West's progressive forces didn't need Netanyahu tp prove Israel is 'racist'
Photo: EPA
Claims against Netanyahu's 'racism' are hypocritical
Op-ed: Instead of warning against Israel's law-abiding and loyal Arab citizens, the prime minister should have focused on the Joint Arab List, which undermines Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and has leaders who feel closer to Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement
on Election Day about "droves of Arabs" is still starring in the charts of members of the school of racism. It's not that a moment before that they thought that Israel wasn't racist, and then came the prime minister and "proved" that Israel was racist.
There seems to be one argument which outdid all others: What would you say if the same statement had been made against Jewish voters in a Western country? That's an excellent question. We know the answer. We would have called it anti-Semitism, and rightfully so. But we should utilize this comparison to the fullest.
The J Street conference, which ended a few days ago, also turned Netanyahu's declaration into an axe to grind. Why they are in favor of Israel. They simply want to save it from itself. And there is nothing like labeling the Jewish state as "racist" in order to prove how strong their love is.
Election Rhetoric
Op-ed: The prime minister's apology over his anti-Arab comments wasn't directed at Israel's Arabs; it was directed at the Obama administration, Western European governments and the US Jewry.
Well, let's assume that we are talking about France and that it has a community of nearly one million Jews, and let's assume that France is surrounded by many Jewish countries, which are populated by hundreds of millions of Jews. And let's assume that some of those hundreds of millions are explicitly in favor of destroying France and the Christians. And let's assume that some of the leaders of the French Jews' joint list identify with Kahanist Jews on the other side of the border, who regularly fire rockets at France. In such a situation, would the French president's warning against mass voting among the Jews be considered blatant racism?
Joint Arab List. Similar parties have been disqualified in Turkey and Spain (Photo: AFP)
Europe has faced similar situations here and there. The European Court of Human Rights dealt with the issue of parties which were disqualified for undermining the national ethos in different countries. For example, the Justice Party in Turkey, which was an Islamist party even before the Erdogan era, was disqualified by the Constitutional Court of Turkey. Two parties in Spain were also disqualified by the Spanish Supreme Court.
All these parties were much less hostile and defiant than the Joint Arab List, which undermines Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Some of its leaders feel closer not only to the PLO or Palestinian Authority, but also to Hamas, with its murderous and racist ideology. The European Court of Justice approved the disqualification of all these parties. The defensive democracy mechanism went into action, although it is unlikely that these parties ever threatened Turkey or Spain.
In Israel, despite the explicit law, the High Court decided that it knows better than the lawmakers, and let such parties run for Knesset. These decisions did not make the Arab politicians more moderate. On the contrary. Instead of Azmi Bishara, we got Hanin Zoabi and a party spokesman who claims that the Islamic State – the most horrifying and murderous phenomenon in Islam – learnt its ways from Zionism.
Netanyahu was wrong for not directing his claims at the party. Because the overwhelming majority of Israel's Arabs are law-abiding, loyal citizens, even if they are not Zionist. Their level of identification with terror, or their recruitment by terror organizations, is likely lower than in countries like Britain or Belgium.
The "gevald, racism" festival, which characterizes the progressive forces in the West, is understandable. They would jump at any opportunity to show some more hypocrisy. Understanding the president of the State of Israel, who justified stone throwers because of Netanyahu's statements, is a bit more difficult. If Reuven Rivlin deteriorated all the way there, how can we complain about others?
