Op-ed: When it comes to hate crimes committed by Jewish individuals, everything the radical right says about Arabs is said by part of the left about Jews.
For hours I recited everything the Left said about the murder on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street: The murderer does not represent Israel’s Arabs, most of them are loyal citizens, they have not chosen terror.
I also know the extended Melhem family, so it was easy for me to write that. And even without personal acquaintance, the radical and loud right’s attempt to link the murder to an entire sector is an expression of racism.
When that’s what the left says, I am a leftist. But it turns out that part of the left is actually a radical right. Because when it comes to hate crimes committed by individuals on the Jewish side, everything the radical right says about Arabs is said by part of the left – not just the radical left – about Jews: The Jewish society has become a violent and racist society, the nationalistic government backs terror, the dangerous right waters the garden-beds on which murderers grow. A competition of declarations.
It turns out that even in light of the murder of two Jews by an Arab, the melody won’t change. Barely 24 hours had passed since the despicable murder on Dizengoff Street, and Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon had already gone back to the moldy clichés: “Jewish terror is backed by the government.”
She hasn’t heard that many of the “price tag” hooligans have been detained for several weeks now. She hasn’t heard theclaims of torture. It must be a show. And the indictments filed on Sunday are a Zionist deception.
If Galon is right, and Jewish terror is backed by the government, then Arab terror is a proper response. None of the Arab sector’s spokespeople thought it was the time to respond with such low incitement. But Galon couldn’t help it.
Don’t make generalizations, she pleaded, like I pleaded in my article, when an Israeli Arab carries out an attack. She forgot, however, that she is actually a professor of generalizations. After the “bloody wedding,” the same Galon wrote: “The actual disease is the burning, blind hatred which doesn’t begin and end among a ‘handful’ of teens, but penetrates growing parts of our society.”
Baruch Marzel wouldn’t have said it better. When he and his likes seize every opportunity in which an Israeli Arab is involved in terrorist activity, they turn the entire sector into a sick society filled with hatred. That’s exactly what Galon is saying about the Jewish society. When it comes to Arabs, part of the right sees a homogenous, dark and hostile bloc before its eyes. When it comes to Jews, part of the left sees a homogenous, dark and hostile bloc before its eyes.
It’s not just Galon. Many of the left’s spokespeople have adopted this line of incitement. It’s the same left which diligently compiles exceptions, real and invented ones, in order to turn IDF soldiers into criminals. It’s the same intellectuals who turn most of the Israelis into dangerous fascists. And it’s the same activists who run to every corner of the world in order to spread this doctrine abroad, “because there is no longer a chance to make a difference from the inside.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the murder scene in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening and joined the party. It’s not the content. All parts of Israeli society must be subject to the law. The incitement must be stopped, and there is incitement. It must definitely be stopped. The problem is the tone.
While both the murderer’s family members and his close surroundings, as well as the Arab leadership, were busy condemning the murder – tough Netanyahu demanded that they condemn it, delivered a speech without any embrace or compassion and pointed an accusing finger at the entire Arab sector. He competed with Galon over who would fume more. They both won.
As reported by Ynetnews