Israel: Racist and naive

It is hard not to put it more bluntly and directly than Gideon Levy, an Israeli, living in Israel, does - Israel is a racist country and naive.

"Israel is both the most racist and most naive country in the West. Racist, because in no other country can politicians make remarks about migrants as they do here and still remain in office another day; naive, because only now has Israel discovered the problem that has been facing the "first world" for years. Only in Israel can a parliamentarian from the ruling party describe the migrants as a "cancer," and, far worse, it is only in Israel that she could do so knowing that her contemptible racism would merely gain her support.

It is only Israel that does not have a migration policy; it is only in Israel that the migrants are still officially known as "infiltrators"; it is only in Israel that the government incites the weaker classes against them and after violence breaks out, the prime minister makes do with a weak remark that "there is no place for this." In fact, there is place for violence against the migrants: After all, what did we think? That when they are described as a cancer and called out for their diseases, threats, and dangers that there would not be an outbreak of violent crimes against them? That after all the intimidation and incitement, fear would not emerge in the poor neighborhoods and give rise to violence?"

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