The Israeli Left's Suicidal Resurrection Plan

Composite Illustration: Yeshayahu Leibowitz (l.) by Bracha L. Ettinger [CC BY-SA 2.5] via Wikimedia, Yosef Burg (m.) (Image credit: Teddy Brauner/Government Press Office of Israel) via Wikimedia, Uzi Baram (r.) by Shkolnik [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia

In 2010, Shamai Leibowitz was sentenced for leaking classified information — including wiretaps of Israeli embassy lobbying and publicity activities against Iran — to Richard Silverstein, a blogger on Tikun Olam who regularly writes for The Guardian.

Leibowitz is the grandson of Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and a former defense lawyer for convicted terrorist murderer Marwan Barghouti.

Yes, Shamai Leibowitz, an Israeli "activist" lawyer, is a very outspoken person, as his famous grandfather was. Like his grandfather, Leibowitz calls himself an "Orthodox" Jew and wears a kippa. Like his grandfather, he is a maverick and relishes the attention.

Prof. Leibowitz — who denied that Zionism had any religious significance — coined the term Judeo-Nazi in the 1970s when he criticized Israel's presence in the biblical areas that were won in the miraculous Six Day War — the war that saved us from another Holocaust. He won great applause at the time from the left for his boldness. They discovered that they had an Orthodox authority that they could quote and really like.

Grandson Shamai leaped to the defense of Marwan Barghouti, who is now serving multiple life sentences for murdering multiple Jews and others. An “Orthodox Jew,” Attorney Leibowitz declared that his client was the Moses of the “Palestinians” — no less.

Let that sink in for a moment. The anti-Zionist and self-hating Jews worldwide loved their champion. So did Barghouti and his terrorist colleagues.

Yosef Burg was the longtime head of the Mafdal National Religious Party. He was instrumental in saving many Jews during the Holocaust, and did what he could to strengthen Israel as a Jewish country as a minister in Israeli governments. He was known as a wise Torah scholar and lover of his people.

It is unclear what went wrong, but his son Avrum Burg appears to have something against his famous father. Avrum chose not to follow his father's path. He became active in Peace Now and a rising star in the leftist Labor party. He rose to Speaker of the Knesset, and then head of the Jewish Agency. He was a member of the board of the New Israel Fund.

Avrum is very intense and gives the impression of being an unhappy man who can't find his place. His continued rebellion and in-your-face attitude apparently can never be satiated. It feels as if he is constantly giving his late father a message of contempt and anger.

Avrum still wears his kippa, like the lawyer Shamai Leibowitz. With his kippa on, Avrum joined the Hadash Arab-dominated Communist party. He attended the Hadash convention in the Arab town of Nazareth wearing his kippa on the Sabbath, explaining that it was permitted for him to desecrate the Sabbath and attend the Hadash affair because it was a matter of life and death.

Avrum became yet another "Orthodox” authority for the anti-Zionist left. It was a matter of life or death to join the anti-Israel communist Arabs in order to save Israel from itself, apparently.

He says this with a straight — if somewhat unhappy — face. People like Avrum apparently can never be happy.

Moshe Baram was a Zionist activist in Lithuania in the 1930s. He made Aliyah and began a career in politics in the Labor party, eventually as a Labor Knesset member and minister. His son, Uzi Baram, followed his father's path and also became a minister in Labor governments. He moved to the Left of his father and became an outspoken critic of Israel's "occupation" and presence in the liberated "territories" of 1967.

Nir Baram, Uzi’s outspoken son, is an author. He is very popular with the left in Israel. In a recent radio interview, he said that the Zionist left in Israel is through; no longer can a Jewish leftist party or coalition hope to govern — both are true statements.

What had once been a label of pride and power has become one that is avoided by increasing numbers of politicians. The former establishment left are fleeing to the “center.” They know that Israelis have lost faith in those who have smugly brought Oslo and other disasters upon us in return for the assurance of “peace.” It has not worked, and they are through giving it just one more chance.

So what is our young author Baram's suggestion? Join forces with the Arabs! In the upcoming elections, he has pledged that he will vote for Ahmad Tibi, a prominent Arab-Israeli politician and former personal advisor to PLO Chairman and terrorist Yasser Arafat. Tibi has made his career helping Israel's enemies, and says he wants an end to the Jewish state — he wants a state for "all its citizens."

Baram says the Zionist left is dead. He is correct. What is his next logical step? End the Jewish state. Only thus will political power return to the left’s hands — power to preside over a country again. Not a Jewish one, but whatever: a country. It is power — like the good old days.