Sunday, December 24, 2017

Hamas and Israel's Left: a marriage of soulmates?


Leftist Jews believe in Israel's future. But that future isn't based on Judaism, Zionism or Jewish history. It's based instead on "a liberal interpretation of the Jewish prophetic tradition" (Joel Beinin, "The Left, the Jews and the defenders of Israel", merip, August, 2012). 

The traditional Jewish prophetic vision is profoundly religious and Zionist. It states that Israel can survive only by a belief in G-d, and by protecting the land G-d gave to the Jewish people. The Leftist-liberal interpretation of this tradition is profoundly anti-Zionist and anti-religious. It believes that Israel can enjoy a successful future only after it has become more 'democratic', less religious and more accepting of Arabs who want to destroy Israel (suggested by, Haviv Rettig Gur, "The end of Israeli democracy?" timesofisrael,  April 4, 2016). 

 Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic 'Palestine', understands Israel's Left. Hamas knows that the very best gift it could get to achieve its anti-Israel goals is to see Israel become more 'democratic', less 'Jewish' and more accepting of the Hamas Charter.  

Today, Hamas has something in common with Israel's Leftists--a dislike of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas loves to see Israeli Jews protesting against Netanyahu. They'd love to see Netanyahu taken down.

The Left in Israel is working hard to do just that. It hasn't ousted Netanyahu through the ballot box. So it uses charges of scandal, allegations of corruption and anti-Netanyahu  protests. 

Hamas loves these protests (Mordechai Sones, "Hamas expresses support for left-wing demonstrations in Tel Aviv", arutzsheva, December 24, 2017). In supporting these Israeli anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, Hamas refers to Netanyahu as a 'war criminal' (ibid). Hamas advocates for the arrest of the Prime Minister ("Hamas tweet support for left-wing demonstrations", arutzshevanewsbrief, December 24, 2017).

Funny thing about Hamas' call to arrest Netanyahu: it's exactly what these Leftist demonstrations call for. Leftist protesters  say Netanyahu is corrupt beyond imagination --and they demand Israel's Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, stop hiding the PM and arrest the man immediately--or, short of that, bring formal charges against the PM (Raoul Wootliff, "Thousands  protest in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu over graft probes", timesofisrael, December 16, 2017).  

Corruption probes and allegations of criminality against a sitting Prime Minister have been used before in Israel to drive out a Prime Minister (Caroline Glick, "Israel's learning disabled Right", frontpagemag, December 22, 2017). From Glick's point of view, this year's protests remind her too much of past political-media campaigns that succeeded in ousting Rightist coalitions and then succeeded in getting Leftist coalitions elected. Glick argues that, in the end, those successful anti-Right campaigns didn't help Israel at all; in the end, the newly-elected Leftists caused great harm to Israel's security (ibid). 

These 2017 protests want the same end--to replace Netanyahu with a Leftist government (see Glick, ibid). But in this past weekend's Tel Aviv protest, the calls against Netanyahu went beyond ousting him from office. This time, a protester carried a mock guillotine (Orli Harari, "Guillotine and BDS at leftist protest in Tel Aviv", arutzsheva, December 24, 2017). This time, BDS made an appearance alongside the Leftists (ibid).

For some, the guillotine and the inclusion of BDS weren't symbols of a protest-for-a-better-democracy. They were symbols for destroying Israel (BDS) and for inciting to murder the Prime Minister (the guillotine) (ibid).

These two symbolic suggestions (to destroy Israel/murder the PM) fit right in with Hamas. As symbols, they are entirely consistent with the aims and goals of the let's-destroy-Israel-now Hamas. 

Israel's Left says all it wants is to see Israel survive. But these very pro-Hamas/destroy Israel symbols seem a curious way for Jews to argue for Israel's survival. 

Hamas wants to destroy Israel. These Israeli Leftist protests appear to mimic Hamas.

Do these hostile symbols at Leftist protests signal that Israel's Left is ready to support Hamas? 

Stay tuned.

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