Arabs for hire [View All]

[Violet_Crumble]

By Gideon Levy

The Labor Party is on its way to victory. Its courageous, stubborn struggle to establish a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians, against the brutal use of violence, against the occupation and for equality, is bearing fruit.

Israel's Arabs are no doubt impressed by the resolved, uncompromising struggle of the party that never renounced its principles for a cabinet seat, because tens of thousands of them are signing up as members.

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the former defense minister, who ordered the mass assassinations and the closure, is enrolling thousands of members. The popularity of Matan Vilnai, former OC Southern Command, who conducted the occupation in Gaza, is also on the rise among the Arabs. Shimon Peres, one of the fathers of the settlement project in the territories, and Amir Peretz, who did not lift a finger for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed Palestinian laborers, are leading the polls in the Arab community. Even Ehud Barak, during whose government 13 Arab demonstrators were shot dead, has his Arabs.


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Who said there were no principles in politics? Israel's Arabs have proved that there is one principle that does not change in our political culture - Arabs can be bought, cheaply. The price has not risen since Yisrael Koenig, the Interior Ministry official in charge of the Northern District, bought Arab votes for the National Religious Party with licenses for hunting rifles, or since Shas bought Arab votes for building permits. The Arabs have displayed neither political maturity nor national awareness, solidarity with their Palestinian brethren or a struggle against the discrimination. Only petty wheeling and dealing, which characterizes the political conduct of those who join the Labor party.

These people are disgracing their nation and politics. It is no coincidence that about half of those who enrolled in Labor, and are also members of another party, are Arabs. Functionary Iyad Mansour, of Tira, a former Peres supporter, collected no less than 5,000 votes for Ben-Eliezer. "Fuad is the new hope of the Arab community, he is the one who can help us," he says. Fuad? The new hope?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/589358.html