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Benjamin Netanyahu’s Black Shirts

Let me say from the outset, I take no pleasure in fingerpointing.

It’s clear from media reports and other sources that a group of Beitar Jerusalem Football Club supports, they are known collectively as “La Familia” have become Netanyahu’s (unofficial) bodyguard.

(For those not familiar with the “Black Shirts”, who were formed in 1928 to guard and protect a certain German wannabe, I suggest you ask “Dr. Google”.)

To equate an Israeli prime minister, or for that matter, any Jew, Israeli, or otherwise, to that German monster is unpalatable beyond words. And yet here we are, members of “La Familia” reportedly attacking anti-Bibi demonstrators.

Thus far neither Tweedledum nor Tweedledee or for that matter any other of Bibi’s many poodles, have spoken out against the perpetrators. For that matter neither has Netanyahu.

Can we draw from his silence that he supports the antics of “La Familia”?

Had an interesting conversation the other day with someone who regularly attends the Balfour Street demonstrations, although always remains on the sidelines.

This person raised a fascinating theory, which some will take to be “fake news”.

I believe I am correct in saying that in the early 1980s, there was a movement in Israel, spearhead by certain elements in the army, to have Ariel Sharon lead a “coup d'état’’ against the government. Sharon refused.

My discussion partner offered a new twist to this story. There appears to be floating around the suggestion that if former IDF army chief Gadi Eizenkot, were to make a move to oust the current government, he would enjoy the backing of senior army and police officers.

Now, I have no way of knowing if this story, this rumour is real or imagined, or for that matter wishful thinking. There is no mention in the media of this tale, not that you would expect there to be, it’s far too sensitive.

And yet, what if there is a grain of truth to the rumour mill?

By all accounts, current and past senior army and police officers have lost faith, lost respect for both Benny Gantz and Gadi Ashkenazi, themselves both former IDF chiefs of staff following their antics. While the army, police, and the defence establishment in general tries to stay above daily politics, the various office holders are human, and seeing the turmoil that the country is in, wish to pursue a different path.

Bottom line, other countries stage revolutions, “coup d'états’’, why not Israel?

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