Exactly seven years ago I wrote an article about Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon and his references to the army applying “chemotherapy” to the Palestinian “cancer” in the West Bank and Gaza. As I noted then, the language he used is the language of fascism. Along with Lieberman (who also shows all signs of being a fascist) [...]
Gideon Levy writes about a phenomenon I have discussed in the past: Anti-Semitism is raising its head. Not in Warsaw, Munich or Paris, and there’s no need for the Anti-Defamation League to wave the evidence around. It’s right here, in our own home, in verdant Ramat Aviv, the most enlightened suburb of Tel Aviv, our [...]
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In the NY Times for the past few days, there have been articles about a play that may come to New York soon. The first article had this headline “Workshop May Present Play Critical of Israel” which made me blink several times. Is that really newsworthy? Well apparently it is because the Times followed it [...]
I don’t like to bandy about labels. But after reading this article in Ha’aretz about the rising popularity of Lieberman among Israeli youth, I don’t hesitate to express my concern about the growth of fascism in Israel [Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands [...]
I have often discussed the repulsive ideology of the Israeli Orthodox settler movement. Jews outside Israel may not be aware of the central role Israeli rabbis play in this movement and its ideology. Because Israel is a “Jewish state” many of these Rabbis are actually on the government payroll. Their role in the Gaza war is [...]
I have talked about Israeli’s sense of victimhood quite often, most recently just a few days ago. Akiva Eldar (one of Ha’aretz great journalist) has a piece on some recent research into precisely this topic: Israeli Jews’ consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the [...]
I have written in the past about my attitudes towards intolerance. And I have written about hypocrisy and the need to oppose anti-democratic actions by both the empire and its opponents. I feel, therefore, the need to write something about the hype surrounding the cartoons that are causing such an uproar around the world.
The Orthodox Anarchist (don’t ask, just visit the site) brings an excellent video about Jewish terrorists, created by PBS Frontline.
Many years ago, not long after Rabin’s assassination, I was sitting in my town’s synagogue on a Shabbat (Saturday) morning. At the time there was a great deal of controversy whether or not Yigal Amir had received from Settler rabbis a religious stamp of approval for his murderous act. The halachic (Jewish law) basis for [...]