The spectacle of the savage attack on MK Simcha Rotman on the Tel Aviv University campus does not give me rest even now, two days after left-wing demonstrators attacked the chairman of the Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee with verbal and physical violence in an attempt to thwart his appearance in front of the students.
Violence is the villain's first refuge, and this week – sadly – the university compound in Ramat Aviv is bustling with villains more than ever.
Let me begin with full disclosure: In the 90s, I studied at Tel Aviv University.
Even then, it was not easy to express the worldviews of the national camp there, and even then, leftists among the students, and even more so among the lecturers, tried to convey at every opportunity the sense of mastery – they belittled right-wingers, felt as if the university was meant to reflect only their desires, and tried very hard to demonstrate this feeling to everyone else.
Nonetheless, attacks like the one experienced by MK Rotman were not seen at the time, and if they had occurred they would have shocked the thresholds.
There is no doubt that even then there were people on the fringes of the left who did not condone violence, but today they have moved from the fringes to the front of the stage, and have completely taken over it. The punchers set the tone in anti-government demonstrations: openly violating the law, blocking roads wildly, attacking elected officials, and forcibly silencing speakers who dare to present positions they do not like, which "coincidentally" are the majority positions in Israel.
We must not practice and accept the left's violent assault on freedom of expression, let alone a university environment. University campuses, lecture halls and classrooms are supposed to be a paragon of freedom of thought and a bastion of freedom of opinion. Instead, many of them have become tools of coercion and indoctrination in Israel in 2023 – on the one hand, on the left.
In stark contradiction, a number of universities, including Tel Aviv University, have recently issued communiqués against the initiative to ban the flying of PLO flags. Predictably, they excused their position on the sanctity of "freedom of expression."
Got it? As far as these people are concerned, who have long since detached themselves from reality and are cruising somewhere in the hallucinatory spaces, the symbols of the enemy that murders us and aspires to cleanse the country of the Jews are sheltered in the shadow of freedom of expression and worthy of protection, while the values and opinions of most Israeli citizens, as represented by the elected officials of the majority, deserve only violent silencing in the style of the attack on Rothman. Moreover, the dictatorial regime of the PLO in Judea and Samaria, whose characteristics correspond to all definitions of fascism, is seen by the left as a legitimate dialogue, while the derogatory term "fascist" is reserved for those who seek to fight the PLO and defend the Jewish state against it.
How ridiculous that demonstrators holding signs bearing the word "democracy" have not the slightest idea of what that word means and the lofty values it entails. While they shout "d-mo-kart-ya," their real desire is to impose on the majority a dictatorship of thought, in which they will control the discourse, determine what is permitted and what is forbidden, and punish those who deviate from their way of thinking. In fact, they are already punishing – for now by forcefully denying freedom of expression to right-wing representatives.
It is no coincidence that the radicalization of the left and its descent into the realms of violence and incitement occur precisely when its positions are receiving less and less public support. These opposite trends feed each other: the more Israeli citizens abandon the left and its ranks shrink, the greater the sense of despair within it and accelerates the dangerous march to the edge. The demographic future does not bode well for the Israeli left, and even in the intellectual struggle between it and the right for a long time, the left has had no arguments to convince and sweep up voters. Having no choice, the arguments are replaced by the fists and attempts to shut the mouth to the other side.
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