We look at the increasingly dangerous political climate inside Israel
where several peace protests have recently come under attack. On
Saturday, right-wing activists burned a Palestinian flag, chanted racial
slurs and threw stones at an antiwar protest in Haifa of Arabs and
Israelis opposed to the bombardment of Gaza. Haifa’s deputy mayor, Dr.
Suhail Assad, and his son were beaten. On Sunday, the captain of a youth
soccer team in Be’er Sheva wrote on his Facebook page: "send left-wing
voters to the gas chambers and clean this country of leftists." The week
before the Gaza invasion began, gangs were reportedly seen roaming the
streets of Jerusalem and other towns shouting, "Death to Arabs!" We go
to Israel to speak with Rann Bar-On, an Israeli peace activist and Duke
University mathematics lecturer, who took part in Saturday’s Haifa
protest. And we are joined by Max Blumenthal, senior writer for
AlterNet.org and best-selling author whose latest book, "Goliath: Life
and Loathing in Greater Israel," documents the spread of right-wing
Israeli extremism.
http://m.democracynow.org/stories/14512
