Naftali Bennett. 'It's not him, it's his faith'
Photo: AFP
Yisrael Katz. 'Rude, impatient and patronizing'
Photo: Motti Kimchi
Tami Arad
Photo: Vardi Kahana
Apology is weakness, vulgarity is strength
Op-ed: Naftali Bennett sees all Arabs as radical Islamists; when you choose to fight one-fifth of the world's population, you can't afford to apologize.
Despite being a veteran politician, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz
has apparently not met enough bereaved families to know that one doesn't say to a bereaved mother, 'I suggest that you focus on your grief."
Minister Katz was recorded by the "Uvda" investigative television program while talking to the bereaved mother. It doesn’t matter if the show's editors are the ones who encouraged Malka Haham to call the minister. The important thing is that the minister on the other side of the line sounded rude, impatient and patronizing.
Beyond the blatant language, this recommendation points to a basic lack of understanding. Focusing on one's grief may radicalize the mental pain and in the case of Malka Haham, who experienced the loss of two sons in a horrific road accident, it's nothing less than destruction.
Political System
Aviad Kleinberg
Op-ed: In Israel, a convicted criminal can lead a political party carrying a social banner. In Israel, corruption is forgivable; not being 'one of us' is unforgivable.
I don’t know if it was Katz's years-long political career which made him develop a heart of stone, or if he has been carrying this syndrome since childhood. Some politicians have found themselves in the retirement home of politics after making less offensive statements.
The eve of the elections may be the right time to remind all those seeking to reach the Knesset that the essence of the job is public service.
Minister Katz could have told Mrs. Haham in that conversation that he would be glad to listen to what's on her heart without making any commitment. And even after his words were recorded, he could have apologized, had he thought that the arrogance which conquered his tongue might make him lose his spot on the Likud's top league. Katz didn't apologize because he knows that vulgarity and arrogance have never hurt anyone in the Likud. In fact, the opposite may be true.
Dan Meridor and Benny Begin – two affable, liberal and intellectual Knesset members – are an example of politicians discharged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud. I don't mean to generalize and say that all of the Likud's MKs are rude, but the Likud voters should pay attention to the public representatives whose heart has been sealed on the way to the top.
Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett, like Minister Katz, thinks that apologizing is unnecessary. Bennett expanded the acceptable idea that a person should not defend himself or apologize for his opinions, and turned it into a concept of ridiculing any expression of apology in general. The apology's place in cultural behavior is unquestionable, but Bennett has turned it into a sign of weakness and flaccidity.
To clarify the idea: The opposite of apology/self-defense is an attack, but attacking potential voters is unwise. So when Bennett talks about same-sex couples, he doesn’t say that homosexuals and lesbians are beyond Bayit Yehudi's fence. He spins the skullcap on his head and explains that by the power of Jewish faith, he would be offending the freedom of the individual of those who in his eyes – the eyes of the ruling Judaism – don't sit under his vine and his fig.
It's not him. It's faith. That's also the reason why Bennett doesn’t apologize for the funds he funnels to settlers instead of to the residents of the periphery, who are suffering from discrimination and neglect. The faith in the Greater Land of Israel overrides social justice.
These days, as radical Islam sows terror in the world, Bennett and Netanyahu are teaming up and riding the donkey of the intimidation discourse. See what happened in France? That's what will happen in Israel if Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog get the voter's trust, as if a ticking bomb of about three million oppressed Palestinians will not blow up in our faces if Netanyahu continues the diplomatic stalemate, or if Bennett imposes a halachic state here.
That's also the reason why Bennett feels no need to apologize to Israel's Arab citizens, who he sees as second-class citizens. Bennett, like Netanyahu, sees all Arabs as radical Islam. And when you choose to fight one-fifth of the world's population, you can't afford to apologize. It's difficult not to agree with this kind of logic.
