Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 26-year-old son, posted on Facebook that he is more concerned with far-left "thugs" rather than neo-Nazi "scum," arguing that "the latter belong to the past."
"I'm a Jew, I'm an Israeli, the neo nazis scums in Virginia hate me and my country. But they belong to the past. Their breed is dying out," Netanyahu wrote on his personal, private Facebook page.
"However, the thugs of Antifa and BLM who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much are getting stronger and stronger and becoming super dominant in American universities and public life." — www.haaretz.com/...
The Times of Israel is also covering the post.
Yair Netanyahu’s comments on BLM may seem strange at first, but have been echoed by others. Alan Dershowitz, for example, has defended Steve Bannon while strongly criticizing Keith Ellison and Black Lives Matter. Israel’s Agricultural Minister, Uri Ariel, threw his support behind Breitbart and Steve Bannon.
The common thread here seems to be that Black Lives Matter and Anti-Fascists are opposed to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and some support BDS. Still, it does seem confusing that some Israelis consider Steve Bannon and neo-Nazis harmless, or even helpful to Israel.
Richard Spencer, a white nationalist and de facto leader of the so-called “alt-right,” described himself to a reporter on Israel’s Channel 2 News as “a white Zionist” on Wednesday evening and argued that Israelis “should respect someone like me.” [...]
Asked how the mainly Jewish audience at home should take his remarks, Spencer responded: “... an Israeli citizen, someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood, and the history and experience of the Jewish people, you should respect someone like me, who has analogous feelings about whites. You could say that I am a white Zionist – in the sense that I care about my people, I want us to have a secure homeland for us and ourselves. Just like you want a secure homeland in Israel.” -- www.haaretz.com/...
Spencer has made similar arguments to Jewish audiences before, including an instance where he described parallels between white nationalist’s demand for whites-only immigration and Israel’s immigration policies.
Many Israeli politicians have condemned the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville unequivocally. Others, like Likud MP Oren Hazan applied certain caveats:
Trump “is right. Violence and extremism on any side is forbidden and demands condemnation. That doesn’t matter to the bleeding hearts on the left and in the media. After all, they believe that only the right is extremist and violent.” — www.timesofisrael.com/...
Netanyahu himself was criticized for not addressing Charlottesville, and finally on Tuesday tweeted that he was outraged by “anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism”. Netanyahu was criticized in 2015 for suggesting that European Jews should move to Israel to be safe from anti-semitism.
Israeli commentators on the right have at various times suggested white-nationalism and anti-semitism can be beneficial to Israel. Here’s journalist and TV host Yaron London:
Second, a world view which supports white supremacy matches our government’s interests. If Trump’s people are more disgusted by Arabs than they are by Jews (the liberals, the Wall Street people, journalists from the East Coast, lovers of black people, Hillary Clinton’s friends), we have struck quite a good deal. Trump and his friends see Israel as a forefront against the barbarians, and they are not exactly very observant.
To do the Netanyahu government justice, let me qualify my statement by saying that all forms of Zionism hold the perception that a certain extent of anti-Semitism benefits the Zionist enterprise. To put it more sharply, anti-Semitism is the generator and ally of Zionism. Masses of Jews leave their place of residence only when their economic situation and physical safety are undermined. Masses of Jews are shoved to this country rather than being attracted to it. The yearning for the land of Zion and Jerusalem is not strong enough to drive millions of Jews to the country they love and make them hold on to its clods. — www.ynetnews.com/...