Nadene Goldfoot
Hebron; divided between Jews and Arabs A total of 88% of the Jewish community here and 67% of 3,000-strong Kiryat Arba voted for one of their own – Kiryat Arba resident, former Kahane disciple and rising star of the Religious Zionist party, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“I’m not a religious person. I don’t cover my hair or anything, I have LGBT friends,” said Elinor, a 24-year-old single mother who works at Kiryat Arba’s supermarket. “Like everyone else I voted for Netanyahu in the past and switched to Ben-Gvir this time because of the security situation.
“I think he’s become so popular because the rest of the country is starting to understand how dangerous it is and what we are going through here.”
So next time you call out Israelis for being bullying, gun-touting land-grabbers of their own ancient land, and Palestinians for being fanatical suicide bombers, remember that there are normal people on the ground who have nothing to do with the wider agendas of their governments or religious factions but who see each other as neighbours and who are calling for the same thing – resolution and peace. The problem is that there just aren't enough of them. Those Palestinians in power want to drive out the Jews.
Hebron or Kiriath-Arba: has a well-known ancient history to the Jews which is in Judah (today's half of the West Bank). It's where Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah for his family's burials from a Jebusite citizen and then he buried Sarah. Joshua saw to it that it was a city of refuge and a Levitical city. It was David's first capital. There were 1,500 Jews living here in 1890 who established a yeshivot and religious schools. The great Lithuanian yeshivot of Slobodka was transferred to Hebron in 1925.
Orit Cohen (later Strook) was born to a family of lawyers from Jerusalem. Her middle name Malka was given to her in memory of her grandmother, the Hungarian Jewish poet Mária Kecskeméti. Growing up, Strook studied at the Hebrew University Secondary School. In the late 1970s, while she was in the 11th grade, Strook gradually became more religious, and eventually became a Baalat Teshuvah, embracing Orthodox Judaism. During that period, she began studying at the religious Zionist outreach organization and yeshiva Meir Institute. Shortly thereafter, she married Avraham Strook, a student of Rabbi Haim Drukman. The young couple briefly lived in the Israeli settlement of Yamit in the Sinai Peninsula, but after Sinai was handed over to Egypt in 1982 as part of the terms of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, and Yamit was evacuated, Strook and her family joined the Jewish settler community in Hebron. She's the mother of 11 children and has 12 grandchildren.
Biden's American Democratic government of USA is plotzing over Israel's new rightist government of Netanyahu this year. Far-right National Missions Minister, Orit Strock, criticized US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, a day after he signaled that the White House is clearly concerned over initiatives by Israel’s new hardline government.
Blinken had a plan all mapped out on his visit to Jerusalem but conditions quickly changed. This past week in Jerusalem has been particularly violent, after Israeli forces carried out their deadliest raid in the West Bank in years, killing nine Palestinians, including gunmen and a 61-year-old woman. Dozens more were injured.
- Then on Friday, Israeli police say a Palestinian gunman killed seven people and wounded three outside a synagogue in Jerusalem's Neve Yaakov neighborhood. The next day, Israeli police say a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded two people in East Jerusalem.
- It's the latest escalation in a cycle of violence that doesn't show signs of stopping soon, with members of Netanyahu's far-right cabinet aggressively supporting settlement efforts that many say are an obstacle to peace.
- And, to top it off, U.S. officials say Israel appears to be responsible for a drone attack on a military factory in Iran over the weekend.
“Dear Mr. Blinken, I understand that you decided to
give our prime minister a lesson in democracy,” the
Religious Zionism lawmaker, Orit tweeted.
“Well, democracy is first of all the duty of a country
to determine its course according to the
votes of its
citizens, each of which is given equal
weight, without
foreign involvement,” Strock wrote.
“Demonstrations, however legitimate they may be,
are not equivalent to a ballot,” wrote Strock, in a very
rare public rebuking of a senior US official by
an Israeli government minister. (I don't agree with Strock as
demonstrations do a lot to cause officials to rethink their
positions and just might change. I think Orit's 11 children take
a lot of her time. She needs to read more history for
seeing how demonstrations have changed countries).
While Blinken’s comments drew Strock’s ire, he won support
from opposition leader Yair Lapid, former Prime
Minister, and naturally one of the fiercest critics of
the government’s plans.
Following his meeting with Blinken, Lapid said their
discussions were “first and foremost about the shared values
of the principles of democracy and the
preservation of
democratic institutions.”
Lapid later responded to Strock’s comments, saying “the time
has come for Netanyahu, with all his weakness, to at least put
minister Strock in her place.”
“The Americans’ ‘foreign involvement’ that she is speaking out
against includes $38 billion in aid, funding for Iron Dome
batteries, Apache helicopters and the F-35 planes that are
supposed to attack Iran,” Lapid tweeted.
The Netanyahu coalition is pushing a controversial overhaul
that would increase government control over the judiciary.
The plan has drawn intense criticism and
warnings from
leading financial and legal experts, as well as
weekly mass
protests and public petitions by various
officials,
professionals, and private companies.
Netanyahu insists that the sweeping plans will instead
strengthen democracy and therefore the nation’s financial
position, and says that he is carrying out the will of the voters.
What Blinken doesn't know is that ministers of the
government in Israel might be females and females with lots
of chutzpa ! They tell it as they see it. This
year, it looks like
the religious party is speaking out. They've
had enough. It's a
Jewish country. Their ancestors didn't wait
2,000 years for nothing to return. They love
their ancient land as well as their Tel Aviv and
also want it in peace.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orit_Strook
https://www.israpundit.org/far-right-minister-slams-blinken-
netanyahu-doesnt-need-lesson-in-democracy/
No comments:
Post a Comment