I've been watching Good Night and Good Luck, that George Clooney movie about Edward R. Murrow and Senator McCarthy.
It reinforces my feeling that McCarthyism exists right here in Israel. The Israeli version isn't anti-commie, it's anti-"Right," anti-settling The Land of Israel.
Actually, the Israeli McCarthyism even pre-dates McCarthy, since that same paranoid mentality caused the mainstream Zionist leadership to go "rabid" whenever they suspected that the Revisionists were getting "too popular." Anything and everything bad was blamed on the Jabotinsky Revisionists. For decades the slogan was " the Arlosoroff murder," which they used to justify the "sezon," when during the War for Independence the Hagana turned in Etzel and Lechi members to the British and their firing on the Jewish ship the Altalena.
Now the Israeli Left, the politicians, media and "intellectuals" have a different battle cry:
Last week extreme Left-wing Professor Zev Sternhell was injured by a small explosive charge, and before the police could even begin its investigation, the condemnations began.
That's all you could hear on the news. We were tried and convicted without any investigation, without any proof. That's what McCarthyism is all about.
It reinforces my feeling that McCarthyism exists right here in Israel. The Israeli version isn't anti-commie, it's anti-"Right," anti-settling The Land of Israel.
Actually, the Israeli McCarthyism even pre-dates McCarthy, since that same paranoid mentality caused the mainstream Zionist leadership to go "rabid" whenever they suspected that the Revisionists were getting "too popular." Anything and everything bad was blamed on the Jabotinsky Revisionists. For decades the slogan was " the Arlosoroff murder," which they used to justify the "sezon," when during the War for Independence the Hagana turned in Etzel and Lechi members to the British and their firing on the Jewish ship the Altalena.
Now the Israeli Left, the politicians, media and "intellectuals" have a different battle cry:
"...the days of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination"
Last week extreme Left-wing Professor Zev Sternhell was injured by a small explosive charge, and before the police could even begin its investigation, the condemnations began.
Lightly wounded in the attack, Sternhell was interviewed by Israel Radio from his hospital bed, saying "it was obvious that this was the work of the extreme right wing. It could have been a lone lunatic, an organization, a cell of three or a whole settlement which have to decided to 'set the record straight' with me." (click for complete article)
That's all you could hear on the news. We were tried and convicted without any investigation, without any proof. That's what McCarthyism is all about.
4 comments:
Interesting post. I saw this movie last year and thought that it was well done. There definately is room to compare the two .
Yes, it's a very well-made movie.
Here the McCarthyism is led by the media, even more than the politicians.
No one on the left pauses for a second to consider Sternhell's call for force, violence and terror against the Settlers (and the Right).
Read it all here on JoeSettler.
joe, good post
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