Everyone is a target
Sternhell attack shows that far right may target anyone who holds different views
Professor Ze’ev Sternhell survived the Holocaust while hiding in the city of Lvov, after his parents were murdered by the Nazis. Ever since then, he does not hide from anyone. In his main area of specialization, 20th Century European thinking, he exposed the fascist roots of elements in the French Right. Many important French political figures were hurt. One filed a libel suit against him, and lost.
Sternhell doesn’t go easy on anyone. I can attest to this personally, as he was my lecturer at Hebrew University’s political science department. He does not go easy on the Israeli Right as well. His articles against the occupation, settlement enterprise, and settlers are direct, blatant, and uncompromising.
If we try to affiliate him with a political camp, we can say that he belongs to the old Left, the one that combined Zionist patriotism with humanistic values. Sternhell did not come to the Left from popular culture. He came from Golani. He cares about what goes on around here, painfully so for himself and those he criticizes.
If I’m not mistaken, in recent years his writing has become a little more conciliatory. Perhaps it’s the age (he’s 73-years-old.) Perhaps it’s the changes that the political establishment has been going through. When Sharon, the father of the settlements, eliminates the Gaza settlements, and when Olmert, who started his political career by declaring that we should not be giving up even an inch of Israel, now seeks to return many inches, the historic lines of separation between Right and Left are softening up.
This year he was awarded the Israel Prize. The prize was awarded for his impressive contribution, in international standards, to the study of political thinking. I was happy to hear about the prize just like a student happy for his teacher. Yet others were not a happy. One rightist group petitioned the High Court of Justice against the decision. Sternhell chose not to respond to his critics that time. The High Court judges threw them out.
Thursday morning, a pipe bomb exploded outside Professor Sternhell’s home in Jerusalem. All signs indicated that the planting of the explosive device was politically motivated. Someone who does not like Sternhell’s views sought to convey a message. The bomb was small. Fortunately, Sternhell only suffered minor leg injuries.
Shin Bet didn’t know
Nonetheless, this still is highly disturbing. It is disturbing precisely because it’s so unspecified: Sternhell does not evacuate outposts, he does not hand over territory to the Palestinians, and he does not put rightist offenders in jail. He merely expresses, in writing, views that are relatively prevalent among the Israeli public, including the top political leadership. If he is a target, almost anyone who does not think like the far right can become a target. Everyone is facing a threat.In 1983, Emil Grunzweig was murdered in a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem. The killer, Yona Avrushmi, did not plan to murder. He hurled a hand grenade at the protestors, and that’s what materialized. Yet there is almost no doubt that the attack on Professor Sternhell was premeditated. Someone chose a target, followed him, prepared the explosive device, and planted it.
The Shin Bet didn’t know about it. The police didn’t know about it. The Shin Bet is faltering when it comes to politically-motivated Jewish criminality. It’s faltering even though anyone who deals with security in Israel knows that the rebellion among a certain strata in the settlements and their periphery has reached boiling point and is manifested daily through violent acts against Palestinians and soldiers.
The Shin Bet’s weakness partly stems from a deliberate policy and partly from investigation constraints and emotional obstacles. Meanwhile, we have a police force in Israel only for the purpose of creating huge newspaper headlines. A total of 28,000 police officers are employed by the Israel Police, yet we don’t have a police force.
Had I believed in praying, I would pray that the person who targeted Professor Sternhell will turn out to be a nutty student who wanted to avenge a low grade, or a member of a crime family who got the wrong address. Unfortunately, the chances that this is what happened are almost nil.
