Congrats to Muhammad Barakei, Palestinian-Israeli Knesset Member from Hadash, who managed to sum up in just 12 words the sick spectacle of Israel’s Jewish political elite genuflecting to International Man of bigotry, Glenn Beck.
As quoted in the Jerusalem Post:
There are enough racists in Israel without importing them from the US.
Beck, of course, is in Jerusalem this week, seeding the soil for his big Restoring Hate — er, Courage, Restoring Courage — rally next Wednesday. The rally is being billed as an opportunity “to unite people around the world from all walks of life in standing with Israel, reminding us of the need to have faith, honor and courage in our own lives,” but even the most cursory knowledge of Beck and his army of the faithful suggests that their motives align far more closely with stirring conflict and sowing violence than hand-holding their way to the Age of Unity. Why else plan to hold the rally at the contested-to-the-point-of-combustible Southern Wall excavations — a point Barakei also makes.
The lessons from Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount apparently haven’t been learned. This event isn’t for building coexistence, but to spark fires in a sensitive location ahead of the United Nations vote on a Palestinian state in September.
There is a danger that the event will lead to people being harmed, and the police should have prevented it.
This should all be bluntly, eye-bleedingly obvious but so far only a handful of prominent public figures and politicians have had the courage, moral clarity, or simple honesty to state the obvious. The rest have pretty much used Beck’s visit as a chance to practice their best High Holiday full-body prostration.
Which reminds me: the runner-up best line of the day goes to Palestinian-Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi (UAL-Ta’al), who described Beck as “a bizarre, conservative, neo-fascist comedian who is motivated by a hatred of Islam.”
Amen.
