You Can’t Say That – De Hartog Should Have Slapped Yacov Cohen Twice For Calling Him A Nazi

By
Omri Ceren
– July 10, 2007Posted in: Politics Israeli

Obviously the Knesset had to permanently bar De Hartog. You just can’t take swings at MKs – it’s just not done. But heaven help us that slap was richly deserved:

De Hartog tried to explain his reaction after MK Cohen told him he was “worse than the Germans” during a heated argument in the Knesset. “My father was born in the Netherlands, he lost 20 family members in the Holocaust. After the war he came here to build a home in the land of Israel,” said a tearful De Hartog. “I decided to become a public official who struggles for equality for all sectors in Israel, I could not believe that something like this would be said about me. Calling someone in something like that in Israel, anywhere actually, to say they are worse than the Germans… these are words that are unacceptable in the world, certainly not in Israel. And so to be called that in the Israeli parliament…”

The pro-Israel right is way too free with that particular insult. It’s just as dumb – and just as offensive – as when leftists accuse Israelis of being Nazis because of their treatment of the Palestinians (lot of gas chambers in the West Bank lately, eh?)

Except in this case, it’s religious Jews urging other Jews to hate the Jews who are the target of their displeasure. Our understanding of Jewish ethics is a little rusty, but isn’t there some kind of rule against that?

References:
* ‘There are things you cannot say in Israel’ [YNet]
* Knock It Off [MR]

Previously:
* What Israeli Rightists Will Get
* Israeli Rightists Need To Stop Defending Ron-Tal
* Israeli Rightists Prepare to Cut Nose, Spite Face

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit