Column
We don’t know how the political Gordian knot will be cut, but it is clear that Blue and White’s eagerness to form a coalition dependent on anti-Zionist Arab MKs does not inspire confidence in its leaders.
The coronavirus panic has hurt the president, but the prime minister’s handling of it reminds Israelis of his best qualities and has changed the dynamic of the government coalition standoff.
BDS South Africa’s shameful misrepresentation of Nelson Mandela as a militant anti-Zionist is simply one aspect of its broader campaign of defamation, in which no inaccuracy, half-truth or outright lie is too wild if it helps with the demonization of Israel and Zionism.
Like every other calamity in history, the coronavirus provides an excuse and a platform for anti-Semites. But blame on it those who legitimize hate, not the disease.
At least 9,000 have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and 429 have died. Unofficial estimates suggest a figure of 1 million who have been affected by it. And yet, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the virus “a blessing.”
A Trump-Biden matchup will give voters a choice between two different visions of relations with Israel, the Palestinians and Iran.
Newly named senior adviser Phillip Agnew/Umi Selah has accused Israel of committing “genocide and ethnic cleaning,” and said “Palestinian children are met with tear gas and rubber bullets as they walk home from school.”
Bernie Sanders is proving that it’s possible to be both a victim of Jew-hatred and someone who has also enabled anti-Jewish hate.
His having revealed that even an anti-Zionist partner is preferable to being second in a rotation as prime minister with Benjamin Netanyahu has done him the kind of harm that could cost him his short-lived political career.
With Blue and White MKs bucking the will of their party leader Benny Gantz by rejecting an alliance with anti-Zionist parties, the chances Benjamin Netanyahu will continue as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister have improved dramatically.
The Jewish communal response to the coronavirus must be guided by the principle of “pikuach nefesh”—the obligation to save lives—while not feeding paranoia or panic.
It’s hard not to notice the conjunction of a viral epidemic that is itself drowning in false information and malicious speculation with a wider context in which political, racial and religious extremism is flourishing.