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The decision taken by the Knesset plenum yesterday, to create a
parliamentary investigative committee for “the phenomenon of
de-legitimization of the IDF in the world on the part of Israeli
organization”, has nothing whatsoever to do with an investigation.
Israel has investigative procedures: if there’s a suspicion of a
crime, either the police or the GSS investigate it, and transfer the
information they gather to the prosecution, which then decides if an
indictment is in order; then the courts have their say – admittedly,
all too often sounding suspiciously like the prosecution.
What the Knesset did yesterday was de-legitimizing of a political
camp; an accusation of treason by one camp of another, masquerading as
an investigation. The process was amazing: a few days ago, Faina
Kirshenbaum, an MK of Yisrael Beitenu, tabled her motion, and it
reached the Plenum with lightning speed. The person responding to
Kirshenbaum’s motion on behalf of the government was Danny “The Chair”
Ayalon, the deputy Foreign Minister and a member of Kirshenbaum’s
party, who, displaying a rare height of cynicism, accused the left
organizations of “trying to undermine Israeli democracy”. There was
just one minor problem with Ayalon’s speech: As Minister Michael
Eithan noted in shock and disgust (Hebrew), Ayalon had no business
representing the government since it did not debate the issue and made
no decision about it. But Eithan’s legalistic nitpicking belongs to a
bygone era, the one before the “Second Zionist Revolution”, led by
Avigdor Liberman and his pawns.
The Speaker of the Knesset, Rubi Rivlin, one of the last dew pillars
of democracy in the current Knesset, savaged (Hebrew) the decision –
supported by the right wing parties, but also by three Kadima MKs –
and called it a show trial. And which voice is missing? Which dog did
not bark? The voice of Binyamin Netanyahu, whose government did not
debate Kirshenbaum’s decision yet supported it, and that of the Nobel
Peace Prize winner and president, Shimon Peres. Apparently they had
nothing to say.
What we saw last night was a final breaking of the rules of the games,
the use of an investigation for the persecution of political rivals,
the Israeli equivalent of the burning of the Reichstag. That, as may
be recalled, was not just the torching of a physical building, but the
excuse used by the revolutionary right to politically persecute their
rivals, including elected deputies of the left parties (and, a few
weeks later, also of the more moderate right wing parties). The
taunting of the brownshirts of their rivals was reflected in MK Danny
Danon’s victory chant yesterday: “You, my colleagues on the left,
should hear today the words of the song: ‘sometimes the party is
over’”. (Inarticulateness in the original).
And, yes: the democracy party in Israel is over. People who still
mistakenly think Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East”
should be informed this title is no longer relevant. One doubts
whether Ayalon, Kirshenbaum, Danon and the rest understand just how
much aid they provide to the de-legitimization of Israel, but the
process ought to be completed: finish off the legitimacy of the
Zionist regime and the Liberman-Ayalon government. No loyalty must be
shown to such a regime, if we hope to salvage something of what used
to be Israel. If Israel is to live, the Zionist regime must pass away.
This must be said everywhere, but particularly outside of Israel. As a
long series of fascist regimes – from Italy through Germany to the
Serbia of Milosevic – the people living under such regimes cannot save
themselves, cannot wake out of the nightmare on their own, but require
a strong external intervention. Since most Israelis love hating
leftists, but love their vacations in Europe and their consumerism
even more, let’s hope some heavy duty economical sanctions will do the
job.
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