Honig - Just hate wholeheartedly

Sarah Honig
Another Tack
22 December '11

http://sarahhonig.com/2011/12/22/another-tack-just-hate-wholeheartedly/


Iconic Palmach songwriter and Israel Prize laureate (1983) Haim Hefer celebrated hate (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as a downright pleasurable and invigorating force. In his poem Zehubim (Yellows) he muses (my translation) that

Love and amity
Are signs of immaturity.
Mercy and all the rest
Are worthless relicts of the past.

One thing hasn’t lost its attraction:
That strange penchant for abomination…

Nothing here is smart or dumb,
Or logical, my chum –
So just hate wholeheartedly
So utterly impulsively.

Hefer’s insights into the compulsive nature of hate are remarkably borne out by the unbridled offensive of Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer on Bank Leumi’s “Two Million Good Reasons” campaign. It set out to aid a broad variety of nonprofit organizations. The idea was for the public to vote online for its favorite among the 139 vying outfits – among them, alas, Im Tirtzu.

The top 10 were to receive bigger shares of the NIS 2 million set aside for grants, while lesser gifts would go to the next 50 contestants. To Oppenheimer’s consternation, it emerged that Im Tirtzu was a top contender. Im Tirtzu, it cannot be stressed enough, is an absolute anathema to the leftist Peace Now.

In its own words, Im Tirtzu is “an extra-parliamentary movement that works to strengthen and advance the values of Zionism in Israel… Im Tirtzu’s main objectives focus on working towards a renewal of the Zionist discourse… A major portion of Im Tirtzu’s efforts is devoted to combating the campaign of delegitimization against the State of Israel and to providing responses to Post-Zionist and Anti-Zionist phenomena.”

Im Tirtzu is Hebrew for “if you will.” These are the first words in Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl’s motto “If you will it, it is no fable.”

This NGO appeared likely to win second slot in the Bank Leumi competition. It’s a moot point whether what offended Oppenheimer more was proof of Im Tirtzu’s popularity or the apprehension that it might emerge marginally enriched (by anyhow paltry sums in comparison to the largesse lavished on the Israeli Left by EU governments with an eye to skew this country’s democratic processes).

Whatever it was, in the spirit of characteristic left-wing liberality, Oppenheimer set out to ban Im Tirtzu from the running.

Israeli Left Says If You Oppose Obama’s ‘Peace Plan’ You Are A Racist

Evan Pokroy
http://bigpeace.com
26 May '11

http://bigpeace.com/epokroy/2011/05/26/israeli-left-says-if-you-oppose-obamas-peace-plan-you-are-a-racist/

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The Racer plague has come to Israel.

Last week Obama gave his controversial speech on the Middle East. At the end of it he unveiled his vision for the Israeli-Arab conflict, saying Israel needed to accept the 1967 borders ‘with swaps’, something that had never been part of the U.S. position until now. Needless to say this did not go down well in Israel, especially with Prime Minister Netanyahu who leads a center right coalition in the Knesset. Mr. Netanyahu has been sharp in his dismissal of this call to move Israel to indefensible borders and for hundreds of thousands of Jews out of their homes.

This doesn’t sit right with the radical left in Israel. Yariv Oppenheimer is the Director of Peace Now, a radical leftist group that has relentlessly pushed for Israel to return to those very same indefensible borders as well as spear heading the attempt to demonize all Jews living on the wrong side of those borders. He has taken the Prime Minister to task for having the temerity to tell Mr. Obama in no uncertain words to butt out.

What is a dedicated leftist to do when he is unable to argue with a legitimate criticism of the president? What else, call him a racist (article in Hebrew). In an op-ed in the Hebrew daily, Ma’ariv, Oppenheimer does just that. He builds a picture of the kindness of Obama, how he supports Israel more than any other president in history. How he is more committed to Israel’s security than any other president in history. How every other president who hasn’t toed the line of the right wing in Israel has been treated with the utmost respect and yet it is only Obama who comes in for the rudest of attacks from Mr. Netanyahu.

There can be only one reason for such an unwarranted attack. RACIST!

“Obama’s last speech would not have received the same nit-picking critique and flinging of public and personal insults had the speaker been a rich white American president.”

Putting aside the way Obama has treated Netanyahu in the past, the famous snub, leaving in the middle of closed door talks to have dinner; it is clear from the remarks made at the end of the press conference that Netanyahu was anything but rude. Israel is a sovereign nation and has the right to tell any other leader that the suggestion that it won’t commit national suicide at that world leader’s request. This is clearly an irrational approach to Oppenheimer who pulls the racism as well as the class card.

The latter is, on the face of it, ridiculous, as Israel National News points out. Obama is far wealthier than Netanyahu, who despite is fair complexion only makes $51,000 a year after taxes, as compared to the $1.2 million that Obama brings in.

I feel no need to defend Netanyahu against scurrilous accusations of racism, it’s beyond silly. This is just the incoherent attack by someone who knows he has no real arguments so devolves to senseless name calling. Maybe Oppenheimer should go back to taking money from foreign governments to agitate against Israel’s security instead of flinging baseless ad hominem attacks against people.

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