Im Tirtzu is about to publish a new ‘report.’ It’s already on the Internet, but they haven’t yet started publicizing it, so get ready to read about it here for the first time.
Let’s start with the only new and refreshing aspect of this report. This is the first time that anyone has issued a report in the format of a children’s book. I want to congratulate Im Tirtzu for this stylistic breakthrough, and to congratulate them on their new graphic artist. However, other than this stylistic innovation, the report is regrettably a pack of lies and mostly a recycling of old material. It contains no new claims, nothing that hasn’t already been said in the last three years. Could it be that Im Tirtzu is suffering from arteriosclerosis? Let’s hope so.
OK, now let’s do a break-down.
On page two of the report, painted in colours that are highly suitable for Im Tirtzu – red and black – it says that, “this tract gives details of the activities by senior people and organizations supported by the [New Israel] Fund against the policies of Israel and against the IDF.” As we will see shortly, as is customary with Im Tirtzu, there are no claims regarding the “activities” of senior people in the New Israel Fund (NIF) itself. Moreover, since it is clearly apparent that the authors of the report are graduates of Commissar Gideon Sa’ar’s civics class, they need to be reminded of a fact that seems to have eluded them: in a free country, citizens may act against the policies of the government and the army. For countries where citizens are forbidden to act against the policies of the army and its political arm, we have other, less sympathetic, names. Protesting against the government and against its military wing (and the IDF, as Im Tirtzu has forgotten, is not some fourth estate, some separate entity, but is solely a branch of the government which has been given a monopoly over the use of force) is a basic right in a free society. When Im Tirtzu comes out against the exercise of this right, it is actually making the claim that Israel is a military dictatorship (more on this later).
It would be appropriate to mention at this point that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is very conversant as to how to operate against government policy. When...
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