Glenn Beck, once again proving he’s one of the biggest idiots on the planet (barring genuine monsters like Moamar Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il and Bashar Assad), has called the J14 tent protesters who’ve been demonstrating in massive waves of hundreds of thousands around the country, “Communists:”
The conservative pundit…scoffed at the protesters’ list of demands, comparing many of their calls for increased social benefits to those of the former Soviet Union.
When he heard that the protest leaders were calling for higher taxation for the Israeli upper-classes, Beck laughed derisively, saying “ah, hate the rich.”
How idiotic is he? Let me count the ways. First, these protesters are the middle class, not the élite and not the highly educated who are likely to be left-wing activists of the sort Beck detests. There are Orthodox Jews among their number and certainly a huge cross-section of demonstrators have served in the IDF. Has Beck similarly served his country? Nooooo! So look who’s calling the kettle black.
Protesters are deploring the destruction of social benefits like public education and health care. Naturally, Beck’s millions entitle him to private schools and the finest medical care money can buy. Not so those involved in J14. They’re just average people with average jobs who’re mad as hell about what Bibi’s taken away from them. In reality, the J14 movement is the Tea Party in reverse. It has all the magnetism among Israelis that the Tea Party has had for right-wing Republicans over the past year or so; yet J14’s values are diametrically opposite. So I’d suggest that smearing J14 is the equivalent within Israel of smearing motherhood and apple pie.
Further, Beck claims (with no proof, natch) that J14 protestors are in cahoots with Islamists (a viewpoint certainly shared with Anders Breivik):
Beck also insinuated a possible collaboration between socialists and Islamists, pointing out historical instances in which the two movements went hand in hand.
And echoing the views of the extreme settler movement who he ardently supports, Beck called for stealing more “empty” Palestinian land on which Israel should build new settlements to “solve” the housing crisis:
Beck then went on to suggest that the housing crisis could be solved by simply building up empty land in the West Bank. The right-wing commentator emphasized that the area, biblically referred to as “Judea and Samaria”, is “Judea – like Jews”.
No, not “Judea–like Jews,” but Judea–like settlers; or Judea like Judeans who lived a millennium or so ago and no longer exist.
By the way, the “Restoring Courage” moniker is more rock band tour slogan than anything relevant to the Israeli scene. The only thing Beck is trying to ‘restore’ is the Davidic monarchy (in the guise of a settler theocracy); or possibly the political hegemony of Likud and settler-religious parties even farther to its right. Instead of all this nonsense, I wish Beck would talk to Bibi about ‘restoring’ some of the Israeli social safety net which he’s cut bit by bit to shreads over the years.
Beck’s making a big deal of visiting Itamar, the home of the murdered Fogel family. One Fogel he’ll never visit is the father’s brother, Motti, who is a committed peace activist.
What do you mean Not Judea like Jews ?
The word Jew describes one who comes from the land of Judea.
The Ancient Israeli kingdom was split to Israel and Judea afer the death of Solomon the wise.
at 733 B.C Tiglath-Pileser III – the Assyrian king – conquered Israel, and expelled all the Israelite, most of them were allowed to move to Judea.
at 586 B.C the Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judea, expelling the middle and upper class.
a Jew is simply a one who came out of Judea, the people were named after the geographical area they came from.
If you’ll do some reading around Wikipedia you will learn that they found archaeological evidence supporting all that.
Not quite, there were two ancient kingdoms, Judea and Israel. Jews lived in both. Those living in Judea were called Judeans, not Jews.
Seems like you are trying to re-write the history of the Jewish people.
One question, Who are the Jews, if you disconnect the chain linking the Jews to their history, then who are the Jews ?
Obviously – according to you – the Jews are not linked to land of Judea, so what links the Jews to the Israelite’s and the bible ?
If you really had any knowledge of history you would have been able to refer us to the Sennacherib Prisms which refers to Hezekiah of Judea (חיזקיהו היהודאי) from which one can learn that as back as 705 B.C those who came from Judea were referred to as Jews.
I never said the Jews weren’t linked to Judea. I denied yr claim that Judea ‘meant’ Jews. It didn’t since Jews lived in the kingdom of Israel as well & also survived quite well in the Diaspora after Judea fell.
You do know i hope that the name Judea was given to the land when it became the property of Yehuda.
יהודה – יהודי sounds familiar ?
As for your knowledge of history….do you have any evidence to your ridiculous claims ?
It wasn’t “the property of Judah.” It was the property of God. He lent it to Judah. There has been no kingdom of Judea for many centuries. But I’d suggest you re-establish one & also annoint a Davidic king to rule it. And then would you do us a favor & go live there & stop bothering us with yr petty rants?
I can’t vouch for Glenn Beck, but “genuine monsters like Moamar Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il and Bashar Assad” (you’ve dropped Robert Mugabe for one reason or another) are anything but idiots.
Bloody criminals they are but by no way idiots.
Qaddafi and Assad weren’t monsters a year ago. what went wrong i wonder?
How do you know that Yankel didn’t consider Qadhafi and Assad monsters a year ago ?
(Please see DY’s reply, right above. I subscribe).
Last year they were both run-of-the-mill despots (with blood aplenty, at least in Qaddafi’s case, on their hands).
Through the dawning of the Arab Spring, these lowlifes declared a shameless war on their own people, which puts them in an even more monstrous position.
Maybe he did. what about Richard? or you?
So you’re just affirming other people’s opinions and thoughts, without knowing anything on the subject, is that what you’re trying to say ?
As another commenter already pointed out to u, neither Assad nor Qaddafi had shown themselves willing to murder their fellow citizens in large numbers till this past spring. So no, I never railed about them or called them monsters. The only positive thing Assad did was expressing willingness to negotiate an end to hostilities with Israel. An offer Israel spat upon.
When Syria’s new gov’t takes over Israel may wish it had taken Assad’s offer, unless a pliant regime replaces him (which is doubtful).
The j14 movement may be just average people with average jobs but their self appointed leaders are not acting as if they are trying to reach a solution. i’m not going to defend or justify our PM but the committee he appointed to sit down with them and solve this look pretty serious and diverse to me. but the j14 leaders and main activists already decided that they won’t cooperate with it. maybe they want to select the committee members themselves. the protest was relatively neat and tidy up until now but some elements already made threats about taking example from England. and there’s the guillotine which was ignored by most parts but probably would have made the media explode with furious articles if the protesters were more right wing oriented.
IMO this protest still belongs to the people but it’s too naive to think that there aren’t any elements with more agendas.
The committee Bibi appointed is nothing of the sort. It’s composed of ciphers for the Likud gov’t. When has Bibi ev appointed a panel of disinterested experts on any issue (cf. Turkel Commission). Instead let Bibi meet with the panel of independent experts appointed by J14, unless of course he’s afraid to do so or unwilling to grapple seriously w the issues.
Bibi doesn’t need to meet with them.
In Israel we have a system called democracy, once every 4 years you vote and you elect whom you feel is the best candidate.
As elected PM you have the right to appoint whoever you wish for a said position, if the alleged 300K are not happy with Bibi’s decisions they don’t have to vote for him during next election.
Recent polls show Bibi & Liberman gain more votes, so your hopes and doom and gloom wishes have no leg to stand on.
Yr system is not democracy but ethnocracy at best, offering superior rights to Jews, inferior to non-Jews.
And when 300k of yr fellow citizens say they’re sick & tired of yr pals tunning the show, that’s democracy too.
For rightists like u democracy means yr friends run the show. If anything threatens yr hegemony then you’re more than happy to use whatever means necessary to destroy yr opponents.
If you don’t mind Bibi himself ordere the police not to clear all the protesters tents, So Bibi and other understand that the commoners have the right to protest, no one is stopping them.
Between letting them demonstrate and meeting with them, there is a huge gap.
And what divine entity told you i was a rightist ? you are wrong. Democracy is executed at the voting boots and no where else.
300K people, can’t and will not replace a government in Israel, that would be extremely undemocratic, and i am sure the democracy you support isn’t agenda based, is it ?
“Commoners??” What century do you live in? They’re called “citizens” where I come from. This isn’t the Middle Ages. We don’t have commoners anymore.
In Israel I’d say democracy IS “excecuted” at the voting booth. A truer word was never spoken.
Members of the Likud themselves disagree w. you as Rivy Rivlin has predicted that J14 will bring down the gov’t. Actually, you’re not a rightist. Sounds like you’re more of a monarchist, though perhaps you believe in a constitutional monarchy (though I note Israel has no constitution).
RE: “Glenn Beck…has called the J14 tent protesters who’ve been demonstrating in massive waves of hundreds of thousands around the country, ‘Communists’…” ~ R.S.
MY COMMENT: Or as Glenn Beck’s narcissistic-messianic-complexed fellow traveler Anders Behring Breivik would put it, the Israeli protesters in Tel Aviv are adherents of “Cultural Marxism”!
Cultural Marxism – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism
Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/books/review/Pollard-t.html