The right is to blame; the left is to blame - Haaretz

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Fri., November 09, 2007 Cheshvan 28, 5768

Israel Time: 10:32 (EST+7)

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The right is to blame; the left is to blame

By Daniel Ben Simon

tags: Rabin, Ashkenazi, Israel

For years, they were taught to hate. Even after winning the leadership of the state, the right's leaders did not miss an opportunity to incite against the elite, the left, the Ashkenazim and the wealthy, describing them as the true lords of the land. An expectation arose that achieving the leadership would wean them from such methods as incitement and disseminating hatred, but the leaders of the right did not live up to this expectation.

An incited public was always available, and when it was called upon, it immediately burst out of those same dark places and distressed neighborhoods that Israeli society pushed them into; thousands and tens of thousands of second- and third-generation members of the distressed, who emerged from angry streets and were nursed on great hatred. They treated the upper class from the center of the country as if it were the real enemy. On silly television series, they saw their wealth, their different appearance, their self-confidence and their sense of being the masters of the land and its resources. They were the ones who had everything and did not miss an opportunity to glory in the prestigious status they inherited from their wealthy parents. Over time, the children of the poor discovered that these same well-to-do people are all or almost all part of a larger family that tends to meet in the large square in Tel Aviv to mourn the leader of the family whose life was cut short before his time. The more they mourned and longed for him, the more the hatred of the children of the poor increased for this camp and the man who led it.

Many of those who shouted their hatred at a soccer match did not know Yitzhak Rabin, or barely heard of him. They are teenagers who were about five or six years old when the prime minister was assassinated by Yigal Amir. When they made catcalls during the moment of silence in memory of Rabin, they were focusing less on the man and more on the symbol and its proponents. They wanted the hundreds of thousands who were mourning the killing to hear their whistles and see how much they hate the camp of the upper class.

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These miserable unfortunates were greatly empowered by the leaders of the right wing, and foremost among them is Benjamin Netanyahu. More than any other leader, Netanyahu knew how to make them feel part of the family of the deprived and restore their pride. At every rally and protest, the left's version of peace was mentioned as a reason for the underprivileged right's poverty and miserable situation. At no point did these poor people feel that peace was improving their lives.

The incitement started with Menachem Begin and continued with Netanyahu. Their personalities blended rhetoric, charisma and demagogy, and they designated "the other" camp as the source of all the state's ills and as the camp that had taken the state's wealth for itself and caused the poverty.

Equally heavy blame lies with the left. While the right incited the underprivileged, the left disengaged from them. Even before Rabin's assassination, and more so after it, the "First Israel" fled for its life whenever it encountered a face from that other deprived Israel. Worst of all is the lack of desire to share the huge wealth that over the last two decades has fallen into the hands of many of those identified with the left-wing camp. They acquired assets and wealth on a huge scale and the others descended even further into poverty and deprivation. It is enough to roam around the strongholds of Beitar fans to see the architectural cruelty of hundreds of buildings into which hundreds of thousands of those who observe the Israeli reality through small cracks were crowded.

What did the country do at that time? It went on vacation. In a normal situation, it should have regulated the insane income gap to avoid creating two polarized societies. Beyond its hooligan-like nature, the terrible display of Beitar fans is a chilling reminder to a society that has lost its way and is growing in one direction only.

Tens of thousands of French Beitar fans catcalled when their country's national anthem was played during a festive soccer match against the Algerian national team in winter 2002. The catcallers were identified as the descendants of North African immigrants. France was stunned. Exactly three years later, Muslim immigrants set fire to the depressing impoverished suburbs were they were housed and burned thousands of buildings and state institutions.

Only after Paris burned has France realized that it is facing a very serious problem.

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	Preface to peace?
	The U.S. has rejected Abbas' demand for a schedule for the final-status agreement.


	Crowd control
	The IFA has banned Beitar Jerusalem fans from two home games for booing Rabin.

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