When an Israeli reader sent this story to me I couldn’t believe the headline summarized above. Further, in this day and age of Norwegian neo-Nazi, anti-jihadi attacks which wrap themselves in the Israeli flag, this story is simply mind-blowing.
It begins with a visit from a Russian neo-Nazi delegation to Israel. Under the auspices of Tuvia Lerner, editor of the Russian edition of Arutz 7, the media voice of the settler movement, they inveigled themselves an invitation to meet with far-right MKs Aryeh Eldad and Ayoob Kara. They also toured Yad VaShem without telling anyone there that they were Holocaust deniers. Like I told you, this story has to be read to be believed. The two Russians have been photographed giving Nazi salutes, celebrating Der Fuhrer’s birthday, and they published songs of praise to Adoph Hitler on their website.
Naturally, when they met with the MKs the ideas they espoused were quite different. One of the neo-Nazis told Israeli TV that the concept of Israel “excites me,” because it involves “an ancient people who took upon itself a pioneer project to revive a modern state and nation.” The TV reporter tartly asked how the neo-Nazi of yesterday suddenly became a Zionist. How they did it, is by finding a common enemy: Islam (sound familiar?). The second neo-Nazi tells the interviewer:
“We’re talking about radical Islam which is the enemy of humanity, enemy of democracy, enemy of progress and of any sane society.
With friends like this does Israel need enemies? Does it wish to lie down with dogs who kill Chechens and Africans for sport only to rise up with fleas? Who assassinate human rights activists and lawyers? Who dream of a master race following its destiny? Is Israel so desperate that it needs such friends in order to battle the common Muslim enemy? Have we not learned a single thing from Anders Breivik?
Lerner attempts to defend his efforts to ingratiate the Russian fascist movement into the good graces of Israeli society by claiming that the two neo-Nazis told him they regretted the anti-Semitic statements they’d made fifteen years ago. But can the leopard changes its spots?? The reporter notes that in just the past year the group wrote that the Holocaust was “a myth.” Then he asks whether the apology was sincere and whether such figures belonged in a place in which the elected representatives of the nation gathered.
The report also features an interview with Eldad in which he feigns an intelligence he clearly lacks, when he says that he knew from the outset that something “didn’t smell right.” And that he met them for only a few minutes (when the TV screen fills with images of him shaking hands and laughing jovially with the Russian delegation).
Anyone reading this blog knows my views about settler extremists, but how can Israel countenance such shocking, disgraceful acts from Arutz 7 and these disgusting representatives of the Israeli people elected to the Knesset? Is anyone using their brains there? Or has everyone lost their senses? Regaling neo-Nazis with anti-jihadi jokes in the halls of the Knesset? Defiling Yad VaShem with unreconstructed Holocaust deniers? Please someone explain this to me (if you can).
When did all that happened ? do you have the dates ? is this a recent event ?
i see a screen capture from what appears to be a channel 10 piece, do you have a link to it ?
The link
http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=818385
Sorry about that. I’ve added the link to the post now.
Could you point out for us which party and the associated ideology of the party the MKs are a member of.
Sorry I have a limited knowledge of Israeli political parties.
Eldad is National Union (far right settler party). Kara is Likud.
The story is about two weeks old.
The website “Little Green Footballs” covered it extensively on July 14th.
The incident itself seemed to be from a few days prior to that.
That’s possible, but the report I used was from Channel 10 today.
One possible explanations is that those settler guys don’t really care much about foreigners being molested in Russia, nor about the nazi genocide, nor aboutJews in Russia, nor about Jews in diaspora, nor in fact about anybody else except themselves and their “right” to be sole master in the land of greater Israel.
come on Richard, Eldad isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but there is no one single picture in this tv report showing him “shaking hands and laughing jovially with the Russian delegation.”
BTW, did you know that he is a good friend of MK Ahmad Tibi?
“Did you know that he is a good friend of MK Ahmad Tibi?”
This is not only a red herring, it is also a LIE ! Ahmad Tibi is a Palestinian patriot, and he would never befriend a thug like Eldad. Never.
I’m not going to link to the settler-run newspaper, but there’s an article by Eldad from 2008 stating “Tibi is not a traitor. He’s the enemy”. The best compliment Tibi could ever get !
So Eldad is not ‘your cup of tea’, you probably prefer Michael Ben-Ari …
I’m glad you’ve said that. It didn’t make much sense that Tibi would have anything in common with Eldad. I’d sure like to see what proof Shraga has for that. Knowing Shraga, he may have some. BTW, Shraga isn’t a hasbarist. In fact his views are quite left-wing. But he’s a bit of an iconoclast & criticizes everyone with equal verve including me.
In fact, I realized afterwards who Shraga is, and I apologize for my words. I have looked at his website on an earlier occasion, and I even think remembering he’s a One-Stater. Bitte Entshuldigung !
There is an article by Eldad on Arutz Sheva 7 that I didn’t want to promote from 2008 on Tibi, and though they were both doctors, I’m sure they are not friends.
This trend of trying to discredit Palestinians by making them friends with the ‘enemy’ of the moment made me draw conclusions about Shraga too fast.
Tibi and Eldad have many things in common. Lets start with the simple fact they are both Medical Doctors. They share the common goal of saving people lives in the most profound way there can be.
In addition they are both Kneset members working to defines the law the state of Israel follow. There are many items they worked on together.
@ Free man
Yeah, we know you’re a great analyser of the Israeli society and that your comments are always very consistent. Particularly as the one below on ‘welcome to the real world’
Che Guevara was a medical doctor too, so was Georges Habbache and so is Mahmoud al-Zahar. So was my grand-father, so was BARUCH GOLDSTEIN, and so what ?
Ahmad Tibi do have friends within the Israeli Jewish community, also in the Knesset. If my informations are correct, he’s close to Reuven Rivlin, but Rivlin is not Eldad !
Exceptionally, I’ll link to the settler-run Arutz Sheva:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125797#.TjPwTGGGHxo
Eldad also stated in May, after Ahmad Tibi went to Cairo with other Israeli Palestinian members of Knesset to assist in the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah that he hoped ‘they would stay in Cairo and not come back to Israel’.
Eldad further asked the Israeli population to notice that “the Arab deputies who officially condemned ‘all violence’ would run off to Cairo to participate in the reunion between terrorists”.
Sure looks as if Eldad and Tibi are goooood friends, but I’m sure that as always you have substantial informations on the subject to give us
DY,
I did not write they were friends.
I said they had things in common.
Also outside Habash and Goldshtein, all the other MDs did indeed work to save life and not destroy them.
He hit a nerve, didn’t he ?
Welcome to the real world where real people live, not stereotypes.
No, not shaking hands, that was a bit of artistic liberty on my part. But don’t you think they DID shake hands? Wouldn’t that have been civil? But yes, there is an image of them laughing jovially about some joke or other. Look at the video again.
I didn’t know about his friendship w Tibi. But I doubt Tibi feels too warmly about this story.
Actually, I see a bright side to this:
A. It shows that the settlers feel very isolated.
B. It’s been exposed on national TV, which will not exactly improve the image of the settlers. The way they’re perceived in Israeli society is very important to them, as evidenced by the amount of money and effort they put into PR.
I think they’re shameless & it won’t bother them one iota. Nor do I think that Israelis care enough about the issues to spend much time deliberating about this. That’s part of why I thought it was important that I write about it.
Actually why not let these Russian neo-nazi guys walk around in Yad Vashem? They might learn a thing or two about what hate can lead to.
Curiouser and curiouser, and besides, emetics can be in all kinds of forms, but this one should win a prize. Strange to think that the settler movement is really a pharmaceutical front specializing in the production of nausea.
To use the old reliable cliché, “birds of a feather flock together” or seek each other out.
Hate attracts hate, don’t you know. JDL spray paint genocidal slogans on Palestinian property: Gas the Arabs, “price tag” and what not. Supremacy isn’t exclusive to Nazis and neo-Nazis.
Here we have two sets of Supremacists who merely go by different names but who embrace their common hate and I’m sure these Neo-Nazis admire the hateful racist tactics and policies the settler nation uses to dominate and oppress its Palestinian subjects.
The past victims embracing the hate of their oppressors…who would have thought this possible? Irony paves the way for awareness of the truth.
I have a closely related take on this. These two groups have an important common denominator: they both have a highly zero-sum view of humanity and divide it into übermenschen and untermenschen. If the neo-Nazis were to decide that Jews – or at least these particular Jews – are not untermenschen after all, then it makes perfect sense that they would close ranks with the settlers.
Do you really think it’s a bad idea for Holocaust deniers to visit Yad Vashem?
Personally, I think they, more than anyone, ought to be strongly encouraged to do so.
I think unreconstructed Holocaust deniers have no right to defile the place. Someone however who is genuinely open to changing their former views should be allowed. These idiots are liars & frauds & make a mockery of the Holocaust & the museum.
That there are Russian Nazis blew my mind 15 years ago when I heard about “Pamyat” and the successor Nazi/racist groups in the Russian Federation….then I found out 5-6 years ago that these same groups had people in Israel, skinheads in the IDF, nutters living as settlers and that sealed the deal: if Israel was willing to bring in Nazis, then Zionism was a sick joke.
20 million people died in western Soviet Union thanks to the Nazi invasion of 1941; they were either bombed, shot, strafed, sniped, vaporized by arillery, burnt by flamethower, stabbed by bayonet. It is one thing to deny the Holocaust in America; in the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and the Baltic states all you had to do was wander into the woods outside of town to see mounds of naked corpses in shallow ditches, or similar mounds leaning up next to a barn. And this was before the German camp system was taking in Jews, in the wild days of the Einsatzkommandos….World War II is virtually a state religion in Russia; did nothing sink into the thick skulls of the skinheads?
The people who invited those thugs have only a small number of neurons still working.
Ayub Kara is deputy speaker of the Knesset. Is it govt practice to place morons in positions of such authority?
Idiots in politics – who would have thought?
Your priorities are quite strange.
You choose to report on this non-interesting story, yet completely ignore the HUGE protests that are going on in Israel against the housing prices and the erosion of the middle class. You happily report when some idiot girl says something nasty about Arabs and try to paint the entire Israeli society in ugly colors, but when 150,000 (!) Israelis take to the streets, protesting against their government – nothing.
I guess your “love” for Israel only shows itself when there is something negative to write about.
A good one indeed.
Took some time to atop loling.
Most of they are useless bums that would not be able to perform the simplest of jobs.
They wanted to enjoy each others hatred for Muslims.
Isn’t Ayoob Kara himself a Muslim?
Ayub Kara is a Druze.
Some, both Druze themselves and non-Druze, consider them to be a sect within Shia-Islam, others don’t. The Druze are stricly endogamous, and conversion is not allowed.
In Israeli demographics, Druze are classified as ethnically Arabs, though apart, and religiously as ‘Druze’, separately from ‘Muslims’. Not that Israeli classifications should be taken as a guideline, on the contrary, it’s basically made up to divide-and-rule the natives, cf. the completely absurd group called ‘Bedouins’. As if Bedouins weren’t Arabs.
Druze outside Israel definitely feel Arabs in their great majority, but in Israel it’s more complicated. Many (most ?) feel Israeli foremost, and apply the concept of ‘taqiya’ in Shia Islam (‘dissimulation’). Others such as Samih al-Qasim, the great Arab poet living in Haifa, considers himself a Palestinian nationalist, and went to prison for his political views.
One of his famous poems:
END OF A TALK WITH A JAILER
From the narrow window of my small cell
I see trees that are smiling at me
And rooftops crowded with my family
And windows weeping and praying for me
From the narrow window of my small cell
I can see your big cell”
If I am understanding you correctly, some Druze identify as Muslim and others do not.
Do you know which category Ayoob Kara is in?
From your description, it seems sort of similar to Mormons in the United States – are they a Christian sect or not?
Honestly, I don’t know Ayub Kara very well, but when I think about his actions and statements through his time, I hardly think he considers himself a Muslim, but I really don’t know. I would say, generally, the Druze in Israel do NOT identify as Muslims. This is of course also a result of the devalorization of Islam and everything Arab.
We’ve had the debate here before, and I noticed that the Israeli idea of ‘what is a Druze’ differs from person to person.
Some noticed that Druze always distance themselves strongly from ‘the Arabs’ (when among Jews), but that is NOT my experience elsewhere in the Middle East, and is due to the paticular interethnic situation in Israel, in my opinion.
In fact, the Druze religious doctrine is secret and is revealed through initiations, so for an outsider it’s hard to penetrate.
I only know Mormons from the television 🙂 and proselytizing in my neighbourhood occasionally.
Don’t they have something about ‘the church of Jesus Christ’ in their official name ?
Thank you for your response.
With regard to Mormons, they call themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
I think it is the “Latter Day Saints” part that causes some Christians to assert that Mormons are not actually Christians. Although I believe most Mormons consider them to be such.
With respect to what I’ve read about the Druze (and I confess to having no first-hand knowledge), it seems that the religion does have some relationship to Islam. Perhaps, though, the Mormon analogy is not an apt one.
With respect to Ayoob Kara, I am somewhat curious about how he came to develop his political positions in light of the fact that he is neither Jewish nor Christian.
Is this sort of right-wing political philosophy a common phenomenon among the Druze population?
Do they not suffer a similar degree of discrimination as their non-Druze Muslim counterparts since they are also not Jewish?
Druze don’t fast Ramadan and don’t do Hajj (pilgramige). They do alms and prayer, believe in Allah, I don’t know about Mohammed as the seal of the prophets.
That makes them like any “good” person who believes in god and gives charity, so the jury’s out if it is an independant reigion or sort of “islam-lite”
@ California Jake
Ayub Kara is extreme in his positions. If you go through his personal history, you’ll see it started out already with his father who served in the proto-Israeli army during the ’48 war.
In general, if you want to understand the Druze, the concept of ‘taqiya’ IS sine qua non:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiyya
As a religious minority the Druze have a long history of alliance with the rulers – which is certainly a quite logical and human strategy also used by the Jews and many other minorities throughout history – so their integration into the State of Israel is only a consequence of a long history.
How they really feel as a collective group, I don’t know.
To be honest, I don’t know any Druze from Israel personally. I’ve met two or three abroad, but their positions as considering themselves Palestinians didn’t make them representative.
I know I’m heavily biased concerning the State of Israel, but I’m convinced that the ‘superficial’ integration of the Druze in politics and particularly in the army is a strategy of divide-and-rule, just as with the Beduins. Israeli Jews and many Druze will certainly tell you otherwise.
I remember seeing a film about some Israeli Palestinian students demonstrating at Tel Aviv University, and among their harshest opponents were many Druze with a discourse that would have made the Founding Fathers of Israel proud of them. I think they forgot for a moment that they didn’t come during the aliyot. Reel convictions or eagerness to be accepted by the ruling group, I don’t know.
And then we have the Druze in the Golan who act totally different and refuse to become Israelis.
There is some missunderstanding here about Druze.
Druze is a religion. So they are not Muslims, but Druze.
Just like Christians are not Jews.
In addition, Druze are Arabs.
Arabs follow many different religions, most are Muslims, some are Christians (for example 10% of Egypt population are copt Christians), some Druze and some of smaller religions such as Bahai.
@ Free man
“There are some misunderstanding here about Druze. Druze is a religion, so they are not Muslims, but Druze”.
There is a theological debate among the Druze clergy as well as Islamic scholars whether the Druze are Muslims or not, but you of course have all the theological knowledge – as an Israeli Jew – to decide that.
Israeli chutzpah.
Just in case: the Israeli ethnocracy’s classification of human beings in ethnic/religious groups is NOT the universal thruth.
I just went to see what the official Muslim instances say about the Druze.
Al-Azhar, the most important Islamic university whose fatâwa are considered the most important ruled in the 195O’s that the Druze are Muslims.
The fact that the Druze recite al-Fatiha (the opening Sura in the Koran) is enough. The respect of the five pillars is not necessary to be considered Muslims.
So if the most prominent Fuqahâ consider the Druze religion to be within the boundaries of the Muslim faith, I think we should let the Druze decide for themselves.
I also went to a debate forum discussing whether the Druze are Muslims or not:
the Druze who participated considered their religion to be Muslim, one opposed the description of ‘heretical’.
As one pointed out: the fact that ‘al-shahâda’ is recited at a Druze funeral is the ultimate ‘proof’ of belonging to Islam.
Al-shahâda says: “ashadu an lâ ilâha ‘illa’allâh wa ashadu an muhammada rasûlu-llâh” [I testify that there is no god but God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God].
@ Free Man
“Arabs follow many different religions”
Don’t forget all the Arab Jews.
DY,
When you consider that Al Azhar accepted Shia as Muslims only in 1959, they don’t hold alot of credibility on that issue.
In addition Al Azhar, just like any other “high institution” of religious have mde many wierd and stupid fatawas.
In short zero credibility.
Anybody who lived with Druze and Muslims see first hand how their worship is different. Such a person don’t need to look it up the internet, they know those people.
And u are an expert on Islam because of what reason?? What degree u earned? What learned tomes you’ve read?
@ Free man
Yeah, we know your huge knowledge about ‘things Arab’. And your personal opinion is of course far more important than that of al-Azhar.
And I’m very surprised that you know about Druze worship. They are very secret, and even non-initiated Druze don’t have access to the secrets. But as you KNOW Druze, pay attention next time you’re invited to a funeral when the shahada is recited.
You could also try to google to find that the views differ, and with all respect, your point of view has no importance compared with that of the Druze themselves.
Richard,
Some people boast their degree and have zero knowledge others don’t boast and have it.
It is also true that some people never learn.
You once again admit you have no measurable knowledge of Islam but ask us to somehow trust that you’ve picked up such knowledge along the way. Well, sorry, doesn’t work that way. In fact you’ve shown ignorance of Islam or feigned knowledge that is skin deep, if that.
The educational systems of the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation reject the mythology of a specifically Jewish Holocaust with good reason. The German Nazis murdered about two million Soviet soldiers before mass murder of Jews began in earnest. Browning identifies the former mass murder as a precursor for the second.
I looked at the report again and again and there is no single picture of Eldad laughing together with the Russian racists delegation. It is Ayub Kara, obviously in his office.
I checked with my source on the good relationships between Tibi and Eldad and he, an Israeli right winger, admitted that this is a kind of a rumour that he heard recently from a friend.
I thought that the info is plausible, because things like this happen all over the world, that political opponents have privately good relationships. Azmi Bishara told me at the end of the ’80s that he had good relationships with Eldad’s father, one of the main leaders of the Israeli fascists. Azmi talked about
A mutual respect between both of them. Tibi, BTW, was close to Ezer Weitzman.
One way or another, I should have taken more cautiously the info that I had gotten about the special relationships between Tibi and Eldad, which is still not necessarily wrong.
To the present visit of the Russian neo-Nazis in Israel, actually this us almost nothing if one compares it to the protection rendered by Zionists to a notable forerunner of the German Nazis, Werner Sombart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Sombart) in 1911. Sombart opposed giving Jews equal rights and propagated like the Zionists their emigration out of Germany/Europe.
As of 1933 there was a cooperation between the Nazi and Zionist leaderships along these lines in the framework of the Ha’avara (transfer) agreement.
To the first Holocaust deniers one can count the Yishuv leadership ( s. http://www.arendt-art.de/deutsch/Stimmen_Israel_juedische/elam_shraga_holocaust_deniers.htm).
After WWII the Ben – Gurion gang (including Shimon Peres) pursued a policy of protecting even heavy Nazi criminals if they could give some valuable services and/or in return. One example:
Walter Rauff:
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/in-the-service-of-the-jewish-state-1.216923
Another Hans Globke (for nuclear bomb etc.):
http://shraga-elam.blogspot.com/2010/08/did-ben-gurion-sell-his-soul-to-satan.html
In 1963 Ben Gurion promised Adenauer that no one of the 2000 Nazi criminals on the list of the archives in Ludwigsburg will be pursued by Israel.
“Poor” Eichmann has nothing to give….
I’m not familiar w. the faces of MKs so I presumed it was Eldad joking w the Nazis.
The other pts u raise are of course very important in terms of Zionist collaboration w the Nazis.
:: Is Israel so desperate that it needs such friends in order to battle the common Muslim enemy? ::
Yes. This is of a piece with the Israeli embrace of far-right U.S. Christian Zionists (CUFI, John Hagee, etc.). After AIPAC was criticized for giving Hagee a prominent speaking spot at its annual convention a few years ago, Shmuel Rosner defended this creepy alliance of convenience in exactly the terms of your question.
U.S. CZ groups provide very significant funding to settler organizations, and represent (in estimate of a former Minister of Tourism) a third to a half of U.S. tourism to Israel.
I don’t expect these Russian neo-Nazis to provide anything like that kind of material support, and the image here does cross a big line, so maybe there’ll be a bit of push-back from within the govt. Or not…
There is no mystery in this. There are Jews who live outside Israel and there are Israeli Jews. The holocaust happened in the diaspora. It has become a propaganda weapon in the hands of Zionism. As memories fade and survivors die out, so the only purpose that remains for the holocaust as far as Israel is concerned is its propaganda functions.
Yad Vashem is part of this process. Its history is skewed, it prominently displays on a wall of his own the Mufti, a minor trivial war criminal yet not only Rauff, designer of the gas vehicles and somone who was sent to the Arab countries to try and extend the holocaust there, but people like Lt. Col. Otto Skorzeny.
Zionism is founded on the negation of the Diaspora and it takes little effort to find things that Zionists say about the Diaspora which are not one jot different from that of the most vicious anti-Semites. One such which I came across was from Pinhas Rosen, the first Israeli Justice Minister in Journal of Israeli, who in Joachim Doron’s Classic Zionism & Modern Anti-Semitism, JIH 4:2 described Palestine as ‘”an institute for the fumigation of Jewish vermin.”
So Havarah, as Shraga mentions, a trade agreement with Nazi Germany was instituted for the sole purpose of providing capital for the Yishuv. That is also took away the only weapon, Boycott, which the Nazis were afraid of and which then let them loose on the German Jews was a matter of indifference to the Zionist movement.
Joachim Martill is incidentally wrong to say that 2m Russian soldiers were massacred before the Nazis set about murdering the Jews in earnest. From the moment that operation Barbaross was set in motion, June 1941, Jews were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen, Sonderkommandos and others. Between 1 and 2 million Jews died as a result and of course Russian communists under the Commissar order. In fact the deaths of Russian POWs and Jews paralleled each other.
The point is that for Zionist leaders and the settler movement and an increasing proportion of the Israeli Jewish population, the Holocaust means nothing other than as a propaganda weapon. It has no intrinsic meaning in itself. Yad vashem is, in the late Israel Shahak’s words, a disgusting institution that has welcomed neo-Nazis and former Nazis before – John Vorster being prime among them. Yad Vashem has never spoken up about the occupation and when one of its guides Itamar Shapira mentioned the nearby presence of what used to be Deir Yassin, he was fired.
The logic of Israel’s political trajectory means that even the worst horrors of anti-Jewish racism have to be subordinated to the new agenda.
Is Israel so desperate that it needs such friends in order to battle the common Muslim enemy? Have we not learned a single thing from Anders Breivik?
Well the Likud and right wing apparently havn’t. This is not going unnoticed in Europe, where anti Israel sentiment was already high before the Norwegian attacks.
The mood in the US is changing too, i’ve noticed. Did anyone note the attack on David Yerushalmi, in the New York Times? He is Pamela Geller’s lawyer,
From the German spiegel.de
The Likud Connection
Europe’s Right-Wing Populists Find Allies in Israel
By Charles Hawley
07/29/2011
The Likud Connection
Europe’s Right-Wing Populists Find Allies in Israel
By Charles Hawley
Islamophobic parties in Europe have established a tight network, stretching from Italy to Finland. But recently, they have extended their feelers to Israeli conservatives, enjoying a warm reception from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Some in Israel believe that the populists are Europe’s future.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,777175,00.html
Anders Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto is nothing if not thorough. Pages and pages of text outline in excruciating detail the ideological underpinnings of his worldview — one which led him to kill 76 people in two terrible attacks in Norway last week.
It is a document which has led many to question Breivik’s sanity. But it has also, due to its myriad citations and significant borrowing from several anti-immigration, Islamophobic blogs, highlighted the deeply entwined network of right-wing populist groups and parties across Europe — from the Front National in France to Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
But recently it has become clear that Europe’s populist parties aren’t merely content to establish a network on the Continent. They are also looking further east. And have begun establishing tight relations with several conservative politicians in Israel — first and foremost with Ayoob Kara, a parliamentarian with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party who is also deputy minister for development of the Negev and Galilee districts.
The reason for the growing focus on Israel is not difficult to divine. “On the one hand,” Strache told SPIEGEL ONLINE in a recent interview, “we are seeing great revolutions taking place in the Middle East. But one can’t be totally sure that other interests aren’t behind them and that, in the end, we might see Islamist theocracies surrounding Israel and in Europe’s backyard.”
In other words, in the battle against what right-wing populists see as the creeping Islamization of Europe, Israel is on the front line.
About the comments on the Druze, they are not Muslim, but they are Monotheistic. When people talk of the Abrahamic religions they usually mean the 3 major ones, but there are many smaller offshoots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Some say they are an offshoot of Islam (Ismaili) and some say they are a mixture of the Islam/Judaism religion combined and others say they are descendents of the brother of Moses. What is unique about Druze is that they do not under any circumstance accept converts.
It’s worth mentioning, that Sami Kuntar is a Druze.
I believe there was also a Miss Israel, who was a Druze, and she had to pull out of the beauty competition, when she got death threats from her community.
The Druze don’t claim to be descendants of the brother of Moses, Aaron, but rather from Jethro who was Moses’ father in law.
The major Druze festival is the anniversary of Jethro’s death (aka Shweyab, or similar).
According to Jewish tradition, Jethro converted to Judaism but separated from the tribes of Israel – thus there may well be some truth in the Jewish connection to the Druze.
As for the Druze on the Golan/Syrian heights, they used to be mainly pro-Israel like their Israeli Druze brethren until the Oslo accords and the first talk about the possible Israeli withdrawal from the Golan. Thence, either for ideological or practical reasons that many (most?) moved their support to Syria. Unlike Palestinian towns such as Ramallah, Jenin, Betlehem, etc. Israelis (Jews) can freely travel to and through Majdalshams in the Golan without fear, so the Syrian support is perhaps minimal and symbolic.
@ Shmuel
If the Druze on the occupied Golan Height “used to be mainly pro-Israeli”, why they didn’t accept Israeli citizenship ?
You’re sure that you aren’t projecting your own fantasies on the Golani Druze ? From where do you have your informations ?
If this film ever comes to Israel, it’s worth a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3Hvkk0qHk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evOTiHJbOLY
Hardly the first time that the Far Right in Israel has sought to use the Far Right in Europe (Nachum Shifren and the skinheads) and outright anti-Semites like Rev. Hagee
Nobody who knows the history of Zionism’s beginning could honestly find anything incongruous in poorly-thought-out alliances with overt anti-Semites.
Nobody who knows the history of Zionist efforts to create an alliance with nominally anti-Semitic right-wing evangelicals beginning in the 1970s (possibly earlier, with certain end times doctrines) and culminating in John Hagee and Stand For Israel, could be surprised by this.
What, the settlers aren’t Nazis? The only thing distinguishing the settlers from being Nazis is their choice of Heimat and the natural cobnsequences of being less populous. Insofar as “Nazi” has any meaning and any capacity for responsible comparison, the settler purity enclaves won by military conquest, guaranteed through totalitarian culture and tight media ciontrols, and racially homogenized by force, *are* modern Nazism.
The only other close comparison is to the farm-forts that the worst white South Africans retreated to after the fall of Apartheid. Had the Germans not been chewed up by Stalinist murder frenzies and forced population transfers, there would probably be little walled “settlements” dotting Poland with violent, inbred children reassured of their Chosen quality and taught an aggressive understanding of defense.
This story is fascinatnig and important, and your point is valid, but seriously after thousands of years and in a culture that isn’t supposed to suffer foold gladly, why do Jews insist on doing this “shocked to find gambling” thing?
Zionism is literally making friends with anti-Semites, rejecting multi-culturalism, that’s what it was from the beginning, that’s what allowed it to develop and to win transfer agreements, that’s why Ben Gurion said he would rather let people die than find another (from the Zionistview, pointless) refuge.
This is not some sort of exception or nagging habit.
It is in the bones.
I hope that the Israeli government will make sure to deport these Nazi basterds as soon as possible out of the country.
Yes that’s right. Working with anti-Semites whilst defaming anti-racists as anti-Semites is in Zionism’s bones.
My favourite, among many, stories, is when Herzl describes in his Diaries how he had one of many meetings with the Grand Duke of Baden. The Duke of Baden was most sympathetic, Zionism was an excellent solution to the problem of Jewish revolutionaries whom Herzl promised to take away to engage in healthier pasttimes.
But he had just one worry. If he supported Zionism people might start accusing him of anti-semitism! Because at that time Zionism was seen as the Jewish equivalent in that it accepted everything the anti-Semites said – Jews didn’t belong, Jews were obnoxious money grubbing tykes who didn’t know how to do a day’s work, their social structures were all wrong – they had but one condition. They must go to Palestine.
So when Israel lines up with all sorts of appalling racists, fascists and yea even neo-Nazis, don’t be surprised. True the Zionists justified their previous collaboration with Nazis and so on as being on account of their weakness – they had no choice – whereas there is nothing forcing today to entertain Kaminiski in Poland, Ziles in Latvia etc. but these are ‘friends’ and no one likes to spurn friends, even if they do have that annoying habit of putting on their jackboots from time to time.