Philip Hyams

The Knesset. A Vibrant Red-Light District Like No Other



Once again Bibi N. is showing his true right-wing colors. It wasn't enough to agree to a corrupt cabinet, padded with 18 extra ministers on full salary and benefits, Bibi and his group of despicable, corrupt cronies now want to hit once more the weakest sector of the Israeli population by lowering welfare, unemployent and adding a 50NIS a day bill to their hospital stays.

Unfortunately, it is the very same segment of the population who are suffering and will suffer more who voted the current shysters into power. Our greatest enemy is the apathy of the Israeli public to these events and the ability of these parasites to rob the country's coffers, give their friends without qualifications high-paying jobs and suppress any change in the electoral laws which would not allow them to get voted in. The public gets what they vote. With the destruction of any progreesive opposition to this fiscal bloodbath - Bibi's second reign of corruption will be long. Thank you Ehud Barak. You're just another joke in the equation. Maybe now your speaking fees will go up in the States and you'll leave us alone soon for greener pastures?

Unless the idiots from Shas who proclaim a social mandate for their constituency leave the government - the state's greatest threat is not Iran nor the Arab/Israeli conflict - it is the despotic and corrupt politicians and their big business puppetmasters who run the country. They will create a Haiti in the out of Israel as they slowly chip away at the state's social packages while furthering their own greedy agendas causing only prolonged misery for the Israeli public-at-large.

Let it be made known that I fully support the war in Gaza against the Hamas. While the world screams (along with Gideon Levi from Haaretz - that "wise voice of humanity") about the tragedy in Gaza - I say: Israel do not stop until the ability of Hamas to rearm itself is almost an impossibility. It's not that I do not feel great sorrow at the human toll in Gaza - it's that I feel greater sorrow for the eight years of rockets which have fallen and made our children in the the south of the country psychologically damaged young people, victims of war, victims of our own politician's own weak inability and yes, also greedy ambitions which prevented them from acting far earlier on against the crimes of the Palestinians.



One cannot disconnect Operation Gaza from the Holocaust. The global war agains the Jews still continues with a two-faced morality which says: There is one law for the Jews and another for the rest of the world. Anti-Semitism never went away but only hid iits ugly face for close to 60 years and has reemerged for what it still is. Israel is kept under a magnifying glass while Zimbabwe, the Sudan and other far more atrocious regions where people are being butchered are relegated to the back pages of the News. The Americans killed 100,000 poor civilians in a single night when they unjustifiably invaded Iraq. Europe cheered. When the Russsians burnt Chechnya to the ground the UN remained silent. When Jews fight a war of self-defense the world cries "bloody murder". Where were those great bleeding hearts for eight years as we were being attacked by a merciless terrorist organization?



So, let's hope that the operations in Gaza do not cease until the Hamas has been put into a position where it can no longer serve as a trigger-finger for the Iranians and the Syrians. Because when it boils down to it - this is not the end and we are going to have to face-off very soon against the Iranian and Hizbollah war machine. Gaza has been only a preliminary shot across the bow. It is time to get Israel's house in order. Yes, Mr. Levi. There is a human cost. Yes, innocent chlidren and women and men die during War...on all sides. Yes...there is no morality in War...but after the Holocaust and the fact that we are not yet "one" world nor a "global village" - Jews whether they admit it or not also deserve to defend themselves in order to survive. Yes...there is always the corruption of politicians...but there is NO PROPORTIONALITY in War and there never has been. We still live in a jungle and those that do not defend themselves are doomed to perish.

Turkey is so adamant on bashing Israel so far as to call for our removal from the U.N. - It's time for all Israelis to boycott the country which helped invent the word genocide with their brutal extermination of the Armenians in the early part of the 20th century. In 2008 more than 500,000 Israelis visited this "progressive" Islamic republic. Why give them the businesss? Additionally, it is time our military stopped doing business with them as well.

As the noose grows tighter around Ehud Olmert's political career, his departure will continue to mean nothing to most Israelis, as the biggest criminals around them continue to live lavish lifestyles, not yet behind bars, waiting for their cases to come to court.

Katsav the accused rapist president is fighting to keep his millions of shekels in future pension rights and benefits, even as his case costs the state - meaning us - hundreds of thousands of shekels. He' s free.

Hirshsohn, Olmert's friend, indicted for theft of public money to the tune of millions of shekels is still free and waiting for his case to come up.

So we have a triad of criminals (now way beyond suspect) - who arrogantly continue to live the good life, defended by the best and most costly legal teams in the country, and we common Israelis are waiting to see if they will ever serve a day in jail once convicted.

The failure of Israel in the Second Lebanon War was largely due to Olmert, Amir Peretz and Dan Halutz (an arrogant air force general) who got away with a wrist slap, for the part he played in the deaths of more than 100 Israelis due to lack of experience, in tandem with Olmert's and Peretz's lusts to stay in power.

Democracy. Don't make us laugh. Goverment institutions like don't hesitate to pursue the average Israeli for a few hundred shekels that might have been overlooked - but when it comes to the Knesset and its band of cutthroat dealmakers and crooks - there are other laws at work. Mazuz, the inept Attorney General knows this.

Most probably these accused and soon-to-be accused felons will never see the inside of any prison for their crimes...and that is the tragedy of Israel today. We pay, we die, we send out children to fight and the political echelon pisses on the people while laughing all the way to the bank and most probably out of their criminal sentences.

Well, Roni Bar-On, Prime Minister Olmert's newly selected Minister of Finance has begun his purge of any remaining responsible and untainted public officials who have stood in the way of, Olmert's corrupt cabinet from leveraging their contacts to conclude irregular business deals.

So we see, once more, how the corrupt cabal headed by Ehud Olmert runs Israel. By not renewing Accountant General Dr. Yaron Zelekha's contract , in essence, Bar-On has removed the only responsible watchdog ever to have served the Israeli public's interest by confronting corrupt businessmen and politicans who have been raping the state, its coffers and its people for years.

In 1997 Bar-On was appointed Attorney General, but resigned as a consequence of heavy criticisms related to the 'Bar-On Hebron' scandal, which involved allegations against officials that they recommended Bar-On to the position in order to aid organized crime.

Here are a few other wonderful tidbits about the replacement for the previously made-to-resign Olmert choice for Finance Minister: Avraham Hirschenson, now under investigation for fraud.

Bar-On, in his capacity as Interior Minister, refused to allot money for Israeli Arabs to build public shelters and warning sirens to escape bombings and violence. The mayor of Nazareth, Ramez Jeraisi, repeatedly requested funds for this purpose, noting that the neighboring Jewish city of Nazareth Illit was provided with the equipment already.

On July 19, 2006, Bar-On verbally attacked Jamal Zahalka, an Israeli Arab MK on the Knesset floor calling him "a snake born to a snake". He added, "I'd be happy if you would join some of your friends in Lebanon to enjoy what they are enjoying now", a reference to Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon that had commenced a week prior. Zahalka reportedly criticised the government's actions in Lebanon and the high civilian death toll.

Bar-On was severely criticized for "ignorance, arrogance and insensitivity" in a signed article in Haaretz on August 6, 2006, for saying that any municipal worker in the north of Israel who travelled south to seek shelter from Katyushas was a deserter and would not be paid.

So the mafia continues to run the State of Israel and we shall see where it will take us....

Forget the notion that Israel comes close to being a western-style democracy. Just as the banks here control the country and have a license to print money, and as big business works in tandem with Israel's top 20 families to control this land's assets and lives of its citizens - so goes it with the puppet-leaders which includes Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz.

Only mass civil protest at all levels of Israeli society can hope to being these corrupt and power hungry individuals down from their stranglehold perches of "government", from their serial rape of Israeli society.

And Israelis will continue to be violated as long as no national consensus evolves as to what constitutes a democracy. How sad that polls indicate Israelis looking at the best alternative to the current government as one being led by another tainted individual - Benjamin Nethanyahu. The people are reaping the results of their past indifference and oppression by a new virulently capitalist elite running roughshod here over most Israelis.

Last year, many lives were lost due to the greed and indifference of Olmert and Peretz to the state of social and defense affairs within this country. Let's face it. We have Katsav who will soon go to trial for rape in its full meaning, Olmert who has profited from his business connections by leveraging his political reputation to generate even more profits, Peretz a quasi wannabee demi-god who did shit all for Israeli workers while filling his own pockets from their union dues with a hefty monthly five figure pay package and benefits - a boisterous ignoramus (like the majority of Israeli politicans). A Minister of Finance caught with his fingers in the till, and the list goes on...how can we effectively defend ourselves, our nation with this collection of jackals devouring us at the same time?

Thursday night, May 3, 2007 there will be a mass protest in Kikar Rabin. If you have ever never been to any demonstration, this is perhaps one of the most important ones you should consider coming too, even if you never go to another one again.

This junta of corruption which daily rapes our country while pretending to care about its future must be repelled. If you do not lend your voice to such clear abuse of power and putrid behaviour...your own abuse and suffering on a daily basis will be prolonged. And then there will be no way to electoral reform, continued social justice, or any form of democracy in Israel. The erosion of civil rights and social rights will continue and the dark power which people such as Olmert, the Sharons, etc... and the rest of his gang wield will only strengthen until there is no turning back...and then...figure it out yourself.

1) We still grow bananas.
2) We are the only western country where debtors can still be thrown in prison for sums as low as $100.00
3) We are the only country at the moment where concurrent criminal investigations and indictments have been made or opened against (to name a few):

1. the president
2. the prime minister
3. the minister of finance
4. the minister of justice
5. senior tax officials
6. the head of the police

4) We place refugees from Darfur, Sudan in prison.

5) We allow some cancer patients to die by witholding medicine.

Two days now and it's been relatively quiet. There are a lot of questions, many of them so banal because the answers are so clear cut and obvious to those of us who have witnessed how Israel transformed itself from a social democracy into a crude and calculated, uncaring U.S. model of virulent capitalism.

This does not negate the fact that some areas of the social democratic model which helped this country flourish, such as universal healthcare, still exist and offer a level of healthcare unavailable anywhere else in the world. However...as Nethanyahu and Olmert, two smug and corrupt cronies from the same party go head to head - Most Israelis suffer silently because they believe that the real war has yet to begin. Hizbollah audacity was just the prelude to a greater confrontation to our existence which will materialize in the next year or two. Too many unused missiles, too many political alliances and money to be made from arms and oil. The Europeans did not learn their lesson from WWII and are acting identically as their forefathers who helped usher Hitler into power, except this time they are kissing the feet of the little devil in Iran.

But given the above, this lousy government should still fall. It abandoned its citizens for a month, leaving many of them without the basic supplies to survive. It sent our young men and women into the field unequipped, sometimes even without sustenance. Blunder after blunder compounded and fueled a war which was not a war, turning it into a useless venture...a venture where our people's lives were sacrificed for no reason.

There was only bravado and no planning, only political ambition responsible for needless deaths. Nothing has changed on the ground in Lebanon and the real protagonists, Syria and Iran are laughing even now as they plot a more destructive solution. Israel is in crisis. If it does not develop effective leadership both on a governmental and military level before the next confrontation - then we're all in deep shit. If Israelis so not stand up to change this country's social fabric...the results are too terrible to talk about.

The results of this war which was not a war are intrinsically linked to the cold shifts in Israeli society, the onslaught on social services and welfare and education, the onslaught by a new elite of criminal powerbrokers, most of them in cahoots with Israel's fifteen most powerful families. Thank you Mr. Nethanyahu and Mr. Olmert. Mr. Peretez wannabe something minister - go home to your moshav in Sderot. All the rest of you MKs...well...most of your should be in jail for corruption. And while all this was going on. Gilaed Sharon was acquitted. President Katsav is breathing a sigh of relief wondering when he will be forced to confront all the women who have accused him of sexual impropriety...and the rest of us are waiting to find out where the red line of our country is...how many dead will it take to destroy the Iranian/Syrian threat once and for all?