Liberte or Royale ?

 

The city of Bordeaux should decide what it wants: the pre-revolutionary royale or the post-revolutionary liberte. 

 

 

Can Israel be considered a Democracy?

Indicted Prime Minister (or as some have it “crime-minister”) Netanyahu has three court cases for mega corruption charges before him. Over the last few years, the man has done everything in his power to evade justice. His coalition deals are geared only to that end. He personally chose police chiefs and ministers of justice, to serve that one purpose – keep him out of jail.

Disgust with his corruption combined with Corona-helplessnes and despair have energised anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, of a kind not seen in Israel before. The demonstrations have been taking place on a weekly basis, in front of his residence, his weekend house and throughout the country, for several months. These demonstrations have been grating on Netanyahu and he has been sending his hounds to reign them in. To no avail. 

Netanyahu has now reached the next stage and taking advantage of COVID 19, he is trying to silence the demonstrators. To that end, the country is been subjected to a rigid lock-down and the Israeli cabinet has passed regulations that limit demonstrations to a distance of one kilometre from one’s home: Will only Netanyahu’s neighbours be permitted to demonstrate against him? The health professionals, who advise the cabinet, confirmed that they saw no need for such draconian restrictions – Netanyahu who is panicking – has decided against that advice. 

 

Israel – which considered itself to be a democracy, despite the fact that it never was a democracy for the Arabs under its control – now, no longer is a democracy for its Jewish population.

Idiots or S***heads

Why are those not wearing masks not simply walking about with a big sign on their foreheads declaring, “I am an asshole”?

 

I spent a few days in Berlin last week and estimate that about a third of the passengers on the underground trains – if not more – “fake it”. Many leave the nose free; some just wear the mask around their chin. And then you get the morons, who lift the mask whilst talking on their mobile phones. But the winner was the man who took off his mask so that we could all share his sneeze output.

 

So, what should one wish all those, who knowingly and defiantly put others at risk? What should one wish all those, who do not even have the decency to respect the discomfort and the fears of others? 

 

Sometimes it is simple: A Ukrainian bishop who explained that COVID was a punishment for same-sex marriage, found himself, some weeks later, in hospital with Corona-induced-pneumonia. If the bishop gets better – having already paid the price – he should perhaps try that same-sex marriage, which he spoke about. The man is 91, so he should hurry up. 

Cushions

 Who ever sold the hotel industry this ridiculous idea of dispersing cushions on hotel beds? In many cases, they are unattractive. In all cases, they are unhygienic. The first thing I do in such hotels is to hide these cushions, to prevent the maid from covering my pillow with them. 

 

 

Corruptiyahu

 Corruptiyahu, who gets his and his family’s laundry paid for by the state, seems to have a special penchant for overseas dry cleaning and laundry.

 

It has been an open secret in Israel that the Netanyahus had the habit of taking suitcases full of dirty laundry on their international state and diplomatic trips to get them laundered in hotels. Last year a photographer published a photo of 11 (ELEVEN) suitcases, which the Netanyahus took on their plane for a one-day-visit of Portugal.

 

Yesterday the Washington Post reported from the White House that “Israel’s Netanyahu brings his dirty laundry to Washington... bags and suitcases full of dirty laundry.”

The United Arab Emirates and Israel

With much fanfare, the Netanyahu and Trump PR machines announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have agreed to establish diplomatic relations. According to the UAE Israel has agreed to give up the West Bank annexation plans, which Netanyahu has been talking about. According to Trump, Israel would forgo for now “declaring sovereignty” over occupied West Bank territory. And... according to Netanyahu his plan to annex part of the West Bank “remains on the table.” 

 

The Israeli move seems brilliant: they first announce that they would take over (others call it steal) Palestinian land and then in return for agreeing to cool their landgrab plan for a while, get something tangible. It is, of course, far from brilliant: without reaching an agreement with the Palestinians, their frustration will continue to fester. Israel might get richer and militarily stronger, but it will not live in peace. Rich and strong and screw the rest.

 

It has been reported that settlers are livid. They had believed Netanyahu and were hoping for the formalisation of the de-facto annexation, that Israel has been carrying out salami-fashion for years. To be told that you have to put off stealing for a while must be difficult for them. Judging by the past, they need not worry. Operation Landgrab will be allowed to continue.  

 

Palestinians too are disappointed – by their “brethren”. I don’t know why. They should have gotten used to it. They have been mistreated by the Arab world throughout their history. Yet, neither pointing to that fact, nor to the Palestinians' own mismanagement of their interests, will solve the problem. And, as already said, unless it is solved, there will regularly be trouble.

La bella Venezia

In their reports, the media reported about a tourist-free Venice and so I went, hoping  to enjoy the emptiness. Others must have had the same idea. Indeed, there seem to be no Americans, Chinese or other tourists from far away countries. Not many Brits. The main foreign language one could hear was German.

 

And here are some of the sights...

 

 

Portman Square

A year ago, in what seemed like a prettification exercise, the pavement stones surrounding Portman Square in London were all replaced by what, at the time, seemed luxury type of pavement stones. The new stones looked very elegant and I assumed that the fact that the offices of the Portman Estate were situated in the square was not unconnected. Why else would the City of Westminster spend all that money?

 

This is what the place looks like now: 

  

Who is the architect, who chose these stones? Who are the people in charge who spent public funds on these unsuitable stones? The least one could expect is that they are sent to regularly clean them. In person.

Corona and the Salzburg Festival

On the 20th of May, I blogged “Austria, the country that gave us Ischgl, source of corona contamination this winter, is now preparing a similar hotspot for the summer.“

And now, I have succumbed to the temptation and am also here. A couple of days ago, I went to the premiere of Cosi fan Tutte, conducted by Joanna Mallwitz and directed by Christof Loy. The splendid clean and clear lined sets made by my friend Johannes Leiacker were a special bonus. It was wonderful: wonderful to go to the opera again, after all the Corona shutdowns of cultural life, and a truly wonderful production. Splendid young singers, who not only sang beautifully but also acted convincingly. An all-round elating evening.

The Festival’s PR machinery has been trying to virally spread the news of how disciplined their hygiene and prevention of infection measures are. No intervals to lower mingling risks, certain “social distancing”, as one was sat in a chessboard pattern and only half of the seats were filled. But the fact is that you get 1000 people spreading those dreaded aerosols in the closed space of the opera house. More than that, once the performance started, people were permitted to take off their masks. I didn’t. Very many did. In fact, I wore an FFP2 mask, that supposedly also protects the wearer throughout the evening.

 

One of my friends sent me a link to an interview with the Festival’s president with a comment “charming lies”. Well, charm is a matter of personal taste. I do not trust messages, statements, interviews with salespeople and the Festival’s president is trying to sell her product. Tickets, in fact, are still to be had. This is unprecedented, like so much else in these Corona times. This saleswoman has an uphill struggle.

Was it wise to go? No. Is it responsible to stage events? No. The least they should have done would have been to make wearing of masks during the whole evening compulsory. Austria succumbed to the powerful Salzburg lobby – it should not have. I can but hope, both egoistically and generally that we will not pay with our health for this experience.

arte have recorded the performance of Cosi, which can be watched here. It will be available until 30 of October 2020. Definitely worthwhile.

Revolution or foam soon to evaporate

Anti „Bibi“(Netanyahu) demonstrations having been gathering pace recently.  We are still only talking thousands and not hundreds of thousands, but there seems to be stamina and perseverance.  How will this all end?

 

The ugly and sad fact is that neither the occupation of Palestinian territories nor the illegal settlement of these territories with more than 600,000 Israeli Jews are causing Israelis to demand Netanyahu’s departure. The ugly and sad fact is that the majority of Israel’s population has been voting for politicians and politics that enable and enforce the occupation.

 

Even Netanyahu’s personal corruption (he is awaiting a whole case load of personal corruption trials), does not prevent his supporters from voting for him. The man is a master of political marketing. His personal charisma has produced one election result after another that have kept him in power.

 

And then came Corona. It seems that Corona, and Netanyahu’s management or rather mismanagement of the crisis, are the energiser of this latest bout of unrest. There is growing frustration with a man who quite evidently has taken advantage of Corona to further his personal needs, at the top of which stands his attempt to flee justice.  

 

What will make Netanyahu go? Old-school politicians knew when to go. Almost always too late, but at some point, they would bow out. Doing the honourable thing can be ruled out in Netanyahu’s case. There never was anything honourable about that man. Moreover, the one thing he is frightened to death by are his court cases (the next hearing has been set for December) and possible jail terms. There are precedents: Ehud Olmert, a predecessor of Netanyahu's was for corruption. At some point Netanyahu might go for some plea-bargain deal, that would remove him from his office, whilst keeping him out of jail. Such a deal would be a catastrophe for democracy. The man needs to stand trial. Justice must be done and must be seen to be done.

 

A terrible alternative would be mob justice. Nobody can wish for Ceausescu-like solutions and this is unlikely to happen in Israel. The Israeli right-wing produced Rabin’s murderer; those calling for democracy will not succumb to similar acts of violence. 

 

There are countries in which the senior members of a ruling party would make it clear to their leader that the time has come and he or she must go. This, for instance, was the case with Margaret Thatcher. Up to now, nothing of the sort has happened in Netanyahu’s Likkud party. Netanyahu has surrounded himself with a junta of enablers, whom he manages to bribe and cajole to keep him in office.

 

One can but hope that the anti-Bibi demonstrators will persevere until the internal supporting walls in his party will crumble and thereby bring about his downfall.