Netanyahu's campaign slogans come at French Jews' expense
Terror groups can consider it a triumph that even Israel’s prime minister is encouraging Jews to flee.
haaretz.com
Israel’s prime minister was an unwanted guest at Sunday’s international demonstration of solidarity with France. He inserted himself,
almost by force, into the front ranks of leaders – democrats and
tyrants alike – who came to share in France’s sorrow and commit
themselves to a joint war on terror.
Israeli citizens might reasonably wonder why their prime minister, of all people, the man who has raised the war on terror to the level of a religion, was considered a nuisance. The answer was given before the huge march and the memorial ceremony that took place at the Grand Synagogue in Paris: Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to French Jews to move to Israel, because only there would they be safe, rightly offended the French and their leaders. In other words, Netanyahu declared that no other country is capable of fighting terror as Israel does.
But these very statements play into the hands of Islamic terror organizations, which can notch an achievement from the fact that even Israel’s prime minister is encouraging Jews to run away, and thus doing the terrorists’ work for them.
Nevertheless, it’s not just the prime minister’s arrogant statements that justified the French request that he not visit. Israel is a controversial country internationally. It is the only occupier remaining in the Western world, and its occupation nourishes some of the terrorist organizations.
Israel was established as a sovereign refuge for Jews. The aspiration to gather in all the exiles was essential to consolidate the state and bring it up to the size of a European country. And even now, there’s nothing wrong with the desire to encourage Jews to immigrate to a country that grants them citizenship solely by virtue of the fact that they are Jews.
But for them, the Law of Return is an option that’s always open, which makes it easier for them to remain in other countries with a sense of security. Israel must be ready to absorb them, but must also accept the fact that the choice is theirs. And it must take care not to create a situation in which they are suspected of dual loyalty in their own countries.
Jews are also citizens of many countries worldwide. And as citizens – not as Jews – they are entitled to demand full protection from their countries, just like the victims of the murder at the “Charlie Hebdo” magazine, the victims of the London Underground attacks or the thousands of people who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks. That is what equal citizenship means. But this apparently isn’t understood by Netanyahu and some of the other rightist ministers, who saw the attacks in Paris as an opportunity to promote their election campaigns at the expense of relations between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of France.
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Israeli citizens might reasonably wonder why their prime minister, of all people, the man who has raised the war on terror to the level of a religion, was considered a nuisance. The answer was given before the huge march and the memorial ceremony that took place at the Grand Synagogue in Paris: Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to French Jews to move to Israel, because only there would they be safe, rightly offended the French and their leaders. In other words, Netanyahu declared that no other country is capable of fighting terror as Israel does.
But these very statements play into the hands of Islamic terror organizations, which can notch an achievement from the fact that even Israel’s prime minister is encouraging Jews to run away, and thus doing the terrorists’ work for them.
Nevertheless, it’s not just the prime minister’s arrogant statements that justified the French request that he not visit. Israel is a controversial country internationally. It is the only occupier remaining in the Western world, and its occupation nourishes some of the terrorist organizations.
Israel was established as a sovereign refuge for Jews. The aspiration to gather in all the exiles was essential to consolidate the state and bring it up to the size of a European country. And even now, there’s nothing wrong with the desire to encourage Jews to immigrate to a country that grants them citizenship solely by virtue of the fact that they are Jews.
But for them, the Law of Return is an option that’s always open, which makes it easier for them to remain in other countries with a sense of security. Israel must be ready to absorb them, but must also accept the fact that the choice is theirs. And it must take care not to create a situation in which they are suspected of dual loyalty in their own countries.
Jews are also citizens of many countries worldwide. And as citizens – not as Jews – they are entitled to demand full protection from their countries, just like the victims of the murder at the “Charlie Hebdo” magazine, the victims of the London Underground attacks or the thousands of people who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks. That is what equal citizenship means. But this apparently isn’t understood by Netanyahu and some of the other rightist ministers, who saw the attacks in Paris as an opportunity to promote their election campaigns at the expense of relations between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of France.
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From jostling to the front of the unity march, to cropping Mahmoud Abbas out of a photo, to urging Jews to move to Israel, here are the ways Netanyahu tried to make...
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