Upside down or backwards

Upside down or backwards

Suppose you read your morning newspaper and read that there is a plan to ease up the terms of imprisonment of the murderer of our Prime Minister. Or suppose you read that, although all citizens in our country are equal, some of them cannot rent your flats and some of them are not to be seen with our daughters, let alone marry them.

Let me go on a limb here: suppose you read in your newspaper that, let's say, if you are religious, you have no need to abide to any law in our country. And then you read – again – that your current Prime Minister (who was never really elected for this job as he lost the elections), has his own an special version of world events.

You would think you live in an upside down world. Your first reaction would be: everyone has gone crazy. You call a few friends to check if they read it too and if they understood the same and then it hits you: this is reality!

In Israel 2011 you may get the feeling that the inmates took over the asylum – or, depending on your beliefs, that the days of deliverance have come. In our reality, Wikileaks are just nothing compared to what our current government is capable of: they simply change our reality and rewrite it on the spot! Our former President found guilty of rape, sexual harassment, lies and threats? You have a few rabbis doubt the court from one angle, while from another angle you make sure the public gets to understand that, guilty or not, the President was a victim of loose women who were after his protection and benefits.

The USA offered a special deal for a 3 month deal? Tell the world you accepted, but that the US took the offer off the table…and add that you always wanted peace with the Palestinians. Then you call the firefighters and tell them that since they nagged and nagged you for equipment, you will get it for them, but will take the expense off their salaries….

Talking about rabbis, these public servants (they get paid by the State and yes, serve a specific public), are allowed to deny services to Israeli citizens, especially if they are not Jewish. They can incite the public not to rent rooms or sell lands to them; they can even add that the true purpose of Arabs is not our land, but our daughters, while our Prime Minister will not make any remark about it. Sure he will show a few crocodile tears and check his hairdo in the mirror, but he will not warn them to shut up or fire them. No, our prime minister takes it a day at a time: surviving anything by simply not deciding anything, except for the decision not to decide, of course.

And while our opposition disappoints us more and more by adding losers to its ranks and excelling at being quiet, Bibi and his gang of nitwits keep going.

No more respect for the law, no support for police and emergency units, no support for the sick and elderly, no respect for the courts: the extreme rights is taking up positions against a tired, bored and lazy left.

Soon anyone of us, not belonging to this extreme gang, can be arrested, harassed and persecuted for just anything at all, while the murderer of Yitzhak Rabin will slowly move towards a full pardon and become a national hero.

A world upside down?

I call it backwards.

©Simon Soesan