Moshe Negbi is an Israeli journalist specializing in the law and one of the most radical leftist extremists in the Israeli media. Like most of Israel's radical Left, he is strongly opposed to free speech for non-leftists. He has a long history of demanding that non-leftists and Oslo dissidents be prosecuted for "incitement", in contrast with Arab Stalinists and Islamist fascists screaming for genocide of Jews, which would be protected speech. He appears in Tikkun magazine, comments on legal affairs for Israel?s Channel One news and even is employed by the Hebrew University (Communications Department), where he no doubt teaches young minds that they must go out into the real world and arrest rabbis and opponents of Oslo. Incidentally, as far as the computerized bibliographies of academic literature show, Negbi has no academic publications to his name at all, other than two pieces in the semi-academic Jerusalem Quarterly. Negbi worked until recently for Maariv but got canned when he refused to play ball with the convicted criminal publishers of the paper in attacking their prosecutors.
On November 4, 2002, an Op-Ed piece by Negbi appeared in Haaretz in which he proves that he is not merely a vile, vulgar, bigoted, leftist McCarthyist, but also a propagator of long-debunked urban legends.
As you know, after the assassination of former prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, the McCarthyist Left in Israel invented a theory that unnamed rabbis had allegedly granted legitimacy to the assassination of Rabin by placing a curse on him and by reciting a "Pulsa Dinura" prayer against him. Ever since, "pulsa dinura" is probably the only prayer Israel's leftists have ever heard of. The problem, of course, is that no one has ever been able to identify any rabbis who ever said that killing Rabin was something good or desirable, and the only "pulsa dinura" anyone ever heard about was when a far-leftist TV producer staged a fake one with paid people barely controlling their laughter at the charade.
In Negbi's piece, entitled "The Murderers are Still Free", he makes it clear that the "murderers" of Rabin are all those who exercise their freedom of speech in opposing Rabin's ideas and policies (which, in turn, are little more than Israeli self-annihilation). He begins by saying that Rabin's death had been entirely foreseeable (but, of course, like all those other Israeli journalists who routinely insist that everything that occurs was foreseeable, Negbi never foresaw it before it happened). Why? Well, Negbi dug out of the archives an old 1992 clipping of an article in the now-defunct newspaper Davar (which lacked the foresight to foresee its own demise), in which it predicted that if Rabin shoved through a deal with the PLO based only on the Arab Knesset Members supporting him, then he would end up much like Anwar Sadat (that is, assassinated). At the time, Meretz Knesset Member Amnon Rubinstein (a law professor at Tel Aviv University) cited the Davar piece as "proof" that the Israeli Right consisted of murderous zealots and Jewish terrorists. I would hate to be his client when he presents legal proofs to a court about anything.
Now to put all this in perspective, the Arab Knesset Members in Israel are either members of the HADASH Communist Party, which has never quite gotten around to renouncing Stalin and openly seeks Israel's destruction, or other fascist Arab parties that are even worse than HADASH. It was becoming clear to some in 1992 that Rabin might betray his own electoral platform and try to strike a deal with the PLO, one that much of the parliament would oppose (we now know that MK Yossi Beilin and his two pseudo-academic stooges were already hard at work on such a deal in Oslo). The Davar piece was a speculation of what would happen if Rabin relied on the Arab anti-Jewish Knesset Members to push through such a deal. Since these MK's are devoted to Israel's destruction, any such deal would be extremely dubious ethically and illegitimate democratically, a bit like the French striking a deal with Germany in 1941 based only on the voter support of Alsace Germans.
Negbi pulls this out to prove how "racist" were the opponents of Oslo, even back in 1992 - people unwilling to see Rabin push through a deal with the PLO on the basis of support from Arab Knesset Members who happened to be seeking the destruction of Israel. Negbi cites this as proof that critics of the Left are both "racist" and assassins.
Next, this teacher from the Hebrew University recites the old litany about unnamed rabbis telling Yigal Amir it was okay to pop out and kill Rabin. Naturally Negbi has no more actual names of any such rabbis than the rest of the McCarthyist Left. The charge has been repeated in Israel so many jillions of times, that Yigal Amir killed Rabin because he is religious, that no one any longer questions this absurd axiom. No one has ever seriously considered the possibility that Amir killed Rabin because he was a law school student. Certainly, former legal correspondent Negbi never entertains that possibility.
Negbi then goes on to paint a picture of a bogeyman of evil, murderous, bloodthirsty rabbis stalking Israel, planning the next assassination while rubbing their dirty little paws together in glee, threatening all peace-loving, beautiful people with their fanaticism. In short, Negbi is missing his calling and should be writing for Der Sturmer or Radio Palestine or National Public Radio.
Negbi is one of the worst racists in Israel, although he is an anti-Orthodox racist. Yes, I know, the Orthodox are not a "race", but then again neither are the Arabs. And yes, "bigot" is a more accurate term, but "racism" has entered Modern Media Hebrew (MMH) as a synonym for non-leftists and for the Orthodox. Just like "inciters".
You might want to drop a note to the heads of the Hebrew University and the Israel Broadcasting Authority asking them how their institutions can employ such a McCarthyistic, anti-democratic bigot as Moshe Negbi on their respective staffs.
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Steven Plaut teaches Business Administration at the University of Haifa.
On November 4, 2002, an Op-Ed piece by Negbi appeared in Haaretz in which he proves that he is not merely a vile, vulgar, bigoted, leftist McCarthyist, but also a propagator of long-debunked urban legends.
As you know, after the assassination of former prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, the McCarthyist Left in Israel invented a theory that unnamed rabbis had allegedly granted legitimacy to the assassination of Rabin by placing a curse on him and by reciting a "Pulsa Dinura" prayer against him. Ever since, "pulsa dinura" is probably the only prayer Israel's leftists have ever heard of. The problem, of course, is that no one has ever been able to identify any rabbis who ever said that killing Rabin was something good or desirable, and the only "pulsa dinura" anyone ever heard about was when a far-leftist TV producer staged a fake one with paid people barely controlling their laughter at the charade.
In Negbi's piece, entitled "The Murderers are Still Free", he makes it clear that the "murderers" of Rabin are all those who exercise their freedom of speech in opposing Rabin's ideas and policies (which, in turn, are little more than Israeli self-annihilation). He begins by saying that Rabin's death had been entirely foreseeable (but, of course, like all those other Israeli journalists who routinely insist that everything that occurs was foreseeable, Negbi never foresaw it before it happened). Why? Well, Negbi dug out of the archives an old 1992 clipping of an article in the now-defunct newspaper Davar (which lacked the foresight to foresee its own demise), in which it predicted that if Rabin shoved through a deal with the PLO based only on the Arab Knesset Members supporting him, then he would end up much like Anwar Sadat (that is, assassinated). At the time, Meretz Knesset Member Amnon Rubinstein (a law professor at Tel Aviv University) cited the Davar piece as "proof" that the Israeli Right consisted of murderous zealots and Jewish terrorists. I would hate to be his client when he presents legal proofs to a court about anything.
Now to put all this in perspective, the Arab Knesset Members in Israel are either members of the HADASH Communist Party, which has never quite gotten around to renouncing Stalin and openly seeks Israel's destruction, or other fascist Arab parties that are even worse than HADASH. It was becoming clear to some in 1992 that Rabin might betray his own electoral platform and try to strike a deal with the PLO, one that much of the parliament would oppose (we now know that MK Yossi Beilin and his two pseudo-academic stooges were already hard at work on such a deal in Oslo). The Davar piece was a speculation of what would happen if Rabin relied on the Arab anti-Jewish Knesset Members to push through such a deal. Since these MK's are devoted to Israel's destruction, any such deal would be extremely dubious ethically and illegitimate democratically, a bit like the French striking a deal with Germany in 1941 based only on the voter support of Alsace Germans.
Negbi pulls this out to prove how "racist" were the opponents of Oslo, even back in 1992 - people unwilling to see Rabin push through a deal with the PLO on the basis of support from Arab Knesset Members who happened to be seeking the destruction of Israel. Negbi cites this as proof that critics of the Left are both "racist" and assassins.
Next, this teacher from the Hebrew University recites the old litany about unnamed rabbis telling Yigal Amir it was okay to pop out and kill Rabin. Naturally Negbi has no more actual names of any such rabbis than the rest of the McCarthyist Left. The charge has been repeated in Israel so many jillions of times, that Yigal Amir killed Rabin because he is religious, that no one any longer questions this absurd axiom. No one has ever seriously considered the possibility that Amir killed Rabin because he was a law school student. Certainly, former legal correspondent Negbi never entertains that possibility.
Negbi then goes on to paint a picture of a bogeyman of evil, murderous, bloodthirsty rabbis stalking Israel, planning the next assassination while rubbing their dirty little paws together in glee, threatening all peace-loving, beautiful people with their fanaticism. In short, Negbi is missing his calling and should be writing for Der Sturmer or Radio Palestine or National Public Radio.
Negbi is one of the worst racists in Israel, although he is an anti-Orthodox racist. Yes, I know, the Orthodox are not a "race", but then again neither are the Arabs. And yes, "bigot" is a more accurate term, but "racism" has entered Modern Media Hebrew (MMH) as a synonym for non-leftists and for the Orthodox. Just like "inciters".
You might want to drop a note to the heads of the Hebrew University and the Israel Broadcasting Authority asking them how their institutions can employ such a McCarthyistic, anti-democratic bigot as Moshe Negbi on their respective staffs.
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Steven Plaut teaches Business Administration at the University of Haifa.