Grapevine November 8, 2024: A dirty business

Politics is a very dirty business in which careers are ruined and reputations besmirched. We saw this in the American elections with the nasty name-calling by US President-elect Donald Trump, and we saw this on the home front when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. It was common knowledge that it was going to happen. It was not a question of if, but when. It was more than another of Netanyahu’s regular Machiavellian tricks. People questioned the fact that he chose to do so on American election day. But November 5 was also the date of Sara Netanyahu’s birthday, and she reportedly has even more antipathy towards Gallant. So the timing may have been by way of a birthday gift.

Netanyahu also sought to sully Gallant’s reputation, but the families of the hostages declared that Gallant was the only member of the government with integrity. That may be borne out by the outrage of leaders of opposition parties who were highly critical of Gallant’s dismissal, which they claimed was just another effort by Netanyahu to ensure his own political survival.

Also siding with Gallant was a support movement of senior commanders and officials of the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) police, National Security Council and foreign service personnel, who found it scandalous to fire someone with Gallant’s strong military background and to replace him with someone of limited military experience while the war was still raging and the hostages were still in captivity. Government policy and the man dictating it put Israel’s security in peril, they declared.

President Isaac Herzog lands in US

BY THE time that today’s newspaper is read, President Isaac Herzog will in all probability have landed in the United States where he is scheduled to speak at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. He is scheduled to be in the US from November 8-11 and will spend time in both New York and Washington. During his stay, he will meet with members of the United Nations Security Council and will attempt to impress on them the urgency of working together to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza. His discussions will include the war in Lebanon and the ongoing barrage of rockets against Israeli civilian communities including Druze and Arab villages.

He will also meet with major Jewish business leaders who have investments in Israel.

A special event has been planned for him by the Jewish Federation of New York. which has provided enormous support for Israel in general, for the IDF, the Negev, and the Galilee. The visit to New York will include meetings with influencers and various media.

He is bound to be asked about Gallant’s dismissal. His own opinion is that the last thing that Israel needs in time of war is additional turmoil and a further rift in the nation.

While Herzog has recently been in the habit of distributing honors in recognition of heroism, academic achievements and international leadership, in the US, he will receive an honor from the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy.

At the GA, Herzog will underscore the solidarity of American Jewry with Israel over the past year as proof of a common destiny between Diaspora Jewry and the inhabitants of the State of Israel. Herzog, who makes a point of maintaining close contact with the families of the hostages, and of mentioning the hostages at every opportunity, will meet with some of the families currently in the US, and will, of course, talk about the hostages at the GA.

He will not be traveling to and from the US on the official airplane Wing of Zion, but on regular commercial flights.

Herzog pays visit to Ma'alot Tarshiha 

EARLIER THIS week, on the same day of the US elections, Herzog was in the North of Israel at Ma’alot-Tarshiha, where he was welcomed by Mayor Motty Ben David, who told him about the challenges facing the city since the start of the battle in the North. Herzog also met with members of the city council, with security personnel, and with bereaved families who had lost loved ones on the battlefront. Aware that the residents of Ma’alot-Tarshiha had not been evacuated, Herzog commended them for their stoicism and courage, and their loyalty to the city which is home to them.

Everyone who wants to know what Israel is fighting for, should come to Ma’alot-Tarshiha and all the communities that are close to the Lebanese border, he said. The most basic right of every citizen, he added, was to live in peace and quiet within recognized borders. Herzog concluded his visit with a condolence call on the family of Mohammed Yasser Naim who was killed by a rocket launched from Lebanon.

Netanyahu congratulates Trump

NOW THAT it’s definite that Trump will return to the White House, anyone wondering how long it would take for Netanyahu to congratulate him, knew early on Wednesday evening that Netanyahu did not repeat the mistake that he made by waiting too long with the good wishes after US President Joe Biden’s victory became official. But he apparently waited much longer than Herzog, judging by the press releases issued by the Government Press Office.

Herzog sent a message in the morning and the notice about Netanyahu’s telephone conversation with Trump came in the evening. Aside from the fact that he was genuinely pleased with the outcome of the elections, Netanyahu was not about to be tardy and repeat the mistake he made with Biden, when he waited much too long to congratulate him.

But there’s still a question in the air. Will David Friedman be reappointed as ambassador to Israel? Friedman, who has continued quasi-diplomatic activities in the region, is probably the best person to succeed in bringing about the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would be another feather in Trump’s cap. It was Friedman who pushed for transferring the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and it could very well be Friedman who will fulfill Trump’s ambitions in the region. He would not be the first US ambassador to serve in Israel twice. The late Martin Indyk was twice appointed, albeit his second term was very short.

Remembering Bruno Kreisky, former Chancellor of Austria 

IN AN era of renewed global antisemitism and leaders of ultra right-wing political parties increasingly voted into office in states across Europe, it is important to remember Bruno Kreisky who served as Chancellor of Austria for 13 years from August 1970 till May 1983. Many books have been written about Kreisky, but few – if any – have dealt with the complexities of his relationship with his Jewish identity, the State of Israel, and Zionism.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that his brother Paul lived in Jerusalem for many years and had a son who served in the IDF.

Kreisky was not a practicing Jew. He was first and foremost a socialist who was voted into office in three consecutive elections, even though it was common knowledge that he was Jewish.

Antisemitism does not fade overnight – not in an individual and certainly not in a nation. Yet the Austrians who elected him continued to trust his leadership.

Veteran diplomat, Daniel Aschheim, who is currently the Director of the Diplomatic Cadet Corps at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has written a book about Kreisky, and this week saw the Israel launch of his book Kreisky, Israel and Jewish Identity.

The event was cohosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Central Committee of Jews from Austria in Israel.

While serving as the Chicago-based Israel Consul General to the Midwest, Ascheim had several launches of his book, mainly to members of the history departments of various academic institutions.

He would begin his launch lectures by asking for a show of hands from people who knew about Kreisky or who had at least heard of him. The show of hands was never more than five.

There was a much better response in Israel last week at the CCJAI in Tel Aviv.

The cover of the book, which was published in 2022, features a photograph of Golda Meir talking to Kreisky in Vienna, The subject of their conversation was the closure of the transit camp for Soviet Jewish émigrés who were on their way to Israel. A few days prior to Meir’s arrival in Austria in September 1973, terrorists had hijacked a train near the Austro-Czech border and had kidnapped four Jewish hostages whom they threatened to kill unless the Schonau transit camp was closed down. Kreisky complied on condition that the hostages were released. The terrorists stuck to their agreement and went off to Libya.

Kreisky had allowed Austria to be a transit for Jews, but he would not yield on the issue of Schonau.

Austria had become an important factor in global politics, and because Kreisky’s key focus was the Middle East, he did not want to do too much to annoy his main Middle East associates such as Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, and Muammar Gaddafi.

Close to three hundred thousand Soviet Jews passed through Vienna on the road to freedom, Not all of them came to Israel but some among those who chose to go elsewhere made important contributions to culture, technology, and science in ways which they would not have been able to do had Kreisky not permitted Austria to be a conduit. It is important to learn about people of the Jewish faith who were not religious, not Zionists, yet in their own way, supported the State of Israel. It is equally important to learn about leading figures who were Jewish, but who turned their backs on Israel. Ascheim’s book examines and analyzes the myriad ways in which Kreisky’s Jewishness was – or was not – an influential factor in his attitude to Jewish and Israeli issues within Austrian politics.

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