Poison Permeates to the Core

MK Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) recently posted an article by journalist Uri Elitzur – written 12 years ago – on her Facebook page. Those who read it will understand why Elitzur stored it away.

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“Generally during war, the enemy is an entire people, their elders and their women, their cities and villages, their property and infrastructure,” he wrote, continuing, “All are enemy combatants, and all have blood on their heads. Now it also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They need to follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They need to go, as does the physical home in which they raised the snake. Otherwise, they’ll raise more little snakes there.”

Now, the poisoned rains of this op-ed are flowing in the wadis, and flooding the underground reservoirs.

We mustn’t underestimate this. Elitzur, who recently passed away, served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau chief in 1999. Netanyahu called him a manifestation of “the religious Zionist idealism,” and even proclaimed him holy (“he had a hint of the prophets’ legacy”).

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon called him “an important, deep man, original and creative,” while Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called him “a rare form of salt of the earth.”

It’s unnecessary to mention here the words of praise that Shaked’s colleagues from Habayit Hayehudi lavished on him.

Now, as evil takes to the streets, it seems that Elitzur’s spirit is hovering over the country. The strongest army in the Middle East is ready and willing to carry out the orders of the politicians, comprised of Shaked’s colleagues from Habayit Hayehudi, and Likud.

Pilots, tank drivers, naval officers and thousands more individuals within this well-oiled machine are carrying out the orders of those who believe “the enemy is an entire people, their elders and their women, their cities and villages, their property and infrastructure.” Come on guys, our work of destruction and killing is plenty, and the time the world has granted us is short.

In the meantime, the poison continues to permeate. “Israelis bringing chairs 2 hilltop in sderot 2 watch latest from Gaza. Clapping when blasts are heard,” tweeted a foreign journalist in Israel, calling it “Sderot cinema.” Four children were directly hit on a Gaza beach – friends, where is the applause?

The poison continues to permeate as a pogrom rages on the streets of Haifa. Hundreds, complete with hatred and murder in their eyes, charged the joint Arab-Jewish protest in the Carmel on Friday with bottles and stones, as protesters’ blood was spilled.

The police, in favor of the violence, led the protesters to their buses, the windshields of which had already been smashed in.

The poison permeates as Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, who was once considered a decent person, uses terms borrowed from the Middle Ages to describe the protests in his city – as if the city was his private property. Instead of defending freedom of speech, he joined the right-wing fascist camp, which seeks to keep people’s mouths shut. The coexistence he’s so proud of is bleeding.

The poison permeates, as every broadcaster becomes a war commentator. It’s of supreme national importance that every Arab interviewed knows who is in charge here. They’re attacking their Arab guests, not interviewing them.

The poison permeates even more as the most moral army in the world has stricken the “five golden minutes” from its lexicon – the time meant to elapse between the “knock on the roof” and demolition of a Palestinian home. Now, the killing flows freely into the Shujaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza.

Israeli society is overcome with war in Gaza – when there’s no room for a different kind of protest, when attending such a protest is a danger to one’s life. The real shame here is that all this goes on voluntarily, without any orders from above.