1.
If we had to summarize the upheavals of the past week in one paragraph, then Mr. Carmeli in the announcement did it best. Note:
""Imagine that you live in a building where, among other things, the chairman of a large and well-known commercial company lives. One day you want to run for chairman of the house committee, but that powerful neighbor is vehemently opposed and makes it clear to you that, knowing you, you have no experience in management and therefore cannot trust your candidacy and is even working to torpedo it.".
"Then, a few weeks later, he knocks on your door and invites you to serve as CEO of the company he heads from one day to the next. How would you react? How would the neighbors react? How would the board of directors react?""
This week's political map, as usual.
""If we were to recount here the amount of mutual slander between Lieberman and Netanyahu in the past year, we would need a special canvas," and here, the two are going to walk together, hand in hand, in one coalition, with Netanyahu appointing Lieberman to the most senior position - Minister of Defense in the State of Israel.
2.
I also found an interesting summary, in a slightly different direction, by Aryeh Zisman at Betad Ne'eman:
""And finally, all that remains is to imagine the following global situation: Donald Trump - President of the United States, Avigdor Lieberman - Minister of Defense of the State of Israel, Vladimir Putin - President of Russia. World War III...""
Here is the place to add the note that appears in the same newspaper, on the front page, under the heading 'Warmth Alert' - "NASA predicts: 2016 will be the 'hottest year in history'," and next to the headline, in parentheses, appear the words: "But they're not the ones who decide.".
Trump, Lieberman and Putin... World War III? So that's it, they're not the ones deciding.
3.
Each day, the frenetic political week was summed up differently.
After describing Herzog's problems at home, as well as Lieberman's difficulties, they concluded with the words (not yet a summary): "Now the game begins: Lieberman is waiting for Netanyahu to officially offer him the defense portfolio, and Herzog will now run to his party members and say, 'You decide: it's me or Lieberman. It's Ya'alon or Lieberman, the defense minister. It's peace or war.'" Interim summary: The big winner - Avigdor Lieberman. The big loser: Yitzhak Bozhi Herzog.
"Netanyahu, in any case, will expand his government next week, but will prefer Herzog. Now it's clear: Herzog or Lieberman.".
And now for the real conclusion, please note:
""While the political system is seething, there is one person who doesn't get excited. He is the genius of the bunch, reads the map as it unfolds. He understands everything, knows what will happen in the final move, he is a chess player, the best in the neighborhood.".
Did you guess? Don't say you didn't know that the writer was referring to Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri.
4.
Say what you will about Moshe Gafni, he is not a political sucker.
So it is true that the agreement that was reached in recent days between Rabbi David Shapira, the grandson of the Grand Rabbi Steinman, and Shlomi Emunim Chairman Deputy Minister Meir Porush, was not carried out with his heartfelt support, but he knew.
They informed him. They didn't really consult, to be precise.
From here, pay attention to the story that political commentator Yaakov Rivlin tells in the community.
""On Wednesday afternoon this week, a meeting was scheduled to take place in Bnei Brak between senior Degel and AGUI officials at the Vizhnitz Hotel in Bnei Brak.
""In any case, the circumstances surrounding the meeting indicate more about the mood and bad blood in the movement than anything that was supposed to come up in it.".
""It started with Gafni requesting the meeting and being answered in the affirmative, but with a stipulation of location: at the Agudat Yisrael offices in Bnei Brak. Gafni responded: Only at the Degel HaTorah offices. Agudat Yisrael Secretary General Hanoch Seibert: We are going after the defendant and you are the one suing us. Gafni: Just a neutral place. Seibert: Then it will be at the Vizhnitz Hotel. Gafni: That's acceptable to me, we will meet on Wednesday at five in the afternoon.
""Late in the evening of Tuesday this week, Gafni was given the opportunity. The Vizhnitz Hotel is privately owned, but in every other respect it is an Agudai stronghold. Both in terms of location, in the heart of the Hasidic Kirya, and in terms of history. Several meetings of the Agudai Council of Torah Scholars were held at this location. Oops, how did I forget that, Gafni probably said to himself and quickly announced the cancellation of the meeting. The official reason: scheduling constraints.".
Looking back, imagine for yourself what the reason for the cancellation was. After all, Gafni knew: after getting along with Porush, and giving him his share of the independent education, the entire balance of power between Aguda and Degel would change, in Degel's favor. And what was the point of the meeting with Seibert?
5.
Hidden in the margins of the political columns of A Family is an equally good column - Israel Yoskowitz's column, 'Political Asylum.'.
The column features interesting political news. This week, it surprised with an exclusive piece of news that hasn't appeared anywhere else.
""In these news items, we are revealing for the first time a disturbing event that occurred in recent weeks against the backdrop of the soldier shooting incident in Hebron - Elor Azaria, an event that has worrying dimensions that raise troubling questions about the leadership in Israel.
""It is less relevant what exactly the soldier did, and whether there is justice in putting him on trial. There is no question that when Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot seeks to refresh the IDF's moral norms following the incident and he talks about being first and foremost a moral army – he is doing the right thing. And so thought Netanyahu's advisor, Boaz Stambler, who quickly issued a statement to the media on behalf of the Prime Minister backing up the Chief of Staff's statements.
""Stambler undoubtedly made a mistake when he released a statement to journalists without coordinating with Netanyahu. But the content of the statement, which was intended to express support for the Chief of Staff, for some reason irritated his inner circle. One of the family members drew Netanyahu's attention to the statement, and Stambler was urgently summoned to the bureau for a hearing prior to his dismissal.
""The threat of firing the hardworking advisor has been lifted for the time being, but through all of this a worrying picture emerges. A picture of a leader who sanctifies moral values for the sake of expanding the Halcotteret.".
Excellent news. There's just one small 'problem': Stumbler denies that this happened. To the HADAM, he says.
And another problem, a little more significant: Stumbler was not asked to comment on what was written about him...
Columnist Israel Yoskowitz responded: "90% From the story, the controversy was only over the issue of the threat of dismissal. He was severely reprimanded.".
6.
Not for the first time, I found myself agreeing with Aryeh Erlich, in his column in the family.
Under the title "Forgiveness, an Unhappy Man," it recounts the story of the deserter who was captured in Eilat, how "we - those who are not swept away by the turmoil that everyone knows what is behind it, we - those who are convinced by their clear vision and by the divine help that accompanies the great men of Israel, and if most of them have placed their hands on the amendment to the conscription law - a sign that there is nothing better than this," us, "they won.".
How did they win?
""Well, they defeated us by making our hearts grow coarse in a lone yeshiva boy who stumbled where he stumbled. They defeated us by making us take pleasure in making him a victim - just because they made him a symbol.".
""From the moment they declared him a 'prisoner of the Torah' - we, or parts of us, were obsessed with only one thing: to destroy this guy's image, to publicly list his deeds, to publicly display his disgrace, to detail his deeds with supreme pleasure, in boundless expansion, in exaggeration without boycott.".
After all, he's right.
7.
When both weeklies - Family and Community - interview the same interviewee - there is added value to the interviewer's personal introduction.
This is what happened this week, and with considerable prominence, surrounding the interview conducted with the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and Acting Mayor, Yitzhak Pindros, on the occasion of his return to the position of Deputy Mayor.
In Bakhiya, interviewer Yehuda Rost provided an excellent interview, but in the competitor, Family, Shimon Britkoff provided not only a similar interview, but also excerpts of his own at the beginning of the article. Excerpts that are more important than the interview itself.
Pay attention to parts of the introduction:
""There aren't many people - not even in the political system, accustomed to betrayals and disappointments - who would have sat in the roller coaster car where Yitzhak Pindaros sat in recent years and would have emerged smiling at the wider world.
""He keeps the dizzying route he traveled well in his heart, perhaps one day he will open the cards," which means that we will not clearly understand the points to which the author alludes, since Pindarus remains silent.
But you have to admit that a sentence like: "Today he was forced to arrive in very high shoes that barely manage to protect him from the snakes and scorpions that surround the pit that has been emptied of positions and stuff" - arouses curiosity.
Who are the enemies? It's not Gafni, because, as it later states, "the only one who acted to save his trampled honor was MK Moshe Gafni, who, in addition to the fact that he accumulated long hours on the phone with the Pindaros family and did everything to lift their depressed spirits, insisted that Pindaros receive the deputies in the second half of the term and also insisted that he also receive the prestigious title of Deputy Prime Minister.".
So who are his enemies? For those familiar with the internal political map of Degla, it's not hard to guess who they are. He, Pindarus, won't say a word about it.
""The long knives were drawn the moment the election results were announced. He was removed from managing the coalition negotiations, and when the time came to divide the spoils, he was informed that all his titles had been taken from him." By whom? Pindaros is silent again.
Silent, but chose the option of silence. "Pindros faced two options: to become a bitter opposition to the system, to cry about his fate in the pages of the press, to try to sabotage the achievements of his faction members, and above all to prove that he does not accept authority from anyone and that no one will subdue him, or to accept the movement's verdict. To bow his head and reinvent himself.".
And that's what he did.
And in the competition between the two similar articles, a family definitely wins.
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