A Unity Government – the Only Option
An Israeli government with the Arab Joint List party in its coalition would be dangerous. Hopefully President Rivlin will take this danger into account when he decides whom to designate to form the next government.
Likud and the Blue and White Party should ideally form a national unity government. The advantage of such a government is obvious. Most importantly, it would be stable as it would have a solid Knesset majority.
The alternatives are Lieberman joining Likud, which would give Netanyahu a very shaky majority, or the Arab party joining Blue and White and becoming privy to all state secrets. Neither alternative is desirable.
Nelson Marans
New York, NY
Energy Independent
Since President Trump came into office, American crude-oil production has increased by more than 40 percent. As a result, gasoline prices have come down – and would have decreased even more had some of the world’s largest producers, like Saudi Arabia, not purposefully cut oil production.
America is now energy independent. We are no longer dependent on OPEC petroleum and unstable Arab oil producers. That’s why the recent attack on Saudi Arabia’s petroleum facility had little effect on the price of gasoline in America. President Trump deserves credit for our current position of strength.
Arthur Horn
Fort Lee, NJ
Betrayed Before
The 1992 elections brought Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres to power. It was a close election, but Labor was put over the top by a deal made with the Arab parties.
What could Rabin have promised the anti-Zionist, pro-PLO Arab parties? The answer came rather quickly after the elections. Despite Rabin’s campaign promise that he would never consider recognizing a “Palestinian” state in the Land of Israel or the PLO as legitimate, he signed the Oslo Accords and enabled Yasser Arafat’s triumphant return to the heart of our land.
Since 1992, the Arab parties have not been involved in forming a governing coalition. But that streak has ended. Benny Gantz’s very first coalition phone call after the election was made to Joint List, a party that encourages terror against Israeli soldiers and denies the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Gantz called Ayman Odeh, head of the 13-seat strong Joint List.
The details of that conversation are not known, but why do I keep thinking of 1992? In 1996, when Peres lost a tight election to Netanyahu, he was asked, “Who lost?” He replied, “The Israelis.” “And who won?” he was asked. “The Jews,” he replied.
Take that in for a long moment. It says a great deal about the identity of those living in Israel today. In the past, deals with Arab parties and local Arab “vote contractors” were made but well concealed. Today, we are seeing open cooperation between extreme anti-religious Jews (“Israelis”) and anti-Israel Arabs.
The “Jews” will have to deal with the “Israeli” challenge.
Shalom Pollack
Jerusalem, Israel
We Must Defend Ourselves
Our community is blessed with fantastic organizations that prevent and report crime. They are very effective in assisting police departments arrest people who break into cars and burglarize homes.
Anti-Semitic attacks, however, are a different animal. Our politicians are talking the talk in responding to these attacks but are not walking the walk. The number of attacks continues to increase, and the NYPD even seems to be taking the side of the aggressors in some cases and punishing the victims.
The time has come for our community to take full advantage of self-defense laws. We must teach attackers that they will suffer, thereby discouraging other possible perpetrators from carrying out an attack.
How can we accomplish this? First and foremost, Jews must learn to defend themselves. They must obtain all weapons that they may legally own. The Jewish community must also start a response group with the goal of defending Jews under attack by whatever means necessary.
This new organization should not be subservient to the constant misjudgment of the NYPD. It should rather unapologetically defend Jews from anti-Semitic aggressors. It should convey the message: Jews will not be weak. Jews will not be victims anymore.
Oze