Dec 6, 2022
Israel: Fascist gambit in a democratic setup
After all, whoever obliges the dictator to give a reasoned decision based on facts weakens their dictatorship, and challenges their authority. Because such a requirement implies that they owe an explanation to someone. Unfortunately, that subjects them to logic and reality.
By Rogel Alpher • (Translated by Sol Salbe)
New Knesset member Almog Cohen is an accomplished interviewee. His behaviour in front of the camera is natural. He is fluent, popular and direct when he speaks. His tone is unequivocal. His sentences are short. And he transmits exactly the degree of aggression that is appropriate for a fascist who is still forced to manoeuvre their way in a democratic setup. A degree of aggression which is still restrained, yet reveals enough of itself to proclaim its presence and provides hint that there is much more to it. A great deal of aggression that is reserved for another time, for the right timing. There’s something vaguely menacing about it that’s hard to put your finger on. There’s just a feeling. Something in the air he creates around him. He has quickly become a new media star. After all, Ben Gvir cannot be on all TV channels and radio stations at the same time.
He glanced at a notepaper, or the phone he was holding in his hand, just outside the frame and read the first name of an organisation that should be banned from entering schools: “The Bereaved Families Forum” [The Hebrew name of the Parents Circle], which he said creates symmetry between “our murdered victims and those people we have killed, the cursed terrorists”. TV presenter Linoy Bar-Geffen said that was a lie, and that those comments were “nonsense”. She and frontperson Raskin asked Cohen to demonstrate knowledge of the facts and to provide the name of one terrorist whose family is a member of the forum. Cohen had no idea. They asked him if he knew who the members of the forum were, what the forum does, and if he knew its activities. “Irrelevant,” said Cohen, “It doesn’t make any difference to me. I don’t care. It’s not relevant what they do.”
They kept pushing him back against the wall. And then Cohen said something truly amazing: “At the end of the day, their actual name is bad enough not to let them into the schools.” This sentence didn’t work for him. He repeated it. Their activities are irrelevant, he doesn’t care, it doesn’t matter to him. But the organisation is “illegitimate. It won’t be allowed inside the schools, full stop, end of sentence. What’s so complicated here, I don’t understand,” he growled aggressively at Bar-Geffen, and dispersed the same threatening aura in a diffused fashion, the vibe of the lord of the land. Then he announced the disqualification of Tag Meir [United against racism], B’Tselem, Yesh Din and Breaking the Silence.
This barring based on name alone is very significant. It testifies, on purpose, to the arbitrariness of dictatorial power. After all, whoever obliges the dictator to give a reasoned decision based on facts weakens their dictatorship, and challenges their authority. Because such a requirement implies that they owes an explanation to someone. Unfortunately, that subjects them to logic and reality. On the other hand, an arbitrary, capricious, lazy decision, which does not bother itself with trifles beyond the will of the dictator, makes it clear that their power is supreme. Their decision is the right one by virtue of being the person who sets the law. They are not required to degrade himself to the rank of an arguer in some debate between equals, which is decided through argumentative ability. And hence it is possible that Linoy Bar-Gefen will be disqualified as a journalist simply because of her name.
Original article in Haaretz Hebrew Edition:
(Translated from Hebrew by Sol Salbe, Middle East News Service)
