ט”ז בסיון תש”ף ׀ 16-03-73
The Taming of Rivlin
In a recent speech, Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin noted the increasing connection between Israel and the Diaspora, adding that Diaspora Jewry has a significant role to play in determining Israel’s future character. Mr. Rivlin then switched topics: “The president spoke with the mayors about the importance of providing support and services for the LGBTQ community at a municipal level and praised the high level of work being done to improve the welfare of LGBTQ residents….”.
Rivlin continued: “We cannot, in a society like ours, talk about conversion therapies for LGBTQ people. We cannot allow it.” At the end of his remarks, the president reiterated, “Receiving this report, I want to stress that all conversion therapies must be taken off the social agenda in Israel.”
The juxtaposition of these issues is by no means coincidental. Mr. Rivlin, once a somewhat proud, somewhat traditional, and somewhat nationalistic Jew, has been cowed into submission and is today the mouthpiece of the New Israel Fund.
It was not always so. In an interview published in HaAretz 03 June 2003 Rivlin said: “Justice Ministers are usually chosen in the knowledge that they will be loyal to the president of the Supreme Court. If it is felt that this may not be the case, he is arrested and interrogated. So it was with me… I will never forget the day…I was about to be appointed Justice Minister…suddenly I was summoned and interrogated [by the police] for 11 hours about nothing…they announced that I was being investigated for receiving bribes, based on nonsense…These people are a gang like any other, only they are known as the Rule of Law Gang (https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/1.886297).”
Rivlin invented the term “the Rule of Law Gang”. Today it is common usage in the right-wing media.
Today Israel’s president robotically repeats the PC positions of Israel’s self-appointed, anti-Jewish and well-[New Israel] funded elites. Goyish In, Jewish Out. Rivlin, it has been noted by many, is no longer the man who gave that interview. He knows what it is like to be the target of a weaponised law enforcement/judicial system. He has been broken.
Did Rivlin’s obsessive repetitions strike you as just a bit wooden? Do not be surprised. He was just following the NIF-provided script.
While welcoming our brothers and sisters from across the world, we shall never accept the attempt of organizations and people, foreign and domestic, to subvert, pervert and corrupt the Jewish people and its timeless Torah-based values.
Rivlins come and go. The Jewish nation and its Torah is forever.
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim
N’we Daniel, Israel
(Sent by a reader)