Symbols and ceremonies have always been the forte of the Israeli right. Members of the so-called national camp scrutinize the lips of Arab judges and non-Jewish football players lest they avoid singing the national anthem, which includes the words “a Jewish soul still yearns.” You won’t catch Culture Minister Miri Regev without a pile of blue and white flags in the trunk of her car, ready to be unfurled in the face of Israelis on the wrong side of the political map. Two years ago, she wondered aloud about the point of having a public broadcasting corporation if “we,” meaning the Likud, “don’t control it.” Now she doesn’t understand the point of having a ministerial committee of symbols and ceremonies, which she heads, if the Netanyahu camp cannot control the central event of the country’s 70th Independence Day on April 18.
Regev recently delivered a highly publicized broadside at Yuli Edelstein for refusing to be the first Knesset speaker to let a prime minister address the official annual Independence Day ceremony traditionally organized and run by the country’s parliament as a representative body of all the people. The media are in a frenzy while Netanyahu looks on from the wings, as though none of this concerns him. Not a word on his Facebook page, nor a tweet on his Twitter account. This latest scandal might seem like yet another creation by Regev, who never misses an opportunity to serve her master. But what appears to be a battle of egos between two senior politicians over a coveted honor replete with live media coverage is only the tip of the iceberg. The larger threat to one of the pillars of Israeli democracy can be found in Regev's explanations for her actions, as the former spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces has undergone retraining to serve as the mouthpiece of the Netanyahu family.
