One of the most difficult political realities in Israel, which has been pointed out and bewailed since the third Aliyah from Europe in the 1920s, through the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and most vocally since the right’s political victory in 1977, is the fact that while the Jewish right is equal in numbers and far more productive, it is the Jewish left, and today the Jewish extreme left, that continues to rule the country.
This is the blatant inequity that the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform is attempting to tackle by reversing the outrageous systemic coup d’état the Supreme Court has spearheaded starting in the early 1990s. But while we attempt to undo the harm, I believe we must crack the code of the left’s supremacy.
The sheer number of lies Israeli take as unquestionable truth is staggering: that the left started the Zionist renewal – it didn’t, it was done by religious farmers and later by traditional business-oriented olim; that the majority of Olim from Europe were left-wingers – they weren’t, they were mostly middle-class families that started small businesses in the 1920s and ‘30s; that Israel offered equal opportunities to everyone – it very much did not, favoring the largely Ashkenazi Labor movement over unaffiliated newcomers from Europe and Arab countries. I could continue for hours. The left has also dominated the military – not because they were better or braver, but because they systematically kept right-wingers and religious quality officers from rising in rank, and not years ago but today.
They lie because if we knew the truth, we’d oust them – not from politics, we’ve done that to a large degree; but from their chokehold on all the affairs of the state with their judicial tyranny, and through their complete sphere of influence on business, academia, security, law, and order – you name it, the left controls it.
But how do they do it?
The Book of Judges 9 1-22 offers a unique and satisfying explanation. Here goes:
Avimelech son of Judge Gideon went after the demise of his father to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and spoke to them and the whole clan of his mother’s family. He said, “Put this question to all the citizens of Shechem: which is better for you, to be ruled by seventy men—the sons of Gideon—or to be ruled by one man? And remember, I am your flesh and blood.”
His mother’s brothers and the citizens of Shechem were won over by Abimelech’s argument, thinking, “He is our kinsman.” They gave him seventy shekels from the temple of the idol Baal-Berith, and with this money, Avimelech hired some worthless and reckless men, and they followed him.
Avimelech then went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Gideon, seventy men on one stone. Only Yotam, the youngest son of Gideon, survived because he went into hiding.
All the citizens of Shechem and Beth-Millo convened and proclaimed Avimelech king. When Yotam was informed of this, he stood on top of Mount Gerizim and called out in a loud voice: “Citizens of Shechem! Listen to me, that God may listen to you.”
And Yotam proceeded to tell them the following parable:
“Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree replied, ‘Have I, through whom God and men are honored, stopped yielding my rich oil, that I should go and rule above the trees?’
“So, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the fig tree replied, ‘Have I stopped yielding my sweetness, my delicious fruit, that I should go and rule above the trees?’
“So, the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the vine replied, ‘Have I stopped yielding my new wine, which gladdens God and men, that I should go and rule above the trees?’
“Then, all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and reign over us.’ And the thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you are acting honorably in anointing me king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, may fire issue from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’”
Yotam proceeded to explain his parable to the people of Shechem: “If you acted honorably and loyally in making Avimelech king if you have done right by Gideon and his house and have requited him according to what he deserves – considering that my father fought for you and saved you from the Midianites at a risk to his life, and now you have turned on my father’s household, killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and crowned Avimelech, the son of Gideon’s handmaid, king over the citizens of Shechem just because he is your kinsman…
“If, I say, you have this day acted honorably and loyally toward Gideon and his house, have joy in Avimelech, and may he likewise have joy in you. But if not, may fire issue from Avimelech and consume the citizens of Shechem and Beth-Millo, and may fire issue from the citizens of Shechem and Beth-Millo and consume Avimelech!”
With that, Yotam fled and his half-brother brother Avimelech ruled over Israel for three years. Toward the end of his rule, Avimelech was engaged in putting out one rebellion after another and basically killed all the people of Shechem and its environs who had made him their king. The nightmare ended when a woman threw a millstone from her window on Avimelech and finished him off – although he had time for one last lie, ordering his arms-bearer to kill him so people won’t say a woman killed him. But, you know, Shechem is a small place, word gets around.
The notion that the most potentially harmful people get to rule over society is as old as the planet, and this is true in Israel, too. We are now engaged in a historic rebellion against the powers that be, who are small in numbers but control every position of power. We must not let Avimelech win again.
