This was the week in which the Supreme Court decided to allow the Arab Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi to continue running for another term. By a majority of eight to one, the judges ruled to overturn the decision to disqualify her, a decision taken last week by the Central Elections Committee in a predictable outburst of nationalist and racist demagoguery. The court’s verdict elicited an almost audible sigh of relief from Yitzhak Herzog, leader of the oppositional Labor Party which now calls itself “The Zionist Camp”. Herzog had instructed his representatives to support the banning of Zoabi only out of fear that otherwise (perish the thought!) he might have gotten branded “a leftist”.
Livni was quick to retort on the radio: "It is Netanyahu himself who is all the
time negotiating with Hamas! Last summer
he even intended to embark on negotiations on the possibility of open a port in
Gaza. Yes, a port in Gaza! It was me who mobilized the most energetic of
diplomatic campaigns, with the international contacts I established I have
managed to completely remove such idea from the agenda" – which makes one
wonder what do we need a change of government for.
However sharp and acrimonious the exchange of verbal
blows, commentators (and ordinary people) are increasingly considering the
possibility that within some two months we might be treated to the sight of Netanyahu,
Herzog and Livni sitting together around
a single cabinet table.
Apart from all the above, this was a very
European week: a murderous event in the
Danish capital Copenhagen; a petition of British artists; a vote in the Italian
Parliament; a propaganda film produced by West Bank settlers; and also a TV
song contest.
Even before the guard who was shot at the gates
of the main synagogue of Copenhagen had been buried, Netanyahu rushed into his Zionist
conditioned reflex, issuing a call to the Jews of Denmark in particular and of Europe
in general to pack up and come to
Israel: "Israel is your home, the home of every Jew, we are preparing to
absorb a mass wave of European Jews." The call was not particularly well
received at the small Jewish community which carries fond memories of the intensive
and most successful effort which Denmark, more than any other European country,
made to save its Jewish citizens under the Nazi occupation. "The Danish
Jews: We are not leaving" read the headline on the front page of
"Ma'ariv". Yair Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Denmark, said: "I am
disappointed by Netanyahu's call. Terrorism
is no reason for emigrating."
At just that time, the settlers of "Samaria"
in the northern West Bank - who have access to very generous government budgets
and some of whose leaders are currently undergoing
an intensive police investigation regarding management of these funds – published an animated
video film, with impeccable high technical quality. The video depicts a monstrous
European named “ Herr Stürmer” who contemptuously summons a Jewish leftist with
a long hooked nose, demands and gets from him a flow of information on the
human rights violations by the armed forces of Israel and pays him with coins bearing
the logo of the Euro, and finally ordering his despicable Jewish leftist lackey
to hang himself – which he hastens to obey. "You might see the Europeans
otherwise – but make no mistake, they still regard you now as they did then"
appears on the screen at the end of the video.
"This is a classic anti-Semitism theme,
ultimately derived from Christian myth of Judas, who sells the Son of God for
30 pieces of silver, and then hangs himself. One may wonder if the Samaria settlers
utilized this legend consciously and deliberately, or did it just permeate into
their consciousness out of the cultural milieu into which they dipped?" wondered
blogger Yossi Gurvitz.
Paradoxically, the vicious video had to compete
for the attention of the Israeli public against Israel’s preparations to take
part in the Eurovision Song Contest,
bringing together all the European countries (and some countries outside the
continent). The popular Israeli TV
competition “Rising Star", was won by a 16-year old singer Nadav Guedj,
from Netanya. After convincingly performing
Beyoncé’s "Crazy in Love" Guedj will represent Israel at the Eurovision
competition, to be held at Vienna in May this year.
TV commentators, and next day those of the printed
press, expressed the fervent hope that at
the decisive moment of this year’s Song Contest, when the European capitals are
polled one by one and read out the score given in their respective countries to
each of the competing songs, it will be possible to hear many time a “douze
points” given to Israel and to the young Guedj as Israel’s representive. The
last time that the State of Israel won this competition was in 1998 (perhaps
not coincidentally, at a time when the Peace Process which began with the Oslo
Accords was still taken seriously?).
Meanwhile, the Italian parliament was preparing to vote in
favor of a recognition of the State of Palestine, as already did the European
Parliament and the national parliaments of the United Kingdom, France, Spain,
Portugal and several other European countries. (Sweden has already reached the
further point of President Mahmoud Abbas being invited to ceremoniously
inaugurate the Embassy of Palestine in Stockholm). Israel's Ambassador in Rome is
known to have tried delaying and obstruction tactics and mobilized right-wing
deputies in the Italian Parliament, but at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem it
was unofficially admitted that the struggle for Rome is effectively lost.
Europe in TV viewer eyes. Photo source: Austrian TV
