Like all right-thinking people, I hope that when the Israeli election is completely finished and a new Israeli government is formed, the words that I am writing now will not seem very relevant, because we’ll know for certain that Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to be the Prime Minister of Israel anymore.
But in case it might not be so, let us pause for a moment to reflect on what Netanyahu has just spectacularly revealed about himself, in the eyes of his mainstream Israeli political opponents: that he is a racist.
The New York Times reports:
The Likud Party distributed a fresh video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through social media on Tuesday, warning that “right-wing rule is in danger” and that “Arab voters are streaming in quantity to the polling stations,” with left-wing groups “bringing them in buses.”
“We don’t have V15,” Mr. Netanyahu says, referring to a new leftist group that is advised by an American strategist whose data-driven get-out-the-vote operation helped propel Barack Obama to the White House.
Instead, he says, “We have Order-8” — Israeli Army jargon for an emergency call-up — “and we only have you. Go out to the polling station, bring your friends and family and vote.”
“With your help and God’s help,” he continues, “we will form a national government and protect the State of Israel.”
What does the mainstream Israeli opposition to Netanyahu think about this?
His main opponents, the center-left Zionist Union alliance, responded quickly with a sharp attack on Mr. Netanyahu.
“No other Western leader would dare utter such a racist remark,” Shelly Yacimovich, a senior member of the bloc, wrote on Twitter. “Imagine a warning that starts, ‘Our rule is in danger, black voters are streaming in quantity to the polling stations.’ “
Congressional Republicans apparently see Netanyahu as their Supreme Guide for determining US policy towards Iran. So, the top foreign policy adviser, if you will, to congressional Republicans on Iran policy is an Israeli leader whom the mainstream political opposition in Israel sees as a racist.
Should Republicans who follow an Israeli leader whom center-left Israelis see as racist be allowed to run our policy towards Iran? If you don’t think so, you can tell your Democratic Senators here.
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