The Israeli First Amendment holds that Jewish traitors and Arab terrorists may call for the destruction of Israel, may cheer terrorists and suicide bombers, and may endorse anti-Semitism - all as protected speech. But making any statement about the Oslo process with which Yossi Beilin would not agree will get you arrested as an inciter; and going to a protest against Olmert's war against settlers will get you beaten to a pulp by the police and hospitalized.
This week, the Israeli First Amendment reached unprecedented heights of Orwellianism.
First, Azmi Bishara was cleared. Bishara runs one of those pro-terror, Arab fascist parties that have representatives in the Knesset (parliament) of Israel. Aside from cheering suicide bombers, Bishara made an illegal pilgrimage in 2001 to meet with Assad, Jr. to express his support for Syria - being threatened at the time by George Bush's war on Islamic terror for hiding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and other toys - and to tell the Syrian leader what a marvelous job the Hizbullah was doing.
When Bishara was then stupidly allowed back into Israel, he was investigated for breaches in Israel's security laws, by meeting with the enemy. The year before, Bishara had addressed an Islamofascist rally in the Israeli Arab town of Umm Al-Fahm and endorsed Hizbullah attacks on Israel.
That investigation dragged on for almost five years. This week, Israel's Supreme Court issued a ruling, written by Israel's Chief Justice, Mister Judicial Activism, Aharon Barak (no relation to Ehud Barak). It was decided to clear Bishara. Clean as a hound's tooth. Bishara's treasonous meetings with Assad were all within the "legitimate framework of his parliamentary activities as a member of the Knesset," says the Supreme Court.
So, you got it: it is now part of the job description of a member of the Knesset to promote anti-Israel terror.
The judges split two-to-one. The dissenting judge was Esther Hayut, who who saw Bishara's comments and acticities as beyond the "red line" of treason.
In typical consistency, as Bishara was cleared of one crime, Attorney General Meni Mazuz opened a new investigation of another; of which Bishara will also soon be cleared. The investigation centers around Bishara's trip last month to Lebanon. While there, Bishara said of the nation in whose parliament he sits, "Return Palestine to us and take your democracy with you. We Arabs are not interested in it."
"Returning" Bishara to a cave on the Afghan-Pakistani border was not one of the ideas proposed by Mazuz.
Well, free speech absolutism wins in Israel, right?
Wrong, grasshopper.
The very same day in which the Supreme Court cleared Syria's rep in the Israeli Knesset, the leftist attorney general - a guy who loves to prosecute any Jew expressing opinions to the right of Yossi Beilin for incitement, racism and terrorism, but who can never get around to indicting leftist academic traitors or Arab fascists in Israel - pushed Israel's First Amendment into unprecedented territory. He recommended that the Chief Rabbi of Safed be indicted at once for "racism". The rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, is the son of the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu.
What was Rabbi Eliyahu's horrendous crime, which got him targeted by Israel's Racism Patrol?
Well, a few years back, Israeli Arabs working for Hamas - the same Hamas that the Left now wants to have lunch with - placed a suicide bomber on a bus near Safed. When the blast went off, nine people were murdered and 50 wounded. When the perp got on the bus, he saw his cousin, an Israeli Arab woman who was returning from classes at a college in Safed. She was warned to get off the bus and did so. In spite of knowing what was about to take place, she declined to warn any of the riders on the bus to escape. The student was later investigated for being an accomplice in the atrocity and for failing to prevent a mass murder, but Israel's courts cleared her using the same standards of justice and logic displayed with regard to Azmi Bishara.
Around the time of the Arab student being cleared, the Chief Rabbi of Safed expressed the view that, given how an Arab student coming to Safed had been found to have collaborated with the bus bombers, maybe Arab students should henceforth be prevented from attending the college in Safed altogether.
The rabbi also spoke out against several Jewish women with Arab boyfriends or husbands being held as what he considered "servants" in Arab villages and prevented from leaving.
Now, you may agree or disagree with the rabbi. Even if you disagree, surely nothing he said can compare to the blood-curdling declarations by Azmi Bishara. But the attorney general now wants the rabbi indicted and jailed for violation of Israel's anti-racism law, a law that makes racism a crime - unless it is perpetrated by an Arab or by a Jewish leftist.
So, let us make sure you are following. The Arab woman student who helped in the mass murder of bus riders gets off scot free in post-survivalist Israel, while a rabbi who makes a politically incorrect statement about Arab students in Safed is to be indicted for "racism".
All clear now?
This week, the Israeli First Amendment reached unprecedented heights of Orwellianism.
First, Azmi Bishara was cleared. Bishara runs one of those pro-terror, Arab fascist parties that have representatives in the Knesset (parliament) of Israel. Aside from cheering suicide bombers, Bishara made an illegal pilgrimage in 2001 to meet with Assad, Jr. to express his support for Syria - being threatened at the time by George Bush's war on Islamic terror for hiding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and other toys - and to tell the Syrian leader what a marvelous job the Hizbullah was doing.
When Bishara was then stupidly allowed back into Israel, he was investigated for breaches in Israel's security laws, by meeting with the enemy. The year before, Bishara had addressed an Islamofascist rally in the Israeli Arab town of Umm Al-Fahm and endorsed Hizbullah attacks on Israel.
That investigation dragged on for almost five years. This week, Israel's Supreme Court issued a ruling, written by Israel's Chief Justice, Mister Judicial Activism, Aharon Barak (no relation to Ehud Barak). It was decided to clear Bishara. Clean as a hound's tooth. Bishara's treasonous meetings with Assad were all within the "legitimate framework of his parliamentary activities as a member of the Knesset," says the Supreme Court.
So, you got it: it is now part of the job description of a member of the Knesset to promote anti-Israel terror.
The judges split two-to-one. The dissenting judge was Esther Hayut, who who saw Bishara's comments and acticities as beyond the "red line" of treason.
In typical consistency, as Bishara was cleared of one crime, Attorney General Meni Mazuz opened a new investigation of another; of which Bishara will also soon be cleared. The investigation centers around Bishara's trip last month to Lebanon. While there, Bishara said of the nation in whose parliament he sits, "Return Palestine to us and take your democracy with you. We Arabs are not interested in it."
"Returning" Bishara to a cave on the Afghan-Pakistani border was not one of the ideas proposed by Mazuz.
Well, free speech absolutism wins in Israel, right?
Wrong, grasshopper.
The very same day in which the Supreme Court cleared Syria's rep in the Israeli Knesset, the leftist attorney general - a guy who loves to prosecute any Jew expressing opinions to the right of Yossi Beilin for incitement, racism and terrorism, but who can never get around to indicting leftist academic traitors or Arab fascists in Israel - pushed Israel's First Amendment into unprecedented territory. He recommended that the Chief Rabbi of Safed be indicted at once for "racism". The rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, is the son of the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu.
What was Rabbi Eliyahu's horrendous crime, which got him targeted by Israel's Racism Patrol?
Well, a few years back, Israeli Arabs working for Hamas - the same Hamas that the Left now wants to have lunch with - placed a suicide bomber on a bus near Safed. When the blast went off, nine people were murdered and 50 wounded. When the perp got on the bus, he saw his cousin, an Israeli Arab woman who was returning from classes at a college in Safed. She was warned to get off the bus and did so. In spite of knowing what was about to take place, she declined to warn any of the riders on the bus to escape. The student was later investigated for being an accomplice in the atrocity and for failing to prevent a mass murder, but Israel's courts cleared her using the same standards of justice and logic displayed with regard to Azmi Bishara.
Around the time of the Arab student being cleared, the Chief Rabbi of Safed expressed the view that, given how an Arab student coming to Safed had been found to have collaborated with the bus bombers, maybe Arab students should henceforth be prevented from attending the college in Safed altogether.
The rabbi also spoke out against several Jewish women with Arab boyfriends or husbands being held as what he considered "servants" in Arab villages and prevented from leaving.
Now, you may agree or disagree with the rabbi. Even if you disagree, surely nothing he said can compare to the blood-curdling declarations by Azmi Bishara. But the attorney general now wants the rabbi indicted and jailed for violation of Israel's anti-racism law, a law that makes racism a crime - unless it is perpetrated by an Arab or by a Jewish leftist.
So, let us make sure you are following. The Arab woman student who helped in the mass murder of bus riders gets off scot free in post-survivalist Israel, while a rabbi who makes a politically incorrect statement about Arab students in Safed is to be indicted for "racism".
All clear now?