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Shulamit Aloni / Israel is controlled by religious fanaticism
By Shulamit Aloni
Tags: israel news, lieberman, Aloni 

Not very long ago, during Rabbi Meir Kahane's racist rantings, the late writer and journalist Amos Elon gave me a copy of a letter Lord Rothschild sent to Herzl in August 1902. In the letter, Rothschild explains why he refuses to support the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. He writes that he "should view with horror the establishment of a Jewish colony pure and simple; such a colony would be Imperium Imperio; it would be a Ghetto with the prejudice of the Ghetto; it would be a small petty Jewish state, orthodox and illiberal, excluding the Gentile and the Christian."

Nevertheless, and despite phenomena like Kahane, the hope prevailed here over the years that Rothschild's harsh vision would prove false; that Israel would indeed "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex," and "guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture," as stated in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State.

Time has passed and many heirs to Kahane have arisen - not only among a greedy and savage multitude but also among "the public's chosen representatives" in the Knesset and government. The latter are busy preparing blatantly racist laws and sending armed police to thwart Palestinian-initiated international cultural events because the regime believes the Arabs of the Land of Israel, the native Palestinians, are not worthy of being called human beings. According to the writers of these laws, the Arabs are certainly not entitled to human rights, not to mention a cultural and intellectual life, and never mind property, land and a home, because thousands of years ago God promised this land to Abraham and his seed.
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Most regrettably and disgracefully, everything that Lord Rothschild predicted is coming to pass in our time. In our blackest dreams and in the hardest times since the struggle to establish the state, we never imagined that those who call themselves disciples of Ze'ev Jabotinsky would impose terror and fear here using deranged racist legislation. We never imagined that they would use the destruction of the court system to try to prevent any possibility of achieving social justice and a humane attitude. This is something essential in every democratic society toward every man, woman and child, irrespective of origin, race, religion and sex.

For 42 years we have been occupying, oppressing and stealing lands that are not ours. To be free in our land do we need to become thieving Cossacks, uprooters of trees, burners of fields and harassers of women, the elderly and the very young? "We have this land, we have it," goes the song, but what should have been said is "We have the power, we have it, we have the money, we have it, and we are allowed, we are," to starve an entire population, imprison it and annihilate it using air strikes, cluster bombs and white phosphorous. Because we are the lords of the land and God has chosen us to rule. For the shame of it.

"A unique people," wrote David Ben-Gurion. Alas, for that uniqueness. Instead of a Jewish and democratic state they have delivered us a Jewish state controlled by religious fanaticism, one that maintains the purity of the race. They have delivered a democracy in the most primitive sense - not the preservation of democratic values but rule by the demos, the populace that is dictating the transformation of Israel into a totalitarian ethnocracy.

Hooray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman - they are eradicating everything we built, everything we dreamed about and everything we fought for.


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      1.   If it was not for secular coercian 06:02  |  Yosef Rabin 04/06/09
      2.   Shulamit is a historical stalinist 06:11  |  Akkiva 04/06/09
      3.   Smolanim 07:14  |  Zorik 04/06/09
      4.   a blind eye 07:39  |  yuval 04/06/09
      5.   not stolen 07:58  |  Freddy 04/06/09
      6.   She`s almost right 08:12  |  Jan Offerstein 04/06/09
      7.   Jewish responses 08:20  |  Blair 04/06/09
      8.   Right in the target! 08:22  |  Niva dos Santos 04/06/09
      9.   Akkiva #2... oye vey, so now Josephus Flavius... 08:47  |  Esther 04/06/09
      10.   Well done Aloni 08:50  |  Dafna 04/06/09
      11.   THE TRUTH BREAKS YOUR HEART 09:19  |  Rabbi M Glazer 04/06/09
      12.   Your 04/06/09 article Israel`s fanatics, etc. 09:40  |  eckhard bernardy 04/06/09
      13.   typical progressive leftist distortion of history 10:21  |  izzy d 04/06/09
      14.   We? Rabbi Glazer? 10:22  |  Nigel Kersh 04/06/09
      15.   Israel in danger of becoming Serbia 10:32  |  Shtarka 04/06/09
      16.   Look What We Are Becoming! 10:40  |  Shtarka 04/06/09
      17.   I`m stunned by Rotschild smartness 11:02  |  dani.a 04/06/09
      18.   Mad as hell and can`t take it anymore 11:02  |  allang 04/06/09
      19.   When you find this utopian state! 11:07  |  Wile E. Coyote 04/06/09
      20.   Dear Nigel... 11:12  |  Shtarka 04/06/09
      21.   religious fanaticism or just plain racism? 12:12  |  observer 04/06/09
      22.   View from the other side of the border... 12:24  |  Ibrahim 04/06/09
      23.   To Shtarka 13:18  |  Nigel Kersh 04/06/09
      24.   #22 Ibrahim 14:27  |  Shtarka 04/06/09
      25.   #17 dani- You`re never too old to learn 14:32  |  Shtarka 04/06/09
      26.   Bravo, Shulamit, the truth is out. 14:38  |  Danny S 04/06/09
      27.   Shulamit somehow forgot about the . . . 14:49  |  Zev Davis 04/06/09
      28.   This had to be said 17:29  |  Witness 04/06/09
      29.   The Jewish settlers were bad news from day one... 18:33  |  Dutch 04/06/09
      30.   Rothschild was right 18:38  |  Giora Me`ir 04/06/09
      31.   Failed politician calls the voters "greedy and savage multitude" 19:01  |  Realist 04/06/09
      32.   Oh yes. 20:34  |  Elina 04/06/09
      33.   Nigel #14 21:09  |  BDF 04/06/09
      34.   Dutch # 29 - just curious 21:27  |  David 04/06/09
      35.   Harassers of women,.... 21:32  |  Ines 04/06/09
      36.   Similar Sentiments From President Truman 03:49  |  chet 05/06/09
      37.   Shulamit wrong to be right 11:48  |  Dudee 07/06/09
      38.   Time travelling Banker 00:43  |  Paul 11/06/09
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