Levick - The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade, Ha’aretz and the political pathos of the radical left

Adam Levick
CiF Watch
21 July '11




Perhaps one of the reasons why Ha’aretz is increasingly irrelevant to the Israeli public (Its market share recently shrunk to a minuscule 5.8%) is related to the reason why its taken so seriously by editors and columnists at the Guardian – as its shrill and increasingly hysterical accusations against Israel (or, at least, against Israelis who don’t share their elitist, millenarianistic fantasies), and belief in the imminent demise of Israel’s democracy, is beginning to mirror the most fanatically anti-Israel extremists.

The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade begins his latest blog post (Israeli law constrains free speech, says New York Times) by citing a predictable editorial from the Gray Lady – no Guardian, but certainly, moving in its ideological direction – stating that Israel’s recent controversial anti-BDS legislation “tarnishes Israel’s reputation and argues that it is a fundamental issue of free speech.”

As I’ve noted previously, while the law is certainly debatable, unlike the Israeli bill, which allows for civil penalties (monetary damages) to those found guilty, some European countries have laws which criminalize hate speech and allows for imprisonment of those found guilty.

But it’s when Greenslade cites a recent Ha’aretz editorial condemning the law where we reach the nadir of unserious political hysterics.

The sub-headline, in the Ha’aretz editorial critical of the anti-BDS legislation, which Greenslade approvingly references, accuses the bill’s supporters of attempting to “liquidate democracy” and, later in the essay, warns that “very soon, all political debate [in Israel] will be silenced.”

This last passage is indicative of why the radical Israeli left is so marginal: They have all lost grip on reality, as have their ideological fellow travelers in the U.S. and Europe who all too readily parrot the most hateful and bizarre accusations against the democratic West. It’s never enough to simply criticize or refute, they must impute the most sinister values and malicious intentions to their more conservative political opponents.

(Read full " ... the political pathos of the radical left")

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