Israel Prize For Literature In Jeopardy As Prime Minister Tries To Skew Appointment Of Judges, Gets Outed

The Israel Prize in literature may not be awarded this year – or ever again – after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interfered with the appointment of judges and was outed.

Above: Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel Prize For Literature In Jeopardy As Prime Minister Tries To Skew Appointment Of Judges, Gets Outed
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Israel Prize in literature may not be awarded this year – or ever again – after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interfered with the appointment of judges and was outed, Ha’aretz reported.

Netanyahu – who is considered by many in political life in Israel to be a wholly untrustworthy, dishonest and self-serving individual – tampered with the judges panel, causing all of the judges to resign en masse in protest.

Professor Yigal Schwartz, one of the candidates for the Israel Prize for literary research, then announced he is withdrawing his candidacy in protest of Netanyahu’s heavy-handed meddling.

“This is an unparalleled scandal. I’m withdrawing my candidacy and urge other candidates to do the same. This isn’t a mistake; it’s a continuation of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s deliberate policy…This is sabotage that it’s impossible not to oppose. Even this institution, the Israel Prize, which had remained untainted [by politics until now], they [i.e., Netanyahu and henchmen] have sabotaged,” Schwartz, a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and editor-in-chief of the Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir publishing house, said.

In their resignation letter, the scholars said what Netanyahu did constituted “politicization of Israel’s most important prize, which is supposed to be granted solely on the basis of professional and artistic considerations.”

Netanyahu’s office also reportedly vetoed a nominee to the judges’ panel for the Israel Prize in film – producer Chayim Sharir, and film producer Ram Loevy resigned from the judges’ panel in protest.

Over the past few weeks, staffers from the Education Ministry, which administers the prize, reportedly repeatedly warned Netanyahu’s aides against intervening. But they refused to listen.

The Education Ministry now says it is waiting for “instructions from the prime minister’s bureau” on how to fill the judges’ panels vacancies.

In addition to the above cases, an informed source told Ha’aretz that Netanyahu’s bureau demanded the appointment of a specific judge to one of the judges panels, telling the Prize committee they must do it because it was “the prime minister’s will.”

Netanyahu has been acting Education Minister since early December, when former minister Rabbi Shai Piron and the rest of his Yesh Atid Party were forced out of the government by Netanyahu.

A senior Education Ministry official told Ha’aretz that late last month, people in Netanyahu’s bureau moved to push judges off the panel and complained that the “list of judges [nominated before Netanyahu took over as acting Education Minister] was no good” because it included “names [that are politically] unacceptable to us.”

“Who today would want to be on the judges’ panel for the literature prize?” this Education Ministry official asked. “It’s hard to envision any honest person taking this job on now, and an unhealthy cloud will hover over whoever is chosen.”

Comments

[Nachum]

This is nonsense. There have been political disputes over the prizes before, and the prizes have always been awarded by politicians.

In your whole article, you fail to point out *why* he might be opposed to these people. Telling.

[SimoneF]

Nachum, you don't provide any examples for your claim. Telling.

[state of disgust]

It is telling that Netanyahu claimed some of the judges were "anti-zionist." A Joe McCarthy type attack presented without basis or fact. This is an angry outburst from a man down in the polls looking for anything to get his name before voters in the hope he can do or say something to get reelected.

In the last election Likud received less than 20 mandates and succeeded only with the help of Avigdor Liberman in forming a government. Current polls have Bibi at 23 mandates and the Zionist Coalition at 27.

Bibi is pinning his hopes on his speech before Congress just before the Israeli elections to boost his poll numbers prior to the election, and it might work. He has always traded in the politics of fear. But his slash and burn desperation move has done significant damage to the US/Israel bipartisan relationship.

Meanwhile, Israelis can't afford items as simple as cottage cheese, much less apartments for young adults who want to get married, and he has had little to say about how he will improve day-to-day life for Israelis.

Look for Hezbollah or HAMAS to pull some action prior to the election. That will bolster Bibi's numbers. Hezbollah and HAMAS much prefer Bibi over Herzog/Livni since it is easier for them to rally opposition and money to fight the bogeyman Bibi then it is to fight against someone who might actually pursue a peace deal.

The Congressional speech and Hezbollah and/or HAMAS action could keep Bibi in office.

OTOH, the speech before the US Congress could backfire and Bibi could go down in flames.

[Lo K'darkah]

@state of disgust
Outstanding analysis. Seriously; smells of the truth. Unfortunately.

[Alter Kocker]

The speech before congress will be a bust. This is Bibi showing his contempt for the US president, and his alignment with the Republican party in the US. This will play in Israel as Bibi threatening relations with the Americans. He is successfully shooting himself in the foot.

[anchell]

. . . We are all yet again in the midst of a struggle of ideologies. This type of politics rings familiar here in Canada. As we have been witnessing many of these same types of political maneuvering.

It is either a scheme to deliver obscure political agendas. Or more possibly, a new neo-conservative methodology designed to maintain or secure their continued presence in all aspects of modern life.

One implication suggest that they are attempting to create a seamless domestic image that ultimately will allay their greater global perspective.

And to do so, they must appear to be uniformly solid at home which then may, in turn, be parlayed into garnering greater respect abroad.

[Nachum]

Simon, ever hear of Yeshayahu Liebowitz? I shouldn't have to do your work for you. Now *that's* "telling," to use a word you abuse.

State, Likus essentially got far more than 20 seats and was the largest party. It leads Labor in nearly every poll. Israelis aren't as stupid as you'd like them to be.