The Effete Left’s Paradigm of Hatred for Yiddishkiet … MB
Tarred With the Brush of Extremism
Excerpts:
“New ideological groups, especially if characterized by religious fundamentalism and political radicalism, naturally draw public, media and academic fire. But we have to keep a sense of proportion when assessing the size of such groups and the extent of their influence.”
“That rule has not been observed with respect to religious Zionism. Instead, individual instances of extremist behavior are immediately projected onto an entire community. Every report of a voodoo-like ‘pulsa denura’ ceremony, of the construction of a hut on a remote hilltop, of the destruction of olive trees or of the violent obstruction of highway traffic immediately becomes an excuse for sweeping generalizations. In the public and academic discourse all settlers, and even all religious Zionists, are branded as deviants. In the process, the color orange is transmuted into a giant stain on the national-Zionist community as a whole.”
“Studies carried out by Ami Pedatzur and others after the 2003 elections had clearly shown the discrepancy between the hawkish right-wing image attached automatically to all National Religious Party (NRP) voters and the reality. On a scale of hawkishness in which 6 is the highest and 1 the lowest, NRP voters were given a rating of 3.7, the same as Likud voters and much lower than people who voted for Yisrael b’Aliyah, United Torah Judaism, Shas and the National Union.”
The Bottom Line: Any religious person standing to defend Torah, the land of Israel, anything Jewish is labeled and profiled as a religious fundamentalist and political radical. MB