Shock Horror - Jeremy Corbyn is accused of ‘nodding’ when a Rabbi said that Zionism and Judaism have nothing in common!!

The Pathetic Jewish Chronicle and Zionist Board of Deputies Tries to Restart the Fake ‘Anti-Semitism’ Campaign

As I predicted a few weeks ago, with Theresa May in increasing political difficulty, there will be fresh attempts to ignite the fake anti-Semitism allegations against Jeremy Corbyn.

Sure enough the Jewish Chronicle leads this week with an absolutely horrifying example of Corbyn Anti-Semitism. The article is entitled Jeremy Corbyn condemned after footage shows him appearing to agree with 'Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism' claim.  I think you will agree that this latest revelation should be the nail in the coffin of Corbyn.  It is so obviously anti-Semitic that it is difficult to understand why the Labour Party hasn’t arisen as one to demand his head.

My prediction of a few weeks ago

The Board of Deputies unsurprisingly

‘condemned Jeremy Corbyn after footage emerged of him nodding in agreement with the statement that "Zionism and the state of Israel has nothing to do with the religion Judaism".  

Even worse dear reader ‘Mr Corbyn also briefly applauded at the end of the speech.’ This really is the straw that broke the camel’s back. And it is no use saying that this happened 8 years ago. The fact is it happened. Anti-Semitism doesn’t lose its impact just because it occurred a decade or two ago.

I think even the fairest minded observer will agree that Corbyn’s behaviour makes him completely unfit to lead the Labour Party. This behaviour must conflict with most if not all the illustrations of the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism which is designed to catch out bounders and cads who refuse to acknowledge that the Apartheid State of Israel is the physical embodiment of every Jews desire for liberation. I exclude from this a few self-haters and Jewish anti-Semites about whom no more will be said.

The Daily Mail which supported Hitler up to 1939 is terribly exercised by Corbyn's 'antisemitism'

Nor do I wish to hear about the usual litany of anti-Semites who support the ‘Jewish’ State of Israel from Steve Bannon, Bolsinaro of Brazil, Trump, Richard Spencer et al.  Zionism welcomes all support, except that of anti-Zionists! The fact that the Jewish ethno nationalist State of Israel attracts the support of anti-Semites who wish their own country to be a bit like Israel is should be a matter of rejoicing.

However in the interests of objectivity, I thought it would be good to look at the argument that Judaism and Zionism are two distinct entities.  Mind nothing I say is intended to exonerate Jeremy Corbyn in any way whatsoever.  Clearly he is one of the worst anti-Semites alive.  I am surprised that the US Simon Wiesenthall Centre recently voted Corbyn the world’s 4^th worst anti-Semite when it is clear that by threatening the very existence of the British Jewish community he deserved the top spot.  There was no justification for awarding the No. 1 slot to the Pittsburgh killer, Robert Bowers. He only killed 11 Jews.  Corbyn would wipe the whole lot out.

The founder of Political Zionism refused to have his own son, Hans circumcised

Why historically Orthodox Judaism was Bitterly Opposed to Zionism

The first Political Zionist was Theodor Herzl who founded the Zionist movement at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897.  The Congress was supposed to be in Munich Germany, but the Jewish population and the rabbis of Munich bitterly protested at this anti-Semitic gathering and the authorities were forced to ban it.

As Ha’aretz explained in 1897: The First Zionist Council Convenes

Basel was a second choice: Herzl had originally planned to “found” his state in Munich, a larger and more significant city than the quiet Swiss town ... It was the Jews of Munich — particularly the Orthodox and Reform leadership and those who were prominent in the city’s economic life — who were concerned that hosting the meeting would stir up trouble for them.

Hans Herzl ended his life as a Christian

Herzl’s own Chief Rabbi Morris Gudemann of Vienna disagreed with his protégé over the compatibility of Zionism and Judaism.  Which isn’t surprising as Herzl refused to have his son Hans circumcised, which is an essential ritual for male Jews. Only after his death did the Zionist leadership arrange his circumcision at the age of 15.  They needn’t have bothered since he converted to Christianity before killing himself at the age of 40. Allan Brownfield wrote that

The chief rabbi of Vienna, Mortiz Gudemann, denounced the mirage of Jewish nationalism. Belief in One God was the unifying factor for Jews, he declared, and Zionism was incompatible with Judaism's teachings. The Jewish Chronicle of London judged that the Zionist scheme's lack of a religious perspective rendered it "cold and comparatively uninviting." The executive of the Association of German Rabbis, representing the Jewish communities of Berlin, Frankfurt, Breslau, Halberstadt and Munich, denounced the "efforts of the so-called Zionists to create a Jewish National State in Palestine" as contrary to the "prophetic message of Judaism and the duty or every Jew to belong without reservation to the fatherland in which he lives . . ."

Herzl, before advocating Zionism had suggested that a solution to what was called the Jewish Question might be the mass conversion of Jews to Catholicism. As might be expected most Orthodox Jews were not enamoured of this. As the Jerusalem Post observed:

Herzl came to Zionism as a last resort, after concluding that abandoning Judaism altogether simply couldn’t work. (He first turned to international socialism and mass-conversion to Catholicism as possible solutions.)

Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler of Britain was an anti-Zionist

Indeed the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Hermann Adler was bitterly opposed to Zionism which he saw as a nationalist apostasy.  To Adler and other Orthodox Jews Zionism was a form of Jewish idolatory.  It substituted worship of a state and Jewish nationalism for the religion. In 1897 Adler termed political Zionism an "egregious blunder," Adler in a long speech about Zionism spoke about how

‘And if there be a group of enthusiasts who succeed in conquering Palestine by force of arms, or buying it up from its owners, we must not consider this to be even a glimmer of our future hope. This is the path that the leaders of the Jewish people received by tradition throughout history: only to wait, without taking any action."

The Orthodox also held that since God had exiled the Jews from Palestine it was not for man to defy God’s will.  This was the position of Agudat Yisrael, an anti-Zionist Orthodox group set up specifically to combat Zionism.  In 1924 their organiser, Jacob de Haan was murdered by the Zionist terror group Hagannah. Even today Agudat Yisrael, although it takes part in Israeli government coalitions, is formally non-Zionist. See THE GREAT GULF BETWEEN ZIONISM AND JUDAISM

In an excellent article in The Guardian of all places For Haredi Jews secular Zionism remains a religious heresy by Giles Fraser, in response to the claim in The Telegraph by the current Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis that Zionism was a ‘a noble and integral part of Judaism’ he wrote:

The walled neighbourhood of Mea Shearim is just a few minutes’ walk from the old city of Jerusalem. Built in 1874, it is home to Jerusalem’s Haredi or ultra-orthodox community – though that description is sometimes used as a term of abuse. The word Haredi is taken from the book of Isaiah and refers to those who tremble before God. A bit like the Quakers.

The Haredi regard themselves as no-compromise, Torah-faithful Jews, living out the word of God as best they can, until the coming of the messiah. The people who live here wear long black frock coats and broad-rimmed hats. Posters put up at the various entrances to the area demand modesty from visitors: long dresses and sleeves. Another poster declares: “No entry to Zionists”. Mea Shearim is home to some of the most fervently anti-Zionist Jews in the world.

It is clear that Ephraim Mirvis and his predecessor Jonathan Sacks are Zionists in a religious shell. Zionism was always a secular movement that believed that began from a racial not a religious base.  Herzl’s Deputy Max Nordau was quite explicit that Zionism was a question of race not religion. To Nordau the Jews were ‘a race of accursed beggars.’

Even Colin Shindler, an ardent Zionist advocate and Professor of Israel Studies at SOAS wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that in Britain:

Orthodoxy also had little time for Zionism. The Kamenitzer Maggid, a brilliant speaker for the Federation of Synagogues, regarded Herzl as a second Shabtai Zevi, the false messiah of the 17th century. Even the Lubavitcher Rebbe of the time announced that religion had been substituted by nationalism. "The Zionists," he argued, "had cast off the yoke of the Torah and mitzvot."

As the Times of Israel reported, the head of the Satmar Hassidic sect Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum 

‘accused his followers of increasingly admiring Israel for its military and political accomplishments, imploring them to maintain the Hasidic group’s hardline anti-Zionism.

Addressing thousands of Satmar members at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum lamented what he called a “tremendous and terrible spiritual decline” among his followers. …

 “We must yell gevalt, gevalt! To where have we come?” he declared. “We have no part in Zionism. We have no part in their wars. We have no part in the State of Israel.”

The Satmar, one of the largest Hasidic groups in the world, is staunchly anti-Zionist and does not recognize the State of Israel, maintaining a Jewish state should not exist until the Messiah appears.

“We’ll continue to fight God’s war against Zionism and all its aspects,” Teitelbaum said.Rabbis like Sacks and Mirvis are merely ignoramuses prostituting themselves to a nationalist heresy. If Corbyn nodded along with an anti-Zionist rabbi he was in good company!

The century long struggle of Jerusalem’s Ultra Orthodox Jews Against Zionism

Clashing with the Jewish state: ultra-Orthodox Israelis who reject Zionism

This is a fascinating article on the 30,000 or so Jews who live in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem and who still reject the Zionist State of Israel.  It is little known that when the Zionist settlers first came to Palestine from the 1880’s onwards they met little sympathy from the existing, Orthodox Jewish community.  The Zionist settlement became known as the Yishuv.  The existing Jews were known as the Old Yishuv.

Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first President wrote disparagingly of them in his autobiography, Trial and Error (pp. 225-9)

Although it is now in the ruling coalition in Israel today as United Torah Judaism, Agudat Yisrael was formed in 1912 in Katowice, Polish as an anti-Zionist organisation.  In 1924 the first Zionist assassination of a Jewish anti-Zionist was that of Jacob de Haan, a Dutch Jew and one of the main spokesman for Agudat.

In the Pew Research Centre’s survey Israel’s Religiously Divided Society 59% of Haredit (ultra-Orthodox Jews) favour expelling Israel’s Arabs from the country compared to 32% who are opposed, so one shouldn’t see the struggle against conscription as therefore translating into support for the Palestinians.  It does amongst a few but it shouldn’t be over exaggerated.  This compares to 48% of Israeli’s supporting expulsion and 46% opposing overall.

Of course some of their views, such as on gender segregation, gay rights etc. will not appeal to people.  Nonetheless one has to admire their determination to resist the draft and induction into Israel’s murderous army.  Not much point in believing in gay rights if you are prepared to massacre on an equal rights basis!

Tony Greenstein

Clashing with the Jewish state: ultra-Orthodox Israelis who reject Zionism

Jaclynn Ashly on March 22, 2018

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators stand next to burning garbage container during a protest against the opening of a parking lot during the sabbath on the outskirts of Jerusalem's conservative neighbourhood of Mea Sharim on June 27, 2009. (Photo: AFP/Menahem Kahana)

Before the sun has a chance to rise, Israeli riot police tiptoe through one of Jerusalem’s oldest Jewish neighborhoods, their shadows dancing across lines of anti-Zionist graffiti decorating buildings and walls.

Their objective is to arrest residents in Mea Shearim for refusing Israel’s mandatory army draft and organizing against the state, according to community claims. They say such raids have occurred on a near nightly basis in the neighborhood for decades. However, in recent years Israel’s police operations have escalated in Mea Shearim.

In their telling, when Israeli forces break into homes during these overnight raids, ultra-Orthodox residents are dragged out of their beds and thrown into police vans.

Many in Mea Shearim, established in 1874, are part of the Eda Haredit, “Congregation of God-fearers” in English — an ultra-Orthodox group in Jerusalem that is also fiercely anti-Zionist.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld described a less recurrent scene. He was not able to provide the numbers of arrests carried out in the neighborhood over the past few months, but told Mondoweiss police units do not normally carry out night raids “unless there are specific individuals who the police know were involved in illegal demonstrations.”

The Eda Haredit opposes the Israeli state and any attempts at assimilating them into the larger Israeli society. The cloistered neighborhood of Mea Shearim has become a symbol for the group, whose members insulate themselves from state institutions and affairs as much as possible.

Eda Haredit members also reside in the Jerusalem-area city of Beit Shemesh and Safed in northern Israel.

Many of the group’s members are descendants of the Old Yishuv, Jews who resided in historic Palestine under Ottoman and then British rule.

Outside the homes of many Eda Haredit members in Mea Shearim hang signs that read: “Here lives a non-Zionist Jew.” Palestinian flags fluttering outside homes are a common sight here.

Eda Haredit members can often be found protesting the state and Israel’s army draft on the streets of Jerusalem. Israeli forces typically respond by dousing them in skunk spray – a noxious smelling liquid.

The members come prepared, even wrapping their black, wide-brimmed hats in protective plastic. When Israeli police releases skunk spray on the protesters, instead of running away, Eda Haredit members often sing and dance as the putrid concoction rains down on them.

The Israeli police have been accused of using excessive force on the demonstrators, including severely beating unarmed Eda Haredit members.

A century-long anti-Zionist struggle

Mordechai Mintzberg, a rabbi in Mea Shearim whose family resided in historic Palestine generations before Israel was founded, told Mondoweiss that the establishment of the Eda Haredit was a “counter reaction” to Zionism in the early 20th century.

According to Mintzberg, as Zionists tightened their grip on the British Mandate of Palestine following the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Jews were forced to determine their relationship to the Zionist movement.  

“The ardent anti-Zionist Jews decided to establish a self-sufficient community that was unquestionably opposed to the Zionist movement,” Mintzberg says.

The Eda Haredit developed its own separate school system – taught entirely in Yiddish – and an independent religious court, known as a Badatz. 

When Israel was established in 1948, the group’s struggle against Zionism intensified.

Although Israel has always hosted anti-Zionist Jews across the political spectrum, the Eda Haredit stands apart for the strict adherence to their beliefs.

In the early years of the Israeli state, Eda Haredit members refused to accept Israeli IDs and some even rejected the use of Israeli currency, Benjamin Brown, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, told Mondoweiss.

Other ultra-Orthodox groups identified with the self-proclaimed Jewish state and integrated into government institutions with their constituents now participating in Israel’s parliament. Leading political parties like Shas and Agudat Yisrael have members who are ultra-Orthodox yet ardently support the state of Israel. 

The Eda Haredit considers these ultra-Orthodox groups “traitors” for “collaborating with the Zionist enemy,” Mintzberg said.

For the Eda Haredit, he says Israeli IDs and citizenship are now “forced” on the community, but members “do everything in [their] power to disassociate from the state.”

Eda Haredit members boycott elections and refuse to accept Israel’s national insurance. If members receive unwelcome assistance from the state, it is immediately placed into a fund dedicated to supporting members organizing against the Israeli army, Mintzberg said.

‘We are struggling for our very existence’ 

The community speaks Yiddish and only uses modern Hebrew with outsiders. They consider the language spoken by most Israelis today a “perversion” of ancient Hebrew, Mintzberg explained.

Jews were expelled from ancient Israel because they had gone against God’s commandments, the group believes. Jews are not allowed any form of a state until the coming of the Messiah, which is expected to occur following a Jewish “spiritual redemption” that would right the sins of the past.

Zionists have used Judaism to further their political goals in the region and “conquer” the territory, Mintzberg told Mondoweiss, adding that a Jewish nationality is antithetical to the teachings of Judaism. He considers Zionism to be a “parasite” on the Jewish faith.

According to his beliefs, Jews inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory should be living under Palestinian rule.

Brown estimates the population of the Eda Haredit to currently be at least 30,000. He says official statistics do not exist because the Eda Haredit refuses to cooperate with Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Lizi Sagie a secular anti-Zionist Israeli activist, told Mondoweiss that, “no one in Israel practices anti-Zionism like the Eda Haredit.”

“They don’t just talk about being anti-Zionist, they really live it,” she said. “I have never witnessed such pure justice like I found in Mea Shearim.”

In the larger Israeli society Eda Haredit members are characterized as “violent extremists” owing to the group allegedly throwing objects, spewing insults, and at times spitting on uniformed Israeli soldiers who wander into Mea Shearim.

The community has also come under fire for its practice of gender segregation. The state has previously intervened to upend barriers on public sidewalks.

But in Mintzberg’s view his group is attempting to survive and defend itself inside a state aiming to consume them into a Zionist society.

“We are struggling for our very existence,” he says.

Forced conscription

The most important battleground between the Eda Haredit and the Israeli authorities has opened up around the country’s compulsory army draft.

Israeli law mandates that Jewish-Israeli citizens be conscripted into the army at the age of 18. Men must spend three years in the army, while women are conscripted for a mandatory, two-year term.

Brown says that the some 900,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have usually been able to gain unofficial exemptions by proving they are full-time students at yeshiva, a seminary school.

A 2014 bill to restrict draft exemptions spurred a wave of protests from the community, including one of the largest marches in Israel’s history. The issue has remained in the public eye as Israeli lawmakers negotiate a bill to axe the draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

However, unlike other ultra-Orthodox groups, Israeli attempts at recruiting the Eda Haredit are futile. For the Eda Haredit, even entering a draft center and showing documents to gain that exemption is considered “collaborating with the enemy”.

“We would never seek Israel’s permission to be exempted from their army, because we don’t recognize the Zionist regime’s authority at all,” Mintzberg said.

“If any of us were ever to accept being drafted into an army, it will be one that is fighting against the Zionist state,” he added.

For Eda Haredit members, it is an honor to be jailed over refusing the draft. Their children are “excited” to reach the age of conscription because “the draft refusers become the stars and heroes of the community,” Mintzberg said.

The rift between the Eda Haredit and other ultra-Orthodox groups in Israel has deepened over recent years. The Eda Haredit sees Israel’s draft as an attempt by officials to further “corrupt” and “Israelize” the larger ultra-Orthodox society.

Over the last decade, ultra-Orthodox enlistment into the Israeli military has climbed from 288 in 2007, to nearly 2,000 today.

Sagie points out that Israeli authorities will often send Ultra-Orthodox army officials into Mea Shearim “just to provoke residents.”

“They want to show the community that, ‘Look, even your own kind is wearing our uniform,'” Sagie told Mondoweiss.

The Eda Haredit holds frequent protests against the draft and distributes pamphlets outside draft centers discouraging other Ultra-Orthodox Jews from joining the army.

The group has also been known to ritually hang Israeli soldier dummies in Mea Shearim to protest Israel’s army draft, evoking condemnation among Israeli leaders.

Last year, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman confronted the community on Twitter, saying it was a “shame” that Israeli citizens were “risking their lives to defend the homeland”, while an 

“extremist, violent and anti-Zionist group is attempting to prevent the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.”

Frequent raids

Israeli forces frequently raid Mea Shearim, according to Mintzberg, arresting draft refusers or members active in the protests.

The police operations are often conducted during night hours, when Israeli officers break into homes without any prior warnings – a police strategy usually saved for Palestinian communities in occupied East Jerusalem.

Oftentimes, residents are arrested and then released the next morning. “It’s all just meant to try and break the community,” Sagie said.

Unlike Palestinians, who often use Whatsapp groups and Facebook to warn residents of Israeli raids, the Eda Haredit’s strict anti-modern lifestyle prohibits them from using the internet.

Instead, “we have kosher phones”, Mintzberg says, taking out a weather-beaten mobile phone from his pocket. The phone only has the ability to make and receive calls.

The community has developed a “hotline” that provides details on goings-on in the neighborhood and updates on jailed residents.

During emergencies, like a night raid, the hotline sends out calls to its registered numbers. Once someone receives the call, they dial the number back and a recorded message plays.

One of the recordings, heard by Mondoweiss, was loud and frantic: “The Zionist kidnappers are invading a home!” the message blared out of the phone’s speaker, in Yiddish.

The recordings often inform residents about which houses are being raided, prompting hundreds of residents to flock outside in an attempt to prevent arrests and push Israeli forces out of the neighborhood.

When group members are arrested, oftentimes they will refuse to cooperate with Israeli officials, while others hold daily protests outside the jails where members are being held.

Outside of every synagogue in Mea Shearim, there are posters listing the names of each jailed community member, so that “the entire community will pray for them,” Mintzberg says.

‘A threat to Israel’

Meanwhile, Mintzberg says he and others in the community identify as being Palestinian. “I live on this land, so what else would I be except Palestinian?” he said.

Mintzberg explained that while the group’s strict anti-Zionist views are derived from a religious origin, these values also merge with their sense of morality.

The group’s members feel a strong connection to the Palestinian struggle, he said, “We are clearly bound to each other. We share the same history and the same struggle.”

He accused the Israeli government of seeking to turn the image of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the “enemy” of Palestinians and divide the two groups.

“The state has invested a lot of money and energy into trying to divide us from Palestinians,” he said.

A few families in the Eda Haredit are activists in Neturei Karta, a group of ultra-Orthodox men who organize with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. However, even these small initiatives to support Palestinians are often targeted and shut down by the Israeli government, Mintzberg noted.

Nevertheless, Mintzberg believes his community’s struggle is a powerful challenge to Israel.

“We are a threat to Israel’s narrative because our continued existence as anti-Zionist Jews defies every myth perpetuated by the Israeli state,” he said.

See also Cops draw flack for marking ultra-Orthodox protesters arms with numbers

Nazi Zionist Comparisons – Israel’s metaphor for a disturbed conscience

In Britain you get the normal effete, polite Zionist who maintains that they are suffering from the ‘burden’ of anti-Semitism, which is all around them, especially when Palestine is on the agenda.  One of their ‘tropes’ (their favourite word) is the argument that it is ‘anti-Semitic’ to compare Zionism and Nazism or the Holocaust.

Why?  Because only they are allowed to guilt trip people into supporting Israel by resorting to such comparisons.  The Holocaust is reserved for the Zionists even though, during the Holocaust themselves, the biggest holocaust deniers were – yes that’s right – the Zionist movement which refused to accept it was  reality even though, at the same time, they pleaded to the British government that if they were defeated at El Alamein in the winter of 1942 then the Jews of Palestine faced extermination. 

Zionism wrote off the Jews of Eastern Europe because their main concern was the negotiations to achieve a Jewish state after the war and the dead of the Holocaust would politically be immensely helpful in that task.  This isn’t conjecture but can easily be found for example in the official biography of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, (The Burning Ground – 1886-1948, Shabtai Teveth).

Below we see that a dispute between the Orthodox Jews and the representative of the Israeli state in the form of its President Reuven Rivlin results in graffiti appearing that called him a Nazi.

Tony Greenstein

Bnei Brak graffiti dubbing Israeli President a ‘Nazi’ sparks outcry

Netanyahu condemns anti-Rivlin vandalism; incident appears tied to president's visit to ultra-Orthodox school 2 months ago

The Times of Israel

By Stuart Winer 

President Reuven Rivlin seen at the Talmud Torah Boston school in Bnei Brak during the opening of the new academic school year. August 23, 2017. (Mark Neyman/GPO)

Graffiti branding President Reuven Rivlin a “Nazi” was sprayed in the central city of Bnei Brak, in an apparent protest of his visit to an ultra-Orthodox elementary school there at the beginning of the school year two months ago.

A Hebrew slogan daubed on the walls of the school in the ultra-Orthodox city read, “Rivlin is a Nazi apostate.” Another seemingly referred to Rivlin’s visit to the school.

Police opened an investigation into the incident. In a statement, police said they received a complaint about the vandalism on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the graffiti, saying in a statement on Wednesday, “these kind of slogans deserve every condemnation and have no place in the public discourse in Israel.”

According to the ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabat website, the vandalism was protesting Rivlin’s visit to the Boston Talmud Torah, an ultra-Orthodox institute. Many in the Haredi community reject the secular State of Israel and its officialdom, making Rivlin’s visit in late August, which took place without incident, unusual.

Lawmakers were quick to claim the graffiti was prompted by the sharp responses from some right-wing officials over a speech Rivlin gave Monday. At the opening of the Knesset winter session, the president roundly criticized politicians for undermining the justice system in their efforts to limit the power of the Supreme Court.

Rivlin’s speech drew criticism from some Knesset members, including Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (Likud) who denounced the president’s “derogatory” address as “undemocratic.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein responded to the graffiti on Wednesday, tweeting “I strongly condemn the attack on the president.”

Graffiti on a wall in Bnei Brak criticizing President Reuven Rivlin that reads ‘Rivlin is a Nazi apostate,’ October 25, 2017.

“The rotten discourse is deteriorating and may lead to injury,” he wrote. “Everyone must condemn such acts and act against incitement with a firm and merciless hand.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely tweeted that she is “shocked by the hateful slogan against President Rivlin and condemn those who wrote it. We must uproot those among us who incite to harm elected officials, from right and left.”

Opposition Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid accused Rivlin’s critics of motivating the vandalism — an apparent reference to Regev, who had continued her criticism in a Tuesday radio interview.

“To all those who incited against the president yesterday and were ‘shocked’ today by the hateful slogans against him,” Lapid wrote. “What did you think would happen?”

Zionist Union lawmaker MK Tzipi Livni echoed Lapid in attributing the blame to those who spoke out against the president.

“The graffiti against the president was written in the ink of the furious and inciting speeches against him,” she tweeted. “Enough with that!”

Opposition leader Zionist Union MK Isaac Herzog speaks during the special plenary session opening the winter session of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, October 23, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

 Opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog hinted that Netanyahu was responsible, after the premier labeled the opposition and media “sourpusses” (literally, “pickles”) in a Monday speech.

“Here it comes — two days ago I said that we would soon be calling President Rivlin a traitor,” Herzog said. “We started with pickles and very quickly we came to Nazi apostates.”

The President’s Residence asked security services to look into threatening responses made on social media after Rivlin gave his speech, Channel 2 reported.

Speaking at the opening of the Knesset winter session on Monday, Rivlin launched a passionate defense of the judicial system and the media, saying government attempts to undermine them amount to a “coup” against the pillars of Israeli democracy.

“The Knesset is the representative of the sovereign, the people of Israel, the entire people of Israel. In this house we must remember that it is the people we must live up to. This wonderful people whom we have been privileged to serve and represent,” Rivlin told Knesset members and guests at the ceremony.

Education and Culture Minister Miri Regev, right, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the special plenary session opening the winter session of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, October 23, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Rivlin accused political leaders of weakening state institutions by attacking them for narrow political gain.

“From the ‘political’ professional bureaucracy to the ‘political’ state comptroller, the ‘political’ Supreme Court ‘politicians,’ the ‘political’ security forces, and even the IDF, our Israel Defense Forces are ‘political’; the whole country and its institutions – politics,” he said.

Rivlin, a former Likud lawmaker, was criticized by party members for his comments.

“He hasn’t been on our side for a while,” MK David Bitan told reporters in the halls of the Knesset.

Regev also slammed Rivlin, branding him a “president who belittles politicians, belittles the will of the people and damages the heart of democracy,” she said.

Ahead of the winter sitting, several coalition lawmakers have vowed to advance a constitutional Basic Law to rein in the Supreme Court, accusing the justices of overstepping their mandate in rejecting Knesset legislation in a series of recent rulings.

Speaking at the weekly faction meeting of his Jewish Home party, flanked by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday accused the Supreme Court, which doubles as the constitutional High Court of Justice, of “forgetting” its role and placing the judiciary above the legislative branch.