It has been three months of madness, and nausea, and laughter, and utter astonishment, and dread, and amusement. Dear Lord, where did all this come from?
On second thought, I think I know where it came from: Once upon a time, many years ago, there were ragtag traveling circuses, with melancholy animals, dejected clowns, paunchy acrobats and Indian snake charmers with Polish accents. And they often had a special carriage or tent with them with a variety of bizarre acts to amaze the children.
And you, Lord, wandered among all these circuses and collected all the special exhibits from them – the bearded lady, the biggest dwarf, the two-headed calf, the stuttering ventriloquist, the elderly mermaid, the boy who was raised by wolves, and the fakir who lies on a bed of nails and then eats the nails. You gathered all of these together, and you brought them to us, to be our fully-fully right-wing government.
For three months they’ve ruled us. Not a single useful, important, successful, or even just nice thing has come from them. Government ministries were handed out like candies. Ministry directors general with no qualifications were appointed. Budgets soared with no source of financing. At least two ministers made themselves at home in every ministry. The finance minister doesn’t know how to read, write or speak English (How in God’s name did he ever become a lawyer without reading articles and rulings in English?), the police minister is a pathetic thug with a criminal past and persistent opponent of a law that is supposed to protect women. It’s no wonder his wife says she keeps a gun on her.
Chametz patrols at the hospitals, exclusion of women as desired, bans on short pants and short sleeves near the Western Wall, no core curriculum requirements for schools, canceling the sugar tax, money-money-money and more money… and that’s just a partial list of the fundamentalist demands, of the cost of buying the support of the Haredim in the coalition.
The prime minister stands erect under his wife’s heel and listens submissively to the orders of his unhinged son. A flock of shrill cheerleaders flood the web. A bill to permit bribes is in the process of being legislated. The public will pay for the upkeep and indulgences of two residences (Why not the third, too, the one at 4 Haportzim Street? Did the First Lady somehow not notice?)
Zero in foreign policy. Two zeros in domestic policy. Three zeroes in addressing any civil issue whatsoever. Driving down the currency, rattling the stock market, a lifeless parliament, a zombie party, criminal coalition partners. Legislation of two despicable bills for the sole purpose of saving one criminal defendant and one convict. And, of course, a stubborn attempt to crush the justice system and erect a genuine dictatorship on its ruins. An attempt that is still ongoing.
All of this in just three short months of a fully-fully right-wing government. Three months of mounting insanity, boundless arrogance, incredible clumsiness and blatant racism.
We will have to store these three months in our memory, study them and learn from them. Maybe even make them part of the national curriculum. That we may all know and remember what happens when the worst kind of right-wing characters get into power. Because this is exactly what the next “fully-fully right-wing” government will look like.
As these words are being written, at eight in the morning after the fiasco, the bullying voice of the constitution committee chairman is still being heard on the radio, carrying on as usual. With his tenacity and style, he surely deserves the title of the “dictatorship’s watchdog.”
Three Months of Madness: What a Fully Right-wing Government Has Done to Israel
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29.03.2023
It has been three months of madness, and nausea, and laughter, and utter astonishment, and dread, and amusement. Dear Lord, where did all this come from?
On second thought, I think I know where it came from: Once upon a time, many years ago, there were ragtag traveling circuses, with melancholy animals, dejected clowns, paunchy acrobats and Indian snake charmers with Polish accents. And they often had a special carriage or tent with them with a variety of bizarre acts to amaze the children.
And you, Lord, wandered among all these circuses and collected all the special exhibits from them – the bearded lady, the biggest dwarf, the two-headed calf, the stuttering ventriloquist, the elderly mermaid, the boy who was raised by wolves, and the fakir who lies on a bed of nails and then eats the nails. You gathered all of these together, and you brought them to us, to be our fully-fully right-wing government.
For three months........
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