Rick’s Weekly Wrap: From tents to tables and protests to riots

Why aren’t doctors allowed to resign in Israel? Where have all the tents gone? And what the heck is happening to Israeli diplomacy in the Middle East? Raging Rechavia “Rick” Berman gives you the week’s top stories as they ought to be told. A weekly feature on +972

Rick's Weekly Wrap: From tents to tables and protests to riots
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai at #j14 roundtable (Photo: Activestills)

By Rechavia “Rick” Berman

Welcome to another excursion to the edge of the abyss, courtesy of Weekend Holyland Wrap airlines. Please take all necessary precautions on the trip today as the volcano is acting up just a li’l over the past week or so.

#J14 seems to be floundering, although some of my friends insist that it is merely reshaping and reloading. After the big demo last week the various municipalities, led by Tel Aviv, began to prepare motions to reclaim the central urban locations claimed by the tent encampments. Somehow, and I’m sure this will shock you to no end, this did not go down smoothly. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai (whose surname, incidentally, means “The Rat”) promised the encampment leaders that he wouldn’t send city inspectors to evict them forcefully without coming to an agreement first, and then turned around and did just that. This ignited a protest outside the Municipality, at which some 40 people were arrested, many with no cause whatsoever.

The cops, who behaved more violently than they have since the protests began around Bastille Day, were probably acting in part on the fury of having been played for fools. Remember when the protests just began, and the government quickly announced a big hike in the salary of new cops? Well, turns out that added salary is subject to the ole “unattainable benchmarks” ploy. By the time they qualify for the raise on rookie pay, they have long ceased to be rookies. Kinda like the way sports contracts are reported: “Michael Vick Signed a $100 Million Dollar Contract” screams the headline, and in much smaller type: “of which $30 million is guaranteed”. The difference is that in Vick’s case it’s still a shitload of money for one person, even if that person has an entourage and domicile upkeep and babymamas that you and I don’t have to pay for. The cops were offered a somewhat decent sum, still leaving them underpaid, and then discovered even that much won’t happen.

Now cops can’t strike, but doctors can – or so we thought. The 5-month doctor strike ended after the Israeli Medical Association reached a deal with the government. Many of the residents felt that the deal short-shafted them significantly, as even after the “raise”, they were slated to make about $14-15 an hour. Residents. Board-certified MD’s who’ve put in about seven years of training, not counting their undergrad degree. Sure, there’s all sorts of “overtime” schemes designed to make that base figure somehow livable, but that is the base figure.

So the residents went beyond the strike, and said “ya know what? Screw it. We quit.” The court came back and said “No, you can’t.” Read that sentence again. Doctors, not cops or soldiers. Now, the docs made a pretty big tactical mistake, filing their resignations as a bloc, rather than each one of the thousand or so individually. This gave the State leeway to say it wasn’t really a resignation but a group bargaining ploy, subject to the court’s power to regulate. Still, it was a miserable decision by the court, compounded when one of the judges admitted “we would have decided the same even if the resignations were legal.” So far, it doesn’t seem that the court has an answer to “OK, you call it illegal. They still refuse to work. You gonna move surgeon’s hands for him, yerhonor?

That court wasn’t the only supposedly wise and learned group to make a decision so bad, terrible, no good at all on so many levels. J-Street, the organization that sold itself as representing those in the American Jewish Community who support peace, has caved in stunning fashion, rendering itself no more than AIPAC lite. One can think that the PA going to the UN is a bad idea, but to support an American veto is to support the status-quo of having “solutions” and “compromises” dictated to the Palestinians by a US that sits squarely in Israel’s pocket. J-Street could have said “We do not believe that a bid for UN recognition at this time will further a peaceful solution,” and left it at that. If they really wanted to put some heart into it, they could have added “However we welcome the opportunity to have the international community uphold the two-state solution so clearly. We call upon the Israeli government to enter rapid discussions to make this a joint initiative rather than a potentially destructive unilateral one.”

But with one very unfortunate addition, they have placed themselves in a position from which it is incredibly difficult both to communicate with Palestinians on a meaningful level, and to distinguish themselves from AIPAC. Sure, they can have their rhetorical trappings, but when push comes to shove, they vote the Israeli-government line like tatalach (good little boys, in Yiddish).

Back to J14, beyond the resistance to encampment takedowns (which is important where the campers don’t actually have a home to go back to, less so in the vast majority if not all of celebrated Rothschild Blvd), the main new activity is the “thousand round tables” – you fill a large plaza with round tables, and the people come to meet people and talk about the issues, and kinda like speed dating you’re supposed to switch tables a little throughout the evening. Some of the more radical J14 supporters are treating this as milquetoast, but at the same time some bona-fide badass dudes, like my boy Assaf Cohen (aka the blogger Mermit), are totally into the tables scene. I’m grounded transportation-wise (don’t ask), but they had one here in my town and I’ma go to the next one. Thing is, though, every 10-person table is headed by a “guide”. Who’s doing the guiding? Unclear to me at this point.

In media, a watershed moment was reached when Channel 10 was forced to air a humiliating apology to Sheldon Adleson for an expose they did about him, as employees were told that it was “air the apology or fold the network.” The editor of Channel 10 News, Reudor Benziman, the editor of the Friday night news Ruti Yuval, and the anchor of the weekend edition Guy Zohar all quit in protest – the anchor after stonily reading the apology to start his last show on the air. Channel 10 basically announced to the world: We OK the airing serious allegations against Forbes 500 listers without the least bit due diligence, and our reporters, editors, fact checkers and legal department are all a joke,” as they begged forgiveness for having dared to mention that some suspect Adleson got his gaming license for the Venetian through the greasing of palms. Cause that could never happen in Vegas.

With an eye to the south, the government has announced it will pass a plan that calls for the forced removal of some 30,000 Bedouins – a population, to those keeping score at home, which serves in the IDF. With distinction. I don’t enjoy agreeing with Islamists, but Knesset Member Taleb a-Sana (Ta’al-Ra’am) is obviously correct in saying that “this stupid government will bring about a Bedouin Intifada.” And when that happens Netanyahu, Liberman and the rest of the chest-puffers will wrap themselves in their righteousness and say “It’s because we’re Jews. They hate Jews.”

And finally on the econo-social front, before we turn to the borders: The Student Association, which had been a major force in the protest wave in cash and manpower, did its own thing and organized a boycott with the Tnuva dairy and produce giant. The boycott, aimed at lowering prices of staples, was quite successful, as it led the Chairman of the Industrial Board to ride the hyperbole mechanical bull for all its worth, yelping out that the boycott was “anarchism” and that “imagine if we decide not to accept job applications from Tel Aviv University graduates?” (to which the answer is “imagine a class action suit, dumbass. Next?”)

By now the Palmer Report itself is old news, as the Turkish government under Erdogan sputters new indignations and reductions of ties with Israel almost daily. The report, which pleased no-one as many such often do, concluded on the one hand that the Turks stirred up the pot for the sake of it, but that Israel’s response was excessively forceful. Hidden in this dryly, diplomatically couched document, is a simple glaring fact: Israel STILL has no explanation as to how of nine total killed, five were killed by shots to the back of the head, one of who at point blank while the victim was lying down. A sixth man was shot from a speedboat. All nine casualties were unarmed when they were shot. Israel, a country that has often boasted that its post-op study process was what gave it such an edge over our neighbors, is seriously trying to claim that its most select and elite fighters cannot recall shooting men to death.

In response to Turkey’s slap in Israel’s face following the release of the report, which finally bottomed out at only second level secretaries and consuls remaining to represent Israel in Turkey, our own wise and learned Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, suggested that Israel hurt Turkey back by shaming it with the Armenian genocide as a concerted diplomatic effort (cynical, us? Nah….) and supporting its internal enemies, such as the Kurdish PKK (a US-defined terror organization). Sane. I forgot to mention that the man is also very very sane.

As if this wasn’t enough for Israel’s beleaguered international and regional standing, late in the week the people in Cairo directed their revolutionary zeal towards the terribly offensive presence of an Israeli embassy on the top two floors of an ugly-ass building. Apparently the crowd got in far enough to get hold of some stationery, but no nefarious incriminating stuff been recovered that I know of. Bibi had to thank Obama for making Tantawi actually take Barak’s call to coordinate an airlift of the staff.

The Weekly Holyland Wrap is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your senses and check your comments where appropriate. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.

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Rick’s book, “Jewcy Story”, a popular history of the 2nd Temple Era, can be bought for Amazon Kindle, for cell phone or for PC here.