Oded Kotler
Oded KotlerOren Nachshon, Flash 90

Dr. Samuel Schneider, Professor of Hebrew at Yeshiva University (YU) in New York, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Wednesday about actor Oded Kotler's remarks that Likud voters are "straw-chewing animals." 

"The Left's response to a loss in elections is a continuation of the reaction in 1977," Schneider said, "so the discourse of the Left gives off a feeling of, 'the State is gone, all is lost, Israel will collapse." 

He noted that, in '77, the Left also accused the National Religious Party (Mafdal; the precursor to Jewish Home - ed.) of treason and used several pejoratives against them. 

"One of the salient features of the Left in general and Israel in particular is the undisputed [sense of] justice given to its cause," he added. "[The Left] thinks it's the only one who understands history and calls on the generations ahead."

Schneider cited Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin as examples of leftists who started revolutionary movements based on a sense of 'I'm right, and everyone else is wrong and misguided.' 

"An[other] example is Shimon Peres and the new Middle East," he added. "I would love to hear what he says about the new Middle East after all the changes that have happened recently."

Schneider argued that the Left is also acting arrogantly. 

"There is a recurring theme here - condescending statements such as: the settlers don't understand anything, and [Yair] Garbuz's 'amulet-kissers' speech," he noted, adding it "borders on total arrogance." 

Schneider contends that the left dominates Israeli hegemony, as he puts it, "by political correctness."

"It determines the boundaries it controls in the press, in the language of the debate, its jargon, much of its writing and its guiding principles," he concluded. "Even the right-wing writers' are influenced by the guidelines given as a minority group."