Price Tag Vision: “Racism or Assimilation”

Price Tag Vision: “Racism or Assimilation”

Posted: 18 Jun 2013 12:03 AM PDT

Walla article on price tag graffiti defacing Palestinian village, Abu Ghosh.

Amir Schiby posted an interesting bit of price tag graffiti featured in a Walla story.  There are two items related to the report especially worth noting.  First is the graffiti itself which says simply: “Racism or assimilation.”  That’s an interesting concept illustrative of the contradictions inherent in both the settlerist religious-Zionist vision and in Israel itself.
In the settler world view, there are only two choices: a state rid of non-Jews (racism) or a state in which Jews stop being Jews (assimilation).  There is no possibility for Jews to co-exist with non-Jews in one state.  The reason this is especially interesting is that it flagrantly rejects the notion that Israel is a democracy.
It posits Israel as a religious state, a Jewish state.  But not a Jewish state any non-Orthodox Jew would recognize or accept.  Even many Orthodox Jews might reject this vision.  So let’s call this a vision endorsed by a minority of Israel’s Jewish population.  But it is one that has a huge amount of momentum and the tacit support among huge portions Israel’s political echelon.
Now, I have no problem with an Israeli ultra-nationalist who honestly embraces such a point of view.  At least I can combat those ideas directly.  But the problem is that almost the entire Israeli ruling class endorses these views surreptitiously and is far too slick to be caught doing so publicly.  That’s why price taggers are so useful.  They are the vanguard of the Israeli rightist political elite.
The Walla coverage is also interesting because it refuses to deal with, or glosses over the real nature of the crime committed:

Knowledge of the incident even shocked the police who told Walla: If indeed this is an act of nationalist [racism], it damages the principle of co-existence and living together of Jews and Arabs that the friendly village [Abu Ghosh] represents.
The police views this with the utmost severity and will dedicate great efforts, as it has already, to conduct operations that will catch them [the price taggers] and bring them to justice.

As I wrote above, what’s interesting about this statement is the initial conditional phrase by the police which allows the possibility that this may not be a price tag attack.  The very notion that this is possible, indicates a profound level of denial among the Israeli police about the nature and severity of Israeli racism.  Further, the remainder of the statement is simply boilerplate expression of concern that contains no reality or truth.  The police never dedicate serious effort to apprehending such criminals.
And why should they?  Even their own prime minister refuses to name these acts as terrorism for fear of tarnishing Israel’s image on the world stage.  The implication is that if Israel acknowledges there are Jewish terrorists, this will somehow allow the world to follow suit.  It’s as if the world waits to make such judgments only upon Israel’s endorsement.  There is no recognition that much of the world has already made up its mind that Jewish terror not only exists, but that it has infected the entire power structure of the Israeli state.  Whether the illness is fatal or not is not presently known.
What I’m saying is nothing new.  Yeshaya Leibowitz called such settler thugs “Judeo-Nazis” several decades ago.  He was right then and nothing’s changed except that they’ve now entered the Knesset, cabinet and army command.  It reminds me of the film, Invasion of the Body-Snatchers.  Will we wait till there’s no one left to fight them and the thugs have completely taken over the country?