‘Weird extremist’ or the new prototype?

Published: 10 November 2015

Last updated: 4 March 2024

With a flack like this, who speaks for Israel? – The Daily Beast 08.11.15
There is a pattern to Netanyahu’s public announcements, throwing red meat to the Israeli far right, then pulling back a bit when the international community takes note… ‘Baratz seems like a particularly weird extremist, but, really, he is actually very much the prototype of the white, professional conservatives who are Netanyahu’s advisers. What we’ve seen with the new Israeli right in the last year or so is that they’re not hiding it anymore.’
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Is Israel borrowing from Vladimir Putin’s playbook? – Gerson S. Sher – The Forward 06.11.15
‘I know, I know, I have heard it so many times. What better proof is there that Israel is a democracy than the vigorous debates in the press, on the streets, in the Knesset, everywhere? The decibel level and the obnoxiousness, frankly, are overwhelming. It is a paradise of yelling heads. But the real mark of a democracy is not how loudly people talk or how disrespectful they are to one another, but exactly the reverse — how well they tolerate dissent.’

Badges and labels – Naomi Chazan – The Times of Israel 09.11.15