FASCISTS? STEVE PLAUT
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/45986
WHAT THE ISRAELI LEFT MEANS BY THE WORD ‘FASCIST’
By: Steven Plaut
Date: Wednesday, November 10 2010
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.
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