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3 comments: On Jewish terrorism, European meddling, Obama’s popularity

[additional-authors]
December 24, 2015

1.

In the last couple of days, the confrontation between Israel's government and Israel's radical right-wing has dramatically intensified. The arrest and harsh investigation of Jewish terror suspects make the radicals nervous (and blunt) and put them on a collision course with Israel's establishment. That is a good thing. It is good that the core groups of the right – including the PM and several of his more hawkish ministers – are making sure to back the investigation and denounce the radicals. It is good that a Likud MK had to “take back” his statement that there is “no Jewish terrorism.” It is good that the public is exposed to the ugly faces of radicalism and is thus becoming more aware of the urgent need to uproot them, haunt them, and arrest them.

2.

Israel is having yet another debate over freedom of speech and the freedom of opposition NGO's to criticize Israel around the world. A lot of it is manufactured: MK's trying to get public attention, NGO's hoping to get funds, opposition leaders searching for an agenda, newspapers looking for material. Some of it is real: Israel has legitimate concerns with the level of international involvement in funding and directing Israeli NGO's that attempt to change the country. It is a subject on which I have written many times.

One article in The Guardian that deals with this subject caught my eye (Facebook's fault). It was written by Hannah Weisfeld, no doubt a well-meaning British Jew who for some reason believes that she can help bring about peace in the Middle East. I wish her luck.

Weisfeld wrote the usual out of touch eulogy for Israel's democracy – and also, referring to proposed bills that aim to curb the funding given by European countries to leftist Israeli NGOs, wrote this:

The proposed Knesset bills make indirect, deeply troubling accusations about the intention of European governments towards Israel.

Three quick comments:

1. There is nothing “indirect” about these bills. Yes, they aim to stop Sweden from meddling in Israel's business.

2. There is nothing “deeply troubling” about the general desire of Israel to keep European intervention under check.

3. And indeed: Israel wonders about “the intention” of European governments “toward Israel.”

Israeli voters have this weird tendency of wanting to make up their own minds, uninfluenced by foreign governments and their funding of political movements. Israel does not intervene in the politics of Sweden – Sweden should stay away from Israel's.

3.

WIN and Gallup published one part of their global international survey, from which we learn that, generally speaking, Israelis don’t really like most of the world’s leaders. The exception: Angela Merkel. Others who also did reasonably well: David Cameron of Britain and Narendra Modi of India.

Barack Obama is not popular in Israel. Nor in the Palestinian territories, nor in any other place in the Middle East. Obama is unlikely to become popular in this region before he leaves office. Obama is also unlikely to become effective in this region before he leaves office.

To me, the most interesting Israeli nugget in this survey is the 89% negative rating for Iran's Hassan Rouhani. One has to wonder: what about the other 11%. Do we have in Israel one tenth of the population that is supportive of Rouhani? Or maybe this is just Israelis toying with a survey that asks unanswerable questions (actually, most Israelis have no opinion of Hollande, Modi or Cameron that's worthy of attention).

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