Jasmin Ramsey at Pulse:
I sat down with a group of Jewish Canadians who were conversing about
Israel’s current government. They agreed that while there are not many
significant differences between the actions of parties like Kadima and
Likud when it comes to the Palestinians, there is also a positive side
to having a conservative like Benyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister.
This is because he projects a more accurate version of the ruling elite
in Israel to the world. Unlike someone like Tzipi Livni, who
would implement Israel’s discriminatory, oppressive policies against
the Palestinians while nodding and smiling as though she were a willing
member of the current so-called Israeli/Palestinian peace process,
Netanyahu has found it more difficult to hide his intolerance for those
who oppose his policies.
You might call this the great awakening in Jewish life, brought on by Gaza/Netanyahu/Lieberman and now Max Blumenthal's viral video. Jews are being shown the extremist faces of Israel, and they're shocked. Are these faces aberrations? No. This is the crisis I have been pushing since powerful neocons plotted the Iraq war disaster as an alternative to the peace process.
And: for those who insist that Blumenthal captured only American yokels in Jerusalem, consider that former American yokels, Dore Gold, Ron Dermer and Michael Oren, are Netanyahu's braintrust. Who are these Jews who are called to Israel? And what is it doing to Jewish identity? Put another way, How many good Jewish liberals who voted for Obama would sign up for Oren's message about the demographic threat to the Jewish state posed by Arab birthrates?
