Alternative Insight
Israel - Farthest Right of the Far Right
An array of political Parties and hostile governments challenge the neoliberal world order that the western world champions. Denominated the far-right, these Parties and governments gain followers by appeals to nationalism, traditionalism, opposition to immigration and multiculturalism, support for a dominant culture, strengthening of law and order, and a sovereign rather than globalist policy. A touch of racism inhabits the far-right ideology.
Prevention of expansion of far-right political Parties is high priority for the western democracies; these Parties feed on the success of one another, can play roles in government decisions before obtaining majority power, and tend to ally with nations, such as Russia and China, which challenge western hegemony. A far-right government may have totalitarian tendencies but still function within a democratic framework; discarding the democratic trappings moves that government into fascism. Presently, the western democracies, and especially the United States, are performing poorly in containing far-right expansion.
Far-right challenges to the neoliberal order bubbled throughout the world until violently emerging in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Kremlin’s supposed response to feeling submerged by U.S. hegemony. This article will only consider the far-right challenge within the western world, which extends from the United States to all European nations, except those in the Russian Federation, and will concentrate on the western aligned nation of Israel.
Designating a Party or a government as far-right is subjective and controversial. Going by the above definition, in 2022, the West had four nations controlled by a far-right ideology — Italy with The Brothers of Italy and founder, Giorgia Meloni, serving as Prime Minister, Hungary’s Fidesz Party, led by Victor Orbán, Poland’s Law and Justice Party, and Israel’s coalition government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
During the Cold War, U.S. governments indirectly interfered in European elections in efforts to prevent Communists from gaining power. Still active in assisting foreign political Parties that coincide with U.S. interests in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, contemporary U.S. governments have restrained the shaping of European legislatures. Fear of a backlash resulting from active interference in the far-right Europeans is understandable; helping a far-right government obtain success and perpetuate itself is incomprehensible. The U.S. and major European governments have done the incomprehensible by actively supporting the Israeli far-right governments to succeed and perpetuate themselves
Starting out with a far-right government from its inception, Israel has shown a consistent strengthening of far-right movements. Political pundits considered the Labor Party, which controlled Israel for several decades, as a left wing and liberal political Party. Closer examination shows elements that characterize the far-right — ultra-nationalism, opposition to immigration other than Jewish, rejection of multiculturalism to the extent of initially banning Mizrahi music and cultural attachments, support for a dominant Ashkenazi culture, and strengthening of law and order, which kept Palestinians under martial law until 1967. The Zionist Labor Party never proposed a separation of church and state and maintained Jewish supremacy in a nation of several ethnicities - the Law of Return, passed on 5 July 1950, allows only “Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship.” Not being sufficiently far-right, in a country whose population has increasingly moved more far right, caused a steady reduction in the popularity of the Labor Party and a decline of the Progressive Party, Meretz, which is now below the threshold for capturing Knesset seats.
A headline in Israel’s newspaper, Haaretz, describes Israel’s shift toward more far-right politics: Israel Election Final Results: Netanyahu, Jewish Far Right Win Power, Fiasco for Left. In the November 2022 legislative election, Religious Zionism, considered a far-right political Party, obtained 14 seats in the Knesset and enabled Netanyahu to form a far-right coalition. The New York Times, Israel’s Election Empowers a More Muscular Religious Zionism, by Isabel Kershner, Nov. 13, 2022, reports:
Religious Zionists have reached the top ranks of the security establishment and the police, have made up a disproportionate number of the graduates of the military’s officers’ school, have bolstered their presence in Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab cities and have developed an increasingly influential voice in the Israeli news media and culture.
Entrance of Religious Zionism into the Knesset has disturbed Democratic Party leaders, who pose as the protector of human rights, guardian of equal rights, defender of religious persuasions, supervisor of fair immigration policies, and keeper of a liberal world order that guards against genocide, ultra-nationalism, and militarism. Yet, the Democratic Party ardently supports an Israel that violates the concepts that guide it.
With the U.S. electorate divided almost equally between Democrats and Republicans, the Democratic Party senses a dilemma – not supporting far-right Israel will alienate pro-Israel supporters to leave the Democrats and supporting far-right Israel will enable the international far-right to progress and undermine neoliberalism and U.S. hegemony.
Note that the Democratic Party does not consider being passive to Israel; no, it must support Israel or suffer election losses, which means trading Palestinian lives for donations and votes. How did it get this way and how can a small nation and its followers control an aspect of foreign policy of the mightiest nation in the world?
The most serious steering of U.S. foreign policy occurred with ardent Israel supporters, neocons Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Bernard Lewis, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz succeeding in pressuring President George W. Bush to sacrifice American lives and, by military action, remove Saddam Hussein from power. Discarding the nonsensical assertion that Saddam Hussein, who had no nuclear material, no technology to develop a nuclear weapon, and no technology to deliver a nuclear bomb, was prepared to develop a nuclear weapon and threaten the United States and needed to be immediately stopped leads to another reason for the U.S. attack on Iraq. No coincidence that Iraq was a long-time adversary of Israel and it was in Israel’s interests to have Iraq become militarily impotent.
Foreign policy is low on the electorate list of concerned issues. So, why is assistance to Israel an important issue and why are politicians edgy on their support for Israel? Two reasons are that racist government officials and their racist constituents are framed to accept the Zionist version of the Middle East struggle and the relatively few who are cognizant of apartheid Israel’s severe crimes realize that speaking truth means spending time, energy, and money countering accusations of racism, anti-Semitism, and treating Israel different from other derelict nations. These corrupted actions occur in the face of significant facts.
Fact#1: Israel has stolen land and resources from the Palestinians, oppressed them for decades, and is committing genocide by denying them ontological security. No fair-minded person can contradict these realities.
Fact#2: There are an assortment of people, organizations, and institutions in the United Sates that have deliberately misshaped Israel’s appearance and persuaded the American public and officials to support Israel. Christians United for Israel, Camera, and AIPAC are a few of the multitudes of organizations whose only objective is promoting Israel.
Fact#3: A perception exists that a large number of Americans have operated with dual loyalties, many with more loyalty to Israel than to their native country. Jewish organizations treat this contentious accusation with contempt, scorn, and verbal attacks. However, many Americans have served in the Israel military, defended Israel’s actions even when they are indefensible, and constantly propagandized for and promoted Israel, without consideration of effects on their home country. One example of this divided loyalty concerns use of government grants. From Detroit Free Press, Feds accuse private Michigan Jewish Institute college of grant fraud, David Jesse, March 23, 2016.
A private Jewish Michigan college committed fraud over the past decade, leading to millions of federal dollars being sent to the West Bloomfield school to pay for the education of students who weren’t enrolled there, according to the federal Department of Education. In a 17-page letter to the Michigan Jewish Institute, the department outlines more than 2,000 cases where Pell Grant funds were sent to the school to pay for students who were in Israel studying and never took one class at MJI.
Isn’t using U.S. government funds, which should be subsidizing the education of America’s underprivileged, and sending them to Israel, a clear example of misplaced loyalty?
The replies to these proposed facts from the multitude of pro-Israel organizations are never a thoughtful and expressive evaluation that answers to or contradicts them. The replies are usually summed up by one word, either “racism,” “anti-Semitism,” “canard, “trope,” or “hurtful.” Using epithets as a response rather than a critical and eloquent analysis reveals the organizations cannot contradict the facts and, yet, these one word and one-sided replies are sufficient to convince an audience that the facts are incorrect. How is this possible?
Explaining the discrepancy is difficult because the mindset that accepts the implausible attitude of those favoring Israel automatically rejects the exposure of their falsifications. That mindset is weaned on severe prejudice against Muslims and Arab people, in which Israel is considered the principal resistance to Islamic influence, on religious convictions that favor a strict interpretation of the Old Testament and allow Zionists to proclaim a return to a “homeland” they claim to deserve, on a subtle and extensive brain washing that includes constant reminders of the decades old Holocaust and exaggerated accusations of anti-Semitism, which divert Zionist oppression of the Palestinians to Zionist protection of world Jewry, and from the world’s ubermensch who relish “might over right.” Constant recitation of centuries old hurts and transgressions and capture of generations in these recitations are essential to development of the mindset
Survey Israel and its cohorts with a jaundiced eye and not rose tinted glasses, and they become the flip side of the Black Hebrews. The Black Hebrews represent themselves as descendants of the Hebrew tribes that inhabited hills of the Levant almost three thousand years ago. The Israeli far-right claims to be the white descendants of the Hebrew tribes that inhabited hills of the Levant almost three thousand years ago. Neither narrative has sufficient supporting evidence and, although the Black Hebrew claims may be more ridiculous, the Israeli claim is equally ridiculous. Even if either claim were true, who cares; there are no inheritance laws for these types of descendants and cultural identification disappears within two generations.
The Black Hebrews attack, with verbal ferocity, the Zionist Jews, who they claim have falsified their heritage. The Zionists give little attention to the Black Hebrews and physically attack the Palestinians, who they claim are interlopers in a land given by God to the white Zionists. One difference between the Black Hebrews and the White Hebrews is that the Black Hebrews have not been physically violent, while the White Hebrews are committing genocide.
Adding to the public control is the lack of government attention to Israel's’ manipulation of U.S. elections.
News reports alarmingly describe the US intelligence exposure of efforts by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to manipulate the American political system and steer US foreign policy in its favor. Manipulation by the Emirates consists of lobbyists, donations to American universities and think tanks, and issuance of policy papers favorable to UAE interests. Compare these basic and legal activities to Israel's tactics.
During 2010, the FBI uncovered 10 unregistered Russian agents living in the U.S. as ordinary citizens, engaged in harmless activities, such as meeting people in high places in order to influence their attitudes and reporting American views on foreign and domestic affairs to Moscow. Multiply the number of discovered Russian agents by thousands and you will have the number of Israeli expatriates in the U.S. who might do the same for Israel and more; by becoming U.S. citizens they can vote for Israel friendly candidates.
In 2014 by the Israeli government ministries and the Los Angeles-based Israeli American Council, which represents Israelis across the United States and promotes their interests, estimated between 500,000 and 800,000 Israelis lived in the U.S., about 150,000 living in the New York area, 120,000 in Los Angeles, and 80,000 in Miami.
https://forward.com/news/israel/190625/israeli-immigrants-play-growing-role-in-american-j/
What are the more important voting areas in the United States? New York, California and Florida are significant. Enough dual citizen American-Israelis can shape the ballot in those regions, and may have done that in Florida during the disputed 2000 presidential election.
We know how these elected officials vote — each year, three billion dollars in military aid, UN vetoes of security council resolutions that charge Israel with crimes, sanctions against Israel’s enemies, even going to war to benefit Israel, as was done in Iraq,
Has Israel purposely selected citizens to emigrate to the United States and influence voters? I have known Israelis living and working in the United States who had little reason to be here, who invited people into their homes and propagandized for Israel, who persuaded synagogues to display the Israeli flag, who came here on athletic scholarships and stayed and worked at menial jobs for a Jewish agency, who collected statistical information for Israel, and others who went to Israel, became allied with a known Israeli institute, returned with a grant from a Jewish institution and, due to previous ties with a recognized Israeli institute, became scholars at recognized think tanks.
Why hasn't the FBI, an independent policing agency that scrutinizes immigration, uncovered the possible duplicity of Israeli immigrants? Anyone representing the interests of a foreign nation should be registered as a foreign agent. Those placing the interests of a foreign nation before their own should be exposed.
Enough said. Simplify the argument with a full page advertisement that references a nation that is the most far right, has severe human rights violations, practices apartheid, fights innumerable wars, is ultra nationalist and militarist, discriminates in its immigration and civil obligations, extends its reach to interfere in the electoral processes of western nations, has an assortment of institutions propagandizing for it, continually and illegally extends its undefined borders, steals land and resources from the native population, has oppressed them for decades, and is committing genocide by denying them ontological security. Omit the nation's identification. Will any normal human being or democratic nation support this unidentified nation? I doubt it. Reveal the unprincipled nation to be Israel and challenge those who do not admit their hypocrisy.
American people and American government cease this counterproductive and suicidal “love affair” with cheater and apartheid Israel.
The party is over.
It’s time to call it a day...
alternative insight
december 3, 2022