"The
bullies riot and the other passengers remain silent, whether from fear
or assent, until they become a single voice, the voice of the bully."
Read Gideon Levy's latest.
To see how racist Israel has become, look to the left
The new levels of Arab-hatred being displayed are shocking, and so are the Israeli public's acceptance of them.
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Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Photo by Emil Salman
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Israel’s
“chocolate flight”
— the political equivalent of the recent incident, a video of which
went viral, in which Israeli passengers cursed out and threatened a
flight attendant for refusing to sell them duty-free chocolate ahead of
other passengers — lands on Tuesday, the cabin messier and filthier than
ever. There have been dirtier and more violent election seasons here,
but none so ultranationalist and racist. The curse of racism spread far
beyond the far right: Note what was said (and unsaid) by the left and
the center.
We must start, of course, with that great language
polluter Avigdor Lieberman. His Hebrew is broken, his English a farce,
his expressions repellent in any language. Even worse than his vicious
excoriations, which have reached a new nadir, is Israelis’ apathy to
them.
The foreign minister said “Those who are against us ... we need to pick up an ax and cut off his head,”
aiming his ax
at Arab Israelis. Such a remark would end the career and guarantee
lifetime ostracism of any Western statesman. Only superannuated African
dictators speak of axes and beheading — and the leaders of Islamic
State, of course. But such is the intellectual, cultural and moral world
of Israel’s foreign minister, a bully who was once convicted of
physically assaulting a child. The world can’t understand how
Lieberman’s remark was accepted with such equanimity in Israel, where
some highly-regarded commentators still believe this cynical, repellent
politician is a serious, reasonable statesman.
No less repugnant was his savaging, in a televised
debate, of Joint List leader Iman Odeh, whom he called a “fifth column”
and told, “you’re not wanted here,” “go to Gaza.” None of the other
party heads taking part, including those of leftist and centrist slates,
leader in the debate, stepped in to stop Lieberman’s tirade. (Zehava
Galon of Meretz denounced it later.) Silence is tantamount to an
admission of guilt. We are all Lieberman. On this flight, there is
neither shaming nor a sense of shame.
The racism of the campaign season has been planted
well beyond the rotten, stinking gardens of Lieberman, Naftali Bennett,
Eli Yishai and Baruch Marzel. It is almost everywhere. Our cities have
recently been contaminated by posters whose evil messages are nearly on a
par with the slogans “Kahane was right” and “death to Arabs.”
“With BibiBennett, we’ll be stuck with the
Palestinians forever,” threaten the posters plastered on every overpass
and hoarding, on behalf of the Peace and Security Association of
National Security Experts. It is impossible to know their level of
expertise on matters of peace and security, but they are clearly experts
in incitement. The message and its signatories are considered
center-left, but it too spreads hate and racism.
“We’ll be stuck with the Palestinians forever”?
Yes. The Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. Even if a Palestinian state
is established, some of them will remain in Israel. What are the
country’s Arabs supposed to feel when they see such hateful ads directed
against them? And what’s so bad about being “stuck” with them? Are they
infected with some disease? Being stuck with Lieberman is much worse.
Such is the state of public discourse in Israel.
Yair Lapid and “the Zoabis,” in reference to Haneen Zoabi, Moshe Kahlon
who says he won’t sit in a government coalition “with the Arabs,” Isaac
Herzog who will conduct coalition negotiations with all the parties with
the exception of the Arab ones, Tzipi Livni and her obsession with her
Jewish — and also nationalistic and ugly — state. Even the dear and
beloved (to me) Amos Oz, who in Haaretz (“Dreams Israel should abandon —
fast,” March 13)
called
for a “fair divorce” from the Palestinians. He has the right not to
believe in the prospects for a shared life, we must call for their
liberation, but to call for a divorce without asking the Palestinians
what they want rings with a rejection of them. And what about Israel’s
Arab citizens? How are they supposed to feel when one of the most
important intellectuals of Israel’s peace camp says he wants a divorce?
Are they to remain among us as lepers?
Because that’s how it is on chocolate flights. The
bullies riot and the other passengers remain silent, whether from fear
or assent, until they become a single voice, the voice of the bully.
Gideon Levy tweets at @levy_haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.646914?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social
Lieberman has abandoned all restraint and morality
Facing threat of being
voted out of the Knesset, no statement is too contemptible as long as it
ensures him media presence, including unbridled racist incitment.
Avigdor Lieberman’s fear for his political survival has reached an
ugly climax. Clinging by his fingertips in an effort to save his corrupt
Yisrael Beiteinu party from extinction, Lieberman has abandoned all
restraint and morality. He is filling the political debate with violent,
racist incitement.
During a marathon series of interviews with party
leaders conducted by Channel 2 television on Saturday, Lieberman entered
the studio immediately following the interview with Ayman Odeh, head of
the Joint List established by the Arab parties. Pointing at Odeh, he
called him a “traitor” and a “liar.” In earlier interviews with party
leaders on Channel 2, Lieberman called the Joint List chairman “a fifth
column,” saying, “you’re a representative of terrorist organizations in
the Knesset ... You intimidate children in the schools so they won’t do
national service ... The only thing that unites you is hatred of
Israel.”
That is how Israel’s foreign minister addresses the
representative of 20 percent of the state’s population. Odeh was wise
to refuse to respond to Lieberman’s contemptible performance.
It’s possible that Lieberman truly believes with
all his heart in the racist merchandise he’s offering his voters, even
though for the past few months he has zigzagged between a diplomatic
agreement in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, on one hand, and
“transferring” Arab citizens of Israel and instituting the death penalty
for terrorists on the other, depending on his electoral prospects and
the progress of the criminal investigation into members of his party.
Yet the fact that someone who has been a senior minister in most recent
Israeli governments can’t boast of anything he has achieved or promise
any hope to his electorate is shocking and regrettable.
It’s not surprising that Lieberman is acting the
way he is. The foreign minister has proved throughout his political
career that power and authority interest him much more than ideology, if
he even has an ideology. Now, facing the threat of falling short of the
electoral threshold, no statement or slogan is too contemptible as long
as it ensures him a media presence, and perhaps also another few votes.
But Lieberman doesn’t represent Israel’s citizens,
not even those who hold right-wing views. His attempts at intimidation,
his frequent and cynical exploitation of bereavement, his unbridled
anti-Arab incitement and the corruption that spreads everywhere he and
his people go — all these are an insult to Israeli democracy.
Lieberman isn’t worthy of being a kingmaker, or
even of playing any decisive role in the formation of any political
bloc. And in a properly run state, he would have no place in the
legislature at all.
Watch Lieberman's attack on Odeh on Channel 2 (Attention: Hebrew)
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.647076?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social
In Israel, a good Arab is an invisible Arab
The woman who will light a torch on Independence Day is just the type of Arab that Israel likes — an invisible one.
By
Gideon Levy
06:00 12.03.15
A
man walks past a graffiti dedicated to the Holocaust in the northern
port city of Thessaloniki March 15, 2015. . Photo by Reuters 
