이스라엘 대통령 헤르쪼그

이스라엘의 좌파 미디어 HaAretz는 '모두깎기'라는 미디어의 별명에 딱 들어맞는 캐릭터다. 이들에게 대안은 없다. 그냥 다 까는 게 전부다. 이들의 속성이 피곤하면서도 제대로 까 주면 시원하긴 하다. 이스라엘 현 대통령 이츠하크 헤르쪼그에 대한 기사가 나왔다. 까다까다 이제 참. 그래도 재미는 있다. 

 

 

Israeli President Herzog has taken sides – he chose the wrong one

This time too, President Isaac Herzog has preferred an indecent compromise over matters of principles, proving that Netanyahu and his allies knew what they were doing when they elected him to the job.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Shas leader Arye Dery knew what they were doing when they elected Isaac Herzog, the poster boy of First Israel – privileged Israel – as Israeli president in 2021 in a Knesset vote. They couldn’t have dreamed of a more fitting person for the moment when they would seek to carry out regime change.

Herzog doesn’t appear to be the type of leader a state of emergency demands. He was diligent and effective in making his way in politics. He loyally served two patrons, but he never made his mark or brought about historic change in his three decades in the political game.

After losing to Netanyahu in the 2015 election, he became a sluggish leader of the opposition who looked for the fast track to the cabinet room instead of mounting a persistent battle against the government in an effort to replace it.

His attempts to fit in failed, and after he was deposed from the Labor Party leadership, he became the chairman of the Jewish Agency, from which he quietly but persistently – in keeping with his character – planned his campaign for the presidency.

During the time Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's "government of change" was in power, Herzog was very popular. But following Netanyahu’s reelection last year, there were those who warned him that the honeymoon was over, that the presidency was no reality show and that he would quickly have to stand up and serve as a lodestar in the face of the calamity expected from Levin, Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir. The president appeared to them to be very stressed out by what was awaiting him.

After the new Netanyahu government announced its intention to bring down the last remnant of Israeli democracy, Herzog intensified discussions with the party leaders in the government coalition and the opposition in a bid to create “dialogue,” as if what was happening here was a legitimate fight between two sides both of which had a just cause and which, when all was said and done, needed a responsible adult to mediate between them.

Instead of making it clear from the outset after the regime change plan was launched that he wouldn’t serve as president of a post-democratic country, Herzog toiled away on a dangerous compromise plan that, if accepted, would weaken the High Court of Justice and increase the politicization of the Judicial Appointments Committee.

In his address to the nation on Sunday evening, he also created a false symmetry between supporters of the regime change, which he called a “reform,” and those who oppose it. He didn’t utter a word about the root cause of all the government’s actions – Netanyahu’s criminal trial, in addition to Dery’s additional criminal conviction and disqualification from office as a cabinet minister. Instead, he evoked Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, the gaping wound over which the right wing purportedly wants to change Israel’s system of government.

One point in the president’s speech was on the mark. From the time of Israel’s establishment, the representation of Mizrahi Jews on the Supreme Court has been offensively low, the product of the arrogance of representatives involved in the appointment process. Herzog acknowledged that the issue has disturbed him for many years.

It’s interesting, however, that we only learned of this on Sunday evening. In the past, Herzog was even a member of the Judicial Appointments Committee, but it’s difficult to find any statement from him condemning the injustice or any effort to rectify the situation. His comments sounded like lip service to “comrades” from someone who’s an expert in walking a fine line.

In recent months, the president has spoken with several key political figures. They had the impression that his preferred way out of the situation was the formation of a national unity government headed by Netanyahu. Speaking to the politicians, Herzog had praise for an article in Haaretz's Hebrew edition in which Yuli Tamir proposed a “dirty deal” in which Netanyahu’s trial would be suspended and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz would replace Smotrich and Ben-Gvir as coalition partners.

 

Herzog will always prefer indecent compromises to standing firm when it comes to matters of principle, along with the personal and political risks involved. In this sense, he’s maintaining a family tradition.

1984년 'Bus 300'으로 통칭되는 이스라엘 안보기관 최대 스캔들, Alex Levac

His father, the late President Chaim Herzog, buried the Bus 300 affair – the 1984 case involving two terrorists who were captured alive and later killed. The late president granted clemency to senior officials in the Shin Bet security agency who participated in the killing and who had orchestrated false testimony that was given to official investigative committees. Later Chaim Herzog also repeatedly cut the sentences of members of the Jewish underground who had been sentenced to life terms, in the process demonstrating the establishment’s highest level of forgiveness for Jewish terrorism.

Isaac Herzog tried to please both sides in his televised address – praising the protesters and also identifying with the pain of the right wing. He warned of the danger to democracy but also criticized the “fixation” on the judiciary. But when the speech is stripped of its verbal frills, and we get to the core of the remarks, we understand that the president has taken sides. But he chose the wrong one.