Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forum1st Ever Openly Gay Israeli Lawmaker to Be Interior Minister
After Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom announced his resignation Sunday due to accusations of sexual misconduct, the Jerusalem Post reported that he would be replaced by the first ever openly gay Likud Member of the Knesset.
Shalom will be replaced by Likud lawmaker Amir Ohana, who will be the first ever openly gay Likud MK.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/1st-Ever-Openly-Gay-Israeli-Lawmaker-to-Be-Interior-Minister-20151220-0014.html
King_David
(14,851 posts)Deny and Shred
(1,061 posts)May he be the first of many.
What's the big deal with rejecting valid representatives due to sexual orientation?
Way to get with it, Israel. Hats off.
King_David
(14,851 posts)azurnoir
(45,850 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)Kate Shuttleworth in Jerusalem and agencies
@K8Shuttleworth
Sunday 20 December 2015 14.37 EST
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/20/israeli-vice-premier-resigns-over-sexual-harassment-allegations
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)"strange you haven't noticed the thread,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134122231
Response to azurnoir (Reply #4)
King_David This message was self-deleted by its author.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Response to King_David (Original post)
6chars This message was self-deleted by its author.
King_David
(14,851 posts)But compared to the GOP they are positively progressives.
Imagine the Republicans appointing someone like this to such a governmental position?
Wait someone will call this pinkwashing...
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)After the 2012 debate where they booed a soldier (may have been a marine, I don't remember) simply because he was gay. The man was fighting for his country and they booed him. That could be when I gave up on the republicans being a serious party who should be listened to - they're scum.
King_David
(14,851 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)MK Amir Ohana, the Likud partys first openly gay lawmaker, was sworn in to the Knesset on Monday afternoon.
Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers skipped the ceremony, with a source in the United Torah Judaism party quoted by Channel 2 as saying that they plan to ignore him, today and altogether.
In his opening remarks to the Knesset plenum, Ohana, who replaces former interior minister Silvan Shalom, identified himself as a Jew, Israeli, Mizrahi, homosexual, a Likud member, a security buff, a liberal and a man of the free market, in no particular order.
When people cry Death to the Jews, Ohana said, using the Arabic phrase, I am a Jew first.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-mks-skip-swearing-in-of-first-openly-gay-likud-mk/
King_David
(14,851 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)Editor in Chief of the Israeli gay portal GoGay writes an op-ed about the new gay right-wing Knesset Member Amir Ohana, and the complex dynamics in which he works: Amir Ohana is the product of a real social revolution achieved by decades of struggle and difficult points not the revolution itself.
Xenophobia, marking communities as others, deprivation of rights and/or access to resources for offensive populations and so on, are all an integral part of the right-wing parties practices and the rhetoric of its leaders. The right-wing in general and the Likud party in particular are seen as national champions in increasing the separations, gaps and non-understanding between different sectors of Israeli society. It sometimes seems that thats what they do, a part of their cultural, sociological, literal DNA.
In such a climate, an openly gay MK, a parent with a family and in the Likud sounds like an imaginary scenario, perhaps even utopian. Yet, this is the reality in which we live. Somehow the social circumstances have joined into this delusional and double morality script. On the one hand, the ruling party torpedoes and removes from the agenda almost any relevant discussion or bill for basic and elementary rights of the LGBT community (law interpretation is a good example of such an act). On the other hand, in the same party, there is a gay MK, who came to the Knesset with the whole package: a partner, children, and especially a statement that sends a clear message about the transformation that the Likud, and society as a whole have been through in recent years.
This is a complex situation. On one hand we are asked to criticize Ohana, who declared in advance that if necessary he will vote against the community and align with the policies of the Likud. On the other hand, it is very easy to forget the complex dynamics in which he works. The need to sidestep, to balance between interests, to be faithful to your principles even at the price of eliminating other principles that may be equally important for you.
We could and perhaps should criticize Ohana and his declarations, to attack his decision (that is strange to me, stupid and dangerous) to provide ease of bearing arms, and be concerned about his limited loyalty to the LGBT struggle. Or, simply, to realize that hes a right-wing Likud man before everything and above everything, and end once and for all the link between sexual identity and public persona; to stop looking for people to represent the struggle for all of us, to stop putting our hopes in a Knesset member only because hes one of us, and internalize that there will be gays who will fight for struggles that are not related, perhaps even contradictory, to the LGBT struggle; who on the one hand will bring children into the world through surrogacy and on the other hand will vote against surrogacy if the Prime Minister decides they must do so. Yes, its absurd, and even a bit surreal. Welcome to Israeli politics of 2016.
http://awiderbridge.org/not-our-representitive/
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 15, 2016, 02:56 AM - Edit history (1)
you're allowed to have...
King_David
(14,851 posts)But I'm sure you meant orientation and not preferences.
shira
(30,109 posts)Hilarious - Members of the Tribe arguing about.....EVERYTHING !!!!
Love it!
King_David
(14,851 posts)They are forgetting about the Democratic Party in the USA and Barney Frank...
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)If you mean, am I in favor of 23 countries for one nation, and half a state for the other? The answer is no, Ohana replies, when asked his views on the two-state solution.
First of all, we need to recognize, as mature adults, that not all problems have a solution, he says. Israeli governments for generations have negotiated with the Arabs, have made far-reaching, extensive proposals and, nonetheless, despite these offers, we see there is no agreement, no arrangement, and its not even on the horizon. Therefore, I think its time to stop these desperate attempts to create another enemy state a kilometer away from Ben Gurion Airport, and make peace with the fact that we will conduct our lives just as we have done in the past decades.
File under Cohn, Roy.
shira
(30,109 posts)Fun fact is those who make the accusation know it's a bullshit allegation, yet keep repeating it.