Olmert to 'Post': Police vs. the citizens reflects public outrage

They will continue to demonstrate until Netanyahu leaves, and with him his delusional wife and deranged son.

By EHUD OLMERT
DEMONSTRATORS AND POLICE interact outside the home of Public Security Minister Amir Ohana in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
DEMONSTRATORS AND POLICE interact outside the home of Public Security Minister Amir Ohana in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
The demonstrations have long stopped being a “picante” event, or a one-time outburst.
They have become the most authentic and powerful expression of something deep and substantial, which have swept up large sections of the Israeli public. They are comprised of mostly, but certainly not only, the younger generation in their 20s and 30s, and those a bit older, but still much younger than some of the protesters who flocked to the streets in the past.
Last Saturday was a milestone. At Balfour, thousands gathered. Also in Tel Aviv, and at countless intersections and bridges throughout the country. This protest can’t be stopped. This melody, as the famous Air Force song goes, will not stop.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands, knows and recognizes this. No one is better than him in being able to feel the most subtle sounds of the public’s mood. He knows the protesters are not leftists or right wingers, nor are they anarchists or just plain crazy. They are a bit of everything. But, mainly, they are the best of the young people of the State of Israel, the ones who for years we have been complaining about being wrapped up in their own affairs, cut off from what is happening in the public, in society, in politics.
So that’s it – not anymore. This youth have woken up. Contrary to what is commonly believed, or assumed, these demonstrations were not born out of the coronavirus crisis, so those who believe that a change in the pattern of conduct on the subject of the virus will kill the protests do not understand anything. This protest will not die and it will not calm down. These young people will not stay in their homes; they do not go to their workplaces, anyway, because there is no work. At least at this point there is no work.
They will continue to demonstrate until Netanyahu leaves, and with him his delusional wife and deranged son – and Balfour, the residence and the concept, will be cleansed until whoever is found worthy to replace them arrives.
The demonstrations were not born out of the coronavirus, and not even because of the extremely disturbing unemployment that hit so many to the point of them losing their livelihoods. The protest has been maturing for a long time in the stomachs of so many. It began with a growing sense of disgust among many in the face of what seemed like an inability to create a horizon of hope and a future that would ensure the next generation of Israelis a proper existence, a life of peace, ending regional conflicts in general and especially with the Palestinians, with whom we lost our desire to talk and to establish a true peace.
The Israeli public has lost patience in the face of the criminal neglect of various sectors that determine our quality and way of life. The failure in managing the coronavirus reflects not only helplessness, an inability to make balanced decisions in conditions of uncertainty and a lack of level-headedness, patience and restraint, this failure is first and foremost the failure in the management of the health system in the last 10 years. The neglect of the healthcare system; the lack of a broad academic infrastructure for training doctors for the numbers needed for a country with nine million inhabitants; a severe shortage in the standards of the hospital system due to budget cuts and a dire waste of money in sectors that could have been saved and the outrageous discrimination against young doctors, nurses, public administration workers in the public health system have all created a situation that led to the helplessness and the failure to manage the coronavirus crisis. These have led, in addition, to neglect, panic and the lack of a minimal amount of attention of the top leadership, led by the prime minister, to what needs to be done efficiently, urgently and with dedication.
The public is fed up with the appalling social gap, which is unmatched in any of the developed countries in the world. The worn-out slogans about the level of employment in Israel cannot cover up for the fact that hundreds of thousands of families receive minimum wage, which does not allow for a dignified existence. These hundreds of thousands of families are not impressed by the prime minister’s polished speeches on government achievements. Their bank account influences them, and makes an impression on them much more.
The young people who are demonstrating at intersections, bridges, Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv and the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem are doing so because they have been sick and tired of this for a very long time.
They are sick and tired of the political leadership’s disregard for the basic rules of having a life with respect, tolerance, restraint and consideration. They are sick and tired of seeing leadership that is not really concerned with what is important to the public, with what could have improved the quality of life for the residents of the country. They are sick and tired with a situation where it is impossible to buy an apartment at a reasonable price, from which there is no escape from being enslaved to mortgage payments.
They hate the contempt of the political leadership, with its readiness to toss around the country with three elections in a year and a half, and maybe soon with a fourth election. We, the elderly, the experienced, who have seen so much over the last few decades, have disrespected our young public. We thought they were indifferent, that they did not really care.
We, who are observing from a certain distance because we currently have no responsibility for the management of state affairs – we may, with an emphasis on the “may” – have the privilege not to understand, to think that our youth are not really attentive and not really involved.
But those who have such a fundamental responsibility to make fateful decisions and navigate the way the country is run - they too did not understand. They even thought that these young people –  who, according to Nir Adan, a former security guard to the prime minister who is the son of Omer Adan and the grandson of the distinguished general Avraham Adan, wrote, among other things: “I am one of those whom you and many others called the salt of the earth. Well, from those people who joined the army, from those who buried friends, from those who followed you blindly” – are simply indifferent.
So it turns out they are not. They have been accumulating the frustration. They kept their disappointments inside, they were tormented by feelings of ‘maybe, perhaps, let’s wait, let’s see, let’s hold back’ – until everything burst out. The coronavirus just happened to be the catalyst, but not the cause, the cause is all the other things that accumulated until everything exploded. Everything that is not good here. Everything that is disappointing. Everything we all know is unbearable. Basically - everything that Netanyahu and his family symbolize for a large part of Israeli society that is no longer willing to restrain itself.
Netanyahu claims that it is the radical Left, savage anarchists, haters of Israel. He’s made me laugh. He’s made them laugh. These are the people who have voted Likud, Yamina, Blue and White, Labor, Meretz, Shas and United Torah Judaism. They are the people of Israel. They have simply decided not to restrain themselves anymore and they will continue to assemble in the streets, gather at intersections and storm Paris Square in Jerusalem next to the Prime Minister’s Residence.
Netanyahu knows the truth. He understands that this tune – he cannot stop it. He wants a confrontation with the police, and he hopes that this confrontation will be violent and maybe even bloody. Because this is perhaps the only opportunity that Netanyahu has to stop the protest before the force of it will blow him out of Balfour.
Our police are part of the people, and they are responsible and not eager to get into clashes with protesters. However, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, was appointed to his post precisely for this confrontation. He will push the commanders, pressure the units and spur the police fighters, and in the end, somewhere, something unexpected or more likely undesirable will happen. A police officer will use exaggerated force, a demonstrator will react excessively, and in the end there will be bloodshed, and there will be seriously injured people, or even, God forbid, worse than that.
This is what Netanyahu is hoping for. When it happens, emergency plans will be implemented, decrees will be issued and demonstrations and processions will be banned. The legal infrastructure has been prepared, the demonstrations are getting worse, the instructions to the police have already been given, the minister is pressuring the commanders – now it has to happen.
It may already happen this week, maybe next week. And as stated – it will then only be necessary to issue the emergency orders, which the Knesset has already given approval for. And then what? You’ve all made me laugh. Nothing. The demonstrations will continue, the clashes will intensify, the violence will increase – until Netanyahu runs away. At first he will hide in Caesarea. Then somewhere else, perhaps in the depths of the sea, in a place designed to absorb leaders in a time of need.
This melody will not be stopped.