The hysterical, hypocritical reaction to Glenn Beck helped underline the collective psychosis of Israel’s left-wing establishment.
By MARTIN SHERMANGlenn Beck Restoring Courage 311(photo credit: REUTERS)The extreme Israeli right's alliance with lunaticsIn recent years, the extreme Israeli Right has developed an alliance with heads of the Evangelical movement, who define themselves as Christian Zionists, some of whom believe that another Holocaust of the Jews will ensure the resurrection of Jesus.– Editorial headline on Glenn Beck’s tour of Israel, Haaretz, August 25Glenn Beck has come and gone. His tour of the country could probably be deemed a reasonable success, but perhaps more low-key than some expected. Certainly it did not have an electrifying impact that reverberated through Israeli society. No senior Israeli politician addressed Beck’s rallies, or made widely publicized endorsements of his staunchly pro-Israel initiative.Beck was perhaps entitled to expect greater support from the Israeli political establishment. Indeed, as MK Einat Wilf, a self-professed left-leaning liberal atheist pointed out with grace and eloquence, one need not identify with all of Beck’s ideas or approve of all his pronouncements to acknowledge his fervent support with courteous appreciation.Disturbingly detached from reality Generally, local press coverage ranged from muted embarrassment to dismissive contempt to breathtaking mendacity.As Caroline Glick ably points out, the Israeli media either grossly under-reported or gravely mis-reported events. While not totally unexpected, this unprofessional misconduct reflects a disturbing dereliction of duty on the part of mainstream journalists to their reading public, once again underscoring their willingness to subordinate professional integrity to political bias.For whether one applauds or abhors Beck, the attempt to dismiss him “marginal” or “fringe” underscores how detached from reality the criticism of him was. Love him or loathe him, no one can deny that Beck is a hugely influential and admired figure in the US – a fact born out by poll after poll.To brand him “anti-Semitic” for his outspoken support of the Jewish state is as delusional as it is malevolent...A dramatic eclipse of common sense Of course in the deluded malice department, it is difficult to outdo Haaretz. After publishing almost daily tirades invective against Beck during his tour, the paper decided to sum up his visit with an editorial slur, castigating him for having the temerity “to speak ill of US President Barack Obama and to challenge his leadership” – a incongruous position for a newspaper that has made lambasting its own prime minister its professional hallmark. In a journalistic sleight of hand, its headline casts collective aspersions – unsubstantiated throughout the rest of the piece – on all Israelis who do not dissociate themselves from Beck, implying that this brackets them with “the extreme right,” and that Christian Zionist allies of Israel are “lunatics.”But Haaretz can hardly claim to be the standard-bearer for mental health. Indeed, just how much the paper has lost its grasp on reason is reflected in the editorial’s closing paragraph.In a dramatic eclipse of common sense by political correctness, it chides Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s for allowing Beck’s pro-Israel event to take place and for barring anti-Israel activists – the same folk who couldn’t make it to Gaza with this year’s foiled flotilla – from entering the country to express their “support for the Palestinians’ struggle.”The reason for Haaretz’s chagrin? Beck’s “support event in Jerusalem was no less provocative” than the “activists’” planned anti-Israel protests. No kidding! You couldn’t make this stuff up!Totally oblivious to any distinction between friend and foe, the quasi-official mouthpiece of the self-appointed “enlightened” Left showed itself incapable of differentiating amity from enmity. One is left to wonder whether Haaretz would prefer Beck and his sizable following to transfer their support to the anti-Israel camp. But then for Haaretz being anti-Israel is no different than being pro-Israel.Symptoms of collective psychosis Despite all this mean-spirited depreciation – perhaps partially because of it – Beck’s visit generated a hugely important by-product.The reaction to his overtly pro-Israel enterprise exposed in the most blatant manner the psychotic nature of the Israeli Left as a socio-political collective, that demented segment of society that masquerades as the nation’s “intellectual elite.”Psychotic? Demented? Strong words, perhaps, but the diagnosis is both appropriate and demonstrably verifiable. Indeed, were a private individual to exhibit the behavioral patterns characteristic of the so-called intelligentsia of the Left, he would undoubtedly be certified for serious mental disorder and declared a danger to himself and his surroundings.Consider the following widely accepted definitions of psychiatric concepts: • Psychosis: Mental illness involving gross disorder of perception...which causes the subject to lose touch with external reality.
• Psychotic symptom: A symptom which causes a misinterpretation of reality, typically hallucinations; delusional belief.
• Hallucination: A perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus to the sense organs.
• Delusion: A belief that is firmly held despite compelling evidence to the contrary.Little effort is required to identify a remarkably close correlation between the collective behavior of the Israeli Left and these symptoms. It would take a very thick tome to document all cases, so we confine ourselves to representative examples.A belief firmly held despite compelling evidence to the contrary Let’s start with “losing touch with reality.”The Israeli Left has been in denial for more than a decade. With their entire worldview in shattered ruins, they still refuse to acknowledge error.Their ideological flagship, the Oslo process, which set sail for a “New Middle East,” has long-floundered on the rocks of Mideast realities. Without exception, all the dangers its opponents warned of have materialized, but not one of the benefits its proponents promised.Thousands – Israelis and Palestinians – have paid with life and limb to indulge pursuit of this dangerous delusion. Still the Israeli Left refuses to recant, withdrawing from reality and persisting in “a belief... firmly held despite compelling evidence to the contrary.”Indeed, contention after left-wing contention has proved hallucinatory in the sense that they were founded on nothing other than wishful thinking:• The wild fantasy of an EU-like “New Middle East” stretching from Casablanca to Kuwait.• The bizarre assessment of the preeminently corrupt archterrorist Yasser Arafat as a credible peace partner.• The preposterous perception of murderous Bashar Assad as a cultured, trustworthy ruler who could be relied on to honor a deal on the Golan (how nutty does that look today?) These were all pure figments of feverish left-wing imagination, devoid of any anchor in reality. They were conceived, promoted and pursued although they clearly flew in the face of known facts and prevailing evidence.Rejecting love, embracing hate Perverse people, the Israeli Left. It would seem that they are more comfortable being hated and despised than being loved and admired.Thus while they fulminate against Zionist Christians, and urge that Israelis dissociate themselves from them, hinting darkly that “some” (but implying “all”) harbor a latent anti- Semitic agenda, they nevertheless endorse engaging the Palestinians whose Judeophobic agenda is overt and active.Indeed the diatribes and the graphic imagery in official Palestinian media are reminiscent of the Nazis’ Der Stürmer, but leave the Israeli Left strangely unperturbed.While they issue dire warnings that the Zionist Christians may secretly wish the annihilation of the Jews at the end of days, they seem to have no problem advocating contacts with the Islamist extremists who openly advocate the annihilation of Jews today – as precondition for the advent of the Day of Redemption. Not only does the Hamas Charter exhort Muslims to slaughter Jews down to the very last one, but the allegedly “pragmatic” Fatah calls for the complete demolition of the Zionist entity in its Constitution... It doesn’t get more anti-Semitic than that. But the Israeli Left ignores this with unnerving equanimity.Embracing the ‘other’ – sort of The Israeli Left prides itself on its openness and acceptance of the “other.” However, this professed tolerance has a perverse way of manifesting itself and seems subject to curious limitations.Thus one finds that the Left seems more comfortable with people who endorse – or at least condone – “honor killing,” than with people who oppose abortion.While they seem to have no problem with Judeocidal Muslims and inimical boycott, divestment and sanctions-promoting Christians, left-wing tolerance of the “other” abruptly evaporates when it comes to ultra-Orthodox Jews, Jewish “settlers”... or pro-Israel Evangelical Christians.They are demonized as the cause of all evil – be it provoking Palestinian terror, inducing the high cost of housing, delaying the advent of regional peace or hastening that of Armageddon.The twin pillars of doctrinal dogma A comprehensive compilation of the psychotic-like behavior patterns of the Israeli Left would extend well beyond the limitations of a single article. Suffice to say that society would not tolerate them in an individual. It should not tolerate them in a collective.The Left has abused its unelected positions of power and privilege in the legal establishment, the media and academe, leading the nation astray and imposing on the elected polity a delusion dogma that rests on twin doctrinal pillars:• Credo quia absurdum est – I believe it because it is absurd.
• Falastin über alles – Palestine above all else.
Not convinced? Imagine how Glenn Beck would have been received with open left-wing arms – whatever his alleged views on the coming of the Messiah – had he enthusiastically endorsed Palestinian statehood and a divided Jerusalem.This is a doctrine that has wrought untold harm on the nation. The people promoting it must be challenged and driven from their positions of dominance in the Israeli establishment; their stranglehold over the institutions of law, the press and the universities must be pried loose.A real reason for revolution In this season of social awareness, this should be the real target for public anger. The detrimental, dysfunctional and largely disloyal role the Israel Left has played over the past two decades is a far more appropriate target at which public outrage should be directed. It is to this end that energies should be channeled – certainly far more than to the demand for cheaper cheese.If the hysterical, incoherent and hypocritical reaction to Glenn Beck’s visit helped underline this, he will have done the country a great service.
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