"WE don't have a king, only a regent, Admiral Horthy."
"An admiral? So you have a big fleet?"
"No, we have no fleet at all, since we have no coastline." (Horthy became an admiral during World War I, when Hungary was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire which indeed did have a -- small -- fleet.)
"Curious. A kingdom without a king and an admiral without a fleet. So why do you declare war on us? Do you hate us?"
"No, we hate Romania."
"So why don't you declare war on Romania?"
"Impossible! They are our allies!"
SORRY FOR interrupting myself. Back to Netanyahu.
Just now the Netanyahu government did two things which enraged many Jews throughout the world, and especially in the US.
One concerns the Western Wall (formerly called the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem. This is the holiest place of Judaism.
Since I am a pious atheist, holy places don't speak to me. The more so since the Western Wall is not really a part of the Jewish Temple, reconstructed by King Herod some 2000 years ago, but just a supporting wall of the large artificial mound of earth, on which the Temple stood.
The last time I was there was in 1946. The imposing wall was flanked by a narrow lane, which made it seem even higher. After the 1967 war, the entire Arab neighborhood was leveled to make place for a large piazza. The wall was turned over to the ultra-Orthodox, in return for their votes in the Knesset. Men and women were separated, of course.
With the growth of feminism, this became problematical. In the end, a compromise was found: a small part of the wall was set aside for "mixed" prayers of men and women, and also for "Reform" and "Conservative" Jews, who hardly exist in Israel, but constitute the majority among American Jews.
Now, under Orthodox pressure, Netanyahu wants to revoke this compromise, causing great excitement among American Jews.
As if this was not enough, Netanyahu also wants to withdraw the recognition of "Reform" and "Conservative" conversions to Judaism, giving the Orthodox exclusive rights to perform conversions in Israel.
Since there is no separation between state and religion in Israel, a simple law suffices. Indeed, Israeli institutions are becoming more and more religious, so much so, that a new Hebrew word, Hadata (roughly "religiosifiation"), has been invented.
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