The Right of the Right

Israel is poised for its most right-wing government in decades after Binyamin Netanyahu was asked to be the country's next Prime Minister.

The name Binyamin comes from the Torah/Teaching where is related how the 12 Tribes of the Jewish People came into existence from the 12 children of Yisroel/Israel. Binyamin was the 12th child born as his mother Rachel was about to pass away; she called her new son Ben Oni/Son of my Sorrow, but his father changed the name to Benyamin/Son of the Right.

In the Cabala the right is commiserate with kindness and the left with severity, but on the ground the opposite is true—the right is severe and the left is liberal and kind. Benyamin was the younger brother of Yoseph who was sold into slavery by his ten brothers; the ten brothers were praised because they did not hide their feeling saying one thing with their mouths while harboring another intention with their hearts.

Politics in general and Israeli politics in particular is a well-worn discipline of deception. It is hard to know in Israel what is right.