Legitimate Protest — ‘Genuine Protestor’ More Entitled Than GK Refugee, Yesha Resident, Feiglinite?

The Final Barricade Manhigut Yehudit Weekly Update — 2 September, 2006

The reserve soldier sat in his wheelchair at the anti-Olmert demonstration opposite government headquarters. He was reciting Psalms. His obvious injury didn’t merit much attention or empathy. He had a kippah (skullcap) on his head and a beard. The organizers of the protests kept their distance from him as if he was a leper.

He is Olmert’s final barricade.

Israel’s NRG (The Israeli Ma’ariv Newspaper) website reported that Olmert’s confidantes explained that the PM does not have to relate seriously to the protests calling for his resignation. “It is very hard to distinguish,” they pointed out, “between a genuine protestor that claims that Olmert mishandled the war and a demonstrator from Gush Katif or a Feiglinite that is simply taking a free ride on the protests.”

Hmmm…Could it be that a reserve soldier who was expelled from Gush Katif or is a Manhigut Yehudit member and nevertheless went to fight in Olmert’s war of deception is not a genuine citizen?

The answer, of course, is “yes.” If you belong to the Orange Camp, you are fine as cannon fodder, but that is all. You will always be the first to volunteer to prove yourself and in exchange you will get the above declarations from the Prime Minister.

It seems that Olmert’s spin doctors are using a tried and true strategy to tow their client out of the mud. It is the same strategy that they used when Sharon was about to be defeated by his own (Likud) party. “It’s either me or Feiglin,” Sharon warned. It’s actually a common strategy. When the ruler is in trouble, all he has to do is create a Jewish demon to blame for all the ills that he, himself, has created.

It is only appropriate for the Orange Camp to demonstrate. They are the people who rang the warning bells years ago. The problem, though, is actually with the Orange Camp. They don’t believe in themselves and see themselves as a peripheral sector and not as representatives of the “genuine” nation.

Olmert’s comment that there are sectors in this country who can legitimately protest while others whose legitimacy takes them no farther than the killing fields carries a clear and chilling message. Israel is a cruel tyranny disguised as a democracy. It is pointless to demonstrate against this type of tyranny without creating a viable alternative.