Compare and contrast? The guys in the bottom pictures are neo-Nazis in Europe. The boys in the top photographs are rightwing assailants who attacked a group of leftist protesters in Tel Aviv the other night. Turns out that they’re also Nazis. The emblem on the t-shirts worn by some of the attackers are directly lifted from a neo-Nazi group in Germany. It’s the same slogan, more or less the same violent image, and a star of David in place of the Nazi Iron Cross. The House of Israel is in severe disorder. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is at least indirectly responsible.
(Thanks Daniel Sieradski for posting this at Occupy Judaism on FB. I have since seen it in Haaretz in Hebrew.)
I can’t bring myself to click “like;” it breaks my heart. You are right, the House of Israel is in serious disarray.
How is this Netaniyahu’s responsibility? Such accusations really call for an explanations, not just pointing fingers. And even if it is, wouldn’t at least part of the responsibility lay with the left-wing governments that ruled Israel in the 90’s when these guys were born and raised?
It was meant to be a short, quick post. The indirect responsibility, and I say it’s an indirect one, has to to with sustaining and driving a status quo based on occupation, which is an inherently violent condition that rots out and corrupts the occupying power from the inside, morally and politically. This is now the third government led by Netanyahu in I don’t know how many years. Just like Ben Gurion put his stamp on the country, so is Netanyahu. This is how it looks in part.
So what occupation has caused Neo-Nazis in Europe? Just from this picture, you don’t know much. Who are these people? Are they aware of the symbols they are wearing? Is the situation indeed what “Occupy Judaism” tells us? The photo is at the very least misleading – we don’t see them attacking anyone (despite the dramatic caption), in contrast to the image below – the photo’s are obviously carefully edited. So why does “Occupy Judaism” need to edit and manipulate the information it provides? “Occupy Judaism” seem to think the images are not shocking enough, so they doctor the content to match their ideology.
I find your assumption that it is indeed the “occupation” that corrupts the country, is rather far-reaching. Which occupation led to Neo-Nazis in Europe then? Has the number of far-right groups in Israel increased or decreased during the Netaniyahu governments and can this change (if there is any) be linked to the Prime Minister, or are there other factors? I understand (and share) the moral repulsion of the use of Nazi symbols by Israeli’s but I don’t think it is responsible to draw such far-reaching conclusions based on such limited facts.
Michael, You don’t seem to get a basic point. At what point do I say the occupation has anything to with creating Neo-Nazism in Europe. I’m talking about the import of this kind of thinking and this kind of violence into Israel. But if you’re comfortable with or just refuse to see these kinds of micro-fascism seeping into the Israeli public sphere, then maybe there’s not much to talk about. These were guys who were part of the group assaulting the demonstrators in Tel Aviv. This is where the t-shirts come from. These are very simple connections.
Israel, as other countries, is not immune to extreme ideology and violent groups. From here to “severe disorder” is a very long way. Its a problem that needs to be dealt with, but let’s not lose our proportions here, and let’s not blame Benjamin Netaniyahu for every ill of society in a knee-jerk reflex.
It may be that demonstrators were assaulted. But the problem is – these photos don’t show it, and the caption says it does. Doctoring images and falsifying information moves us away from understanding the causes of troublesome phenomena in society, rather than helping us solve them. It is the truth that sets you free, not misinformation.
all fair enough, but the severe disorder comment has as much to do with the larger pictures, i.e. the recent abduction-murders, anti-Arab lynch mobs, and riots in E. Jerusalem and Israeli Arab towns. As for the shirts, the photos weren’t doctored to the best of my or anyone else’s knowledge.
They don’t show what the caption shows, namely attacks on anyone let alone (extreme) left “activists”. They are cleverly cut off, showing only a part of the situation. This is image manipulation, so it casts doubts about the authenticity of the images and the objectives of those who publish them.
As to the severe disorder – well, the murderers of the Arab teen have been caught, the ones of the Israeli teens will be caught, the anti-Arab mobs have been swiftly dealt with, as were the Facebook actions of soldiers and civilians. Jews inciting for violence have been denounced. The Arab riots have largely subsided, since the community leaders acknowledged that they are senseless and lead to nothing. All in all the events show (again) the strength of the Israeli society and the firm rule of law, I would say.
it’s not that i disagree with you in the second paragraph, not entirely. I understand that the kind of disturbances don’t shake you as much as me. these are new things, things we’ve never before seen in israel, fringe phenomena with danger power to unsettle the rule of law in Israel. i’m not the only one so shocked. but let’s agree to disagree for now and wait for the next “episode.”
I don’t know whether you’ve lived in Israel and for how long. Your career at least doesn’t mention any institutions in Israel (which I find a rather serious gap for someone in Judaism studies for 30 years). I did live in Israel, and these things are nothing new to me – there have been cases of (non-Jewish) immigrants who’ve used Nazi symbols. And I remember the saying by Ben Gurion – “We will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew.” So now we also have right-wing extremists conducting their business in Hebrew, a dream come true.
To me, what is shocking is that you keep avoiding the tricky issue of manipulation of these images and the motives behind them. Sounds as if you just can’t admit “Occupy Judaism” can do wrong.
http://newbooksinintellectualhistory.com/2014/07/15/ari-joskowicz-the-modernity-of-others-jewish-anti-catholicism-in-germany-and-france-stanford-up-2014/
What’s shocking is is that “right-wing extremists conducting their business in Hebrew” is “a dream come true”, a “normal” expression of a “mature nation”, along with thieves and prostitutes (as if there were none of these in the European Jewish ghettoes).
According to the above definition, Nazism was a “normal” expression of a “mature” German nation. Problem, is, it came to power. That’s because the emergence of fascist gangs as a permanent and growing feature of the political scene is a symptom of a diseased society sliding into intensified crisis and disorder. That disorder is driven by the state itself, in this case Israel and the United States (one can never mention the one in isolation, without the other that makes it possible, Israel is not an independent state). It is the US-backed and supplied Israeli STATE itself that pushes the theft of Palestinian land to be handed over to theocratically motivated settlers – hence Israel is also necessarily a theocratic state – requiring the present apartheid separation and eventual ethnic cleansing and extermination of the Palestinians as a viable nation. This is an act of settler colonialism that “should have no place in the 21st century”, to quote the (ever hypocritical) US Sec. of State, because settler colonialism is a relic of feudalism, just like that other favorite of the USA, the Saudi theocratic absolutist monarchy, Israel’s closest de-facto ally in the region besides the USA itself.
Consequentially there is nothing “normal” at all about this circumstance. “Liberal” Zionists that have chosen to carry briefs for mass murder and genocide may compulsively post their spam a million times in their effort to change the subject away from these fundamental facts, but they only pave the way for their own eventual displacement as “useful idiots” to be disposed of, once the fascists attain power.
I guess the irony of my pun on Ben Guiron escaped you. My point was that all human societies have fringe phenomenons, and being morally outraged about the Jewish society producing violent idiots is just nonsense. Why aren’t the Jews allowed to have their own idiots? The rest of your comment sounds like the good old Soviet days, when the decline and collapse of the West was perpetually just around the corner. Keep it up!
But who needs fascists when the STATE acts in this way:
Killing Lt. Goldin…and 150 Innocents
The IDF’s ‘Hannibal Protocol’ and Two Criminally Insane Governments
by DAVE LINDORFF
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/08/the-idfs-hannibal-protocol-and-two-criminally-insane-governments/
Yes, this is another leftist who need a good kicking down to the curb by the blackshirts, huh. It is when the State ceases to be able to carry out these tasks that the fascists will come to the fore and into power. That’s why they specialize in attacks on leftists, as these are feared as the political force that will disable the state.
Well, this is a philosophy site, and presumable one can refer to the “state” in abstract and comprehend its historical logic.
In the interest of free expression, I’ll let these two posts slide this once..
Oh, I get it, some kid who most likely doesnt even speak English buys a shirt so he is…a Nazi. If someone were to infer that all Palestinians were evil because of the actions of an individual you would undoubtedly cry foul and yet here you are trying to tar the Israeli Right. Brother? Anyone using the word “Fascist” as an insult should not be commenting on any political issue much less a person who imagines that “Fascist”is synonymous withnLeftiet Bashing or racism. Before decide to spit on your own People again educate yourself.
I have one comment, one comment alone.
To those who argue about the politics, and the situation at hand.
Read the Bible. This was bound to happen. Biblical prophesy…
nuff said.
I’d agree that all scriptural traditions are dangerous. But they don’t usually work out in such neat or clear linear ways. That would include the place of scripture in Christianity and Islam.
You know the original slogan is “good night white pride” and it comes from leftist extremists. The silhouette of a man kicking someone in the face comes from a photograph of a black man kicking a white man in the face.