Happy New Year from Israel's Radical Right

Israelis awoke today to what most would consider to be very scary news. Hebrew University Professor and peace activist Ze'ev Sternhell received minor injuries after being the target of a pipe bomb attack. OK -- maybe this rates not so high on the Israeli scariness scale, but it's a warning sign to Israeli democracy -- a serious one. Sternhell himself commented from the hospital that "if this act was not committed by a deranged person but by someone who represents a political view, then this is the beginning of the disintegration of democracy" -- a sentiment he has echoed before. Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, is treating this as an act of political violence, inspired by far-rightist settler ideology. Fliers and pamphlets were found in nearby areas offering 1 million NIS (about $296,000) for the assassination of any Peace Now leader.

Professor Sternhell would be the first to recognize what an ironic target he makes: he is one of the world's preeminent scholars on the origins and development of European Fascism. He certainly is no stranger to the threat any democracy, Israel's included, can face by indulging domestic expressions of Fascism -- and the settler right is providing plenty of them.

The Israeli police are now providing stepped up security around Israeli peace leaders, and Israeli TV tonight unearthed vile videos threatening the Secretary-General of the Peace Now movement, Yaariv Oppenheimer, a former colleague of mine. Israeli progressives -- you know the kind of people, who believe in hard-headed diplomacy, security through peace, de-occupation -- are used to being vilified and branded as traitors, even if a majority of the Israeli public supports their solutions to Israel's problems.

And of course it would not be the first time that the thuggish political rhetoric of the radical right would be translated into criminal action. On U.S. Presidential Election Day, it will be the thirteenth anniversary of then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination at the hands of Yigal Amir. And years before that, in an often forgotten episode, Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig was killed during a peaceful protest march against the Lebanon War in 1983, the victim of a grenade attack hurled by a right-wing activist.

The particular danger now is the extent to which settler radicals are out of control, armed, and are going about their violent destructive business largely unimpeded by Israel's law enforcement authorities. When some Israelis first crossed the old 1967 border, the Green Line, and became the settler movement, they also began to cross all kinds of red lines both of international and domestic Israeli law. Radical settler violence is now a sadly prevalent and well-documented phenomenon. Israeli academic Idith Zertal and Haaretz award-winning journalist Akiva Eldar have painstakingly documented what they describe as the land of the settlers and its struggle with the state of Israel, in their book Lords of the Land. Another thoughtful Israeli, Bernard Avishai, has described Israel as being comprised of essentially two separate states, with a democratic, Hebrew civil society defining the one, and a revolutionary, Jewish settler ideology marking the other (see, for example, his comments here).

Of course, the acts of extreme violence and lawlessness are a penchant of a minority of more radical settlers. In fact, the majority of Israelis living in the occupied territories are enjoying economic benefits rather than realizing deeply held ideological convictions. But the recent episodes point to a disturbing new trend. After the disengagement in Gaza, a radical wing of the settlers basically disengaged from Israel, viewing the state as the enemy and increasingly taking the law into its own hands. When the tiny outpost of Yad Yair was evacuated by the IDF earlier this week, settlers went on the rampage against Israel's own military, wrecking the property of Israeli reservists at a local army base and physically attacking and breaking the hand of one soldier. Oh -- and they frequently call the Israeli soldiers Nazis for good measure. This, in addition, to the ongoing harassment and violence meted out against the Palestinian civilian population. Rampaging settler outrages have become a frequent feature of the nightly Israeli news and constitute an embarrassingly large number of hits on YouTube (the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has launched an innovative response operation called "Shooting Back", consisting of 'arming' local Palestinians with cameras in order to both document and deter).

While there has been widespread condemnation in Israel of the ongoing radical settler violence, and in particular of last night's outrage, little action has been taken with the army that oversees the settlement areas -- not wanting to get involved, and the police not making this a priority. The leader of the Meretz party in Israel, MK and former minister Haim Oron, struck a timely note of caution today when he urged people to focus not only on the few bad apples, but to also recognize the culture of incitement that has been cultivated in Israel's political environment by large swathes of the ideological, settler right. So that's the Happy New Year calling card from Israel's radical right.

And where does the U.S. come into this? Well, in addition to ongoing American fecklessness in the face of Israeli settlement expansion, which of course does no favors to Israel itself, there is also the noteworthy private contribution of the right-wing in America, including John Hagee's Christians United for Israel, in directly funding settlement expansion and entrenchment. And then there are the usual suspects -- Sheldon Adelson and Irving Moscowitz, chiming in with their own brand of helping Israel commit suicide. And who would have thunk it--these are some of the same people who are funding the distribution of the anti-Muslim hate film Obsession in swing states right now. Shana Tova!

Comments

[WilliamL]

With the continued expansion of settlements, the 30 billion or whatever it is, needed to be brought to a hault a long time ago. It is not the responsibility of the American people to pay for the expansion of their boarders.

Until THIS "situation" is confronted head on by the American people and world leaders, there will be no peace, no justice, only continued bloodshed and death which jeopardizes the security of the entire region and world.

Religous fanatics across the board have hi-jacked the possibility of a civil and decent life for all of us.

[arvay]

Heartfelt sympathy and admiration for the sane Israelis who desire a genuine peace and a good life for their children and the Palestinians'.

It's important for those of us who vehemently oppose Israel's apartheid policy to remember that, as in South Africa, there are people who reject the supremacist role, have consciences and want to end the insane, non-stop war.

Unfortunately, the fanatics and nut-jobs get most of the headlines, and dissenting voices have to endure a lot of abuse, as this posting indicates. The fact that a major agreement was derailed by assassination shows how powerful and relentless the extremist are. To judge the seriousness, imagine the John Birch Society taking over US foreign policy after Kennedy's assassination.

[pshelleyg]

With all due respect, in case you haven't noticed, the political equivalent of the John Birch Society has taken over our foreign policy here in the U.S. Israel's foreign policy is a microcosm of the U.S., and the fall to the right in Israel began with the Rabin assassination, a reasonable moderate, not unlike the direction that our country took after the Kennedy assassination. The fall to the right just took a bit longer here. There are direct parallels. For a perceptive insight into just how dire this phenomena has become, read Naomi Wolf's article here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/the-battle-plan-ii-sarah_b_128393.html

The present closeness in the polls, after all of the frightening missteps by McCain, including his choice of a figurehead right-wing, fanatically religious, vice-presidential candidate, reflects a true fear of a progressive and racially diverse ticket, all indicative of a country, as with Israel, dominated by the religious right. "The supremacists and nutjobs" get most of the headlines here in the U.S. too because they run things.

[joeyfoto]

There is no essential difference between an Jewish terrorist and an Palestinian terrorist. Those who value only their own freedom while they disparage the freedom of others fail to secure civilized support for their aspirations. That being said, there is little room for debate with fascists. When asked why he picked up a baseball bat on his way to the American Nazis march on Skokie Illinois, Woody Allen said: "I know how to talk to a Nazi." The political solution to the evil acts of unrepentantly fascist Jewish settlers is both obvious and probably undoable.

The obvious solution is an ultimatum from the Israeli government. If the settlers insist on acting as terrorists, (i.e. outside the bounds of democracy and decency) those who persistently and collectively act in cruel and unjust ways loose the protection of society. If settlers refuse to respect the restraints of citizens in democracy, the government of Israel must draw the army back to Israel's legitimate borders. Let God (and right-wing U.S.-Chris­tian-kooks­) protect them from emboldened neighbors.

I am adamant as any supporter of Israel on the unapologetic defense of legitimate Israeli security. Fundamentalist provocateurs aggravate this perennially precarious situation, for reasons that exceed the bounds of logic. Fanatics have the right to climb their own personal Masada; they have no right to determine the future of the state of Israel, unless chaos and cowardice in the Knesset gives them that right.

[marymansour]

Your post is splendid.

[marinade]

Thank you for the very informative article. It is sad to read about more hatred and violence.

[jeanrenoir]

This story is terrifying, but totally predictable, and a terrible portent. I've been blogging throughout the campaign about the Likud-neocon conspiracy to turn America into a theocratic fascist state under McCain-Lieberman. (Palin's just the front VP; the real Cheney is McCain's ventriloquist, Lieberman, obviously.) These right-wing Jews self-righteously see anything whatsoever as justified by the need to prevent another "Holocaust" in Israel. Their master plan, which they've been pursuing assiduously since the neocons first gained significant power in the Reagan Administration, is to make America a military state just like Israel. In fact, the plan has been to isolate America from the rest of the world, so it will be alone against the world with Israel, as it essentially was in Iraq, the neocon proxy war for Israel. These right -wing Jewish thugs in Israel and America will stop at nothing to get their way, starting with getting McCain to bomb Iran FOR Israel for our dessert after the proxy war for Israel in Iraq. The bombing to take the heat off of Israel for the catastrophic economic effects, in America and the world, of such bombing. I have long feared for Obama's life, because the main threat to him comes not from "rednecks" but from crazy right-wing Jews who see him as an "appeaser" of Iran, and thus someone "good" Jews trying to prevent the next Holocaust have an affirmative DUTY to murder. They'll find a redneck scapegoat to front the plot.

[valleygent]

A bit out there on a limb with this stuff no? There are many sane minds in Israel, please keep this in mind...power will actually likely shift left rather soon there.

[jollyelle]

Please do not dismiss what jeanrenior writes, this very situation has been coming to fruition for a the past decade. No one said there are not many sane minds in Israel but the
power unfortunately is not always in the hands of the thoughtful. Our foreign policy with Israel must be discussed and the "taboo" to question our unconditional support lifted.
This is long overdue, we can not excuse or allow the carte blanche mentality to exist any longer. This is a serious contingent that must be clearly named. Another example of fear gone awry.

[S1m0n]

Israel being Israel, there is no group, agency, or cause that could not have placed that bomb, including Mr. Sternhell himself.

[FascistNeoconJew]

I have to agree with you that Professor probably did plant the bomb, which was little more than a firecracker. He was photographed walking around rather spritely the day after the "bombing." As for the perpetrators, there is no evidence that settlers did it, and Sternhell himself flatly denied getting any threats from anyone for years. See article at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3602507,00.html