This is disturbing. The Center for Jewish History is a prestigious institution in New York. It’s got gravitas. And it’s hosting the rightwing Justice Minister of Israel a month from today, in conversation with the rightwing columnist Bret Stephens. That’s right, Ayelet Shaked and Bret Stephens on September 30. Who’s going to be the devil’s advocate?
Shaked is the face of the extremist right in Israel. She opposes a Palestinian state and is famous for an appalling act in the middle of the Gaza slaughter a year ago: posting on Facebook a racist commentary by a Zionist role-model of hers, Uri Elitzur, that many interpreted as genocidal. The text said that Israel was at war with Palestine and must destroy many elements of Palestinian society, including elderly and children, who are “little snakes.”
The Palestinian people has declared war on us, and we must respond with war. Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation, no destruction of terror infrastructure, no targeted killings. Enough with the oblique references. This is a war. Words have meanings. This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started…
[T]he morality of war (yes, there is such a thing) is founded on the assumption that there are wars in this world, and that war is not the normal state of things, and that in wars the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.
Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. Actors in the war are those who incite in mosques, who write the murderous curricula for schools, who give shelter, who provide vehicles, and all those who honor and give them their moral support. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.
This is the honored guest of the Center for Jewish History in New York? Bret Stephens, by the way, has campaigned against the Iran Deal by praising the Hiroshima bombing; and two years ago, Stephens sat quietly on stage with Sheldon Adelson as Adelson called for nuking Iran– comments Stephens later defended. I suppose we may see a reprise of the lunacy and passivity show at CJH.
More on Shaked:
“The demand to give Ayelet Shaked the Justice portfolio is like giving the Fire and Rescue Services to a pyromaniac,” opposition lawmaker Nachman Shai told the Arutz Sheva news site.
Yes, it’s too bad. A videotape of a more adversarial panel would help satisfy my curiosity. Does Ayelet bat her eyelashes when she talks about exterminating little snakes? Does she pout when she is accused of racism? And does she believe, as a reportedly secular person, that Eretz Israel (all of it) is an eternal gift of G.d to the Jewish people?
OTOH, what sane and a moral person would be a panel partner of Minister Shaked?
PS. Concerning “Jewish IQ”, in the age of Trump it sounds a bit unfair. More generally, what does an institution have to do to have “gravitas”? AEI is highly cited etc., and Minister Shaket would fit there very well (although not in the department of theology and free enterprise, being secular).
That link to arutz sheva was an eye opener. The comments were no big surprise, but it seems Ms. Shaked is only given this position because of the eye candy she apparently provides to horny MKs and non-Jews from America who’d love to go to Israel and be arrested in the hopes of being in her presence. Gag me.
“This is disturbing” –Phil Weiss. Yes it is Phil, and I think we can all imagine your feelings as you prepared this piece. Absolutely sickening. However it is not the end of the story. Some of us have faced similar situations in the past, and the fight will continue in whatever way possible– a demonstration or two could be in order?
My boss/supervisor as a young Ph D candidate was noted for his phase ” Disturbing isn’t it?” when our results contradicted perceived understanding. Nevertheless, progress was made over, sometimes, long periods of time and prevailing ideas were replaced. There will always be obstacles to overcome–even in academia –when there are interest groups with financial and political clout who have vested interests. These experiences were also parallelled in political life and we just kept battling away.
Of course we want justice NOW, especially for the palestinians, and indeed the security and equality for all in I/P. However all of us must just keep doing what we can and trust that justice will win in the end- as it surely will.
I don’t know whether it relates to Jewish IQ as much as to Jewish notions of ethics and justice. What, indeed, does it mean to be “a light to the nations.” As with most biblical passages, interpretations evidently differ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Unto_the_Nations
If the best that Israel can do to put a better face on its increasingly right-wing government is to put forward attractive, young spokespeople, it might grab some new eyeballs, but not necessarily the brains that are attached.