Israel just got its most right-wing Prime Minister ever, in the form of Naftali Bennett. We have already seen the signs that Israeli pundits were trying to sanitize his racist history, to make him a better sell than Netanyahu.
But what do you do with phrases such as “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that”? I mean, that’s one of the singularly most racist things he’s said, it’s often quoted, and it’s not only racist but has a genocidal hint to it?
Well, if you’re StandWithUs, the Israeli propaganda outfit, you try to erase the history by misrepresenting it – by calling it fake news.
Here is the StandWithUs Instagram post from yesterday:
They claim that “Al Jazeera and Bella Hadid spread fake news”. It features two posts, where the one is Al Jazeera paraphrasing that “Bennett has bragged about killing Palestinians”, and the other is Bella Hadid posting the precise quote:
“I’ve killed many Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.”
StandWithUs claim is that this is a lie. They thus post the supposedly “true” quote:
“I’ve killed many terrorists in my life… this is good and it’s a shame we didn’t kill more terrorists”.
So, who is telling the truth?
Let me spoil it right here — StandWithUs is lying, and Bella Hadid is being very precise. Whether Bennett said the other phrase which StandWithUs cites is irrelevant, because he did indeed say that quote about killing “many Arabs” in 2013.
And the context in which it was said makes it even worse.
On August 15th 2013, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, publicized that it was demanding that an investigation be led against Bennett by the Attorney General. Adalah claimed that Bennett, who was then Minister of Economy, had allegedly engaged in incitement to violence. This was based on a report by Yediot Aharonot on July 29, 2013, which described an argument that broke out between Bennett and the National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror. In this argument, Bennett said that “If terrorists are caught, they simply need to be killed”. In response to this, Amidror said that “this is illegal”, to which Bennett responded:
I have killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.
Mondoweiss covered it at the time here, and here is a screen shot of the Yediot Aharonot article in question:
Bennett’s “Solution”
Bennett: “If [you (pl.)/we/they] catch terrorists, [you] simply must kill them.”
Amidror: “Listen, that isn’t legal.”
Bennett: “In my life, I already have killed many Arabs, and there isn’t any problem with that.”
So let’s first unpack this, before we go on. The first problem with Bennett’s words is actually not the most infamous quote, but the one about extrajudicial execution of a suspected “terrorist”. This has been a consistent policy in Israel, which in 2015 was openly advocated for across the political spectrum and the security establishment. Even the ‘liberal’ Yair Lapid, now set to be alternate Prime Minister in the new government, said:
Whoever takes out a knife or a screwdriver, or whatever it may be, the directive needs to be shoot in order to kill. Not to hesitate. There will be full legal backing. The state gives full legal backing.
When the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström rightfully called to investigate whether there indeed was a policy of extrajudicial execution in Israel, a prominent educator opined on the pages of the Sheldon Adelson paper Makor Rishon, that she should get the “Bernadotte treatment” – assassination – for even suggesting it. Prime Minister Netanyahu slammed Wallström’s suggestions as “outrageous, immoral, unjust and stupid”.
But now back to Bennett. He was suggesting precisely this. And when it was pointed out to him that this is illegal, he used language that was interchanging “terrorists” for “Arabs”. This is a racist criminalization of Palestinians, which is the quintessence of this whole problem – one is by default suspected as an “Arab”, to be a likely “terrorist”, and then there’s “no problem” with killing you, on that suspicion.
Bennett has himself tried to sanitize this one, in 2015. A tweet of his featured a screenshot of the media publication with that notorious quote, actually featuring the above mentioned exchange with Amidror. Bennett comments:
Liars, I’m sick and tired of you
I never said “I killed many Arabs in my life” or anything from this quote. I spoke about terrorists. And I’m not apologizing.
Bennett is using a strawman. He may also have spoken about terrorists, but he also spoke about “Arabs”.
The Jerusalem Post is now adding to the hasbara campaign, saying that “Bella Hadid and Al-Jazeera share slanderous quotes of PM Bennett”. See now how Bennett’s words become mere “controversial” and “misquoted”:
Controversial 2013 misquoted comments allegedly made by newly elected Prime Minister Naftali Bennett resurfaced on Monday via social media posts by supermodel, Bella Hadid and the Al Jazeera publication AJ+. The quotes by Bennett stem from a cabinet debate about releasing Palestinian terrorists with blood on their hands. In a recent Instagram story, Hadid told her 43 million followers that Bennett said: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.”
Jerusalem Post brings to Bennett’s defense his own claim from 2015:
Bennett, in a Knesset briefing in 2015, clarified that he was inaccurately quoted by former Joint List party member Haneen Zoabi as saying that “I killed a lot of Arabs in my life” when what he actually said was that he had killed many terrorists in the context of his army service.
It’s obvious that Bennett was faced with his rabidly racist remarks in 2015, by Haneen Zoabi, and it became uncomfortable, so he tried to rewrite the history. Now it’s 2021, he’s Prime Minister, and it’s uncomfortable again, so he’s trying to rewrite it again – with the help of StandWithUs, the Jerusalem Post and others.
This will probably go on and on, so as to plant enough doubt about what Bennett actually said. The next campaign could be: What did he really mean when he said to Palestinian-Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi that “when you were still climbing trees, we had a Jewish state here”? Was he really calling Palestinians monkeys, or was he just calling Ahmad Tibi a monkey? Or did he just mean the terrorists??
H/t Oumaima Abou Elenin
Remember this one?
“According to Israel radio (in hebrew) Kol Yisrael, Peres warned Sharon Wednesday that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us.”
At this point, a furious Sharon reportedly turned toward Peres, saying “every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.”
The radio said Peres and other cabinet ministers warned Sharon against saying what he said in public because “it would cause us a public relations disaster.”
That was sanitized too.
Who gives a rat’s ass what his exact words were? Although when Haneen Zwabi quotes she always quotes most exactly. The important thing is that this is a confessed and proud mass murderer who should be dealt with accordingly.
VIDEO – Just over four minutes. Must watch!! Re Naftali Bennett.
“Meet Israel’s Likely New Prime Minister | The Mehdi Hasan Show”
June 3/21 “Israel has reached a deal to oust longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But is the likely replacement Naftali Bennett much better? Mehdi introduces the right-wing politician.”
Meet Israel’s Likely New Prime Minister | The Mehdi Hasan Show – YouTube
Let’s problematize Naftali Bennet’s assertion and for the sake of this analysis accept that that he did not say: “I have killed many Arabs” and instead said: “I have killed many terrorists.”
Is there any real difference? I think not and here’s why: For true Zionists like Bennet there is no distinction between the following terms: Arab; Muslim; Palestinian or …terrorist. He could have used any of those terms and his Israeli/Zionist audience would have understood his dog-whistle and his intent – to show that he has the true spirit of Tel Hai running through his veins. Contemporary Israeli military culture, which includes Bennet, shares profound and troubling commonalities with the vicious warrior spirit of the Spartans and reiterating this point garners him points among most Israeli voters.
There should be no doubt that this is exactly the point he was making when he used either the term “Arab” or “terrorist”. For Zionists these are perfectly acceptable synonyms.
When the Battle of Tel Hai (see posters here) was fought and the Zionists lost not only the battle but their most accomplished and formidable military leader, Josef Trumpeldor, the Zionist press could not, would not, bring itself to say that the fight had been between Zionists and Palestinians. Instead, the Zionists had faced “Shi’ite militias”, “nomads”, “guerillas”, “raiders” and other similar terms but never “Palestinians”. To do so would have granted prestige, honor and worst of all, legitimacy to the term.
Now, as he assumes public office and he desperately needs to curry favor with Washington and other capitols his words have come back to haunt him. Good. It will tell us much about the moral constituency of our own elected officials by watching to see if they allow him to get away with his gaslighting.
One might reasonably ask whether it was in the best interest of any real democracy to raise to the highest level of political authority anyone who could publicly begin a statement with “I have killed many…”
Our own American culture is deeply militaristic and we have elevated many a former soldier to the White House. However, I am at a loss to think of a single modern example of one who boasted about his pride and expertise at taking lives.
Given the amount of pushback coming from American sources it would appear we do not share as many values with Israel as Israelis would like to think.
Q: Is it antisemitic according to IHRA to raise this comparison or to fail to raise it?
@- Jon S
“Palestinians are not Shi’ites, so if a Shi’ite militia was involved in the clash at Tel Hai , Palestinians were not.”
Your logic is impeccable, inarguable, trenchant, Incisive and at bottom, laughable.
For your comment to hold water one must accept the Zionist assertion that the militants who defeated the Zionists at Tel Hai were Shi’ites. Apparently you do accept hasbara without any fact-checking, but I do not. Even a cursory Wikipedia search debunks your assertion that “Palestinians are not Shi’ites”:
Main article: Shia villages in Palestine
From 1923 to 1948, there were seven villages in Mandatory Palestine in which the population was predominantly Shia Muslim (also known as Metawali): Tarbikha, Saliha, Malkiyeh, Nabi Yusha, Qadas, Hunin, and Abil al-Qamh.These villages were transferred from the French to the British sphere as a result of the border agreement of 1923. All of them were depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and their former locations are now in northern Israel. The 1931 census counted 4,100 Metawalis in Palestine. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Palestine
I cannot imagine a Zionist newspaper or other media announcing: Palestinian Militants Defeat Zionists In Battle of Tel Hai – Trumpeldor Dead. Can you?
I have no idea who you are or what your reason(s) for posting at MW are but your posts are boringly predictable. If you are not going to provide links/credible evidence for your claims I won’t bother to reply to you from here on out. I am not interested in your opinions, I am interested in authentic history.
Q: Is it antisemitic according to IHRA to challenge the Zionist narrative on the Battle of Tel Hai or to not challenge it?