Fascism is already here

1.Powerful and Continuing Nationalism 2.Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights 3.Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause 4.Supremacy of the Military 5.Rampant Sexism 6.Controlled Mass Media 7.Obsession with National Security 8.Religion and Government are Intertwined 9.Corporate Power is Protected 10.Labor Power is Suppressed 11.Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts 12.Obsession with Crime and Punishment 13.Rampant Cronyism and Corruption 14.Fraudulent Elections

"When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." Y'all should borrow that and adopt it to "when Fascism comes to Israel, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Torah"

Are you sure it's not the US you're describing here? Oh, never mind that. I forgot that y'all govern your colonies in the same fashion you do your "motherland."

Are you sure it's not the US you're describing here? Oh, never mind that. I forgot that y'all govern your colonies in the same fashion you do your "motherland."

When Pal gets their state, I urge you to volunteer to be their PM. Since you failed so miserably in Israel and never let us forget it through your bitter writing on those pages here, so I do hope you shall take up on my idea and become their spokesperson as youre the best for the job in knocking Israel better than an anti semite:))

This from the guy who labored for decades to install Arafat as dictator over the Palestinians, so that he doesn't have to feel guilty on reserve duty in the territories. Look at the PA if you want to see Facism. Who imported the PA, armed, and installed them as facist rulers over the Palestinians. You, Mr. Sarid. And your progressive friends. Primum non nocere.

There is no regimentation of society as in classic Fascism. Nor is there the hierarchy of Fascism. Israel is ruled by rabid right-wing men, and ultra-orthodox fanatics. But it is not 'Fascist' in any sense besides the use of that word as an epithet. To quote George Orwell: "Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."

And they got rid of you. Yet, you still rear your ugly head. Why ??? Your time's up. Will you just leave your great countrymen alone. Why don't you speak out about the Pakistan Taliban who killed 50 people or the daily killings in Iraq. Sarid, you are a midget, trying to harm the Jewish people daily. Scram already.

Yosi Sarid!! For years you have been trashing our nation. Why do you need to do it?? Have you thought of moving to Ramala?

Nice!

All one needs do is read Haaretz to see the prime proponents

It is truly frightening to remember that an extreme delusional leftist as Sarid was once a minister in the Israeli government, that negotiated on behalf of Israel, in the Oslo debacle.

Well written. Many dangers to democracy ahead with a certainty of confrontation.

but just the right leader wouldn't want to be the leader, he would see one of the most difficult jobs of the governments of today and would realize that he wouldn't wish that upon himself. For example, even if I could win the elections, I wouldn't try to run for president of the United States, and that would be easier than the job the right leader would have to do in Israel, which says alot.

If Mao alive he feel pity for you, but you in the list of irrecovery people. You are lucky living in Israel. Shana Toba

What about the other facism of the left. the one that won't tolerate any opinion but its own, the one that disenfranchises anybody that dares to express a counter opinion to the leftist manifesto, the facism that engenders the cyber-bully action known as 'shredding' where 3 or 4 bloggers who are linked by text messaging gang up on any other blogger who posts a conservative message. Well, what are you going to do about that kind of facism?

for some 15 years! And what exactly have you and your party done to avoid the fascism taking roots? You were in power too and all you did is to twaddle about niceties of "democracy", "human rights", "Arabs", "gays", "Palestinians", "one country for two peoples, two countries for one people" and you overslept the croaching fascism.

By this definition, which country wouldn't be "fascist"? People are mostly apathetic unless they have an issue; that's the nature of mature democracies with low voter turnout. Just because Isn't full of crusaders that agree with you, doesn't make it Fascist. Some people just accept when their opinions are in the minority?! "Oh, the fault must be with the system!"

True Fascism is and already has been in Israel since its inception. Look at how the state is structured and the people running it. Real power is with the leftists. Look at the media (just like Haaretz). Much of it is Government owned. Look at the "court" system. Where is the democracy there? Look at who is allowed to run- When a Strong Jewish Party ran (Kach) it was banned because all the "democracy" advocates were scared, soo they showed their true hypocrisy.

Sarid the fool should condem Palestinian Fascism. Go to this site to learn more. www.palwatch.org

there are only handful of commentators with intelligent and insightful observations and yossi sarid is a true voice of reason.

What a sad sick joke.

The fascism of the left, who bypassed democratic law, carried out illegal meetings with the PLO (whilst in opposition); lied to the public about it, carried out a coup based on false promises of "peace" whilst collaborating with the US and the PLO. The same left fascists pardoned PLO terror crimes in exchange for the terror received in post Oslo years. This culminated in the camp david intifada, which cost thousands of lives, and was a comparable disaster to the 73 and 82 wars.

You are in a real struggle for understanding. The irrational drivers of intercultural relations kind of "now democratic , but we like You" or "good to have You ,we know You best, sucess is possible".

For all his complaints that democracy is threatened, Sarid still has a platform in a popular newspaper. I also have not seen any lack of leftist opinion in Israeli media. Yossi, you crossed the line when you wrote that Israelis are bringing Fascism. Shame on you! In his heyday as a politician, Sarid was always about 10 km left of mainstream- some things never change.

Calling every danger "holocaust" or "fascism" is both ridiculous and dangerous. Voting participation of only 70% (instead of 80%) is a sign of fascism? Well, than the US with its 52% or so must be like Nazi Germany? Having religious bigotts and populist ministers utter deplorable xenophobic garbage doesn't make them fascists, and certainly not all of us. Otherwise, fascism is not just there but has already conquered Germany (because of what one of its influential bankers said), France (Sarkozy wishes to strip French citizens of Arab oirigin off their citizenship if they commit crimes). Britain, with its deplorable (and useless) CCTV system of one camera per 7 ctizens is probably completely fascist for Sarid. Shouting "facism" every 5 seconds typically trivializes the matter. And that nonsense about University lecturers. Every human science student in Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva knows that it is typically radical Marxist lecturers who censure students (and their submitted papers!) if they refuse to adhere to the "party line", not the state. Sarid has obviously chosen to stay young by refusing to grow up and face reality: THe radical left is no less intolerant than right-wing loonies.

Oh, I get it now. Either you believe that Israel is to blame for all of the problems of the Middle East, that Jews have no right to live in a Jewish State and that, for the sake of peace, and political correctness, Israel should be willing to allow itself to be destroyed and its citizens should commit suicide, move or live at the mercy of those determined to destroy them, or- you are a fascist.

Mr. Sarid had discovered America. The democracy bashing is an ongoing hoby for every moron who doesn't understand the obvious. Democratic form of goverment is not a perfect institution, as a matter of history it had never been. From the time of the Greeks and Romans to now days. If he thinks that the American Democracy is a perfect institution he is wrong! He obviously extremly ignorant, I will advise him to study American history. So at the end there are nobody to be compared to, there are no country that is more democratic than Israel and will never be. Be heapy that we have a country, it is a miracle by itself.

1. The phenomenon of civic apathy or despair at their democratically elected government, and at the whole system, is currently global in western (or some eastern) democracies, because it is money, not ideals, that prevail. That is certainly not an Israeli thing alone. It's everywhere in democracies; nuanced, different ones. 2. What makes internal Israeli dispair unique, is occupation of the West Bank "shtachim" settlements, orthodox religious blackmail, and the labor pains of the nation's pioneering stage to a new stage, that doesn't need to become fascist, nor won't become fascist. This is a long puberty. 3. The fact that ugly rabbis are suddenly the talk, may be due to the fact that a rite of passage, a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Miztvah, is sorely needed as a national rite of passage from heroic pioneering to adolescence and search for identity, assumed harmoniously as such. Israel is already in adolescence, not already in fascism. 4. Never forger what the Jewish psyche has undergone, and is still undergoing: next to this worthy, thought-provoking article, is the one about Nasrallah lauding Hamas' slaughter of Israelis. There is no way this monstrous ingredient can be shoved under the carpet of the whole picture.

Since it seems you are still able to type away under the cloud of a jack-booted fascist state, then (assuming you can, of course) send us a quick note as soon as you are seized in the night and sent off to a labor camp.

because the government is essentially controlled by fascists and their willing stooges. The rhetoric has almost always existed, just below the surface, but the gears of its mechanisms have meshed and have begun moving, and excellerating, over the last year and half. And the ironic part of Israeli complacency to what is taking place...is that once it becomes fullblown, its focus WILL eventually move beyond the Palestinians, Arabs, and other ethnic/religious minorities, to single out all Israelis who do not conform to its ideological agenda. The rhetoric for this eventuality, as well its indoctrination, is already beginning to take shape, and once the first bunch are contended with - its focus will almost certainly turn to the cleansing of its own.

And in Israel, the Left invented it.

Well in free Israel Palestinians are 100% citizens... In prospective state of Palestine (PA) the situation is crap, and they try to get to Israel either legally or illegally. How free is Palestine going to be? Free like Assad's Syria? or maybe like Ghaddafi's Lybia? Give me a break. Palestinians choose Israel over Palestine anyday if given a choice... their political "leadership" not withstanding.

Could someone correct the ridiculous mistranslation of the Hebrew in the middle of the fourth paragraph that now reads: "if he is a school principal who tries not just to support settlements but to inculcate them"?

Sinat Chinam. Your hatred of Zionism, Judaism, and Torah Scholarship has made you nothing more than an echo of the anti-Semites throughout the ages. They too wished to deny us our rightful place in the Land, our right to practice our Religion, and our right to engage in Scholarship and pass on our beautiful, rich traditions to our future generations. Why did you survive, Yossi? To join the ranks of perverse Jew haters? Chaval.

What a light to peoples. fascism is already here if Yossi Sarid is in opposition.

More comments from the left. Big deal. Mr. Sarid doesn't like Netanyahu, Rabbis, religious Jews, or anyone else who doesn't agree with him, so his knee-jerk reaction is to call them facists. Very enlightening, Yossi.

One has to remind the author his own saying from 1994: we have to lead the nation to its own good even if we do not have a majority. Shalamith Aloni said the next day after Peres lost to Nathaniyahu (on TV): The people are stupid and vote wrong. We have to lead them against their will. So, who is the facist?

Isn't the cure to replace list-voting with district-voting, so that those elected will be accountable to their constituents, rather than to their party bosses?

War and endless conflict make the Right more powerful, and weaken the Left. The Right must continually create powerful enemies and induce crises to hold onto power, e.g. Iran.

I had hoped for fair, insightful analysis from Mr. Sarid. But he just adds to the whining of a Left that - rejected by the Israeli public because their fantasy of making peace with Hamas has proved hollow - now turns to the UN and foreign-funded NGOs to pressure Israel into submission. This is the real anti-democracy. Not the criticism of a the Left which, Mr. Sarid, like it or not, is part of democracy.

Hear the echo?

Yossi - go and speak to people who lived under totalitarian systems, fascist or communist. Then you might be proud of Israel's democracy. You cite a lot of problems that need fixing but to call it fascism is an absurd charge like what they used to throw out in the Youth movements. Use another word, Yossi, you're not a kid anymore.

As of 3:30 PM you have received one talkback. It seems that the readers consider you irrelevant. Take up a hobby like golf or fishing or even a trip around the world. You will encounter less grief..

There are some people from *both* the left and right who make wildly exaggerated claims. The author, Sarid, is one of them. No, Israel is not fascist. Not even close…by any of the common definitions. And Israel is a democracy…all citizens have the right to vote. Whether liberal or conservative, for better or worse, Israel’s policies, because all citizens can vote, end up being a basic reflection of what its citizens desire.

I see peace coming, guess I'm crazy.

If anyone is not a protector of democracy, it is the left. From the left we got socialism and communism. And the last time I check, democracy does not do well under these regimes. The problem is the arrogance of the left. Because the views of the radical elite, like Sarid, represent minority thinking, and the last thing they want is democracy, because they would need to adjust their access to the public according do their representational weight. So they abuse their mouthpieces, most of the liberal media, to push their agenda. The public is waking up to this imbalance and are trying to restore a level of normality, which results in the Sarids of the world crying foul. The challenge of the center right is to keep radical dictators away from seats of power and to insure all are represented. History has shown that the left has failed miserably at this and have produced Stalin’s and Hitler’s.

Orwell world (Israel) is not alone democracy is being attacked around the world. What havoc will be done when Palin and her Tea Party brown shirts ever get power?

However, the Apartheid regime was not as honest as fascism was. Apartheid pretends to be a democracy of the minority for the good of the majority, views human rights with skin color glasses, pretends to give independence to little pointless enclaves... Israel looks like that...

America finances and props up the Israeli regime. America shares the responsibility with eyes wide open.

is not in power

one expect ? This unsavory behemoth of a government with its motley lot of yap,Yappers, in a small country like Israel. The Government should consist of no more than Nine members with Three deputies or vice so & so's The Knesset no more than fifty-five members. Until & unless this is accomplished Yossi Sarid & co. can bark up every tree & yell at the top of their voices to no avail.

Its about time that the pseudo intellectual Yossi Sarid learn a little about the definitions of fascism, democracy etc. He only uses these words to support his political positions and to besmirch others. They have no support in reality

Yossi, your constant attack on the israeli people makes you irrelevant for any crtics on pilitics.

Facsim is using brutal force to quelch all opposition. All other means of expression are part of the democratic mechanism, as long as they are avaiable to both sides. If someone wants to boycott Ariel, and I want to boycott them, then why am I the fascist? This subjective description of democracy is very telling. Have the leaders of the left really reached the place where only their opinion and right to protest is guaranteed, and anybody counter protesting is to be deemed a fascist? If so, they shouldn't be suprised that their numbers have dwindled to count only a precsious few. Those that are so certain that they are right, and everybody else is wrong.

The situation in Israel is so polarized, that it isn't necessarily fascism, but human fear and paranoia. People in that country have lost the ability to think, if they even ever had any.

Unfortunately Yossi is right. One can read the despair in his article. But Even though the number of protesters and defenders of democracy and civil rights in the country seems small in comparison to the "silent" majority, I see it growing - every day - and I have faith that the tide of public opinion and public outcry against the abuses of democratic principles will swell into a seismic wave of gigantic proportions that will wash away the inequities and perversions of a democratic system and thus will allow Israel to truly become a shining beacon among nations.

Somewhere there exists a collection of your speeches and articles. Read some of them and ask yourself-if there is so much I dislike and even despise, why do I continue to live here?Why this masochism? Maybe I should seek help?

If this country cannot even respect it's own citizens and heir opposing view...what hope is their for the Palestinians and their eroding hope of a homeland. This is so sad but equally infuriating.

Why was the political system OK when the rabid Leftists were destroying the country?

The people have spoken and they have discarded you and all the causes you support. This is true Democracy.

Israel was not even a Jewish democracy because people which tried to speak with OEP were jailed and who made an one little step to reach peace was assassinated.Instead not essential issues like the rights of little minorities as gays,or invalids lighted "fierce" disputes as if is a live society.In reality it is possible not only to know in advance what Israel will say about any issue but exactly the slogans which will be used.Prepare to hear how Palestinians don't miss an occasion to miss the peace.Sarid was also a contributer in the spearing of slogans as this about the efforts done by every prim minister looking for every upside down stone for peace.

may i remind sarid the months after rabin murder. the left-wing fascism was at its best. may i also remind sarid about his meretz selling out its secular voters to shas and aguda to advance the false peace process. isn't it ironic mr. sarid that the likud minister threatens to cut funding to haredi schools while you and your peace now friend tamir didn't do a thing about it. you were too busy introducing nakba bull to israeli schools. should i also remind you that not left-wing historians and political scientists are not threatened by anyone simply because they are not accepted to the universities in the first place. should i continue... maybe you should retire- you did too much damage to this country.

in a fascist country, sarid would be in prison. his articles would certainly not be published. in a fascist country, the arabs would not dare deny the legitimacy of the state, nor would they go to join the gaza flotilla. however, since israel is a democracy, sarid can write whatever he wants, the arabs can deny the legitimacy of the state, and they can join the gaza flotilla.

As we approach the Jewish New Year, it is a horrible feeling to know that the Zionist dream has become the Zionist nightmare...that the emperor has no clothes, and that Yossi Sarid is correct.

where students had been gunned down by pal gunmen. Outraged by the less than warm reception she received ,this good woman and Minister of Education Yuli Tamir immediately threatened the Yeshiva with cutting of the State subsidy. Isn't it a symptom of facism ,threatening teachers and depriving livelihood of those not agreeing with you ,Sarid ?

because the government is essentially controlled by fascists and their willing stooges. The rhetoric has almost always existed, just below the surface, but the gears of its mechanisms have meshed and have begun moving, and excellerating, over the last year and half. And the ironic part of Israeli complacency to what is taking place...is that once it becomes fullblown, its focus WILL eventually move beyond the Palestinians, Arabs, and other ethnic/religious minorities, to single out all Israelis who do not conform to its ideological agenda. The rhetoric for this eventuality, as well its indoctrination, is already beginning to take shape, and once the first bunch are contended with - its focus will almost certainly turn to the cleansing of its own.

No doubt about that and what an ugly face it has. Insightful article.