Former US President Donald Trump didn't understand why there is a need for international organizations and agreements and pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords; the Iran nuclear deal; and UNESCO. Israel left the organization shortly after that. UNESCO is an important organization. Israel has benefitted greatly from cultural cooperation with it, and in recent years its council has made a number of ridiculous and infuriating decisions about Israel. Its secretary general is Audrey Azoulay, France's former minister of culture, and the last thing she could be accused of is anti-Israel bias.
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Rather than staying in the organization and working to coordinate with the secretary general to cancel previous decisions and prevent future bizarre ones from being made, we simply threw up our hands and gave up on being heart. Now the US under Biden wants to rejoin UNESCO, and has turned to Israel for help pushing the decision through Congress by rejoining ourselves (which supposedly might cause some Republicans to support the idea of rejoining). There is no chance the Bennett-Lapid government will comply with the American request, which would do ourselves a lot of good as well.
MK Simcha Rotman (Religious Zionist Party) is a member of the Judges Selection Committee. Rotman asked to meet with the candidates for promotion, but was not allowed to do so at the order of Supreme Court President Esther Hayut. Her predecessor, Justice Miriam Naor, issued an order in 2006 that candidates were not to meet with politicians about promotion.
In my opinion, this is a very problematic order that cannot be applied to politicians who are members of this important committee. The nine committee members have a very heavy responsibility to select worthy, fitting people to serve as judges. Candidates can be instructed not to meet with politicians in order to secure their support with members of the committee, but it is wrong to prevent committee members themselves from meeting with candidates. Candidates can be instructed not to answer political questions, should they arise in the conversation, but they have a right to present themselves, their rulings, and their experience to those who are charge with appointing them, who have the same right. It is not enough to depend on written assessments.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz's visit to Morocco this week was an important event, and should be welcomed, but despite the media's declarations, it was not a precedent. On Sept. 14, 1993, a day after the Oslo Accords were signed, Israel's defense minister visited Rabat. It was a public visit that was covered by many Israeli journalists from rabat. Israel's defense minister, foreign minister, and deputy foreign minister were hosted by King Hassan II at his palace, and he took them on a visit to a beautiful new mosque that had been inaugurated in his country two weeks earlier. The defense minister also happened to be the prime minister at the time, and his name was Yitzhak Rabin.
It was moving to see interviews this week with Rodeina Shalata, the principal of a high school in Arraba who was shot and wounded, apparently because she was trying to keep criminals from selling drugs in her school. After a six-hour operation to remove the slugs from her body, the brave and eloquent woman didn't hesitate to announce her intention to return to work because she would not allow violence to win, and because she trusted the police to find her attackers.
It's a shame that we learn about people like her in situations like these, but her exposure could do a bit to help the exhausting struggle against prejudice and stereotypes.
Former Likud minister David Amsalem has submitted a hair-raising plan to shut down Israeli democracy. Some have asked him to apologize, rightfully. The one who should apologize is the person who knew exactly who he was, and nevertheless appointed him to a ministerial position.
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