Pretending instead that such heinous acts are not encouraged and rewarded by mainstream Palestinian society - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Those who wish to talk about racism should point their barbs at Palestinian leaders who bear personal responsibility for creating an environment in which “nationalist” murders like that of Ansbacher are made possible, not at Israel.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
11 February '19..

It’s a familiar refrain. Critics of Israel aren’t content to merely bash the policies of the government of the Jewish state. As part of their indictment, they allege that Israeli politics is conducted in a racial manner. The accusations start with claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used racist rhetoric against Arab voters in 2015. The latest charge has been lodged against Netanyahu’s principle opponent in this year’s election, former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff General Benny Gantz. He is accused of basing his successful campaign rollout on his military record during which he led the country’s counter-attacks against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

In what one Palestinian advocate writing in The Forward claimed is a “reverse beauty contest,” the vote in the Middle East’s only democracy was portrayed as being largely driven by “celebrating the killing, abuse, impoverishment and incitement against Palestinians.” It bemoaned ads that are “glorifying killing Palestinians, destroying our homes, mocking our way of life … and holding up our murderers as patriots.”

But there are two things that are deeply wrong about this argument.

One is that it took Netanyahu’s comments out of context and mischaracterizes the ads run by Gantz, as well as some Likud Knesset members like former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter.

It’s also wrong because those who throw around largely inaccurate charges about Israeli racism seem to have no interest in the incontrovertible proof that anti-Semitism from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas spews forth on a daily basis from their official organs and educational system.

(Continue to Full Column)

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