Dr. Yossi Beilin - the settler
Peace Now: 'How great it is to be right-wing!'
Peace Now launches satirical video poking fun at right-wing, slamming West Bank policy and new legislation. So, is it so much fun being part of the right-wing?
Set to the tune of George Harrison's "Got my mind set on you," the pro-peace left-wing organization Peace Now has published a satirical video titled "It's great to be right-wing" in which it mocks the settler right.
Dressed as religious settlers, MKs and prominent leftists cynically made the case for the right-wing in rhyme, indirectly slamming what they described as disproportional budget apportionment for West Bank settlements and new legislation which they claim is intended to silence political dissent.
"How lucky I am that there is no partner for peace and that Arabs understand just force. Because without Arabs, how would I scare you? With ghosts?!" quipped former Meretz and Labor leader Dr. Yossi Beilin, dressed in a kippa and stereotypical settler garb.
Dr. Yossi Beilin - the settler
Donning an anti-Disengagement t-shirt, Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer made fun of those decrying leftists as traitors and conflating criticism of Israel's policies to anti-Semitism, singing: "How much fun it is to shout from every corner and square that the left are traitors, and that you and you and you are anti-Semites if you dare to protest."
Peace Now director: Critical of Israel? You're an anti-Semite!
In addition to Beilin and Oppenheimer, the video also includes former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, Labor MKs Eitan Cabel, Itzik Shmuli, Moshe Mizrahi, Meretz MKs Ilan Gilon and Michael Rozin, whose voices come together to sing the chorus.
"It's so much fun to be right wing," the group chirped, "How convenient to be right-wing, creating a world that's imaginary, even though for you it's inflammatory."
As the song progresses, the end of the chorus chips away from "inflammatory" to "destructive," until all the participants rip off their right-wing costumes to reveal leftist slogans and Peace Now signs.
Sitting on a lawn chair and drinking a beer, social protest leader and Labor MK Itzik Shmuli poked fun at the massive funding of settler-only roads in the West Bank and the cost it exacts on the average Israeli taxpayer, who struggle to finance a home for themselves in Israel-proper.
"I love the millions they throw at you, at me," MK Shmuli sang, "You know it's you who paid for the highways that are just for me. When you can't afford an apartment in your city, I am in the West Bank almost for free. Not bad!"
"So fun to be in the Knesset and silence all those who disagree," sang a smiling Labor MK and former senior police commander Moshe Mizrahi, referencing a number of laws legislated in recent years which leftist claims are intended to silence dissent.
Meretz MK Michal Rozin picked up his line and added with song and dance that "If you even say words like (peace), we'll outlaw your right to think."
