Twenty-eight years in opposition. Twenty-eight years as head of the official opposition. That was Menachem Begin. No where else in the world would someone ply on, election after election destined for official opposition status. The story goes, that Begin met the Rabbi Schneerson in New York many times, the most famously covered by the media on his visit to the White House after his election. These were always confidential meetings, but it did slip out that the year before his election he had told the Rabbi, that he had enough, that he couldn’t take it anymore, he didn’t think he could win and he would like to resign. Apparently Rabbi Schneerson, advised him not to step down, to persevere and he would win. From his mouth to the Almighty’s ear, it came to pass, much to the shock to the Israeli secular establishment.
---these signs were apparently hung by right wing activists to demonize the left.....the two signs on the side say "Peace Now." The one in the middle says "Happy Al-Quds Day." Photo from Haaretz Newspaper.
Begin got elected on what could be called a coalition of the colonized; religious, the new idea of religious-zionism, the Arab jews, holocaust survivors, and others who defied the traditional assumption that political power , a divine right of kings, should be assumed by those old-stock Israeli families who most valued it. That is, Israelis with at best a nominal and somewhat atheistic, symbolic or marginally cultural relationship to tradition and thought that underpinned the spiritual nature of the endeavor. And once assumed this power was guarded closely and exercised through non-democratic , non-elected institutions, the bureaucracy, the large unions, the military and other groups that could siphon off foreign aid and charity monies as “first pocket” and distribution mechanism.
The default position was an elite, espousing the best and worst of liberal democratic thinking, within an identity based exclusively on state and national identity of the secular Zionist orthodoxy from Western Europe. The remainder were the great unwashed, “stiff necked” in their resistance to being “civilized.” They could be considered as tolerated guests and wandering jews, not conforming to the vision of the “new jew”, and when subject to critique by these guests, the pattern is to denigrate through accusations of being subversive, undemocratic, and threatening to the state, a fifth column.
---The Rebbe – pointing to the large contingent of photographers, reporters and TV crews – tells the Prime Minister that reporters are integral to democracies. (Photo: Eliyahu Attar/Dan Patir/Kfar Chabad Magazine)---Read More:http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/1257812/jewish/The-Israeli-Prime-Ministers-Jewish-Pride.htm
Although Begin ascended the rubicon in 1977, the same elite still runs the roost. Something like a dozen rich families controlling 60% of the market cap of the stock exchange being a tangible example of income disparity. It is somewhat ironic that the marginalized in Israel who are often religious and of lower income should be facing identical challenges at those sympathizing with the Occupy Wall Street movement, although the latter is secular, the effect of adhering to what Kissinger termed “useless eaters” is significant.
( see link at end) …Knesset Member Michael Ben Ari (National Union) and a few dozen activists celebrated Jerusalem Day by going up to the Temple Mount Sunday morning and asked to pray on the site.
Unlike the activists who kept their prayers short, Ben Ari threw himself down full length on to the ground of the Temple Mount as part of the prayer.
According to those who were with the lawmaker, the Arab bystanders did not respond to Ben Ari’s action. “We scare ourselves for nothing,” said the MK. “Arabs understand what leftists do not understand. We have a right to pray on the Mount.”
Although the Arab security force on the site tried to arrest the MK and two other activists, Ben Ari refused to cooperate, insisted on his diplomatic immunity and claimed his right to pray on the site.Read More:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/155989#.T7rk6sVb76O
…Begin unhesitatingly expressed his strong belief that the government of Israel could not stop Jews from settling all parts of the Land. “Why is it permitted for a Jew to settle and live in Bethel or Shiloh in the United States, towns named after places in Judea and Samaria, but forbidden [for him] to build his home in the original Shiloh
Beth El?” he reportedly asked the President during their meetings. “I shall not lend my hand to discrimination against Jews in the Land of Israel.”….Read More:http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/1257812/jewish/The-Israeli-Prime-Ministers-Jewish-Pride.htm
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