Israel’s potbellied, loudmouthed, gunslinging, obnoxious national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir happily refers to all that disagree with his hard right, ultra-nationalist leanings as anarchists.
Well, Mr. Ben Gvir, I am a proud anarchist, what are you going to do about it?
“Ben Gvir slams police for not using force against protesters; top cop backs officers”
“Minister says police lost ‘control of city to anarchists’ after anti-government demonstration, summons J’lem commander for inquiry; Commissioner Shabtai ‘regrets’ public rebuke”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-police-chief-clash-over-confronting-protesters-as-tensions-escalate/
The problem is that Ben Gvir does not understand the meaning of the word ‘anarchist’.
I would argue that it is Ben Gvir and his motley crew who are the anarchists.
Just consider the following description of an anarchist:
“a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom”.
Sounds just like Ben Gvir, Smotrich, and their band of misfits.
It’s always good to start the day with a laugh.
This morning this headline caught my eye and gave me that much-needed chuckle.
“Netanyahu demands extensive renovations to residence at state's expense”
“The government has no legal obligation to fund renovations to the prime minister's private home.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/benjamin-netanyahu/article-731739
Beyond the fact of why the f—k should Israeli taxpayers pay for renovations to the Crime Minster’s private home, BiBi is also a hypocrite after his previous attacks on Bennett and Lapid over their household expenses.
But of course, as JPost reader AnotherOne2 points out “The Royals have been raiding the state for years to renovate and keep up their THREE private residences while delaying the same to Balfour. Have they NO SHAME?”
That is a rhetorical question. Of course, they have no shame. They are after all Israel’s Royal Family and are entitled to all they squeeze from the Israeli taxpayer.
King BiBi and Queen Sara are not worth any more thought.
Pharmacy impressions.
I was struck yet again today by just how intelligent younger Israeli Arabs are.
OK, so not all but today I came across three, all I guess just under 30 years working as pharmacists in a local city center national pharmacy chain.
From recent figures, and leaving aside the Arab population, it seems that around 20% of the Israeli Jewish population can speak/read/write Arabic at the mother-tongue level or close to it.
Maybe the ability is not important to Israeli Jews.
To Israeli Arabs under 40 years old, it would appear that for most the ability to be bi-lingual – fluent in both Arabic and Hebrew - is a necessity if they are to succeed in modern Israel.
The pharmacists I witnessed in action today, not only were of course fully qualified, totally bi-lingual, acted professionally (and had a sense of humor), and two of them also conversed in English at a high level with Philippine careers who had come to the pharmacy to purchase medication for their charges.
I was impressed
The menace of electric bikes.
I have written numerous times in the past about the menace of electric bikes (and bikes in general) on our sidewalks (pavements).
And although Tel Aviv city council among others pays lip service to the notion that a ban must be enforced, little if anything is being done.
So I ask again, when are the local government authorities, city councils, and various ministers of transport, national security, and interior going to do something?
My second rhetorical question for this entry.
Regev of transport is too busy with her grandiose plans for six-lane highways as per Dubia.
Ben Gvir’s sole focus is eradicating Muslims from the West Bank region, after which, if he is successful, he’ll come after Israeli Muslim citizens. Followed by secular Israelis who don’t support his ultra-nationalist views.
As for the interior ministry, there is no full-time minister since the career criminal Deri has been barred from holding office. His appointed replacement appears to have done nothing, preferring to follow the Deri line of doing nothing until Deri is reinstated.
Maybe the ministry s better left in the hands of the professionals rather than the spineless, gutless, mindless minions that blindly follow Deri, who is only second to King BiBi and Queen Sara.
It’s enough to make you want to puke!
Are more accidents required before action is taken?
Is it going to take a spiraling death toll before the movers and shakers move themselves to act?
In the past week in Kfar Saba, in the space of 90 minutes while running errands in the city, I was four times verbally abused/screamed at by teenagers and men riding electric bikes (in one case a regular push peddle bike) on the sidewalk. I’m walking on the sidewalk, and I am forced to either flatten myself against a shopfront to let them pass (often at high speed) or move to the edge of the sidewalk/stand in the curb.
A few days earlier, again in Kfar Saba, I came across an accident between a car and an electric bike. I arrived on the scene a few minutes after a car had sideswiped the bike. It appears the young man (aged I guess around 20/25) was riding his bike on the sidewalk (where else?) and at the end of the street simply darted across the road (admittedly on a pedestrian crossing) without looking (why look?). The lady driver, who I understand was not speeding, never stood a chance and just caught the bike’s rear wheel with the car’s bumper. The youth was shaken but not hurt. The poor woman when I left was being treated by paramedics – shock I guess?
So, yet again I ask, when is something going to be done before there is a major catastrophe?
I’ve always considered myself to be someone who can articulate, at least in English. But twice in recent days I have brought the wrath of Van Helsing upon myself.
My sin, I expressed the hope that there would not be a third intifada with all the loss of life on both sides that such an uprising will bring. That all life is precious and that all lives matter.
In the same breath, and maybe this was my mistake, I said if a third intifada should break out, it would serve to unite most of the country and thereby just possibly stop the skirmishes and worse that may lead to something resembling a civil war.
I was accused of being a leftwing Palestine supporter, who wanted to see the demise of Israel.
I was accused of many other things as well. Water under the bridge.
The point is, we know that in times of conflict, the country for the most part comes together as one.