Saturday, July 09, 2011

Open Calls for Bloodshed and Violence coming from the Israeli Far Left

1. The leftist prosecution in Israel, in large part led by the
leftist anti-democratic Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan, continues
to hound and harass rabbis for daring to exercise freedom of speech.
The crime of the felonious clergy was to recommend that people read a
book that the prosecution regards as "incitement" and "racism." The
problem with that is that in a democracy one is allowed to recommend
books to others that are incitement, racism, and even downright
garbage.

Meanwhile, the total hypocrisy of the dual justice system in Israel
and the selective suppression of freedom of speech are all on display
this week. The latest development is that members of Israel's radical
Left, or what I would call the fascist Left, are increasingly calling
openly for murder and violence. And Shai Nitzan and his underlings
are not doing a thing about this.

First, a few days ago, the leftist anti-Israel extremist, Professor
"Judd" Ne'eman, who teaches film at Tel Aviv University, outdid
himself and called for a civil war against the Israeli "Right."
Ne'eman made it clear that he wants this civil war to break out as a
tactic to aid the Palestinian campaign against Israel. He has a long,
long track record of issuing violently anti-Israel pronouncements (see
http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Alon%20Ben%20Shaul%20-%20Yehuda%20Neeman.htm
), which is why the Likud government decided he is deserving of
receiving the Israel Prize. The Israel Prize is generally awarded to
the worst far-leftist haters of Israel, including when the Likud is in
power. Knesset Member David Rotem from Lieberman's Israel Beiteninu
party just calledupon Shai Nitzan explicitly to arrest and indict
Ne'eman. Don't hold your breath for this to happen. After all,
Ne'eman is not a rabbi.

Actually, Ne'eman is not the only lefty tossing about the term "civil
war" these days, when referring to something they would like to see
happen because too many Israelis refuse to endorse the extremist Left.
A.B. Yehoshua uses the term also. They do not mean a civil war in
which people challenge one another to spelling bees or soap box
debates. They mean a civil war in which lots of people get killed.

But the calls for bloodshed coming from Comrade Ne'eman and his
friends are tame compared to what just came out of the mouth of one
Oded Regev, a faculty member in physics at the Technion
(http://physics.technion.ac.il/~regev/ ). Born in Poland in 1946, he
moved to Israel when he was 12. What is astonishing is that such a
person teaches at the Technion. It is very unusual to find
far-Leftists on the Technion's faculty, although it used to have a
handful of Stalinists from the Communist Party, long ago retired.

Regev published an internet article in response to Ne'eman's call for
civil war entitled, "If you will have me, I am in." He adds there
that if he would be permitted to lead a company of artillery he would
gladly open fire at the evil side, meaning the Right and the religious
Jews. He adds, "I also believe that there is only one way to overcome
the religious extremists and that is through organized violence,
through launching warfare in the full meaning of that term. Anyone
who does not surrender in that war will be incarcerated." Regev went
on to describe those rabbis arrested by Shai Nitzan and his friends as
"those who continue in the tradition of Goebbels." (In Hebrew,
http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?cat_id=4&topic_id=2902508&forum_id=771
)

The President of the Technion is Prof. Peretz Lavie. If you would
like to tell him what you think of Regev's comments, Lavie's email is
president@technion.ac.il and his fax is 972-4-829200. You should cc
Prof. Rafael Rom at vppard@dp.technion.ac.il

As for complaining about Ne'eman, you can find the relevant
information here: http://isracampus.org.il/How%20to%20Complain.htm

Finally, the Israeli press this weekend is all upset about a different
incident involving the very same Shai Nitzan. It seems some people
who were upset at Nitzan's campaign of arresting and harassing Rabbis
ran up against him at a wedding to which he was invited and engaged in
some drive-by catcalls and insults directed at Nitzan. The media are
livid. How dare those guttersnipes spoil the festive mood for Nitzan
at a wedding!

Now I found that story of some personal interest. It seems that I
occasionally bump into Nitzan at my own synagogue. He has some
relatives who are regulars in the shul. I must confess that, while
tempted, I have never told him off in shul. Not even on Purim. In
fact the last time I saw him in shul it really WAS Purim. While
directing no rude comments in his direction, I did make a point of
prancing in front of him – I was dressed up for Purim as Naomi Chazan
with a great big rhino horn on my nose. Just to get his goat. It
was my way of daring him to arrest me for incitement!

And while I do not exactly condone harassing him at weddings, I insist
that the harassment of rabbis for exercising their freedom of speech
is a far worse breach of etiquette.


2. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4092952,00.html

In praise of rightist Israel

Op-ed: Israelis becoming more Jewish and hawkish, thus boosting our
negotiating positions
Udi Lebel

A poll showing the strengthening of the "rightist-haredim" bloc was
published here last weekend. According to the poll, under any
circumstances we shall see the Likud leader elected for prime
minister, and he would be able to choose a centrist or rightist
coalition without having to contend with a hostile Leftist parliament.
These figures are not unique or incidental.

Several processes are slowly making Israel's Jewish society more
conservative. This is not just a result of demography, which is
working in favor of the haredim and traditionalist Jews and against
the seculars. We are dealing with a plethora of cultural tendencies
that have nothing to do with births.

The Jewish bookshelf is sweeping many groups and is turning into an
element that holds ideological, not only cultural, influence on those
joining the trend. The "Jewish new age era," a sort of
counter-reaction to the "candle era" of the peace children, is lifting
geographical boundaries.

Samaria is suddenly turning into a site that belongs to "every Jew."
Workshops and trips there constitute the settlers' "quiet revolution."
Even celebrities who "discovered" the synagogue at the heart of Tel
Aviv are starting to arrive.

Meanwhile, the Russian and Ethiopian communities, as well as residents
of the periphery, are mostly holding clear hawking views, despairing
over the chance to see peace from the Palestinians, and are eager to
see us using our power and producing deterrence. Territorial
concessions are not perceived as a move that would affect the end of
the conflict.

Message to Palestinians
Similar phenomena are taking place among some groups within Israel's
leftist camp; the moderate Left, known as "activist" in the past,
which lives in "border areas." The Gaza-region kibbutzim, which in the
past granted the leftist Meretz party many Knesset seats, are showing
ongoing support for Lieberman's positions ever since the current
government's establishment. No less surprising: Even among these
leftists, a majority characterizes the settlement enterprise as
Zionism in every way.

Meanwhile, Meretz and Labor, which produced "Oslo," are turning into
niche parties. Kadima, which is led by people formerly associated with
the Right, is the only dovish element with aspirations to take power.

Jewish perception and heritage are penetrating civics studies and the
military and national service. The education minister is bringing
awareness of Hebron to Tel Aviv. Moreover, members of the religious
Zionist community are increasingly active in academia and in the film
industry; they produce culture and convey their messages.

Israelis are becoming more spiritual. And no, this is not the
spirituality associated with the flower children. It is the kind of
spiritually associated with Rabbi Kook. It comes with love for the
land and great belief in the ban on renouncing it.

These socio-political developments do not only bear domestic effects
on Israel's society. This process has strategic implications vis-à-vis
the Palestinians. Until now, such trends in the Palestinian theater
became a diplomatic consideration for Israelis: If you don't sign a
peace deal with the PLO, you'll get Hamas. If you don't secure an
agreement with the Fayyad government, you'll have to contend with
Islamist radicals.

Well, we now have a parallel message we can start to convey to the
Palestinian leadership: Israeli society is undergoing a process of
"reinforcement." – it has become more Jewish, more hawkish and more
rightist. If you don't sign an agreement with Israel today ,while
recognizing it as the Jewish People's state, you will have to deal
with the future Israel: One that will only sign a deal with you if you
recognize the gravesite of Rachel the Matriarch and mark the death of
our holy mother every year.

Dr. Udi Label is a senior political science lecturer at the Ariel
University Center of Samaria






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