Even I, a staunch Zionist who was already mad enough at Netanyahu and his Haredi Judaism which he attempts to disguise as
Yahadut Chilonit, took a few steps back and thought:
If Netanyahu was largely passive while Arab citizens were being assaulted, he led the demonization campaign against the 47,000 African refugees and asylum seekers who entered Israel without permits. Despite reducing the number of refugees entering Israel to practically zero, thanks to the Sinai fence, he continues to lock up thousands of these desperate people – who, like our own Jewish ancestors, sought to escape persecution and poverty. Netanyahu’s policies flout Jewish values, and have been overturned multiple times by the High Court as immoral and unjustified. But they play well to his xenophobic base.
Good points and reminders. In fact, I wager that some of the Sudanese and other refugees may even be Falasha and Lemba Jews who are making
aliyah in what many would call an illegal way—and if any "illegal"
olim are among the Sudanese refugees, the Government of Israel has no right to deny those
olim ("
eleh Kushim!") their
taglit. Also, think about this: what if some illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, etc. are
Anusim who'd make
aliyah if Netanyahu and his
yadidim let them? After all, they're not considered
Yehudim al pi HaHoq Shivut. They otherwise have to be under the auspices of
nasty people such as Dr. Michael Freund. (Just like Netanyahu, Dr. Freund can fool people. That's even part of why I save most of my e-mails in my backup folders—that is, so I do not ever lose the proof of when I run into
mitchazim like Dr. Freund. That's why I still have the link to the 2012 conversation.).
Likud-led fear and hatemongering hardly stops with our non-Jewish minorities. Progressives, civil rights activists, leftists, the judiciary and anyone who criticizes the occupation have all been accused of being enemies of the state. So much for Jewish solidarity or democratic discourse.
Indeed. I've experienced this myself. I even have a Facebook friend who called Senator Diane Feinstein (with whom I myelf hardly ever agree) a "witch" for standing against Netanyahu, and I've seen others harp on the fact that Senator Feinstein comes from a Jewish Catholic family (which I did not know until they harped on her for it. As I learned, the Feinsteins and the Rosenburgs were and are Russian Byzantine Catholics.).
From a family of Roman Catholic
Anusim and
b'nei Anusim, I know that feeling ("You're not Jewish!"; "Your family betrayed their people!"; "They're
meshumadim!"; "They're
bogadim!"; "Oh; no wonder your Hebrew's not good: your family didn't tell you that they're Jewish!")
Perhaps, by the way, maybe the
Anusi and "meshumad" minds are among the ones which are quickest to pick up on trouble. Our ancestors knew when trouble was coming and/or already came, and at least two of us (Senator Feinstein and me, though I suspect that there are more who) knew that Netanyahu and the Haredim were trouble (By the way, I'll have some
kavod for Taylor Swift if she goes to Israel and dedicates her famous song to Netanyahu.).
Anyway:
This week’s Netanyahu drumbeat claims that the Iranian threat trumps all traditional diplomatic considerations. But those who, like me, believe that Iran is an existential threat to Israel, and fear that the agreement currently being negotiated will be too forgiving and trusting of Iran need to acknowledge that Netanyahu has blown it.
His anti-Obama tirades, his support for West Bank settlements over all other considerations, his efforts to
undermine the Palestinian Authority, his
expropriation of 988 acres of Palestinian land at the end of the Gaza War not only wasted the new diplomatic opportunities he promised toward the war’s end, but
alienated and antagonized the very European leaders who, along with U.S. President Barack Obama, are the partners necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
Excellent reminder and point as well. For being such a Zionist, Netanyahu isn't taking the higher road. He also is not trusting יהוה. For example,
bulldozing the houses of innocent Bedouins does not help—and deliberately failing to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty is a
chillul יהוה.
Bulldozing the houses of terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Destroying terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Stereotyping all Arabs as terrorists and bulldozing their houses is not fine.
As for (and back to the point about) taking the higher road, to stoop down to the level of an enemy or even lower is a
chillul יהוה (cf.
Tehillim 25:21-22 and
Mishlei 26:4). The applicable
mitzvot, after all, say to love your neighbor as yourself (not be like him or her in doing evil), treat the stranger well (not do as he or she has done to you), and let יהוה avenge you. Netanyahu is doing the exact opposite when he has the IDF go beyond proactive counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence.
By the way, counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence are obviously
mitzvot and acts of
kiddush יהוה.
Netanyahu plays the statesman abroad, but back home he is known for his paranoia, his self-aggrandizement, and his lashing out against the courts, the universities and the media. Netanyahu aspires to be Israel’s Churchill, but in nurturing a nation divided against itself he has become our Nixon.
I and others who follow news from and about '
Eretz Yisra'el keep trying to say that, though nobody believes us.
Hopefully, Director Futterman (despite that he's looking at the situation from a leftist perspective) can affect you to get that through your head.
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