Gays, Arabs and all the rest
H A A R E T Z ...By Avirama Golan...November 08, 2006
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It seems like there is no connection between the issues: the minister for strategic affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, who shared his racist fantasies with an important British newspaper, and the ultra-Orthodox threatening violence in Jerusalem and causing the police to be ready to capitulate. Indeed, the multicultural fashion dictates that every group with its own characteristics is a "sector" (and thus gays and lesbians are also a "sector"), and so it seems that these are two separate sectarian problems.
In effect, the two phenomena - Lieberman's uncontrollable comments and the rampaging of the ultra-Orthodox - are the tip of the same iceberg. Not only because of the brutal and boorish common denominator linking the two, but also primarily because the agitators involved are suddenly accumulating enormous power. Lieberman is transparent, methodical and precise; he has never hidden his views or tried to glamorize them. Even his Cyprus dream is nothing new. In addition, similar comments and even more drastic ones have already been heard from ministers and leaders of political movements in Israel.
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The ultra-Orthodox incitement against the pride parade stems from the same shady roots as the proposals put forth by Lieberman. People in Bnei Brak said yesterday that a group of newly religious idlers has dragged serious rabbis into what has turned out to be a public relations campaign for gays, and now the rabbis are having difficulty avoiding it.
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That shortcoming is nothing compared to the vacuum at the top of the ruling pyramid in Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's weak response to Lieberman's comments - "my opinion is not like his opinion" - and the hollow protest of all the ministers in response to [B]the Cyprus hallucination and the police's highly publicized powerlessness are the abyss into which Israeli democracy is crashing.[b] Even the most radical and frightened population would be less likely to get swept into hatred of the two "sectors" if it had an appropriate united, humanistic and civil alternative.
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There is a lot lot more. Haaretz says it so much better than I can.
In American terms would this be akin to the Catholic Church authorities organizing a major breach of the peace against a gay pride march, while the racist sectarian mayor of New York was saying that the police were unable to deal with the matter? It cannot have gotten so bad in such a short time.
In Israel's terms it is the appointment of Lieberman – a known fascist, whose
openly racist and Nazi-like ideologies can only be seen as filling his place in Israeli society.
Or maybe it is all a smokescreen to hide the murder of innocent sleeping children in Gaza. Israeli tank fire rips Gaza homes; 18 die, including 8 children ... Canada.com
or
Red Cross 'appalled' by deaths in Gaza
Jerusalem Post, Israel - 1 hour ago
or
Italy calls Gaza killings unacceptable "massacre"
Reuters AlertNet, UK - 7 hours ago