a nationalist than you because you think it is okay for countries like the USSR to invade other sovereign countries

I dont think nationalism is retrogade. Please dont put words in my mouth

I responded

To my mind, there is no connection between sovereignty and doing what you want to your own people. One has nothing to do with the other. He is try to say that the Knesset shouldn’t be able to discriminate against some of its citizens.  It could do that if it was sovereign over the SC.

Regarding the Ukraine War please read my article.

Ido misconstrues the issue with the legal advisors.. They are advisors only and the government has the right to ignore them if it so wishes. The problem is that the advisors didn’t advise but ruled and dictated.

My daughter

I havent listened to him yet, but let us say hypothetically that a minister wants to do something that is clearly against the laws of the country as passed by the knesset. Do you think a minister should be able to do illegal things without there being any check on that within his/her ministry and without fear of prosecution?

I replied

A Minister should follow the law. The SC and not the legal advisor has the right to declare it against the law and therefore invalid. The legal advisor should only advise.

If the advisor advises against it, the Minister can listen or ignore

Ido said that because there is no constitution, the SC had to be creative meaning had to create the law.. That’s the problem. It should have referred the issue to the Knesset to pass the missing law.

My daughter

Ah so you dont agree with the present reform that would give incumbent ministers immunity from prosecution and you do think the supreme court should have the power to tell members of the government that they are doing something illegal and should cease?

Me

The SC is currently the last word unless there is an override cause

My daughter

So no immunity from prosecution for incumbent politicians? Netanyahu will be disappointed to hear you say so…

Me

No one is suggesting that Bibi should be immune from prosecution

I don’t know what the other laws are but as I understand they have to do with frivolous matters and shouldn’t be used to bring down a PM.

The complaint the right has about the prosecution of Netanyahu is that the laws that he is being prosecuted under should never have been passed. The law that approaching the media for favourable treatment, is bribery, is not law in other other country. It should not be against the law.

Ido said that because there was an absence of rules the SC had to create them. Wrong it should not have the right to create them.

Recently I told you if there were more rules i.e.laws the SC would be confined to rule within them.
The SC will follow the law. It should not create the law. ie legislate