By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — Yossi Sarid is a former leader of the left-wing Meretz party. When he was in government he was Israel’s minister of education. Today he’s one of the sharpest and wittiest columnists in Ha’aretz.
Meir Kahane was an American Orthodox rabbi who came to Israel to spread fascism. He was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990. His followers – some as members of the Jewish Defense League in North America, others as faithful followers in Israel under the slogan, Kahane Lives – continue to cause mischief in the Jewish world.
Avigdor Lieberman, who by now has become something of an obsession of mine, is Israel’s foreign minister. He has just delivered himself of another tirade against all who disagree with him – on the left and on the centre-right – in defense of the Knesset decision to trample Israeli democracy by investigating human rights NGOs. The decision was only possible because of his and his accolades’ machinations.
Sarid’s column in today’s Ha’aretz is about that. Its headline (in the English edition) is, “Lieberman is the new Kahane.” What follows is little more than a summary of that piece. But, if you can, please read it in full.
Quite properly, Sarid points an accusing finger at all the politicians who tolerate Lieberman by sitting at the cabinet table with him. Had not Netanyahu cared more for his job than for the country he’s supposed to lead, he’d have got rid of Lieberman whatever the cost. Sarid writes about “Netanyahu’s fear of Lieberman” and is unforgiving in his challenge: “One minister is rolling the whole cabinet in tar, and you are doing it to the entire state.”
It’s this fear that has prevented Netanyahu from making a deal with Hamas about Gilad Shalit by releasing more Palestinian terrorists. Thus Sarid: “More than Bibi fears the freed terrorists, he fears the foreign minister’s reign of terror.”
The fact that Ehud Barak, the titular head of Labour, sits with Lieberman is even more scandalous. Sarid again: “We are becoming callous to this abusive, coarse man, as though we were getting used to a purulent abscess developing under our nose. Hello, Barak, do you have eyes to see and ears to hear? — How long will you allow this abomination, legitimize this filth, by sitting with him in the same room, the same cabinet?”
Hence Sarid’s conclusion” “They’re right, the villains – Kahane does live. He is the foreign minister today and the cabinet speaks and breathes from his mouth.”
Sarid concludes by alluding to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that was preceded by a vicious campaign by rightists and referring to the attempt on the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson: “In the end, one gunman opens fire in Tel Aviv, or in Arizona, but before that happens, someone has marked the targets for him. Rabbis and nationalist zealots marked Yitzhak Rabin, Sarah Palin marked Gabrielle Giffords, and now, Avigdor Lieberman is another right marker.”
In his rant Lieberman lashed out against members of Likud, among them three cabinet ministers and the speaker of the Knesset, who voted against the investigation of the NGOs. I still see this as part of Lieberman’s concerted effort to take over Likud to become prime minister, even if it means losing some of its centrist members.
*
Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He divides his time between Canada and Israel.