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azurnoir

(45,850 posts)
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 04:38 PM Apr 2013

Patriotism in the service of silencing dissent

This past week, Haaretz reported that Israeli diplomats were having a hard time dealing with the film “The Gatekeepers.” Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, outdid all the others when he claimed that the heads of the Shin Bet who were interviewed for the film compromised the state’s public relations efforts, which he said were "in a kind of war.”

His statements join other similar ones that have been made of late – statements that express one of many symptoms of a dangerous disease that has been attacking Israeli society over the past few years. Other symptoms include increasing delegitmization of the left wing (and the Haredi population as well), with the purpose of silencing legitimate voices in public discourse; Culture Minister Limor Livnat’s call to artists to practice self-censorship; the Education Ministry’s dismissal of civics studies supervisor Adar Cohen because his liberal views were not to the liking of former education minister Gideon Sa’ar; the barring by Israel of Professor Rivka Feldhay from participating in a joint Israeli-German academic conference, apparently for her support for Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories; and the attempts to shut down the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University. All these are symptoms of the attempts to suppress free speech in Israeli society.

Oren and those who share his opinion claim that criticism of the leadership’s policy is tantamount to damaging the State of Israel’s standing and harming its interests. For the regime’s spokesmen, their methods, ideology and goals are an inseparable part of the state. Therefore, disagreeing with them is equivalent to harming the state, and critics betray the state’s interests. This approach is reminiscent of the spokesmen of the Chinese regime, who use the same reason to silence criticism from within and exert tight control over the media, cultural works and academia. The approach of Oren and his colleagues must therefore justify regimes that attempt to silence criticism of anti-Semitism in their countries for fear that making such criticism public might damage their countries’ image and interests.

............................

Oren and his ilk do not accept the basic principle that patriots who love their country and their people are allowed to disagree with the political leadership’s vision and policy. They deny the approach that heterogeneity of thought is one of the most obvious and necessary signs of an open and pluralistic society. Not for a moment does it occur to them that perhaps their goals and policy are what is causing damage to the state.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/patriotism-in-the-service-of-silencing-dissent.premium-1.512081




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Patriotism in the service of silencing dissent (Original Post) azurnoir Apr 2013 OP
Allow me to assist: bemildred Apr 2013 #1
ah the holy hand grenade azurnoir Apr 2013 #13
I just threw that one in because I like it. bemildred Apr 2013 #14
oh we see that sort of thing here quite frequentloy azurnoir Apr 2013 #15
Religion and politics differ little GeoWilliam750 Apr 2013 #2
The voters have spoken, have they not? What percentage do not feel well represented, for the most Jefferson23 Apr 2013 #3
Same as the voters who elected Hamas I guess King_David Apr 2013 #4
Huh? That is one convoluted remark. n/t Jefferson23 Apr 2013 #5
what voters elected Hamas ? n/t azurnoir Apr 2013 #6
Well it wasn't Israel who elected Hamas King_David Apr 2013 #7
so which voters elect Hamas and for what? n/t azurnoir Apr 2013 #8
Majority in parliament King_David Apr 2013 #9
well your half right :) azurnoir Apr 2013 #10
Ha ha King_David Apr 2013 #11
happened here too oh about 10 or so years ago azurnoir Apr 2013 #12

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
1. Allow me to assist:
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 04:54 PM
Apr 2013

When I was seven years old, I was once reprimanded by my mother for an
act of collective brutality in which I had been involved at school. A
group of seven-year-olds had been teasing and tormenting a
six-year-old. "It is always so," my mother said. "You do things
together which not one of you would think of doing alone." ...
Wherever one looks in the world of human organization, collective
responsibility brings a lowering of moral standards. The military
establishment is an extreme case, an organization which seems to have
been expressly designed to make it possible for people to do things
together which nobody in his right mind would do alone.
-- Freeman Dyson, "Weapons and Hope"

"Here in America, we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels- men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfils our worst wishes.
In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat.
Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.
Sweet and decorous to murder, lie, torture, for the sake of the fatherland.
Eyeless in Gaza -- Aldous Huxley 1936

And finally:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch,
saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine
enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice
and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and
fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the
Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count
to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number
of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither
shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three.
Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the
counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in
the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall
snuff it."

-- Monty Python, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I'm pretty sure "Oren and his ilk" are mainly concerned with themselves, and see their opposition as "enemies", which is indeed a problem.

azurnoir

(45,850 posts)
13. ah the holy hand grenade
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 04:07 PM
Apr 2013

yep we that launched here at least in an editorial manner with some frequency

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
14. I just threw that one in because I like it.
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 04:27 PM
Apr 2013

A classic example of placebo religion. (You have to believe or it doesn't work.)

GeoWilliam750

(2,519 posts)
2. Religion and politics differ little
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 05:10 PM
Apr 2013

Affirmation and domination

If you disagree with me, you are a threat, especially if you are right, because that would diminish my standing within my social group.

If you disagree, I must shut you up, whether you are right or wrong.

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
3. The voters have spoken, have they not? What percentage do not feel well represented, for the most
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 06:25 PM
Apr 2013

part. The voters collectively did not hold ending the occupation a high priority, this was reported
as an accurate assessment.

Are the voters duped by their elected officials, they are not aware of all the people speaking out
against the belligerence of those in power?

A state run by crazy people screaming security in order to take more land that does not belong
to them.

This does not surprise me, not at all: Not for a moment does it occur to them that perhaps their goals and policy are what is causing damage to the state.


What I find incredible, is the voters do not seem to either, which is more than a little bizarre.


azurnoir

(45,850 posts)
12. happened here too oh about 10 or so years ago
Wed Apr 3, 2013, 01:16 AM
Apr 2013

but Americans or at least enough of us caught on, all it took was a little bit of economic collapse

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