Last Saturday evening, MK Ayman Odeh arrived at the leftist demonstration in Tel Aviv's HaBima Square. Odeh was sure that a home crowd was waiting for him in the square, that the demonstrators and their leaders are partners, at the very least, in the ambition to overthrow the new government and oppose its actions.
It is hard to blame MK Odeh. For years, he was embraced by the leaders of the Change and Tolerance bloc - after all, he was the key to the establishment of a left-wing government, and even recommended Gantz to the president, and in return he was praised and praised, and every attack was denounced for his tendency to support terrorists like Nasrallah and embrace murderers of Jews.
But Odeh read the map in the most incorrect way, and showed heart-wrenching naivety.
He did not understand that the partnership with him is conditional, that the affection is fake and that the love for him depends on the thing - and this is, of course, an uncompromising war with Netanyahu, neglecting all his political and personal goals and enslavement to the goals that will be determined for him in advance by his partners.
And the mistake cost him dearly.
It started with boos and heckles he received during his speech at the demonstration, and reached a climax when a protester who was waiting for him near the stage approached him and gave him a ringing slap in the face.
Attacking a member of the Knesset or another elected official in a democracy is a serious, dramatic event.
But if the physical slap he received wasn't enough, while another slap was thrown: the serious attack was covered and treated somnolent at best.
I wonder how many citizens know the attacker's name, and how many of them even know about the attack.
This is doubly amazing when you take into account the fact that the attacker was recorded bragging about the violence he used, and claims that it was taken "from a personal place".
The reasons for the silence in which such a serious event passed in the media, and also among the organizers of the demonstration and the leaders of the opposition, are clear: first - turning the spotlight on political violence on the part of the demonstrators may paint the demonstrations in a violent light, and it is still a small sacrifice in the struggle to prevent such a reality;
Second - Odeh brought the slap on himself.
Although Yair Lapid openly declared that Ouda and the joint would be part of the fictional Shikim government, and it is true that Gantz was furious with Yoaz Handel and his friends who prevented the establishment of such a government - but all this was in the past, when Ouda was still a "good Arab", a partner in the vision of coexistence, a footstool to climb on the way to the office Prime Minister.
Today he has changed, he has become a "bad Arab", one who does not conform to the demands of the masters.
The wolf emerges from the sheep's disguise, and therefore - one should not be surprised at some mild violence.
Mix the plaster, Ayman, and do it exactly as we tell you, because if you don't - you'll get a slap.
The treatment of the Arab Knesset members from the left is patronizing and condescending.
Support for terrorism and calls for rebellion and refusal of an order are marginal, but dare not align yourself with the "only-not-Bibi" group for all its laws and commandments - there is no forgiveness for that.
Odeh's reaction to the incident proves that the message was internalized, and that the slap moved something in him.
The attacker is a leftist, the event was a leftist demonstration, but according to Odeh, the attack is a sign of "the buds of the results of the government against which we demonstrated tonight".
MK Odeh is determined to correct his mistake and please his masters, and to do this he knows exactly who to point the finger of blame at.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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