Isi Leibler, an Israeli with a desire to allow only hardline Zionist views to be heard, is back; he knows he’s struggling with reality because anybody who damns the occupation is classified as disloyal or worse. Hear the desperation and fury. This is modern Zionism:
Unfortunately, in the wake of the Oslo Accords, the massive divisions which tore Israeli society apart shattered this convention, ironically with right-wing politicians encouraging Diaspora leaders to undermine the Rabin government.
This occurred simultaneously with the rise of post-Zionism, vigorously promoted by the daily newspaper Ha’aretz, which published critiques of Zionist doctrine until then considered beyond the pale by the vast majority of Israelis.
Ha’aretz also launched an English internet edition which emboldened Diaspora Jewish extremists and provided a green light to global media outlets to run demonizing articles about Israel on the grounds that they had already appeared in a “reputable” Israeli daily. The most recent example was the Ha’aretz campaign defaming the IDF, which proved to be entirely baseless but created an enormous global upsurge of anti-Israeli hysteria and eased the way for the Goldstone Report.
In this atmosphere, fringe groups of “non-Jewish Jews,” many with no prior involvement in Jewish life, exploited their Jewish origins or Israeli nationality to defame Israel. Today, they occupy leading roles fueling global anti-Israel campaigns.
Regrettably, successive Israeli governments failed to respond even when professors at universities funded by Israeli taxpayers and Diaspora Zionists began exploiting their positions to delegitimize their country. They identified with Israel’s enemies, calling on the world to boycott Israeli institutions, including their own universities.