This was the case this week. When I sat down to write these immortal words, there were a number of subjects that piqued my writing interest. The proposed boycott and resulting deprivation of a certain brand of ice cream to over a million Israelis living over the "Green Line" has caused quite a stir in the local media. Some see it as a harbinger of future boycotts of food companies. Others realized that this was merely a further expression of the idiocy of wokeness that currently permeates Western society. Still others saw it as succumbing to anti-Israel pressures that could affect the company's profits worldwide. However, we look at it, it is a further expression of the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic blindness that infects so much of the world and is so destructive to the advancement of civilization and international harmony.

 

We are all aware of the latent hypocrisy of this ice cream company, that will continue to market its product in countries such as China where human rights are completely nonexistent, while refusing to sell its product to legitimate citizens of a democratic country – the only true democratic country in the entire Middle East. 

 

Then, I thought that I would write an article about the importance of barbers and haircuts. This may not seem to be the subject of world-shattering importance, but we certainly feel that the absence of barbers would be a blow not just to our appearance but also to our well-being. I had badly miscalculated my appointment at the barber before the season of the Three Weeks and the Ninth of Av. Therefore, my hair and beard were badly overgrown, almost to the point where I was straining my soup through my moustache. So, I wanted to write an article in praise of our barbers and of cutting one's hair in a timely and orderly fashion. But, again, I thought that perhaps this would not be the subject weighty enough to be presented before a group of intelligent and sophisticated readers such as the ones that frequent this column on a weekly basis. After all, there is only so much that can be said about the well-groomed and having a good haircut.

 

The third subject that entered my mind as being worthy of comment and opinion was that of the composition of the coalition of political parties that united to form the current Israeli government. It certainly is a patchwork arrangement, held together by the desire to deny authority to the opposition. The current Israeli government has so many internal contradictions of ideology, agenda and intended legislation, that it is already apparent that not too much can be accomplished. The unlikely choice of a prime minister who heads a small political party only makes this coalition arrangement even more wondrous.

 

There cannot be, from an ideological standpoint, any lasting agreement between the parties involved in the coalition governing the country, as to certain basic and fundamental issues that constantly divide the Israeli public. This is reflected by the fact that it was only the desperation of facing another election that cobbled all these strange bedfellows together. Now it may very well be that the basic divide in Israeli society is unbridgeable, and that whoever is in power, will not be able to enforce its ideology and programs to the entire nation. 

 

When the government itself is so torn and divided, and represents so many contradictory ideologies, it is hard to see how legislative or programmatic projects can be enacted into law and become reality. But the current government is certainly an interesting phenomenon, and I pray for its welfare, and hope for the miracle that will allow it to govern fairly and efficiently.

 

Shabbat shalom

 

Berel Wein