by Daniel Greenfield
They really don’t make fascists like they used to.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared recently that the new Israeli government coalition has "been infected by seeds of fascism.” What are “seeds of fascism”? They’re a lot like sour grapes.
Barak had been a member of a coalition government with Netanyahu and Lieberman, the new Minister of Defense, and the subject of his fascism accusation. When Barak was in the coalition, was it also infected with “seeds of fascism”? Or do these magical fascist seeds only sprout when Barak is not in the coalition? Is Barak even now spreading his fascist seeds across the carpets of Israeli television stations every time he walks in to give another interview?
But no one expects sanity or consistency from the Israeli left which throws around accusations of fascism like a drunken British punk rocker denouncing Thatcher.
Departing Minister of Defense Ya’alon is being mourned as the victim of a fascist “purge” even though he left of his own free will after being offered a post as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Instead Ya’alon left to try and found his own party. It’s a strange kind of fascist purge to be offered one of the top jobs in the government instead of a cigarette, a blindfold and a spot in front of a concrete wall.
The left keeps accusing Netanyahu of being a “fascist”, but he doesn’t seem to be very good at the fascism thing. Maybe they don’t make fascists like they used to.
The left has embraced Ya’alon as its newfound Galileo, praising him as a voice of conscience and a martyr to Netanyahu’s horrible fascism. They forgot that only two years ago they were calling for his head after he accused Secretary of State John Kerry of being “obsessive” and opined, “The only thing that can ‘save’ us is for John Kerry to win his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.”
Back then left-wing opposition boss Herzog had barked, “Ya’alon is revealing the true face of Netanyahu’s government.” Now Herzog is reaching out to Ya’alon hoping he’ll join his party. In only a few years, Ya’alon has gone from a militaristic fascist to the potential face of the Labor Party.
And that reveals Herzog's true face.
The hypocritical Israeli left complains that a democratically elected government giving orders to generals subverts democracy. Instead it wants to protect democracy through a junta of top generals and judges so that Israel can be just like Latin America.
At least that’s what it wants this Wednesday. By next week it may be back to calling for Ya’alon’s head and begging Netanyahu to let them join his coalition.
Because the only way to beat the fascists is to join them.
The left’s complaints come down to whining that Netanyahu is a fascist because he picked the kind of government coalition that Israelis wanted, rather than the one that they wanted.
If the Israeli left could manage even a stray moment of honesty, its sad collection of bad actors, worse generals, former newscasters, academic bigots and spoiled social justice activists from neighborhoods where a home costs more money than most Israelis will ever see in a lifetime might admit that their definition of “fascism” is anything they don’t like at a given time.
So far the biggest “fascist” scandal the unhinged left has managed to attach to Netanyahu has been the amount of money he spent on pistachio ice cream. They really don’t make fascists like they used to.
If Netanyahu were a fascist, shouldn’t he be delivering speeches from balconies and rounding up and shooting the left-wing opposition instead of negotiating coalition agreements with them? Why for that matter, under Israel’s new fascist government, is the media wholly dominated by left-wing voices?
The left whines that a failure to fund their pet media outlets threatens democracy and freedom of speech. But the only newspaper that was banned was the conservative Israel Hayom because it was just too successful. Trying to ban a paper because you don’t like its point of view is arguably fascist in a loose sense of the word. And it’s the kind of fascist behavior that the Israeli left is often guilty of.
Haaretz, the paper of record of the left which routinely accuses Netanyahu, every Israeli to the right of Stalin and passing migrating birds of being “fascist”, claimed that the conservative paper is “illegal” because it’s not a newspaper, but an “anti-newspaper. Why is Israel Hayom an “anti-newspaper” while Haaretz is a newspaper? Because Israel Hayom supports Netanyahu. Therefore the free paper had to be banned for posing “an imminent danger to this country’s free press.”
“A free press is the last obstacle to racist fascism and cannibalistic capitalism.” So the free press had to be banned to protect the free press from the free press.
Failing to ban the free press would be fascism.
This is the lopsided Orwellian world of meaningless word salads that the Israeli left inhabits in which democratic elections that the right wins are a threat to democracy, newspapers have to be banned to protect freedom of the press and any election which the left doesn’t win is a fascist election.
The Israeli left has no concept of what democracy, freedom or fascism mean. It’s a privileged class which measures all things as good or bad based on its entitlement. Its talentless academics and artists, who have achieved their posts through the political connections of their protekzia, rather than the merest hint of merit, are convinced that any criticism of them is fascist and ought to be banned.
When Zionist human rights group Im Tirtzu ran a campaign calling out celebrities for their anti-Israel statements, Labor’s Shelly Yachimovich shrilled, “Stop the fascist wave that is threatening to wash away Israeli democracy and distort it beyond recognition.” Why does criticizing overrated establishment hacks like Amos Oz or Gila Almagor threaten Israeli democracy? Yachimovich demanded that Netanyahu intervene to stop Im Tirtzu from criticizing left-wing celebrities for their anti-Israel views.
Silencing organizations for their political views is a lot more “fascist” than criticizing political views. But Haaretz had championed Yachimovich, a former television personality with all the charisma of an overworked cashier on a smoking break at midnight, as “The only woman who can save Israel from fascism”. But then who will save Israel from her brand of anti-fascist fascism?
The Israeli left is fascist. It’s also too stupid and ignorant to even realize that it’s fascist. Instead it pushes fascism in the guise of fighting fascism. It wants to ban freedom of speech, freedom of the press and eventually free elections to stop fascism. It’s convinced that only a progressive junta of gatekeepers can preserve Israeli democracy from fascism.
If the Israeli left really wanted to fight fascism, it would stop trying to interfere in democratic elections and dismantle its own attempts to dictate political outcomes through a Deep State of academics, judges and media honchos. If the Israeli left really wanted to fight fascism, it would fight itself.
Instead it uses “democracy” to mean the preservation of its own undemocratic power and describes democracy as “fascist”. To understand the left, you have to run all its words through a filter so that they mean the opposite of what they usually do. Freedom is slavery. Slavery is freedom. Democracy is fascism. Fascism is democracy. Censorship is freedom of the press. Only the fascist left can save Israel from Netanyahu’s fascism in which the left loses election after election despite controlling the press.
How can it be that it’s been 15 years since the last Labor Prime Minister? The Israeli left has come to the entirely rational conclusion that since it keeps losing democratic elections and “fascists” like Netanyahu keep winning them, that democracy must be fascist and that their fascism must be true democracy.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared recently that the new Israeli government coalition has "been infected by seeds of fascism.” What are “seeds of fascism”? They’re a lot like sour grapes.
Barak had been a member of a coalition government with Netanyahu and Lieberman, the new Minister of Defense, and the subject of his fascism accusation. When Barak was in the coalition, was it also infected with “seeds of fascism”? Or do these magical fascist seeds only sprout when Barak is not in the coalition? Is Barak even now spreading his fascist seeds across the carpets of Israeli television stations every time he walks in to give another interview?
But no one expects sanity or consistency from the Israeli left which throws around accusations of fascism like a drunken British punk rocker denouncing Thatcher.
Departing Minister of Defense Ya’alon is being mourned as the victim of a fascist “purge” even though he left of his own free will after being offered a post as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Instead Ya’alon left to try and found his own party. It’s a strange kind of fascist purge to be offered one of the top jobs in the government instead of a cigarette, a blindfold and a spot in front of a concrete wall.
The left keeps accusing Netanyahu of being a “fascist”, but he doesn’t seem to be very good at the fascism thing. Maybe they don’t make fascists like they used to.
The left has embraced Ya’alon as its newfound Galileo, praising him as a voice of conscience and a martyr to Netanyahu’s horrible fascism. They forgot that only two years ago they were calling for his head after he accused Secretary of State John Kerry of being “obsessive” and opined, “The only thing that can ‘save’ us is for John Kerry to win his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.”
Back then left-wing opposition boss Herzog had barked, “Ya’alon is revealing the true face of Netanyahu’s government.” Now Herzog is reaching out to Ya’alon hoping he’ll join his party. In only a few years, Ya’alon has gone from a militaristic fascist to the potential face of the Labor Party.
And that reveals Herzog's true face.
The hypocritical Israeli left complains that a democratically elected government giving orders to generals subverts democracy. Instead it wants to protect democracy through a junta of top generals and judges so that Israel can be just like Latin America.
At least that’s what it wants this Wednesday. By next week it may be back to calling for Ya’alon’s head and begging Netanyahu to let them join his coalition.
Because the only way to beat the fascists is to join them.
The left’s complaints come down to whining that Netanyahu is a fascist because he picked the kind of government coalition that Israelis wanted, rather than the one that they wanted.
If the Israeli left could manage even a stray moment of honesty, its sad collection of bad actors, worse generals, former newscasters, academic bigots and spoiled social justice activists from neighborhoods where a home costs more money than most Israelis will ever see in a lifetime might admit that their definition of “fascism” is anything they don’t like at a given time.
So far the biggest “fascist” scandal the unhinged left has managed to attach to Netanyahu has been the amount of money he spent on pistachio ice cream. They really don’t make fascists like they used to.
If Netanyahu were a fascist, shouldn’t he be delivering speeches from balconies and rounding up and shooting the left-wing opposition instead of negotiating coalition agreements with them? Why for that matter, under Israel’s new fascist government, is the media wholly dominated by left-wing voices?
The left whines that a failure to fund their pet media outlets threatens democracy and freedom of speech. But the only newspaper that was banned was the conservative Israel Hayom because it was just too successful. Trying to ban a paper because you don’t like its point of view is arguably fascist in a loose sense of the word. And it’s the kind of fascist behavior that the Israeli left is often guilty of.
Haaretz, the paper of record of the left which routinely accuses Netanyahu, every Israeli to the right of Stalin and passing migrating birds of being “fascist”, claimed that the conservative paper is “illegal” because it’s not a newspaper, but an “anti-newspaper. Why is Israel Hayom an “anti-newspaper” while Haaretz is a newspaper? Because Israel Hayom supports Netanyahu. Therefore the free paper had to be banned for posing “an imminent danger to this country’s free press.”
“A free press is the last obstacle to racist fascism and cannibalistic capitalism.” So the free press had to be banned to protect the free press from the free press.
Failing to ban the free press would be fascism.
This is the lopsided Orwellian world of meaningless word salads that the Israeli left inhabits in which democratic elections that the right wins are a threat to democracy, newspapers have to be banned to protect freedom of the press and any election which the left doesn’t win is a fascist election.
The Israeli left has no concept of what democracy, freedom or fascism mean. It’s a privileged class which measures all things as good or bad based on its entitlement. Its talentless academics and artists, who have achieved their posts through the political connections of their protekzia, rather than the merest hint of merit, are convinced that any criticism of them is fascist and ought to be banned.
When Zionist human rights group Im Tirtzu ran a campaign calling out celebrities for their anti-Israel statements, Labor’s Shelly Yachimovich shrilled, “Stop the fascist wave that is threatening to wash away Israeli democracy and distort it beyond recognition.” Why does criticizing overrated establishment hacks like Amos Oz or Gila Almagor threaten Israeli democracy? Yachimovich demanded that Netanyahu intervene to stop Im Tirtzu from criticizing left-wing celebrities for their anti-Israel views.
Silencing organizations for their political views is a lot more “fascist” than criticizing political views. But Haaretz had championed Yachimovich, a former television personality with all the charisma of an overworked cashier on a smoking break at midnight, as “The only woman who can save Israel from fascism”. But then who will save Israel from her brand of anti-fascist fascism?
The Israeli left is fascist. It’s also too stupid and ignorant to even realize that it’s fascist. Instead it pushes fascism in the guise of fighting fascism. It wants to ban freedom of speech, freedom of the press and eventually free elections to stop fascism. It’s convinced that only a progressive junta of gatekeepers can preserve Israeli democracy from fascism.
If the Israeli left really wanted to fight fascism, it would stop trying to interfere in democratic elections and dismantle its own attempts to dictate political outcomes through a Deep State of academics, judges and media honchos. If the Israeli left really wanted to fight fascism, it would fight itself.
Instead it uses “democracy” to mean the preservation of its own undemocratic power and describes democracy as “fascist”. To understand the left, you have to run all its words through a filter so that they mean the opposite of what they usually do. Freedom is slavery. Slavery is freedom. Democracy is fascism. Fascism is democracy. Censorship is freedom of the press. Only the fascist left can save Israel from Netanyahu’s fascism in which the left loses election after election despite controlling the press.
How can it be that it’s been 15 years since the last Labor Prime Minister? The Israeli left has come to the entirely rational conclusion that since it keeps losing democratic elections and “fascists” like Netanyahu keep winning them, that democracy must be fascist and that their fascism must be true democracy.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262964/it-only-fascist-left-can-save-israel-fascism-daniel-greenfield
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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