Israel Matzav: Israel's Left unmasked

Israel's Left unmasked

Some 3,000 foreign mercenaries, 'Israeli Arabs' and Leftist Jews held a demonstration in the Nahlat Shimon (Sheikh Jarrah) neighborhood of Jerusalem on Saturday night to protest the settlement of four Israeli Jewish families in Jewish-owned housing in the neighborhood.

On the one hand, the demonstration was a resounding success - it's by far the largest number of people who ever came out to protest the presence of Jews in Jerusalem.

On the other hand, the Israeli Left is finding itself backpedaling, because it realizes that what went on at the demonstration is far beyond anything that could be called mainstream and puts it well outside any Israeli consensus.

What went on at the demonstration? Many demonstrators were carrying 'Palestinian' flags, red and white hammer and sickles flags of the Communist party, and Fatah flags with a gun hanging over a green image of Israel. There were a few Israeli flags there and they were labeled 'peace' but that was only the start of the problems.

Perhaps the most noticeable development of the evening, however, came with the words of Samieh Jabarin, a Palestinian director and playwright who, speaking from a stage, criticized audience members who had brought blue-and-white flags with the word “peace” written on them.

“The word ‘peace’ cannot go on that flag,” Jabarin said.

For Palestinians, he explained, the colors blue and white symbolized their plight, not peace. They symbolized the occupation, and Zionism, which is what he said Saturday night’s rally was really about.

The situation in Sheikh Jarrah was but a symptom of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the answer to which, Jabarin told the crowd, was a one-state solution.

While his comments drew applause, they were immediately followed by a correction from organizers, who took the stage and explained that everyone was welcome at the rally, and that all viewpoints were to be respected.

But did Jabarin’s comments and the appearance of the flags also mark a departure from the mainstream protests toward something more radical? Have the Sheikh Jarrah protests, which have galvanized the Israeli Left over recent months, become too Left?

“Absolutely not,” Avner Inbar, one of the rally’s organizers, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “I think we’re just Left enough.”

“I think that [Jabarin’s] comments did make some people feel uncomfortable,” Inbar said. “However, the thing that has made the Sheikh Jarrah protests so successful, is the willingness of various groups to come together and take on this single issue.”

Notice the backpedaling. What Jabarin did is beyond anything any mainstream Israeli would support. The fact that Israel's Leftists stayed at the rally and that the organizers tried to deny its significance shows just how extreme Israel's Left has become.

These are the people who voted for Labor and Meretz in the last election. And they've probably just put a lot of votes in the pockets of the Likud and parties to its right. Almost no Israeli Jews want a state with the 'Palestinians.' We've seen Gaza and Ramallah and we want no part of them.

But Israel's Left is now unmasked. They cannot claim loyalty to the Jewish state. They cannot claim to be Zionists. They cannot claim to be part of any Israeli Jewish consensus. They are beyond the pale.

Shortly after I wrote this post, I saw the following on Twitter from Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon:

Just met with American Friends of Peace Now, have no problem engaging honestly with any Zionist group even those very ideologically different

Peace Now was one of the groups behind Saturday Night's rally. I don't see how anyone can believe they're Zionists anymore.

Israel Matzav: Israel's Left unmasked