The Silence of Benjamin Netanyahu over his son's anti-Semitism is deafening
Ha'aretz cartoon playing on the corruption scandal over hundreds of thousands of dollars free champagne that the Netanyahus have quaffed in return for favours |
The
Daily Stormer has even incorporated
praise of Netanyahu Jnr. into its banner headline. This should not be a shock to anyone. Zionism began its life in the late 19th
Century as a form of Jewish anti-Semitism. Its founder, Theodor Herzl wrote in his Diaries (pp. 83/4) that ‘the
anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic
countries our allies.’ Why?
neo-Nazi site The Stormer is happy to adopt Yair Netanyahu as one of its own - with the typical antisemitic caricature of a Jew that Yair posted |
Because Zionism began from the belief that anti-Semitism could
not be combated. It was inherent in the
Gentile (non-Jew) and was a pathology that had been inherited for 2,000
years. Herzl wrote in his Diaries (p.6) ‘In
Paris..., I achieved a freer attitude towards anti-Semitism, which I now began
to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognise the emptiness
and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism.’
KKK neo-Nazi David Duke tweets in support of Yair Netanyahu |
Zionism, uniquely among Jewish movements of the
time, advocated retreating from anti-Semitism not fighting it. Why fight something which can’t be
eradicated? Not only did Zionism agree
with the anti-Semitic solution of Jews voluntarily repatriating themselves, as the antiSemites desired, but they
made building a Jewish state their one and only priority. Their aim was to get as many Jews as possible
to emigrate.
Zionism developed a world view which said that
Jews who refused to emigrate to Palestine (the vast majority) deserved the
anti-Semitism they faced. Indeed Zionism
positively welcomed anti-Semitism in Europe as a means of ‘helping’ the Jews to
emigrate (even though 99% of the 2.5 million Jews who emigrated between the middle of the 19th
century and 1914 went to the USA and Britain not Palestine.
even the settler news agency, Arutz Sheva, cannot hide the ugly truth |
The Zionist movement developed the concept of the ‘negation
of the Diaspora' which meant positively hating the Jewish presence outside Palestine. Zionists looked upon Jews who insisted on
living outside Palestine with contempt and hate even. Zionism saw the Jewish disapora of 2,000 years as a complete waste, having produced nothing national. The fact that the Jewish contribution to civilisation was an immense one, from Moses Mendlessohn to Heinrich Heine, Spinoza, Einstein etc. counted for nothing to the narrow nationalists and messianic madmen of Zionism.
This is the context in which Netanyahu Jnr. borrows anti-Semitic
memes from neo-Nazis. His hatred is not for anti-Semitism but for Jews who offer a different perspective including that of universal human values outside Israel. George Soros is thus a hate figure, not just for the far-Right but for the Zionists too.
Tony Greenstein
Yair Netanyahu's anti-Semitic cartoon |
The Prime
Minister must cut the growing ties between Jewish nationalists here and racist
nationalists, including anti-Semites, worldwide, even if it means publicly
reprimanding his son
Haaretz
Editorial Sep 11, 2017 12:20 AM
Yair Netanyahu's meme. Screenshot from Facebook
Over 24
hours have passed since the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a
malicious image clearly drawing on anti-Semitic terminology – and the silence
emitting from the house on Balfour Street is thunderous.
In a meme
posted by Yair Netanyahu to his Facebook account on Friday, and hastily taken
down Sunday evening, the face of Jewish tycoon George Soros was put on a
neo-Nazi character known to symbolize the imagined world-manipulating Jew,
beneath the distressing headline “food chain.” The caricature, spiced with
other popular images from racist conspiracy sites, depicted Soros as the driving
force behind leaders of the protests against alleged corruption in the prime
minister’s residence, Eldad Yaniv and Meni Naftali, and behind Netanyahu
nemesis Ehud Barak.
Since the
post appeared, it has drawn support from ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, and
plaudits on America’s leading neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer, which declared
that when you put Jews together “they start sucking each other’s blood” and
that “Yair Netanyahu is a total bro.”
The
educational and moral failure continued to reverberate in headlines worldwide,
but even after Netanyahu the son had second thoughts, Netanyahu the father
remains silent. True, the father and son are not the same person. They do not
necessarily represent each other. Neither is Yair Netanyahu responsible for
what others chose to do with the message he published. However, he is not a
private person immersed solely in his own affairs. Many accounts describe him
as an inseparable part of the political apparatus surrounding the Netanyahu
family, and of what goes on at the Prime Minister’s Office, especially
regarding communications, in which he specialized during his army service in
the IDF Spokesman’s Unit.
The
anti-Semitic meme is not Yair Netanyahu’s first public outrage, but it is his
worst. This time silence in light of such an alarming message, cannot be
interpreted as anything but consent to the ongoing demonization of anyone who
doesn’t get in line with the Israeli right, which is becoming ever more
extreme.
In this
case, Yair Netanyahu represents not only his personal opinion but also a
growing trend on the right, which looks at the prime minster and understands
his silence as approval. Regarding Soros’ vilification by right-wing
anti-Semites, Netanyahu has given them a tailwind for some time. When his
government stood alongside racist elements persecuting Soros in Eastern Europe,
and made it clear that it sees him as a “man who continuously undermines
democratically elected Israeli governments, by funding organizations that
besmirch the Jewish state and try to deny its right to self-defense.”
The PM
must cut the growing ties between Jewish nationalists here and racist
nationalists, including anti-Semites, worldwide, even if it means publicly
reprimanding his son. Removing the evidence will not remove the stain.
Haaretz
Editorial
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