When Menachem Begin stood up to make his inaugural speech at the Knesset in June 1977, he tossed a bomb that no one expected: a humanitarian bomb. “My first act as prime minister will be to order the granting of asylum to 66 refugees from Vietnam,” he anounced. The refugees were at sea in a fishing boat, escaping from the North Vietnamese. At a minimal price, maximal benefit was obtained.

The few days that feel like an eternity since the Russian attack on   Ukraine   began will not go down as a splendid chapter in the history of the State of Israel. This is due to the government's stammering over the topic of refugees. Refugees who, it's fair to assume, would be coming to Israel with intent to eventually return home to Ukraine. Was there truly a need to squirm and engineer all sorts of conditions and barriers to their entry, or could a quota for how many can enter simply have been given?

At the beginning of this month, the policy changed. In a closed meeting on Thursday, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked reported that every day, between 200 and 400 Ukrainian refugees are entering Israel. Five-hundred-and-eighty-four Ukrainian passport-holders arrived in the past three days, from Europe and elsewhere.   Only 22 were refused entry . Few of them were required to sign a guarantee.

From Shaked’s perspective, as well as that of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the more important issue is the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews from both the invaded and the invading country. They are estimating at least 100,000 people, perhaps even 300,000. An inter-ministerial team was established to handle the situation. The government continues to wonder where exactly they'll find housing for so many immigrants. 

Refugees coming from Ukraine walk at the Ukrainian-Romanian border in Siret on Wednesday Credit: DANIEL MIHAILESCU - AFP

Now back to the rhetoric: In this situation, Israel has failed the test of humanity and enlightment. It is being dragged to "the right side of history,"almost against its will, and always a few steps behind the international community. Were it not for the Americans and the voices of the outraged within Israel, it's possible we would still be barracading behind the initial tepid statement of Israeli support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine (and even that came belatedly). Only subsequently -  following pressure from the Americans and public criticism within Israel - did Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Bennett decide on a division of labor. The former condemned Russia. The latter expressed condolences.

It isn’t necessary to refute the familiar official justifications for Israel’s hesitancy to take a stand: of course, there's our military activity in Syria with Putin, and then our concern for the large Jewish community in the former Soviet Union. 

Still, Bennett’s announcement Wednesday was a masterful evasion of a real statement. Something reminiscent of Yitzhak Shamir’s word-salad speeches. “War is a terrible thing. ... Wars are easy to start and difficult to end.” At such moments, a leader isn’t expected to be a fortune cookie writer or a child's version of Sun Tzu - but an unambigous, lucid moral voice.  

In the meantime, Bennett enjoys a unique status: He has open   channels of communication   with the presidents of both Ukraine and Russia. He has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and with Putin twice since the war broke out. This is a significant ego-booster. The Prime Minister’s Office has intentionally refrained from publicizing such conversations. Israel only confirms them having taken place once the other side announces it, and it does so without revealing the content of the conversations. What is clear for now, at least after the two conversatiosn on Wednesday evening, is that Bennett served as a relay station: What he heard from Zelenskyy, he communicated to Putin. Zelenksyy initiated the conversation with Bennett. The conversation with Putin, about half an hour later, was Bennett's initiative. 

There is another party on this line. On Wednesday morning Bennett met with   German Chancellor Olaf Scholz . They conferred one-on-one, without interpreters, for more than an hour. Three topics came up: the approaching Iranian nuclear agreement in Vienna, the establishment of a joint strategic forum between the two countries (only with the United States and Great Britain does Israel have something similar), and Ukraine. Diplomatic sources assess that Scholz made use of Bennett to transmit messages of his own to Putin. The direct connection between Scholz and Putin had been cut off after the German government announced the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between the countries.

The word “mediator” is too big to describe the role of the Israeli prime minister, a relative rookie. As many have said recently, for a mission of this magnitute, someone of the caliber of Angela Merkel or Bill Clinton is needed. Nevertheless, and despite the ridicule from the right, Bennett is playing his role here, even if it's a secondary one.

Refugees, fleeing from Ukraine, sleep in a shelter at the train station in Przemysl, Poland on Thursday Credit: Markus Schreiber /AP

As of now, the leader of the opposition hasn’t received any phone calls. Maybe his tame “journalists” Jacob Bardugo and Yinon Magal call him to catch up on his talking points. The crowd abroad doesn’t miss him much.

There are other opportunities for Israel elsewhere. More profitable ones. This is also what Shaked thinks, and she spoke about these opportunities at the cabinet meeting on Sunday. European countries will realize that they need armaments, said the interior minister. They will want to increase their defense budgets. Then, at least we will   make money   from the crisis.

Yair Lapid replied to her jocularly: Let’s sell them back the submarines. At least he didn’t suggest throwing in the “Wing of Zion,” Israel’s controversial $260 million ‘Air Force One” that has never flown a president or a prime minister.

Silence of the air raid siren

The little that the Israeli government has done here, Benjamin Netanyahu – the alternative – never found the mental strength to do. The prime minister of shadows dug himself deep into their murky depths. Nine words in Hebrew – that is all he found fit to say about the war in Ukraine. Had he used his well-known rhetorical skills to imbue those few words with a dollop of humanity, morality, and “Jewish values” (and who is better than he at expressing them?) – then fine, we would have understood. But no. He chose a different way. 

“We are hearing too much unnecessary talk and too many wrong predictions,” claimed the oracle from Caesarea (not even in his touted perfect English, and not once but twice), at the Likud meeting on Sunday and then again later on at the "40 signatures" session at the Knesset. And, he added, as though sharing a deep diplomatic secret, “There will be a lot to say on the subject but now is not the time.” When will it be “the time?” Maybe in his biography: “A Place In the Sun 2: Happy Days Are Here Again.” Or when Ukraine becomes a heap of ruins. Or never.

The man who made an international career as a human air raid siren, as the ultimate alarmist, who went so far as to compare Iran to the hestitant world powers before the breakout of World War II ("the year is 1938 and Iran is Germany") is the same man who remains silent today. On Thursday, he managed to squeek out another banal line about the "tragedy," without even uttering the word "Russia."

When he mentioned the “unnecessary talk and wrong predictions” he was referring, most likely, to the statements made by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Foreign Minister Lapid during the weeks prior to the Russian invasion. Indeed, both of them predicted that the Russians would not invade (Lieberman in closed discussions; Lapid, to his regret, in public). But two weeks before February 24, and maybe even earlier, the foreign minister changed the floppy disk (insofar as is known, in the wake of an American intelligence briefing). He and Bennett embarked on a campaign to plead Israelis in Ukraine home before the airports shut down. 

Netanyahu, however, instead of rising to the occasion, chose to continue to wallow in the puddle of his murky interests. In a mini-tweet he disclosed his rotten moral outlook and perhaps proved the suspicions aroused by his later legacy: that in his heart he identifies with the tyrants and the autocrats.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset in February  Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg

Political leaders across the Western world, presidents, prime ministers and the leaders of their oppositions, as one, are condemning the Russians and supporting the Ukrainians. Be they conservatives or socialists, Republicans or Democrats. They are speaking out clearly against the Satan from Moscow, the mass murderer and war criminal who has attacked a sovereign, tranquil country. Yet Bibi does what Bibi always does: settles accounts, like the small politico he is, with his rivals in the government, and briefs his idiotic disciples to tweet and broadcast like him. One of them, Likud MK Yoav Kisch, has recommended with typical muddled pathos: “Talk less as much as you can.”

The Bibi-ist cult has never looked more repulsive. Its members seem to be insisting on stamping the nation with their ignorance and evil. Some of them have actually mustered up  support for Russian aggression   on the grounds that NATO taunted Putin, the Americans humiliated him and it is in fact the West that pushed him to invade. And of course, if their other darling, the volatile idiot Donald Trump were in the White House today, then Putin would be dancing cheek to cheek with Zelenskyy.

While parliaments around the world were convening special sessions on the situation in Ukraine, the Knesset convened at the initiative of the opposition to discuss the situation in the Negev. The leader of the opposition blathered for half an hour about Iran, Iran, and also, Iran. The architect of the local failure to prevent the Iranians’ gallop toward the nuclear threshold recycled and babbled his usual slogans. Like a tiresome retiree, he waxed sentimentalities about his past and repeated for the thousandth time how he heroically faced down the Obama administration! Didn’t hesitate to say no! Went to Congress and made a speech there! (He left out the part about the disastrous results that act brought.)

It is hard to understand what is in the heart and mind of the humiliated oppositionist. His former spiritual father, Winston Churchill, warned against dictators, without giving a pass to any of them. Why is he differentiating himself from the whole enlightened world? Quite possibly, just as in many similar cases in the past, it’s because of his fear of the most boorish and extremist part of his base.

While Netanyahu is congratulating his wife on her victory in the abuse case and sharing lawyer and TV presenter Kinneret Barashi’s loopy posts, Bennett is talking with world leaders. The fairy tale they fed us about the “international statesman,” without whom Israeli diplomacy would implode, has been burst. And it hasn’t required 12 years. Eight months was enough.

Sidelining Erdan

UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan giving testimony about the Gilboa prison break in February Credit: Moti Milrod

Our ambassador to the United Nations was humiliated this week. None of his predecessors, in all the years that Israel has been a member of the organization, have been subjected to such a slight. It’s a good thing that as a veteran Likud politician, he is used to humiliation, and that as a future politician, his mind is busy planning his next step. Otherwise, Gilad Erdan would already be sitting on his suitcases at JFK, waiting for the next flight to Tel Aviv.

The story goes like this: On Monday,Yair Lapid conducted a situation assessment at the Foreign Ministry ahead of the General Assembly session regarding the United States’ sharp condemnation of Russia. “The world will be watching every word we say there,” Lapid said. “It is very important that   Noa stick to the text .” The significance of the statement was clear to those present. Noa Furman is the deputy ambassador to the U.N. and she will be the one to speak from the podium. Thus, with a half-incidental remark, Gilad was devoured. He was pulled from the stage during the most important session of the international forum in the past 20 years.

To his credit, it must be noted that, from the very start of the crisis, Erdan has taken a more humanistic stance than the one expressed by Israel’s government (and a complete 180 from the stance taken by the leader of his party, Netanyahu). He recommended that Israel join as an usher in the first condemnation proposal at the Security Council, as the Americans had asked. His proposal was rejected. Only at the second opportunity did Israel deign to stand on the side of the enlightened world and support the condemnation in the General Assembly,   like 190 other countries .

When Lapid started working at the Foreign Ministry, in the post that he had wanted for so long, he found himself stuck with a number of ambassadors whom he did not appoint and whom he would never dream of appointing: Likudniks like Erdan, Tzipi Hotovely in London and Dror Eydar in Rome, a raving Bibi-ist. Deposing them was impossible. They have contracts, and as long as the aforementioned conduct themselves in line with government policy, there is no legal justification for bringing them home. He had reassuring conversations with Hotovely and Eydar. “It’s important that we stand together, just don’t engage in politics,” he requested. The UN ambassador was not granted a similar conversation.

Of the three, Erdan is the most annoying thorn in Lapid’s side. Lapid has tried hinting, rather indelicately, that he is not pleased with Erdan’s presence in the glass building on the East River. Erdan chose to ignore that. Like many of his predecessors, he fell in love with the job. He overshares his delight with Israeli followers in an endless carpet bombing of videos, posts and various missives documenting his diplomatic, cultural and Jewish activities.

Those close to the foreign minister see this social media activity as part of Erdan’s campaign ahead of the primary election for Likud leadership after Netanyahu leaves. Erdan hasn’t concealed his intention to cut his diplomatic service short the moment a primary election is announced. Lapid is not keen to have his UN ambassador there on borrowed time, with his return to Israel beholden to a political party’s timetable, which would offer only a few days’ notice.

Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar at a Justice Ministry ceremony in Jerusalem in February  Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg

There has been a letter waiting at the Civil Service Administration for quite some time, requesting an inquiry into whether Erdan has been sharing information via WhatsApp with Likud Central Committee members, bragging about his activities at the UN. According to sources at the Foreign Ministry, Erdan has given several media interviews without authorization, even though the director general of the ministry has already reprimanded him in the past. Erdan, according to senior people at the ministry, credited himself for 30 member states boycotting the Durban Conference Against Racism over allegations of antisemitism – a project undertaken by a special task force that Lapid established in the international organizations department of his ministry.

Still, removing him from the podium wasn’t justified. Afterall, Lapid doesn’t really think the ambassador would pull out a blue and yellow cardboard flag, wave it around and sing the Ukrainian national anthem. Any deviation from the wording of the speech would have provided the foreign minister with the excuse he needed to accuse Erdan of violating his contract, mount him on a rocket and launch him back to Israel.

The likelihood that Erdan would choose to become a political martyr for Ukraine is near zero. It isn’t as though he had to justify a construction freeze or the evacuation of settlements in the West Bank. In that case, a rebellion would serve him well. Even what happened this week hasn’t damaged him politically. His colleagues came to his defense. Even Likud strongman and potential rival Yisrael Katz tweeted in support.

Zero sum game

The law to limit a prime minister’s term – the new term limit would be eight consecutive years, starting with the next election – was the baby of Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party. Though it has earned the support of the public and is   not retroactive   (that is, not relevant to Netanyahu), the opposition is fighting it like Ukrainians fighting off the Russian invader. Not because of the law’s substance, but for its significance: Toppling the bill would be a colossal loss for the change government and excruciating for Sa’ar, without whom there would be no government and no change.

The debate over the final passage of the law stretched more than 12 hours into the night between Monday and Tuesday. The opposition used every procrastination and time-wasting trick that Knesset regulations allow for. Dozens of objections submitted by the opposition were shot down with a comfortable majority of 63 or 64 votes. Sa’ar enlisted some members of the Joint List to give the coalition some breathing room.

Everything flowed along, slowly, but with no hitches. Until morning. Bennett announced that he was going out to meet German Chancellor Otto Scholz at Yad Vashem, and Likud announced that the final vote, on the third reading, would be considered a vote of confidence in the government. A classic and obvious trick: The Joint List supports the law, but it can’t vote for confidence in the government. And because this is a matter of a Basic Law, a majority of 61 is necessary. In other words, they need Bennett’s raised hand.

Sa’ar asked Bennett to send some other minister to Yad Vashem (a “Norwegian,” who has temporarily resigned from the Knesset to devote more time to his or her ministerial duties, and therefore will not affect the vote count). Ayelet Shaked, for example. Bennett refused. Germany has a parliamentary system, said Sa’ar, he will understand. Bennett insisted. After a sleepless night, he left the Knesset building. Sa’ar had no alternative. He announced the   postponement of the vote to next week , which concludes the winter session of the Knesset. It’s not so terrible, Lapid comforted him. The victory will be sweeter.

Well, the risk is also greater: As noted, the law needs a majority of 61. That is, 100 percent of the members of the coalition. Even if the vote is 60 to zero, the law will not pass. If one member of the coalition gets hurt, say, in a traffic accident, or has a heart attack, or rebels because of some insult or any other cruel stroke of fate, the rule dictates that the bill will fail. Not be postponed. The opposition doesn’t even have to show up. They can sit back and toast a round of arak shots in Likud MK Dudi Amsalem’s office.

Over the weekend, Sa’ar will pray for his colleagues’ health and well-being. The coronavirus will not constitute an excuse. Nor will a broken leg or appendicitis. On a stretcher and a wheelchair, with an IV in one arm, bronchitis, cholera and colitis, anyone who breathes without mechanical aids will be required to show up for the vote. Only death will have dominion.