Israel is under siege diplomatically, with several
allies announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. At home,
the war’s continuation without a hostage deal and the haredi (ultra-Orthodox)
conscription crisis are tearing the country apart.
A nationwide strike on behalf of the hostages is
planned for Sunday, and there are haredi protests seemingly every time a haredi
youth is arrested for draft evasion.
Add to this the constant speculation over whether the
government will fall – and which party might bring it down – and the atmosphere
is combustible.
And that’s to say nothing of the other fronts demanding
Israel’s constant vigilance: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and the Houthis.
Yet, with all this to address, leading ministers are
spending valuable time and energy on personal score-settling: Defense Minister
Israel Katz with Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Justice Minister Yariv
Levin, and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.
Katz, in what appears to be little more than an effort to
show Zamir who is boss, froze high-level IDF promotions that Zamir recommended,
implying in a social media post that the days when the IDF could act without
government oversight ended with its failures on October 07, 2023.
Levin, locked in a battle with the judiciary since the
current government came to power in December 2022, changed the locks on his Tel
Aviv office to bar the attorney-general – with whom he is engaged in a
prolonged and bitter dispute and whom the government has fired, pending Supreme
Court approval – from entering.
At a
time when Israel’s leaders should be razor-focused on the enormous challenges
ahead, diffusing their energy into petty disputes undermines public trust and
the confidence that they can steer the country out of its precarious situation.
That dysfunction sends exactly the wrong message – both
inside and outside the country – at exactly the wrong time.
A public spat between the defense minister and the chief of
staff, amid rumors that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to fire Zamir
and just a week after a public clash over whether to occupy all of Gaza (Zamir
opposed but was overruled), gives Israel’s many enemies reason to smile.
It signals weakness in the decision-making process,
suggesting that orders will be slower to form and harder to implement. It also
invites exploitation, giving adversaries material to magnify through propaganda,
feeding the perception that Israel is too busy fighting among itself to fight
them.
The lock-changing episode – undermining a Supreme Court
ruling that nothing should be done to impair Baharav-Miara’s ability to do her
job until the court rules on a petition regarding her firing – only deepens the
impression of dysfunction.
At a
critical moment, this broadcasts to Israelis that the government is distracted
by internal battles rather than focused on pressing threats.
That’s a sobering reality for everyone – the families of
hostages; the soldiers and reservists in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, and
Syria; as well as their concerned families who need to believe the country’s
steering wheel is firmly in capable hands.
It’s also true for the broader public, which must trust that
the government can solve problems rather than worsen them through
self-inflicted “own goals.”
Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz captured the sentiment
in a biting social media post: “Who said there are no kindergartens in August?
A justice minister changing the locks in the attorney-general’s office, and a
defense minister busy playing power games with the chief of staff and holding
up key military appointments. This is not how a government is run; this is what
a kindergarten looks like.”
It would be easy to dismiss this as the usual sour musing of
an opposition leader eager for the government’s downfall. But this time,
Gantz’s words seem more apt than the routine criticisms of a frustrated
politician.
Courtesy: The Jerusalem Post
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