Home The Circus Slides Towards the Abyss
Home The Circus Slides Towards the Abyss

The Circus Slides Towards the Abyss



As protests mount against Olmert and his government, the government and its media allies continue to desperately throw out every trick and distraction they can to divert the public from its mounting fury at the military disaster, the surrender to Hezbollah, the deficits of supplies that left IDF reservists without food, helmets, bandages and in some cases even uniforms.

So now we have two sex scandals, one involving the President and the other involving the Justice Minister, both key figures in any call for new elections. The media is of course full of tabloid gossip and screaming headlines about THE LATEST ALLEGATIONS but it's all futile. Israelis who have been forced to live in shelters, who have gone to war in a mishandled campaign, who have lost sons are not about to forget what this government did because the media trots out giant headlines about the supposed sexual misconduct allegations involving two politicians. And the Israeli public has seen phony investigations all too often get used as a weapon to settle political scores before.

The utter failure and bankruptcy of this government cannot be cloaked by tossing out President Katsav or Justice Minister Haim Ramon to the wolves, hoping that the chaos and scandals will distract the public, and make any call for new elections more difficult. It won't be obstructed by transparent attempts to shift the blame to Netanyahu or the leaks about General Halutz's investments originating from within the government itself.

While Olmert frantically butchers scapegoats as if he was a witch doctor at a voodoo altar, even his media allies understand that the government is over and that its failure can't be described as victory or the protests silenced. Nor will random operations into Gaza or Lebanon successfully fake an appearance of determination and military strength. All these are distractions thrown out by a desperate regime clinging by its fingernails over the abyss.

For the last few years an alliance between key political figures, the media and powerful businessmen dismantled a portion of Israel, destroyed its two major political parties, subverted the rule of law and turned the country into its own private fiefdom. Sharon's right hand man who tried to run it all failed miserably. The likely outcome now is that the Kadima laborites will return to take over their old party from Stalin wannabe and failed Defense Minister Peretz splitting down Kadima. An invigorated Likud can then finish the job leaving Kadima another failed party as defunct as Mordechai's Third Way.

The media and the businessmen are likely calculating already for that eventuality. They still have Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, now a thoroughly corrupt party beholden to Martin Schalff who owned a stake in Arafat's casino. Lieberman makes pathetic attempts to posture as a right-winger but his actual legislative record is left of center. A man who proposed giving away most of the 67 territories and dividing Yerushalayim is as credible a Zionist as a duck is a fish. There's the Pensioner's Party which is likely to have zero traction in the post-war period. Look then for the emergence and creation of new political parties along the same lines. The current IDF protesters may well be being hijacked by figures like Carmi Gillon and transformed into a platform for another phony party or politician.

Either way the focus now will be on Kadima burning and the circvs maximus Olmert and Co. will put on to save themselves from political extinction, but when all that has passed we will likely be facing an electoral landscape not too different from the last election after all.

Comments

  1. I know it's a long-range plan, but isn't there anyway the Israeli people and media can champion the cause of establishing a more US-style Democracy?

    Short-time goals? I'm not really sure if any short term measure will suffice to protect Israel.

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  2. I keep thinking of something in the book of Micah, about a city being under seige and a man coming who knew what was needed to rescue the city, but no one recognized him.

    Perhaps the leader will come from obscurity, such as this person.

    (it's frustrating to have only fragments of scriptures and verse to rely on)

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  3. Maybe not Micah...but something definitely about a city under seige and a great bullwork coming against it, a small, unknown man rescuing it but no one remembering him.

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  4. I'm so sick of all these scandals? How come these people never seem to go away?

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  5. The only leader who will come is Moshiach.
    No one else is going to pull Israel out of this fire anymore.

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  6. these people never seem to go away irina, because there's no mechanism for the voters to get rid of them

    a disgraced american politician can't get elected, a disgraced israeli one can still join a party list

    short of jail there's no way to stop him from being reelected even if the public hates him

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  7. sorry Hashem's Forever, I can't remember such a thing...

    some have championed the creation of american style democracy, they have tried but it's uphill going because israeli is based around european democracy which means party based parliamentary systems

    it makes for a tricky problem because power is vested in the party not in the polis, the voters

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  8. yes human governments never work too well, and require a lot of work to stay honest until moshiach comes

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  9. Good governments cannot work apart from Hashem.
    Mankind has no ability to govern wisely without total reliance on Hashem.
    Every example given in Tankh shows this.6,000 years of bad governments.

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  10. Anonymous29/8/06

    Hashemsforever said:
    I keep thinking of something in the book of Micah, about a city being under seige and a man coming who knew what was needed to rescue the city, but no one recognized him.

    It is the book Ecclesiastes cap 9:14.

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  11. I re-read the book of Ecclesiastes. It does contains many words of wisdom, I'm ashamed that I had forgotten that. Chapter 9:14-16 really seems to apply to the situation in Israel. There are no doubt many poor but wise men (and women) who have the wisdom and know what is needed to save Israel from leaders who rule among fools; but no one is listening. The poor man's wisdom is indeed despised. It doesn't appear many in government are listening to the religious leaders at all. Sad. Very very sad.

    (I don't know if I am interpreting these verses correctly).

    The final verses are particularly striking:

    "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear G-d, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For G-d shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

    Anyway, thank you anonymous person for locating from all the book the chapter chapter and verse I meant.

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