Israel’s radical left is obsessed with the word “fascist.”
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where people vote and enjoy free speech, a free press, due process and habeas corpus, but none of that makes any impression on an increasing number of Israeli left-wingers whose definition of fascist seems to be any government that doesn’t adopt left-wing policies.
At any rate, with Israel’s leftist chattering classes so eager to label virtually anyone and anything as fascist, perhaps it’s necessary to clarify just what such people mean when they use the word.
● It’s fascist to allow Israeli voters to dictate the decisions of the Israeli government. Those voters cannot be counted on to support correct policy choices.
● It’s fascist to allow Zionist students to hold rallies on campuses against anti-Israel groups that also hold campus rallies, such as those organized by Arab and Jewish leftist students.
● It’s fascist to complain that the Israeli media are dominated by leftists who prevent non-leftists from expressing themselves.
● It’s fascist to allow non-leftists to hold academic posts teaching political science, sociology, education, etc. These departments should serve only to instruct students in leftist ideas.
● It’s fascist to suggest that people applying for Israeli citizenship be required to express a commitment of loyalty to the country. (It’s OK, though, for other countries to require it.)
● It’s fascist for Israel to have a dominant ethnic majority. That makes it an apartheid-like entity. (It’s OK, though, for other countries to have one.)
● It’s fascist for Israel to ignore UN resolutions.
● It’s fascist for Israel to use force to defend its citizens. Terror should be dealt with by Israel only through capitulation.
● It’s fascist for Israel to allow people to express opinions and ideas with which the Left disagrees.
● It’s fascist for anyone to object to the use of university classrooms for anti-Israel political indoctrination and ideological brainwashing.
● It’s fascist for Israel to reject the ideas preached by the international Left.
● It’s fascist for Israel to expect Arabs to obey the law.
● It’s fascist for Israel to interfere with the smuggling of explosives and other weapons to Hamas in Gaza.
● It’s fascist for Israel to allow Jews to live in neighborhoods within Jerusalem.
● It’s fascist for Israel to refuse to turn half of Jerusalem over to terrorists.
● It’s fascist for Israel to allow Jews to move to and live in the Galilee.
● It’s fascist for Israel to allow Jews to live in lands outside the “Green Line” pre-1967 borders. It’s also fascist for anyone to suggest Jews should have the right to live in the West Bank even if a Palestinian state is someday erected there.
● It’s fascist for Israel to allow people to criticize judicial activism or other politicized behavior of the courts.
● It’s fascist for Israel to expect Arabs to pay taxes.
● It’s fascist for Israel to refuse to bail out Arab municipalities that have refused to collect taxes.
● It’s fascist for anyone to suggest that Israeli Arabs should do some form of national service.
● It’s fascist for Israel to defend its borders.
● It’s fascist to allow soldiers in uniform to attend classes in universities.
● It’s fascist to allow non-leftist students to criticize leftist professors.
● It’s fascist for Jews to shoot back.
● It’s fascist to remind leftists of how they have been wrong about almost everything.
Steven Plaut is a professor at the University of Haifa. His book “The Scout” is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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