Why do we liken Israel to the Jim Crow south? Jeff Blankfort writes:
Back in October, 1981 in a letter to The Nation commenting on a critical article on Rabbi Meir Kahane by Christopher Hitchens,
I noted that Kahane represented only the tip of a very racist Israeli
iceberg. Here we see how Kahane's sentiments, expressed with only a
slightly milder choice of language by a regular Haaretz journalist and frequent US visitor, Nadav Shragai, have become acceptable in the mainstream Israeli media:
The findings on changing demographics are published primarily in
national-religious journals, even though this process ought to concern
all Israelis wishing to maintain a Jewish state. Members of the
National Union do indeed make the effort to occasionally visit those
areas in which the national-religious public has gained a foothold,
including mixed cities in which these individuals have in recent years
sought to halt the process. Beyond that, however, there has been awful
neglect.The Israeli "mainstream," which for years has
preached the need to separate from most of the territories of Judea and
Samaria in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state; which
is ready to uproot tens of thousands of Jews from their homes in order
"to save the state of Israel," today sits and does almost nothing while
within the bounds of Little Israel, that which it seeks to allegedly
"save," it is losing the demographic battle on a daily basis.When,
for instance, did members of Peace Now last visit Carmiel? Why don't
secular youth movements emulate their brethren among the
national-religious followers who routinely send their members to
strengthen the ranks of Jewish inhabitants in mixed towns that are
being abandoned by their Jewish residents? Have they despaired of
realizing the Zionist dream and achieving a Jewish majority within the
Little Israel that lies outside greater Tel Aviv?
Note how similar it is to Michael Oren's urging to Jewish Israelis to study "national identity" and repopulate Jerusalem.
