Weimar Israel

So, last time, I explored the makings of Judeofascism in America: today I turn my sights towards Israel itself.

To many, perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the recent right-wing counter-protests against Gaza War demonstrations has been the counter-protestors' appropriation of the slogans and attire popular with European Neo-Nazi groups.

"How could Jews be Neo-Nazis," I can hear the Haaretz editorial writers cry.

Actually, though their are undoubtedly few Jews in Israel who would openly describe themselves as such (Neo-Nazis) it is safe to say that the brand of neo-Zionism, marked by unquestioning support for state militarism, that currently prevails in Israel frighteningly mirrors much of the radical nationalism that took root in interwar Weimar Germany.

Like in Weimar Germany, the militarization of the Israeli body politic-in the course of the Last Decade, arose from the ashes of a "failed peace:" namely the Oslo Peace Process.

As one may recall, Ehud Barak misleadingly labeled as "generous," a proposal for establishing a Palestinian State that barely incorporated three-quarters of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and that mandated continued Israeli military control of the Palestinian state's borders and airspace.

When Arafat understandably turned down the deal, Barak built on the lies to convince the Israeli public that Arafat demonstrated typical "Palestinian rejectionism."

In the mantra stating "Israel has no partner for peace," Israeli hawks found their excuse to justify egregious acts of state violence and repression against Palestinians.

Barak's proposal...still wielded by Likud apologists as bombs currently fall on Gaza bears striking similarities to the "stabbed in the back" deception that spurred the 1920s German right (i.e. that Socialists and Jews snatched defeat from the arms of victory)- a myth, incidentally, created by German army brass to deflect criticism for Germany's defeat away from themselves.

Moreover, the suicide bombings of the early 2000 and the international isolation that Israel received for its actions in the West Bank played into a right-wing Zionist narrative of Israel as the "Jew amongst nations," under attack by classical anti-semites in Europe, the Hague, etc.

Surprisingly to many, Israeli neo-Zionism mirrors the Weimar right-wing in its perception of perpetual victimhood, the need to counter isolation through resolute strength...

There's is often nothing more dangerous than a terrified animal it is said and in their callous justification of Israel's latest measures in Gaza as "self-defense," the vast majority of Israeli citizens confirm this.

At the present, of course, Israeli neo-Zionists (based, for instance, on the level of support for the current Gaza carnage) comprise a far wider swathe of society in Israel than the Nazis did in Weimar times (even in 1932, the latter could garnish no more than a third of support-taking advantage of other parties' fragmentation to rise) and enjoy the support of powerful figures in America.

With hooligans taking to the streets of Tel-Aviv with the tacit support of government officials and with Knesset members callign for collective punishment of Gazan Palestinian communities, the state of democracy in Israel-Palestine seems very bleak indeed.