Tab. ISalutatores Matutini, sive Commendatio sine Fide. Tabula Actis Mundi more veterum picta (a machina).The Morning Callers, or A Recommendation Without Faith. Painted for Acta Mundi in the classical manner (AI-generated).
Nota Censoria · De commendationibus in IudaeaThe Censor's Mark · On Recommendations in Judaea
Sexaginta septem laudant, quadraginta octo sequuntur
Sixty-Seven Praise Him, Forty-Eight Follow
Ut Breitbart et DW nuntiant, Isaacus Herzog, praeses Civitatis Israelis, Gadi Eisenkot primum iussit consilium regendi componere, quamquam eius factiones duodequinquaginta tantum sedes tenent. Censor rationes subducit: commendatio sine praedibus nihil valet.
As Breitbart and DW report, Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, has given Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government, though his parties hold only forty-eight seats. The Censor does the sums: a recommendation without sureties is worth nothing.
Die Solis, ante diem VI Idus Novembres. Ut Breitbart et DW nuntiant, Isaacus Herzog, praeses Civitatis Israelis, Gadi Eisenkot, ducem factionis Yashar et olim exercitus praefectum, primum iussit novum consilium regendi componere. Comitiis mense Octobri habitis, partes Beniamini Netanyahu tres et quinquaginta sedes ex centum viginti ceperunt, quarum Likud septem et viginti. Quattuor Eisenkot factiones duodequinquaginta. Nemo unum et sexaginta habet. Eisenkot tamen sexaginta septem commendationes accepit, inter quas undeviginti a factionibus Arabum, Ra'am et Indice Communi. Netanyahu, ut Breitbart scribit, sex et quadraginta tulit; septem viri factionis United Torah Judaism neutrum commendaverunt. Dies duodetriginta Eisenkot dantur, et praeses quattuordecim addere potest. Interea Netanyahu imperium retinet.
Sunday, 8 November. As Breitbart and DW report, Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, has given Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party and once chief of the army, the first chance to form a new government. In the elections held in October, Benjamin Netanyahu's camp took fifty-three seats out of a hundred and twenty, twenty-seven of them Likud's. Eisenkot's four parties took forty-eight. Nobody has sixty-one. Yet Eisenkot received sixty-seven recommendations, nineteen of them from the Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List. Netanyahu, Breitbart writes, got forty-six; the seven members of United Torah Judaism recommended neither man. Eisenkot has twenty-eight days, and the president may add fourteen. Meanwhile Netanyahu keeps power.
Prima nota, in rationes ipsas. Sexaginta septem eum laudant, quadraginta octo sequuntur. Hoc ego non exercitum voco sed turbam salutantium. Nam qui mane ad ianuam venit et salutat, idem vesperi pro te non pugnat. Ut Breitbart refert, neque Ra'am neque Index Communis promisit se in consilium ingressurum aut suffragia praestaturum quibus id staret. Rogatus etiam a praeside an Hamas factionem terroris haberet, Mansour Abbas, dux Ra'am, ut Breitbart narrat, neque aiebat neque negabat.
First mark: against the accounts themselves. Sixty-seven praise him; forty-eight follow him. This I call not an army but a crowd of morning callers. The man who comes to your door at dawn to wish you well will not fight for you at dusk. As Breitbart reports, neither Ra'am nor the Joint List has promised to enter the government, or to give the votes it would need to stand. Asked by the president whether he considered Hamas a terrorist organisation, Mansour Abbas, leader of Ra'am, so Breitbart says, would neither say yes nor say no.
Sexaginta septem eum laudant, quadraginta octo sequuntur. Hoc ego non exercitum voco sed turbam salutantium.
Sixty-seven praise him; forty-eight follow him. This I call not an army but a crowd of morning callers.
Secunda nota, in eos qui nutum commodant. Undeviginti viri Netanyahu deicere volunt; onus regendi ferre nolunt. Ita faciunt uti fenerator qui fructum capit, periculum non subit. Cui bono? Ipsis. Potentiam habent sine officio, gratiam sine fide. Sed fundamentum est iustitiae fides. Ubi fides deest, nihil aedificatur, ne casa quidem.
Second mark: against those who lend a nod. Nineteen men want Netanyahu down; they will not carry the load of governing. They act like the usurer, who takes the profit and runs none of the risk. Who gains? They do. They have power without duty, favour without faith. But good faith is the foundation of justice. Where faith is missing, nothing gets built, not even a hut.
Tertia nota, in Netanyahu. Ut Breitbart nuntiat, in tabula picta et loquente dixit consilium quod ex Arabum factionibus penderet terrorem non oppugnaturum, idque mortem patriae fore; concordiam omnium factionum Zionistarum poscit. DW scribit eum cum Arabum factionibus una agere omnino recusavisse. Concedo: periculum ab Hamas et Parthis verum est, et magistratus qui hostem non nominat suspectus est. Sed concordiam nunc petit ab eis quibus in comitiis non persuasit. Et eius socii septem suffragia in horreo tenent, uti agricola frumentum, dum annona crescat.
Third mark: against Netanyahu. Breitbart reports that in a talking picture he said a government hanging on the Arab parties would not fight terror, and that this would be the death of the country; he demands unity among all the Zionist parties. DW writes that he refused outright to work with the Arab parties. I grant it: the danger from Hamas and from Persia is real, and a magistrate who will not name the enemy deserves suspicion. But now he begs unity from men he could not win over at the polls. And his own allies keep seven votes in the granary, like a farmer holding his grain until the price goes up.
Ego censor opera publica locavi. Nullum redemptorem admisi qui praedes non daret, viros qui bona sua pro opere obligarent. Maiores nostri ita instituerunt. Qui viam aut cloacam sine praedibus suscipit, votum facit, non contractum. Res publica votis non sternitur. Commendatio sine praedibus idem est quod pecunia promissa nec numerata.
When I was censor I let the public contracts. I admitted no contractor who did not give sureties, men who pledged their own property for the work. That is how our ancestors arranged it. A man who takes on a road or a sewer without sureties is making a vow, not a contract. You cannot pave a republic with vows. A recommendation without sureties is money promised and never counted out.
Remedium in promptu est. Praeses non nutus numeret sed praedes. Qui commendat, aut in consilium ingrediatur et onus ferat, aut taceat. Duodetriginta dies satis sunt; quattuordecim alteri luxuria sunt. Si non convenit, populus rursus ad comitia eat, ut iam saepe iit, et qui nutum dederunt fidem non dantes, eos ignominia notet. Qui laudat et non sequitur, fur est temporis publici.
The remedy is ready to hand. Let the president count sureties, not nods. Whoever recommends, let him either enter the government and carry the load, or hold his tongue. Twenty-eight days are enough; another fourteen are luxury. If no deal is struck, let the people go back to the polls, as they have often gone already, and brand with disgrace those who gave a nod but not their faith. The man who praises and does not follow is a thief of the public's time.
FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES
- Cic. Off. 1.23Fundamentum autem est iustitiae fides
FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES
- BreitbartIsraeli President Herzog Tasks Eisenkot with Forming Government in Setback for Netanyahu
- DWIsraeli president tasks Gadi Eisenkot with forming government
Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.
Scribe ad Cato: tabellarius epistulam tuam per vias Romanas feret, et responsum post dies aliquot redibit.Write to Cato: the courier carries your letter along the Roman roads, and a reply comes back after a few days.
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