Pawns of the System: How Israel's ruling class betrays its citizens

It is, of course, clear that no individual or citizen in the country deserves preferential or special treatment and that equality before the law must be upheld (except for Knesset members, generals, and judges, who generously reward themselves with Qatari-level salaries). On the other hand, it may at first seem difficult to understand why the people in the Knesset lack the basic ability to rise above their typical stupidity and mediocrity when faced with bereaved families who simply wish to sit in the gallery while the possibility of forming an investigation committee for the events of October 7 is being debated.

For those who have never visited the Knesset, the procedure is well known. Knesset members are inflated figures and, in most cases, not very intelligent—certainly not by Jewish standards. Surrounding them are administrative staff, coordinators, and security personnel, who indeed resemble Hannah Arendt’s descriptions of the police force during her famous visit to Jerusalem for the Eichmann trial.

And yet, after being brutally beaten by police officers acting on orders to prevent the families from entering the Knesset chamber, one must ask: even for these clowns and enforcers, are journalists truly more important than bereaved families? The answer is, of course, yes—because the Knesset and Israel’s security ranks are filled with individuals of inferior caliber, and they must respect the media that whitewashes their feeble existence, however artificially.

Journalists in Israel, for the most part, serve as the propaganda arm of one of three branches (the Likud, the Judiciary, or the IDF). They sustain the illusion of authority and competence, while the bereaved families—standing before the Likud-run Knesset—expose the moral and institutional failures of this body simply by existing. The same would likely occur if the families wished to enter the Supreme Court or meet with an IDF committee. The vassal-like security personnel would defend their feudal lords.

The prioritization of an empty Knesset gallery designated for journalists over grieving families should, by this point, be clear.

This, of course, led to enormous emotional outrage among the bereaved families who sought to enter, resulting in a scuffle where grieving family members and relatives of hostages were beaten by thugs who call themselves officers.

The state’s bureaucratic, governmental, and administrative ranks have long been accustomed to enslaving and tormenting Israelis, who naively believe in the promises of the Zionist vision—promises that these officials exploit as a cover for their own pursuit of power and oppression.

But today, with the violence hurled at these families, it seems that a new record has been broken.

There is a distinction to be made between the demands to do everything possible to bring back the hostages—which are unnecessary, since the Israeli government should have long ago cut off electricity and water to secure their return—and the demand for a state commission of inquiry, which the families rightfully insist upon.

Perhaps this very refusal, enforced through violence to keep them out of the gallery, is more than just analogous to the Knesset’s refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry.

State commissions of inquiry have historically been accepted as a national consensus, with the possible exception of the Agranat Commission. The fact that a judge would head such a commission should not be more problematic than the fact that an elected official serves as the head of government.

The lack of trust in the Israeli judiciary—even shared by the author of these lines—does not mean that a judge is incapable of examining the issue. On the contrary, if a judge is unfit to investigate this matter, what is he fit to investigate at all?

The commission will not only have to investigate the events of October 7 but also the military’s actions afterward. Will it have the ability to examine the conduct of the political leadership? It should, and it must. If not, who else will investigate? However, that is not the primary question. The real question is whether all materials will be open and accessible—and why Netanyahu, whose people have already tampered with evidence following October 7, even has a say in the matter at all.

Instead of using these families as an opportunity for learning, growth, and self-improvement, the Knesset seeks to push them aside and humiliate them—just as the Judiciary does with the settlers, and the IDF does with the Youth of the Hills.

Each feudal class selects its victims, tormented by the security vassals for the public to watch.

And the journalists in Israel? They are themselves mere vassals of the lords they choose to serve.

The citizens—whoever they may be, no matter what they have suffered—are nothing more than pawns in the game.