Jewish tradition declares that children shall not be punished for the sins of their fathers. But it didn’t anticipate a son like the 19 year-old Yair Netanyahu, who appears to retain some of the harsh Arab-hatred that characterizes both his father, Benyamin, and 98 year-old grandfather, Ben Zion. I have written here of the latter’s call for hanging Arabs in the nearest town square to teach them who’s boss, a punishment he contends that was quite effective in the Ottoman era. Apparently, he doesn’t realize that the despotic Muslim Ottomans may not be the political model he wishes Israel to emulate. In 1989, Benyamin, his father advocated expelling Israeli Palestinian citizens from the State in a comment I’d personally never heard until I read it and published it here.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say. Here are a few of the choice racist comments (and a shorter English article) this excellent expose by Uri Blau attributes to Yair Netanyahu via his Facebook page. A few years ago at a time when Ehud Olmert was prime minister, riots broke out in the formerly Arab town of Akko (Acre), when an Israeli Palestinian mistakenly drove into an Orthodox community on Yom Kippur (a day when driving is forbidden). The result was this Facebook page created by the younger Netanyahu which stated:
As a Result of the Akko Pogroms, I Too Boycott Arab Businesses!
Those Arab sons of whores desecrated the holiest day of our year. This wasn’t in Syria or in Egypt. It was right here in the State of Israel–the Jewish nation’s only state. Because the leftist authorities won’t do anything regarding this matter and because the media will only trot out [before the cameras] the “poor Arabs,” it is up to us to do the minimum to restore our self-respect by boycotting all Arab businesses and products. Besides, I boycotted these shits even before!
Despite Netanyahu’s appeal for members to join the group, only 23 did, which seems a pretty lame performance for a soldier who serves now in the IDF international press liaison office (can’t you just hear Avital Leibovich, one of the army’s top PR flacks saying to a scrum of journalists, “anyone care for an interview with the prime minister’s son??”). It may be a mark of the degradation of the IDF’s core service values that Yair’s uncle, Yonatan, died a hero as a member of the elite unit that assaulted the Entebbe Airport in 1976, while his nephew serves as a military PR flack in 2011. How the mighty have fallen!
Returning to his Facebook account, just after the murder of the Fogel family by Palestinian militants, Netanyahu wrote this under the assumed name, Jesse Netan. My editorial comments are in italics, I couldn’t help myself!:
We Jews and Christians celebrate life and love, you Muslims celebrate hatred and death! I attended the funeral and saw the five bodies including the littlest of the babies [ed., this isn’t truthful as one does not see bodies at a Jewish funeral, only caskets]. When we Israelis accidentally harm a Palestinian boy in Gaza the entire nation mourns for the child of the enemy [ed., what country is he living in??] half the army goes to prison and we pay a lot of money to the family [ed., what planet is he living on??]. We have enough power to destroy Gaza in five minutes, but we operate there with utmost care against terrorists who intend to harm our citizens and to turn their own citizens into human shields.
Further, after the murder of this innocent family, they danced and celebrated in the streets, precisely like after 9/11!
Terror has a religion and it is Islam. Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim. Have you ever heard of anyone killing themselves with a bomb in the name of Jesus or Moses [ed., I suppose he forgot Masada and Trumpeldor]? NO! People blow themselves up only in the name of Allah!
There is no such thing as a Palestinian state. It is part of Israel. There never in history has been a Palestinian state. There is no such state and I hope there never will be. Palestinians are Arabs who settled in our country, but who emigrated from other Arab countries less than 100 years ago.
A mere two hours after Blau first turned to the IDF press office for a comment on the Facebook profile it was closed to public view. The army explained that Yair had been told what the expectations of him were and that he could not talk politics on his Facebook account. Of course, the IDF had no problem in general with the specific rage-filled/rejectionist racist views he expressed, only with the fact that they were “political.”
The family’s attorney strangely attempted to argue that Haaretz played a dirty trick on the young man by wrenching his comments “out of context.” Can he possibly explain in what context such comments might be acceptable?? He goes on to argue that some of the comments were made when the boy was a mere lad of 16 and a private individual (as if this makes them less offensive). He calls this a “cynical use of a young boy’s words.” And yes, of course the lawyer plays the Holocaust card, claiming that Yair was so overwrought because he was reacting to the anti-Semitic outburst of John Galliano, as the grandson of a man who lost his entire family in the Holocaust.
The family lawyer’s final words reek of hypocrisy and mendacity:
Yair is prepared to respect anyone who is ready to live in peace with Israel, whatever his identity. His parents, the prime minister and his wife believe in moderation and tolerance [!] and they respect every individual without respect to their religion [!], ethnicity or national affiliation and so they raised their son.
No mention of course of Bibi’s call for expulsion of Israel’s Palestinian citizens and how that squares with his life lived in moderation and tolerance.
Richard:”[ed., this isn’t truthful as one does not see bodies at a Jewish funeral, only caskets].”
At Jewish funerals in Israel the bodies are not buried in coffins or caskets but in shrouds only. Thus during the hesped and the procession to the grave one can clearly see the body shape and size.
Coffins are actually forbidden by halacha in Eretz Israel so as to be buried in Israeli soil without wood or metal intervening.
Abroad Jewish communities adopted coffins copying the gentile custom.
There is an exception in Israel to the coffin rule – all soldiers (and police?) who die are buried in coffins so as not to hurt the feelings of families of soldiers whose dear ones’ bodies are not complete asaresult of the cause of death, thus it was decided many years ago to bury all in a coffins.
I knew about the Talmudic dictum calling for shrouds instead of caskets, but wasn’t aware that this was followed in Israel. Thanks for the correcting my misimpression. I was mostly objecting to the impression it seemed that Netanyahu was conveying that he actually viewed the bodies at the funeral, which he could not have done. But you’re right in that even seeing the bodies covered in a shroud would be very painful.
This is Richard in a nut-shell.
Dismissing someone else say and call it a lie, only to reveal he does know what he is talking about.
Sorry, failing to know how Jews are berried is a major FAIL.
At least you could have apologize for calling him a liar, but no, you will never apologize for smearing someone wrongly.
Making the world a better place, indeed.
Netanyahu claimed he “saw the bodies” but did not.
And of course I knew of Jewish burial custom since I have a degree in Talmud fr JTS. but I did not know Israel followed traditional custom since the only Jewish funerals I’ve attended have been in the U.S. In fact, I’d be willing to bet you didn’t know that American Jews are normally buried in caskets, not in shrouds. Should I criticize you for a major failing in yr knowledge of American Jewish custom (not that you care anyway)?
Whoever this Richard S is is a complete fool – he has not a shred of intelligence! The whole history is about the world saying it’s ok for the Jews to have a nation – THE SIZE OF NEW JERSEY !! What are you, a complete moron!???? What do you want it to be the size of Block Island!!!?????? Wake up, you are jealous of all the Nobel Prizes and other accomplishments, like B. Netanyahu’s father who is an emeritus Professor at Cornell University, etc., etc. too many in this one family to name here!!! What have you done to help anything??!?!!!!!! Nothing! Leave the writing and commenting to the intelligent people of the world.
“Have you ever heard of anyone killing themselves with a bomb in the name of Jesus or Moses [ed., I suppose he forgot Masada and Trumpeldor]? ”
Trumpeldor killed himself?
Arab killed him, but in Richard book, saying that makes you a racist. It is better to say he killed himself.
You’ve forgotten the fictional saying attached to his name: “It is good to give one’s life for one’s country?” You’ve forgotten that the battle in which he died was a battle his superiors told him not to fight. But that he went ahead anyway? You’ve forgottten that Trumpeldor is worshipped in the Zionist canon as someone who gave his life willingly for his country & that he’s part of what Baruch Kimmerling wrote about in discussing Zionism’s cult of martyrdom?
I didn’t said anything about his saying before he died. If someone choose to protect his country or people and he knows there is a chance he will die as a result wouldn’t you say he gave his life for his country if he dies? so basically every man in every war killed himself and every country that was in a war is a cult of martyrdom.
Trumpeldor didn’t went out with guns blazing so he can die a hero even though there is no reason for you to believe that if you always dismiss the Israeli documented history as lies and every one who say the opposite as true.
Still, Trumpeldor didn’t kill himself.
He engaged in a military action that was suicidal under the circumstances just as those at Masada did.
I didn’t say anything about Masada and Tel-Chay was nothing like it.
He died when an inspection by local Arab forces turned violent in oppose to several past similar inspections that ended quietly.
(hebrew) http://erez.israel.net/Trumpeldor2.htm
Is it possible that every source that claims the opposite of your opinion is “Hasbara” propaganda and therefore should be dismissed as a lie?
No it was not, but why bother with what happend in reality ?
Tel Hai people have lived through the fight and the Arabs retreated.
Richard, where did you get that story from ?
Does this sort of stuff not violate Facebook’s Terms of Service. Why is the account not taken down.
“…. they danced and celebrated in the streets, precisely as after 9/11.”
I’ve seen videos of Israelis watching through binoculars and dancing and celebrating in the streets of New Jersey, precisely during 9/11!!
Ok, now that ea. side has gotten the dancing Palestinians & dancing Israelis off their chests can we go back to substance & discussion of the issues? If it’s dancing that interests you there are many fine sites dealing w. all the varieties of modern dance.
Ha! I disagree with about 90% of the things that you write here but got to give credit for the good humor.
Ok, now that ea. side has gotten the dancing Palestinians & dancing Israelis off their chests can we go back to substance & discussion of the issues? If it’s dancing that interests you there are many find sites dealing w. all the varieties of modern dance.
How can people who agree with Netanyahu junior’s views, or state similar ones themselves, resolve these with their religion, their culture, and their god? If Junior and they believe it is true that the world’s sympathy with Arabs/Palestinians is something to be mocked, why, why, why do they think that the world does sympathise?
Has it not occurred to them, that the extension of these stated attitudes into behaviour, culture, and policy, are sickening the people of all races, cultures and religions of the world?
How do these people live day after day with such deep, deep denial? I really cannot understand it outside the context of their psychiatric disposition.
As for Father saying Junior’s comments are relative to his youth – why does he let this deranged boy loose in the world with a gun in his hands?
Their psychological profile is very deeply ingrained. They learn this ideology practically w. their mother’s milk.
Just found your site. Consider reading my blog Breaking The Israel/Palestine Silence http://wallsofdespair.blogspot.com
It relates the Testimonies of IDF soldiers in The Occupied Territories testifying to War Crimes, the breaking of The Geneva Comvention and international law. Think, this is not anti-semites or self hating Jew but Israelis, members of the Purity of Arms army. I spoke on Presstv about my blog on June 11
Richard Morris Writer and Performer Bitter Fruit Of Palestine on YouTube and vimeo.com
Richard, you need to get a real job – you seem very bored. Who cares if Bibi’s son is an idiot?
Don’t you have kids to raise, or something?
I haven’t heard anyone especially clamoring for yr distictive voice to be heard. Go write yr own blog & find 1 or 2 people interested in what YOU have to say.
What is “yr”?
Abbreviation for “your”
I wonder whether Arab merchants will be able to sue people like Yair Netanyahu after the vote on the anti-boycott law in the Knesset yesterday … According to analysts even a simple call not to visit a place falls under the law and it thus should include the local falafel-restaurant or whatever Bibi Junior is talking about.
By the way, family gathering in the Ben Artzi-Netanyahu extended family must be very lively.
Here’s where we can agree: since the boycott law is utter idiocy, I’m all for suing the Netanyahus. Let them have a taste of their own disgusting medicine.
Nice to be on the same side for a change.
BTW, even Jeffrey Goldberg opposes the law so you know this is an easy one for liberal Zionists. It’s also humorous that Meretz USA’s slogan is “Buy Israel–Boycott Settlements.” Given the current desperate political climate the “Buy Israel” portion of the slogan is purely an apologetic sop to those on the Zionist right. That’s liberal Zionism–always having to look over its shoulder to ensure it isn’t going too far…
Richard, I think the distinction is very important within Israel. The slogan is something many Israelis could agree to, whereas wholesale BDS doesn’t fly and just exacerbates the siege mentality. The more we can distinguish between the settlements and Israel within the 67 borders, the easier it will be to penetrate the siege mentality.
If you support boycotting settlements then do so. But telling people to ‘buy Israel,’ in no matter what context, looks like a defensive apologetic response.
Not just the Netanyahu family…the Arens, Begin, Netanyahu, & Olmert families each have “black sheep” members who defy the rightist drift of the patriarch/s in favor of progressive politics. Bravi to them!
Yair is a smart kid. He’s uncorrupted by political and other “considerations”, and just states his truth. Arabs performed a (well planned)pogrom? Let’s punish this community by avoiding doing any business with them.
What’s wrong?
Bibi Netanyahu’s son “uncorrupted” by politics?? Did you think this would even begin to pass the smell test?
And did u forget there’s an anti boycott law prohibiting advocacy of boycotting the businesses of any Israeli citizens including, alas Israeli Palestinian citizens. So he ‘s breaking his own father’s law. But we know enforcement of the law will be racially profiled to exclude Israeli Palestinian citizens fr its protections.
[comment deleted: I will never publish such despicable, hateful comments about Israelis OR Palestinians.]