As an adjunct to the highly cogent reasoning, robust analysis, and on target article by Ron Jager, Israel's government's denial of "Jewish privilege" in the Jewish State (November 6, 2021), several mitigating factors stand out and require further airing. This is necessary to more fully comprehend how Israel, the one and only Jewish homeland, came from there (unapologetic Zionism) to here (dilution of its raison d'etre). It is not for nothing.
As a matter of historical record, a deep-dive cannot be done without digging into uncomfortable questions for so-called comfortable Jews within Israel's hierarchy; whose longing for "acceptance" by the wider world is priority Number One. This is not hyperbole. It is akin to vicious cycles played out within households plagued by domestic violence ala the delusions of the battered wife/child syndrome: if only they had done this and that differently, all would be well.
Extrapolating further, it is along this merry-go-round type continuum of irrational thinking that countless Jews (in Israel and in the diaspora) find themselves permanently wedged, thus, forever trapped.
Even more so, it is under this dangerous cognitive dissonance that many of Israel's so-called Zionist (in reality, post-Zionist) leaders (past and present) conduct the affairs of state, regardless of the will of the majority voting public. And if anything proves its pernicious effects, several (out of countless) glaring highlights stand out.
Consider:
How could it be that in the midst of the Biden regime's earthquake-like abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban terrorist front, with thousands of Americans left behind, PM Bennett (smart and well-accomplished that he is) not only went to meet directly with Biden instead of postponing the face-to-face, but crowed that "the meeting was warm and helpful?" Appearing on the world stage with the leader of the heretofore free world, even though in obvious cognitive decline and worse, was PM Bennett's end goal?
In other words, how much worth was appended to multiple photo-ops and meetings, that is, to lend his leadership legitimacy? Most inherently, was signalling to Washington's radical (let's face it, anti-Semitic) Democrat base, the real power-brokers, that a new dawn has set in Jerusalem's halls of power, not only an added incentive, but also a piggy-back factor?
After all, it is not lost on the aforementioned D.C. base that sans the Islamist/Muslim Brotherhood Ra'am Party's imprimatur on all matters brought up for approval by the Lapid-Bennett arrangement(s), the government will collapse. Enragingly, Zionists who voted for PM Bennett under Yamina's party umbrella (ironically, Yamina means rightwards!) have come to this realization, too. Mind you, they are not only having buyer's remorse, but some have been said to be pulling out their hair because they understand what is really going on right under their noses and in their names.
Let said sharp reality sink in: but for the approval of those who seek nothing less than Israel's demise, the two musical chair-like leaders - Bennett, a purported Zionist, and Lapid, a well-entrenched post-Zionist - would not have been elected, nor even be able to hold onto the reins. Hostages.
Ask yourself: what kind of Jewish leadership would behave as such? Indeed, truth dare be told, instead of protecting the Jewish homeland, PM Bennett is lending a kosher stamp of approval to both the radical left (again, of which Lapid is now titular head) and Mansour Abbas, the power-broker/king-maker for Islamist Ra'am! Inexorably, it is this triad which is now endangering the millennium longing to return to Zion.
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy." (137, 5-7).
Not only that, merely a few weeks after a missile/rocket blitzkrieg blanketed Israel (from May 10-18, 2021) by Mansour Abbas's (Gazan/Palestinian Arab) Islamist brothers, coupled with a piggy-back domestic intifada (by a considerable portion of Israeli Arabs, some of whom actively participated, while others lent material support), one could be forgiven for thinking that PM Bennett would never, ever forge a government (on June 13, 2021) with Muslim Brotherhood-connected Ra'am, with which Hamas and PA Islamists are immeasurably aligned, let alone reward its supporters to the tune of billions of dollars in aid!
But it is not as if the above is a one-off Jewish tragedy within Israeli politics; a beyond dysfunctional and dangerous structural quagmire. Who recalls the late PM Rabin's handshake (September 13, 1993, naturally, at the behest of another left-leaning, meddling Washington regime) with the blood-soaked Godfather of suicide-bombing terrorism, that is, the late, non-lamented Yasser Arafat, head of the PLO Islamic hydra? If not, well, think back to its devastating knock-on effects: years of exploding buses, blown-up restaurants/malls, Passover "sacrifices" in 2002 at Netanya's Park Hotel, bludgeoning on streets/highways, stabbings within homes, and so on and so forth, leaving behind countless dead Jews and mangled bodies in its wake!
Due to the above irrational, so-called strategic thinking (and so much more), much time and effort continues to be expended by well-established and highly-respected political scientists - most especially, those who are fully versed in the politics of Israel and America. Since one is linked to the other, the overarching goal is to offer sound and rational-based prescriptive measures, antidotes to the madness, if you will.
In this regard, even as dangerous as the situation is, there is an upside and a reason to be hopeful. As one of the great Jewish sages, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, famously and wisely told his followers: "Do not despair!"
Still yet, none of it will take place without massive pressure for change from the majority public.
As it happens, one of this writer's mentors, Professor Paul Eidelberg - an acknowledged giant within the field of political science, both in the U.S. and in Israel - understood, decades before most, what Israel would face without a complete structural reconstruction, and a Constitution aligned with Jewish values as its centerpiece. Not only that, he set up the underpinnings to do so.
Some of his forward-thinking genius can be found below, and within numerous scholarly books/publications outlined here.
An American Political Scientist in Israel
From Athens to Jerusalem
An American Political Scientist in Israel recounts the author's meetings with some of Israel's political and intellectual leaders after he immigrated to Israel in 1976. His book reveals, for the first time, the flawed mentality of these elites and how this affects their foreign policy. As a political scientist and student of the America's Founding Fathers, he provides a professional critique of Israel's ideological and institutional flaws.
Eidelberg also provides a detailed account of Israel's economic and technological contribution to the United States. Contrary to conventional opinion, dollar for dollar, the United States receives more from Israel than Israel receives from the United States!
Finally, Eidelberg offers a remedy for Israel's woes. He first shows that although Israel, is a democracy from a sociological perspective, it is not a democracy from a political-institutional perspective. Not only does Israel lack a written Constitution with institutional checks and balances, but members of the legislature are not individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. Operating in Israel is not representative government so much as multi-party cabinet government dominated by the prime minister, at least up to ths government. Eidelberg has therefore drafted a Constitution that empowers the people and is consistent with basic Judaic principles.
Most significantly, in its totality, what this means is both very obvious and decidedly chilling: whereas the majority of the Jewish citizens of Israel are center-right in their outlook and vote along these ideological (mind you, not necessarily religious) lines, as it stands, their votes are willfully trampled and diluted, thereby, ignored.
Unless and until an immediate and full overhaul of Israel's political structure is enacted - starting with a complete and proper re-shaping of its underpinnings towards a real representative democracy via the direct election of candidates, instead of corrupt, fractured, self-interested party brokers - Zionism will remain imperiled and in the direct cross-hairs of the radical left fringe and its accomplices. Unreservedly, this acute danger comprises various Islamist parties waiting in the wings, with Ra'am now primed as its spear-head.
Know this, too: without a scintilla of a doubt, if Professor Eidelberg's (scholarly-held and well-founded) prescriptive structural changes were to be implemented, well, the gaggle of top leaders would fight tooth and nail against it. Yes, they are fully aware that a seismic shift of power from their hands into "we the (Israeli) people" would take place.
It is against this very real back-drop of a representative outcome that Israel's top leadership (in many nations, alike) are determined to thwart. But that doesn't mean that the core majority Zionist public should give up or give in. To the contrary.
Israel's majority Zionist public (religious and secular, by operating/cooperating hand-in-hand) has to, post-haste, become intimately familiar with the above prescriptions, tenets, and workable pressure points. It is past time to take a stand. Otherwise, it really will be too late.
Adina Kutnicki is an investigative journalist, living in Israel since 2008. Her work concentrates on militant Islamic jihad and its western knock-on effects. She is the co-author of BANNED: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad, She blogs at: Adina Kutnicki, A Zionist & Conservative Blog (www.adinakutnicki.com).