In this past weekend edition of Haaretz the people of Israel were treated to a fantastic lesson on Democracy by Gideon Levy.
The problem with Levy’s opinion article was the unmitigated arrogance and disdain he manifested toward the Israeli public, calling them ignorant, stupid and worse, fascistic.
Why? Because we do not want top secret documents that could endanger our soldiers and country stolen and sold off to the highest bidders.
In Gideon Levy’s world President Obama should take the blueprints of the American Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carriers and post them on Facebook. The American army should also start doing public tours of the nuclear missile silos secretly stashed throughout the United States of America.
I have gotten used to Gideon Levy’s hatred for Israel and his obnoxious attempts to always blame his nation for the mistakes made by the Arabs. His articles are often nothing more than delusional nonsense; his rhetoric predictable.
So, what caught my eye this time around? The absurd notion in Mr. Levi’s head that he can lecture Israel and Israelis about democracy.
His defense of Anat Kamm is loathsome. This is a woman who was put into a position of trust by the Israel Defense Forces. She broke that trust by stealing top secret army documents and selling them to Uri Blau, an investigative reporter for, you guessed it, Haaretz. Many of these documents were connected to IDF defense doctrine in the case of a full-fledged war with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
Understandably Israeli citizens are furious with Kamm because what she has done is to endanger the security of their country for her own benefit. Blau and Kamm went well beyond freedom of speech and cogent investigative reporting. They engaged in treason.
What they did would be illegal in any democracy in the world.
In most countries, democratic or otherwise, Kamm would pay for her actions with her life. Just ask Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, put to death by the American court system on charges that were never one hundred percent proven (to this day mention of the Rosenbergs causes controversy and debate). Or, if it is not the death penalty Kamm would get for treason, then she could well pay for it by sitting in jail for the rest of her life, as Jonathan Pollard will in the US.
Gideon Levi does not want democracy and if he defends someone like Anat Kamm in the name of democracy, then he knows precious little about it.
His accusation that Israelis are fascists and ignorant of what democracy really is, because they demand that a treasonous soldier actually pay for her treachery, exposes his pure, unadulterated hatred for Israel -- no matter what the nation does.
Gideon Levi is not a fascist. But he is an Israel hater, possibly a self-hating Jew and by default, an Arabist. Ironically, next to Levy’s piece was one written by an Israeli Arab lamenting the recent visit to Libya by a group of Israeli Arab leaders, saying, “All of a sudden, all these MKs forgot that they have sworn an oath of loyalty to the State of Israel in the Knesset ...” The author of the piece, Salman Masalha, also said that the visit “...signifies a loss of both political and moral orientation.”
Levy’s almost constant rant against Israel’s government, and his obvious disdain of her citizens ( the majority of her citizens, rather) indicates he, too, has lost political and moral orientation.We know that no matter how much Israel gives when it comes to peace Levy will always blame her government for the Arabs’ refusals. Now that he has labeled Israel’s citizens fascists and ignorant of democracy for demanding the punishment of a soldier citizen who committed treason, he has made himself nothing more than a gross misrepresentation of all that is good about democracy.
Gideon Levy is Israel’s Tokyo Rose.
Sad but true
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