Israel Election: Racist Leader Told Voters to ‘Punish’ Their ‘Enemies’

Controversy continues to rage after the Israeli elections. It is–or ought to be–a scandal for any leader of a civilized nation to urge one group of voters to “punish” their “enemies” from another group of voters. The exact quote was: “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” The leader who uttered those disgraceful words was U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010, and the mainstream media ignored him.

In contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Right-wing rule is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them out.”

It was an unseemly remark, one that Netanyahu later had to clarify.

Yet the mainstream media had been harping on the Arab vote for weeks, specifically warning that it was a threat to Netanyahu’s government. And the U.S. State Department has been funding efforts to target the Israeli Arab vote.

If it is racist to point out that Arab voters are being bused to the polls, then it is racist to bus them to the polls in the first place, and to report (with fervent hope, as in most media articles) that those Arab voters dislodge Netanyahu from power.

It is also worth noting that some–not all–of the Arab parties openly identify against Israel and with the Palestinians. It is not racist to warn or worry that such people must be excluded by the electorate from deciding Israel’s future survival.

 

And as for Netanyahu’s many critics in the U.S.–where were most of them when Obama called on Latinos to vote against their “enemies”? They were silent, because many of them were along for the ride on the Obama bus, as many remain still.

The Jerusalem Post‘s Gil Hoffman writes that Bibi’s last-ditch appeals resonated with the “second Israel”–those in whose name the elites pretend to act, but disdain.

Hypocrisy on ethnic voting is a hallmark of that elitism, in the U.S. and Israel.