Dissident Veteran For Peace: On "Hebrew Fascism"

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Sunday, September 01, 2019

On "Hebrew Fascism"

Below is a selection from "When Jews Praised Mussolini and Supported Nazis: Meet Israel's First Fascists" by Dan Tamir and published by Haaretz on July 20, 2019. Tamir is the author of Hebrew Fascism in Palestine, 1922-1942 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Eighty years later, what remains of Hebrew fascism in present-day Israeli politics? A number of the attributes of fascism noted above are clearly discernible in the rhetoric of today's right wing. Many Israelis believe in the supremacy of the nation's needs over every right of the individual and in the individual's subordination to the nation: from worshipping the totem of military service and the rabbinical establishment's responsibility for dealing with marital matters, to contempt for those who choose to emigrate. Similarly, it is not difficult to detect the unwavering belief that "the Jews" are a victim of other groups: from the instrumental use of the murder of the millions in Europe in World War II, to the "few vs. many" paradigm here in Israel (with respect, for instance, to the wars it's fought over the years and the two intifadas) – if to note only two widespread excuses made for the State of Israel's inordinate use of military force.

Fear that the "nation's values" will be eroded by universal liberal tenets or by "foreign" influences is also part and parcel of the approach of many on the Israeli right, whether in the passive form of apprehension of groups like the New Israel Fund, "foreign governments" and "international organizations," or actively, in projects to "strengthen Jewish identity" among the population.

The belief in the need for creation of a "purer" community is also very familiar: from the thugs of the anti-assimilationist Lehava organization and open enmity toward asylum seekers, to the branding of the "leftist" not as a political rival, but as an alien element to be uprooted. And finally, the belief in the right of the Chosen People to rule others indefinitely has been evident every day for more than half a century in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

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Tamir begins the article by discussing an actual, non-satirical political campaign advertisement from last spring for and featuring Israel's then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. The ad is so bizarre (or is it telling?) that I've decided to append it to the bottom of this post.

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