How Shoes, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Likud Central Committee are All Connected

Here's a brief of the wacky stuff that's been going on behind the scenes these past two days. The mainstream media has been blarging on about how some guy who's already been Prime Minister before and was voted out, spoke about very bad people at Auschwitz (Bibi Netanyahu), and some other guy who's lost more elections than any Israeli politician in history (Shimon Peres) talked about some other thing in the German parliament about Nazis or something. I don't really know. I wasn't paying attention. (See previous post on Israeli Hasbara.)

But what they forgot to mention was that none of that is the least bit important. What's really important is what the media isn't paying attention to at all, and news of which you can only find on some three-line newsflash on Arutz Sheva, or the Likudnik.co.il website. That news is this: The Tel Aviv district court has ruled against Netanyahu on postponing the elections for the Likud Central Committee. In its ruling, the court ordered that elections must be held by April 30th, and by the way Bibi has to pay 20,000 shekels in legal fees out of the Likud's pocket.

Before we go into detail a little bit more about the case, we must understand why Bibi wants to postpone, at all costs, internal Likud elections. Follow the number line:

1) Likud, right now, has 89,000 members with enough seniority (16 months of membership) to vote.
2) 10 to 15,000 of those are Feiglin supporters.
3) There are 2,500 seats in the Likud Central Committee, and 122 of them are Feiglin supporters.
4) If elections for the Likud Central Committee are held soon, then Feiglin's support in the Central Committee will at least double, if not triple or even quadruple.

Netanyahu knows this very well, which is why, first, he tried getting rid of the 16 month seniority clause and allow anyone to vote immediately upon joining the party. Then all he'd have to do is hand out papers and promise jobs or something saintly of the sort. He couldn't do that, so he tried to put off elections for 20 months. 20 months would have given him 4 months to sign up as many of his allies as he can and then wait 16 months for them to cook and be able to vote.

The court just shot down that little doosey as well, since a democratically elected committee lengthening its own tenure seems a bit...off.

Anyway, 'tis interesting to note that, first, Feiglin himself had nothing to do with this case. A few miffed and selfless Central Committee members filed the suit, not him. Second, the judge who oversaw the case is none other than Yehuda Zaft, the same guy that reversed the decision against pushing Feiglin down to slot 36. This is the second time he's done some seriously good judicial work. Bibi then cried to the Supreme Court and they "fixed" Zaft's "error".

However, the difference between then and now is that back then, the media played it up as a big Feiglin v Bibi thing, and the Supreme couldn't bring themselves to help a man who vows to, when elected, enable the citizens of Israel to actually pick their own judges, because that would be bad for their dictatorship in that currently, the Israeli Supreme Court picks its OWN judges. This is great for them, but not so good for the people, who are starting to lose touch with, and respect for, their own Supreme Court.

Evidence of this just took form yesterday when some guy named Pinchas Cohen took off his shoe at court and flung it at Supreme Court Judge and President Dorit Beinish. The shoe, upon exiting his hand, soared gracefully through the Supreme Court open air and hit Beinish square in the face. She then proceeded to gracefully fall from her chair plop onto the floor.

There is no video of the impact, but this was taken shortly after. The guy who threw the shoe can be heard screaming "מושחתת" which means "corrupt!"

(It's too bad this guy has a history of violent behavior and wasn't a true ideologue. A true protester wouldn't have thrown a shoe, but would have simply shouted until he got arrested. If only a group of 20 or so people were to plan to disrupt court proceedings 20 days in succession by simply screaming "Stop electing yourselves!" one person each day, the country would really wake up. All that's needed are 20 people willing to spend a few nights in jail and have a small criminal record. Anyone interested? Leave a comment.)

Anyway, the mainstream media cast this shoe incident, of course, as the effect of a "society gone wild" in anarchy that has to be controlled. No one dared look at the possibility that a tyrannical court that chooses its own members could be behind the unrest. When people have no say in who has power over them, they start throwing things. Like shoes. At their faces. I am not condoning this. I'm simply saying that's what happens.

To continue, as said before, this selfsame court overruled Judge Yehuda Zaft last year and shot Feiglin down to 36 again.

Now history is repeating itself one year later. Zaft rules in favor again. And guess who Bibi is going to now? Yup, that Supreme Court. Except this time they're a little dazed. They don't even know that this is a Feiglin/Bibi dual again. They're still trying to clear their heads after that shoe. And the media is still stuck in the German parliament.

They'll rule in favor, or else refuse to take the case at all, elections will take place in April, Netanyahu will lose power in his own party, and who knows? He may even bolt it and form "Kadima II: Coming to a Knesset Near You." Then guess who takes the Likud cake?

Feiglin said something interesting a while back in an interview on Walla, the second most popular internet news source in Israel. He was asked why he doesn't protest anymore. He answered that he's busy trying to take over the country in the meantime, but in any case, there is one instance where he would bring the people to the streets once more. That is, if, upon winning the Likud Chairmanship and becoming its Prime Ministerial candidate, the Supreme Court shoots him down and says he can't run. Then he will bring the public to the streets. To the gates of the Supreme Court. And boy will they come.

And they'll be armed with their shoes. But they won't use them. All they'll need will be their voices.