Left I on the News

The story of a group of Israeli neo-Nazis has hit the news and presumably shocked the world. But it shouldn't be that shocking; there are right-wing thugs everywhere.

What caught my eye were two aspect of the story. One is the description of the group as "racist and anti-Semitic." Got to get that "anti-Semitic" in there. But who were the targets of the group? "Religious Jews [Ed. note: by which they mean the ultra-conservative, orthodox Jews who don't even serve in the Israeli military, not Jews who attend synagogue on Friday night], foreign workers from Asia, drug addicts, the homeless and gays." The standard targets of right-wing thugs everywhere - immigrants, the poor, the weak. The fact is, these thugs are only one step removed from their more respectable counterparts, the kind who populate the podium at a Republican Presidential primary debate, or who spread their message of hate via countless media outlets.

The other interesting aspect was this:

All eight had loose connections to Jewish heritage. They did not identify themselves as Jews and their families had come to Israel to escape hardships in the former Soviet Union, police said.

Under the Israeli "law of return," a person can claim automatic citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. Authorities say that formula allowed many Soviets with questionable ties to Judaism to immigrate here after the Soviet Union disintegrated.

Not Jewish? Questionable ties to Judaism? Maybe your grandparent had "Jewish roots"? No problem, come on in. But the international law of return, the right of return, which belongs to the millions of Palestinian refugees (and their descendants) evicted from their land by Israeli aggression, is treated as laughable by "civilized society." Although it is the only just solution to the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict," it's chance of being implemented barring a worldwide revolution is as close to zero as possible.

But let non-Jewish skinheads from Russia come live in Israel? No problem, as long as they'll take the jobs that Palestinians used to do. Indeed, continuing the ethnic cleansing of Israel by eliminating all contact with Palestinians was precisely why Russian immigrants were encouraged to immigrate to Israel.