Steven Plaut : Israeli Leftist Demands Journalist Be Murdered for Mocking the Left

by Steven Plaut

 

The Israeli media have been buzzing about the delicious story of Tuvia Tenenbom and his expose of the shenanigans of the radical Left operating in the West Bank.  Tenenbom is a multilingual journalist and play-write. He is well known as the founder of the Jewish Theater in New York.  Passing himself off as a clueless leftist German reporter, he allowed himself to be hosted by various far-Leftist propaganda groups operating in the West Bank, supposedly “aiding” Palestinians.  He wrote his experiences up in a delightful book called “Catch the Jew,” in Hebrew only for now (but in the process of being translated into English).

Much of the stories concern the anti-Israel NGO calling itself “Rabbis for Human Rights” run by Arik Ascherman, who claims to have Reform synagogue “ordination” together with his wife.  Ascherman has long been a bit of a laughingstock but comes over in the book like the Fourth Stooge.  Arabs working for Ascherman took Tenenbom to see how IDF soldiers harass and shoot poor Palestinians but all they could find was a soldier relieving himself behind a bush.   Others took Tenenbom to Yad Vashem and explained to him that the entire Holocaust is a hoax that never happened.    Excerpts from the book and articles describing Tenenbom’s experiences have filled the Israeli media and web the past couple of weeks.   Israelis have not laughed so hard since the Hamas issued its battle song in Hebrew.

Well, now there is a new twist on this story.  It involves a well-known Israeli leftist named Alona Kimche.  She is an Israeli author, song writer, and actress.  She made the news a couple of years back when she composed a malicious song about Israeli soldiers, accusing them of sadistic mistreatment of “Palestinians.”  The Israeli army radio station decided not to play the song, upsetting the radical Left.  Here are a few excerpts from it:

Chorus: Learning to kill is a matter of a push
It begins with something small, then it comes easier

Patrolling all night in the Nablus casbah
Hey, what here is ours and what’s yours
The beginning is an experiment
A rifle butt banging on the door
Fearful children, a terrified family
Then a closure, there’s already danger
…They aren’t men or women
They’re only things and shadow
Learning to kill is a matter of routine.
…Learning cruelty is a matter of a push
It begins with something small, and then gets easier
Every boy is a man thirsting for conquests
Hands behind the head, feet spread apart
It’s a time of danger, a time of terror
A soldier who weakens isn’t worthy of mercy
Your cousin is like an animal
He’s used to seeing blood.
He doesn’t feel any pain
He’s not a human being.
A field uniform, a jock itch, fragility and routine.
The distance between stupidity and evil is short.
The land of Israel is ours and ours alone
Learning cruelty is a matter of habit.

The Left denounced the army radio’s refusal to play this jock itch song as “McCarthyism.”

Kimche is active in and was on the Knesset election slate of the tiny semi-Marxist Meretz party, expected to disappear from parliament after the next election.  She is active in various other leftist causes.

Kimche was not amused by Tenenbom’s showing up the Far Left as a gang of circus clowns.  As reported by various news media in Israel, on her Facebook page she issued a call for Tenenbom to be murdered.   She said he should be burned at the stake for his “crime” of mocking the Left, and she added that she knows some shadowy friends of hers in Lod who “would be happy to do the deed.”

The radical Left in Israel loves to whine about being victimized by the political Right.  Just this week there is a petition being circulated that denounces “acts of violence against leftists by rightists” in Israel during the recent Gaza military operations.  The petition refers to cases where communists, radical Arabs and others held anti-Israel solidarity-with-the-Hamas rallies, and passing by Israelis cursed at them and maybe threw some things at them.   Dozens of prominent leftists endorse and cheer on terrorist attacks against Israelis.  A number of leftist professors have openly demanded that rightists be murdered.  But the petitioners have no interest in any of that.

Now in Israel it is supposed to be against the law to call for someone to be murdered.  The problem is that leftists who openly call for people to be murdered are never prosecuted by the leftist Attorney General.  Non-leftists can be arrested and indicted for things like saying they think Jewish women should only date Jewish men, or for wearing a tee shirt that reads “Without Loyalty there Can be no Citizenship.”   A number of people have demanded that Kimche be indicted, but there is little chance of that happening.  Hers is protected speech in Israel, unlike that of  rabbis who write controversial books about halakhic principles.


Steven Plaut is a native Philadelphian who teaches business finance and economics at the University of Haifa in Israel.  He holds a PhD in economics from Princeton.  He is author of the David Horowitz Freedom Center booklets about the Hamas  and Jewish Enablers of the War against Israel.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/steven-plaut/israeli-leftist-demands-journalist-be-murdered-for-mocking-the-left/

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