So much for shibboleths like “democracy” and “voice of the people”
The secular Israeli Left loves to use terms like democracy to defend their anti-religious stance. “We defend the rights of the people against the dictatorial demands and restrictions of the fanatically religious. This is a democracy, where the voice of the people is paramount.”
Then came the recent Israeli elections, in which the majority of the electorate — the people — voted the leftists out, and demonstrated their preference for a right wing, less bigoted government. This threw the left into a dizzying disarray. In a typical frenzied reaction, Yair Golan, a former Knesset member and Deputy Economics Minister, made the following declaration which could make him the poster boy for the Israeli left. “I realize this is what the people chose, but the people are in error….” In other words, democracy is fine, until the people vote for policies I do not like. At that point, goodbye democracy: we must struggle against the voice of the people.
He is not alone. Gadi Eizenkot, former military chief of staff, speaks of a million-man march on Jerusalem to protest the results of the election. And outgoing PM Lapid, instead of following the lead of Western democracies he so admires and graciously conceding to Netanyahu, demonizes the right wing and incites the country to reject the victory.
Of course, the media lackeys take up the cry. And in an apparent orchestrated attack together with the American Jewish left and leaders of the non-Orthodox movements, we hear echoing cries of Fascism, so that Abe Foxman, former head of the ADL, declares that he might sever his support for the Jewish state. Death of democracy, medievalism, fake election, are now the new buzzwords of choice.
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