Report: Right-Wing Thugs Target Leftist Anti-War Protesters As Police Do Little To Stop It

Left-wing anti-war protesters in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem now need to travel in groups to avoid being caught alone by gangs of right-wing thugs who lurk at the fringes of left-wing protests and, like the biblical Amalek, physically attack isolated leftists as they try to make there way to or from the anti-war protests.

Above: Right wing thugs in Tel Aviv 2 weeks ago

Report: Right-Wing Thugs Target Leftist Anti-War Protesters As Police Do Little To Stop It
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Left-wing anti-war protesters in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem now need to travel in groups to avoid being caught alone by gangs of right-wing thugs who lurk at the fringes of left-wing protests and, like the biblical Amalek, physically attack isolated leftists as they try to make there way to or from the anti-war protests, Ha’aretz reporter Ohr Kashti wrote in an op-ed.

Leftists reportedly told Kashti of right-wing “manhunts” for leftists and a police force that has repeatedly failed to proved left-wing protesters with basic security.

Haifa anti-war protesters also told Kashti that right-wing thugs accosted some of them as they made their way to last Saturday night’s anti-war protest. The rightists confronted the leftists, asked where they were going, and then tried to prevent them from joining the anti-war protest by using intimidation and physical violence.

All the while, police – who know this is taking place – were nowhere to be found.

Kashti believes the root of this current crop of right-wing street thugs is a right wing group, Im Tirtzu, which is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and other senior Likud Party leaders.

Im Tirtzu was founded with strong Likud support five or six years ago, Kashti wrote, with the mission of “purifying” universities and other academic institution of left-wing professors and academics.

From that grew acceptance of the notion to “purify” the rest of the country from people who dare to object to the policies of Israel’s right wing – especially during a time of war.

Im Tirtzu may not be organizing and leading the right-wing mobs that hunted Arabs down on the streets of Jerusalem earlier this month and beat them, and who are hunting down left-wing anti-war protesters and beating them now. But Im Tirtzu’s philosophy-theology and Likud leaders’ craven acceptance and backing of it certainly has contributed to today’s right-wing street violence – as has police apathy towards it.

Police reportedly do little to stop the right-wing thugs from harassing and physically assaulting the leftists and consistently appear at demonstrations in very small numbers – too small to protect left-wing protesters from the right-wing thugs.

According to Kashti, police say the leftists’ have a “hypersensitivity” problem and say the the job of police is to allow “freedom of expression on all sides.”

But, Kashti notes, freedom of expression should not include the legitimization of violence or turning a near-blind eye to it. But multiple reports say this is exactly what police are doing.

While right-wing thugs have repeatedly resorted to violence and threats of violence to break up left-wing demonstrations, left-wing demonstrators have not.

But that difference in behavior is not properly handled by police, and that failure, intentional or not, allows these right-wing thugs to terrorize non-violent leftists with near impunity.

Comments

[Moshe in Israel]

It's close to שבת here in ארץ ישראל so I don't have time to go on at length. Just a few questions for you Shmarya.

1. When was the last time you were here in Israel? And for how long?
2. Are all right wingers thugs?
3. Are you a personal friend to Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now?

I've been a regular reader yet rare commentator on this blog. But with a war going on here in Israel I felt the need to comment.

Get yourself over here and live in the Shomron or Yehuda and get a real on the ground perspective. Your arm chair analysis and detached understanding of what is happening here first hand makes you nothing more than that of the pissed-off infantryman, disguised as a literary and cultural commentator. Get yourself the wherewithal to come here to Israel and live to tell rather then telling to live.

[Mee-Samcha?]

@Moshe in Israe

I am a regular reader and sometimes commentator on this blog. For the most part I share Shmarya's views on things, but when it comes to this subject he and I could't be farther apart. I was offended by this posting to the extent that I could not find the right words to express my outrage. The Amalek comparison was absolutely disgusting. The cowards who indiscriminately fire rockets at cities throughout Israel from hospitals, pre-schools and mosques are Amalek, not those who are fighting the enemy within. As I started to formulate my comments I read yours and I realized that anything I could say would only pale in comparison to what you wrote. Yashir Koach.

I continue to pray for all of our brave men and women fighting off those who seek to destroy us. Stay safe, stay strong, and have a great Shabbos.

[Jekyll Jacobson]

Anyone opposing our defending ourselves deserves to be dragged into a central place and hanged for treason.
When your country is at war help out or shut up.
I am with the right wingers all the way.

[Yahoshua David]

I dont support leftists at all, but its very Brown Shirt to be running around beating up the opposition.

Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Austria, east Germany.

[Shmarya]

Moshe in Israel –

Yes, it is absolutely certain that only someone who has lived in the West Bank can have a qualified opinion of any of this. [end sarcasm]

If you don't know the difference between peaceful protest and beating up and terrorizing political opponents, nothing I could ever write would explainit to you.

[Account Deleted]

I agree 101% with you,Jekyll Jacobson!!

[jewish patriot]

Do you also call Leftist extremists THUGS or only when it's from the Right ?

[Anti-kike]

Just as a matter of reference, the Communists/Bolsheveks (whose leadership, by some estimates, was approximately 40% Jewish) were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of non-Jews during the first half of the 20th century. Holomodor anyone? In addition, obviously the Zionist movement was based on a leftist philosophy even though the concept of nationalism is often associated with the right. The lines are more blurred than politicos admit.

Please don't attack me my leftist friends. I'm just stating a fact that the left wing has a history of zealousness as well as the right. I personally, don't believe responding with violence is the answer. Unless the protestors feel that their survival depends on it.

[Joe Field]

Anti-kike;

There is no question that the far left is as much guilty of genocide as the far-right, never the less the left of today are not the same far-left “Communists/Bolsheviks” as in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Today’s lefties are the yesteryears middle of the road.

[Joe Field]

Moshe in Israel;

I understand you don’t want the people in your country to have freedom of expression; you are looking for a theocracy. Remember, here in the States when we were engaged in Vietnam if your view had prevailed we might still be in Vietnam fighting the Chinese. Wondering how many Americans would have died before you would see the rightness of the protesters.

[Joe Field]

Jekyll Jacobson;

If you don’t believe in freedom of assembly, get the f--k out of this country. In the meantime you are an armchair general, who don’t know shit, not even Halacha what you supposedly study every day.

[Franklin Clinton]

The right wing in Israel adopted the 2pac זצ'ל song "Thug 4 Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7YTrp6E3eg

and the peace movement adopted Riahanna's "There's A Thug In My Life "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7XyBoFm0DE

[Franklin Clinton]

we should have a celebrity deathmatch between Shmarya and the Senior Sefardi Haredi Rabbi Sholom Cohen who also calls people who do not share his views "Amalek"

My Amalek is bigger than your Amalek!