Nobody denies that Israel is going through a tough time internationally. The UN passed many resolutions against Israel that are unjustified. The amount of time devoted to condemning Israel at every Security Council or General Assembly meeting is ludicrous. At the same time, the slaughter of innocent people in the Middle East and in many parts of the world by Radical Islamist groups is not even discussed, let alone an international military coalition being built to eradicate this cancer. Israel is constantly bashed for human rights abuses. The UN is an impotent useless organization with many members having double standards with selective agendas when it comes to overlooking human rights abuses and Radical Islamist terrorist groups.
This clip is in Hebrew
Having said this, we must make the differentiation between the Israel bashing and its credibility which all reasonable people should view as contemptible and unjust. Israeli citizens’ have the democratic right not to agree with the ruling right wing Government Coalition, which is the most right wing coalition in Israel’s history.
Israel’s true strength is its democracy and with that the right for us, as Israeli citizens to criticize the government when it shows a
tendency to erode our right to criticize when we feel that it is necessary.
tendency to erode our right to criticize when we feel that it is necessary.
The right wing in Israel - the Bibi-Bennett Cartel, ruling the country (as is the common habit of right wing rulers all over the world to seek enemies within the country that they rule and do not share their world view) goes on a witch hunt. They accuse those of different viewpoints, especially those who are sensitive to human rights abuses in the IDF of innocent Palestinian civilians (many of those who are supporters of “Breaking the Silence” have held senior positions in the IDF as well as in the Shin Bet, are being accused of treason and working for the enemy). The IDF is a citizen force composed of soldiers of different viewpoints ranging from right to left.
The IDF is not the "Holy Cow" as one wishes to believe. There are soldiers, who do not always carry out orders according to IDF Protocol and tend to abuse their positions of authority. This does NOT mean that all soldiers do that. In totalitarian-ruled countries, those criticizing the army or government are viewed as traitors. It is a wonderful tactic used for instilling fear into the electorate for gaining power, so much so, that even the President of Israel is viewed as being treacherous. Why? He shared a platform with the NGO “Breaking the Silence” at Haaretz Q Conference in New York. In a democratic country, transparency is important provided security issues are not. President Ruby Rivlin is a Revisionist of the old Ze’ev Jabotinsky School and opposes the Two-State Solution. At the same time, he is a democrat and is prepared to share a platform with all people in the political spectrum, irrespective of their political views. He views himself as President of all Israel’s citizens irrespective of their race, color, creed or political views and correctly so. This is not acceptable to Im Tirtzu and their allies in the right wing government. They went on a campaign of besmirching him with a hate campaign, tainting him with the treacherous brush.
Reservists and Israelis, who served in the IDF, are coming out in the open admitting their experiences, which in no way compromises on Israel’s security. They are dehumanized and singled out as “traitors” and “implants” (shtulim) serving Israel’s enemies. They even brought out a video clip dehumanizing them. An Israeli NGO that cares about Israel and criticizes human rights abuses DOES NOT mean that it is working for the enemies of Israel, BDS is not influenced by “Breaking the Silence”, the latter are on record of condemning BDS. Attacking me and saying that I am having a "chronic lefty relapse" is not helpful. It is a gut reaction because of my non-political attitude and sensitivity to human rights abuses and cover-ups of those abuses of innocent people. If Israel's enemies see that there is transparency and those responsible for human rights abuses are brought to justice, it only strengthens Israel's credibility and does not weaken it as self-righteous supporters of the Bibi-Bennett cartel believe. There is nothing left or right wing about that. The Bibi-Bennett Coalition attitude of attacking those who do not share their worldview and fear-mongering is similar to the notorious McCarthy era in the US. Hopefully we are not sliding into a similar era. So what if these right wing maligned NGOs get funded by overseas. Im Tirtzu is also getting money from oversea sources such as Christian Evangelists and Sheldon Adelson. The latter also moneybags the Israel Hayom news rag that is Bibi's mouthpiece.
It is irrelevant as from where the overseas donations come. The right wing rulers always need enemies in order to survive. If they cannot find them then they create them and these “enemies” are subjected to witch hunts and imprisonment without trial in extreme cases. In our case the imagined traitors and enemies are banned from addressing schools, which are today under the auspices of a very right wing Education Department, and the IDF in case, “God Forbid”, questions on human rights of innocent civilians are raised.
