The many good people who crowd the anti-government demonstrations need to pay attention to where they are trying to lead them. Because unwittingly, without warning sirens in the press and law enforcement, part of the so-called protest already crosses fiery red lines. From texts of incitement and calls for rebellion, to campaigns of bullying and gagging, to threats of civil war.
Judicial reform is no longer on the horizon, but the plot concocted by the spinners leading some of the protests is not stopping. It becomes dangerous, until, God forbid, it leads to the brothers' grip on arms, and even to a slide from the black flags to the realms of Benito Mussolini's black shirts. The past two weeks have marked an escalation in the process of the protest leaders, precisely when it becomes clear that the official reason for its outbreak no longer exists. For some reason, the more the reform dies, the more the statements escalate and the worse the means of protest.
The reform is dying but the protests are intensifying,
This is the statement of former head of Military Intelligence, Amos Malka, who threatened coalition members that anyone who does not obey the dictates of the protest regarding the judicial system "will be persecuted and limited in his movements in public," and that the protest commandos will persecute him everywhere. Thus, the incitement and call for civil war by Nehemiah Dagan, a former chief education officer, who incites to "turn the demonstrations into a protest that will neutralize all members of the coalition," one that will cause "the disappearance from Israel of the Kohelet Forum," because its leaders are "Jews of the kind on which anti-Semitism and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were based"; Those who also called for "paralysis of the economy... which will inevitably lead to violent clashes between the economy and the establishment that may develop into civil war... Violent and brief."
I looked for someone from the opposition and the leaders of the protest who would disapprove, condemn, condemn. I scanned for scolding, stern items on television and radio channels, as is customary in the face of less serious statements from the right. Apart from the Bibist channels, I found nothing. What I did find were supportive statements by Yair Lapid and others like him in the violent, predatory campaign waged by the protest squads against ministers and Knesset members. Thus, the violent explosion of the conference at Tel Aviv University, in which Simcha Rothman was not allowed to speak, through the shameful chase of him and his wife through the streets of New York with loudspeakers, chants and loud curses. The same applies to the persecution of ministers Barkat, Kish and Shikli in meetings and restaurants.
MK Simcha Rotman snatched a megaphone from a demonstrator // Photo: Shani Granot Lubton
In Israel, it is still possible and necessary to demand that the police and the State Prosecutor's Office ensure that ministers and Knesset members can function. But the shaming on the streets of New York and in Europe, the explosion of meetings with Jews in the Diaspora, the sabotage of the ability to contact external elements – here they have already completely crossed the border. Hooligans with zamburas and loudspeakers fly from here, exporting the methods of sabotage and blackening our image all over the world. And most brazenly, when someone grabs a megaphone as a defensive action, they dare file a complaint against him with the NYPD and whine in the press.
Lightning method
It is true that Benjamin Netanyahu's Raid Commandos also employed similar methods, especially vis-à-vis Yamina members, who were marked as the weakest links in the previous coalition. So what? Tin violence on the one hand does not legitimize garbage violence on the other. Although the current protest sisters-in-law have climbed a lot of stairs and are already on the verge of rebellion, no less. Because completely delegitimizing the government and coalition, while trying to forcibly prevent it from functioning, is much more than a legitimate protest in a democratic country.
And not to be confused: these actions are part of an organized method and plan, without any spontaneity. In the spirit of Ehud Barak's fictitious NGOs plot that led to his election in 1999, using methods learned from Che Guevara and subversive organizations from around the world, they are trying to turn the tables here and overthrow the elected government.
Where did he learn these methods? Barak, Photo: Gideon Markowitz
That is why cries of devastation are being heard this week over police brutality and trampling on demonstrators, when there has never been such a broad and extreme violation of the law in Israel, which has been caressed by the police and completely ignored by the State Prosecutor's Office. We have unwittingly become accustomed to the norm of blocked Ayalon Highways on Saturday night, and to breaking the law with almost no arrests or indictments. Last week, official figures were revealed, according to which in all the months of road closures and Ben Gurion Airport, only a few hundred were arrested and only four indictments were filed. Four compared to about 2,000 in the "disengagement" demonstrations. This is the time for all of us to come to our senses, especially after Netanyahu effectively folded his tail on the reform issue. Protest Yes, rebellion by force absolutely not. It is also time to enforce the law equally, in order to stop the danger we all face.
Haredi activists against Zionism
You wouldn't believe it, but the strong right-wing government is unable to make a decision in favor of Zionism and encouraging veterans. The government's decision is stuck, even though in the background stands the intention to encourage the settlement of the Galilee and the Negev with Jews, while stopping serious anti-Zionist phenomena taking place there. Not that most ministers don't support the decision, they certainly do, only that the ultra-Orthodox activists – headed by Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafni – are torpedoing the move. These turned the ultra-Orthodox sector into an enemy of Zionism and its realization, including the Judaization of the Galilee.
This is a draft resolution submitted some time ago to the government by Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Otzma Yehudit, who is in charge of Negev and Galilee affairs. According to it, government ministries and other branches will act in such a way that Zionist values "will constitute guiding and decisive values in shaping public administration, domestic and foreign policy, legislation and all its units and institutions." According to the wording of the resolution, Zionism will also be a guiding value in the areas of settlement, and benefits will be given "to those who served in the army and security forces or in national-civilian service, with preference for those who served in combat service."
Responsible for torpedoing the move, Deri and Gafni, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
What could possibly stick such a decision in a government that boasts such bright right-wing feathers? Perhaps improper reservations from the Attorney General. But long before the attorney general, ultra-Orthodox activists fired a missile at the preference for Zionism and the soldiers. At the beginning of the discussions, Deri and his colleagues demanded that the decision not detract from "the recognition of the importance of Torah study as defined in the Security Service Law." This is a brazen and unacceptable demand in itself, but the initiators of the decision agreed to it, and still - Deri, Gafni and their gang refuse.
The cabinet hearing was scheduled for April, then postponed to the end of May, but the ultra-Orthodox insist. It went to a meeting of the heads of the factions, thinking that it would be closed and promoted, but everything stuck. Representatives of the ultra-Orthodox public prevent the recognition of Zionism as a guiding value in order to safeguard their interests, as those who demand to enjoy the pleasures of the state even though they deny their public national or military service.
Meanwhile, only about 14% of the Galilee's residents are Jewish, and the Arab population enjoys great advantages. Yet most government ministers, those whose cries of Zionist rebellion are constantly coming from their throats, are unable to get the government to prioritize discharged soldiers in land allocations and state jobs.
The deep scourge between the state and the ultra-Orthodox public was exposed in all its severity recently, around the state budget. Now it takes on another critical dimension – it turns out that ultra-Orthodox political power prevents the State of Israel from being Zionist.
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