Photo Credit: Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Feiglin

The daily news in Israel has distracted us from the icy winds that have put our liberty into deep freeze. “Why hasn’t anybody been arrested?” cried the media. “Jewish terror! Jewish terror!” And the Defense Minister felt the pressure. After all, they will not allow him to evade an issue like “Jewish terror.”

There is no proof. But what are human rights in the face of the collective, personified by the media?

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Suddenly, it is fine to arrest citizens for no apparent reason, with no trial, no attorney, and, ultimately – no indictment.

It would be easy for us to think that they know what they are doing. After all, it cannot be that in the State of Israel people are arrested for no apparent reason…

The Defense Minister clearly knew that the detainees had no connection to the Duma crime but at least it looked like he was doing something. And so, two Jews were put into administrative detention. Of course, the investigation made no progress, so they arrested a few more suspects.

This time, they were minors. This time, not only did they not allow them to meet with an attorney, but they tortured them, as well. And they tortured, and tortured, and tortured. Until they confessed and reenacted the “crime” – as is accepted practice in “enlightened” regimes.

How could such a thing take place in a democratic state?

Perhaps because they had those frightening side locks. Democracy does not apply to those extremists. And if you thought that the elected representatives of the arrested boys would speak out in their defense, you can think again.

Every two hours and thirty three minutes, on average, an attempt to murder a Jew because of his Jewishness is made in Israel. “We are strong,” the prime minister explains. “This will not break us.”

But the foolish murder of an Arab family, a murder whose perpetrator nobody knows – and nobody will ever know – will “destroy the entire state.” It will “bring the roof down on our heads,” in the words of the elected leader of the Religious Zionists. And in the name of the state, it is good that they are torturing the minors…

That is how the media personalities, the witch hunters, the leftist DNA of the defense minister and the pseudo-fascist deviation of the Religious Zionist minister, who exchanged, “I am G-d” for “I am the State,” joined together to negate any semblance of human rights from minors. This was done not only to prevent them from meeting with an attorney and to justify their torture and every other despicable act committed against them, but to completely ostracize them from any possible public support as well. Who will come to their defense now when their political father stands against them?

Half of the detainees who were tortured were released with no indictment. These boys, abducted by the state and afforded no rights or trial, were severely tortured. Their souls were crushed. And then they were released. They are walking indictments of the Israeli justice system.

Did you think that it would stop with the Right? In no time, it spread to the Left. Channel 2 did an expose on “human rights activist” Ezra Nawi, who bragged about delivering Arabs who sold homes or land to Jews to their Arab executioners.

Not that the police or the GSS were not aware of his activities before the television broadcast. They were. But once again, we see that the police and the GSS work for the media. They scurried to arrest radical Nawi and, wonder of wonders, also prevented him from meeting with an attorney. Was he a “ticking bomb”? Why didn’t they allow him to meet with an attorney? Because now they can.

When we allow the state to steal a bit of our liberty, it will always – always – do it. Why? Because it can. And it will always be in the interest of “security.”

They have to take all of our fingerprints and keep them in order to produce biometric identity cards. For security reasons. It makes no difference that the same results can be achieved without a biometric database. But you are a law-abiding citizen and will never have a brush with the law, so what difference does it make to you?

And they arrest tens of thousands of marijuana consumers who don’t hurt anyone. For security reasons, of course. For no reason, really. Just because they can. But you don’t smoke marijuana, so what difference does it make to you?

And they have to put Arabs into administrative detention. For security reasons, of course. Because we really are in a war with them. But it does not concern you, because it will never happen to you.

And Zadarov, accused of murdering a school girl, has been in jail for 10 years. But no matter that there is substantial evidence that points to his innocence. Because it will never happen to you anyway.

And through this small hole and that tiny gap, which never seem to threaten you – the icy winds enter. And before you even notice it, the deep freeze of liberty reaches you. If not today, then tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if you are a rightist or a leftist.

When a police officer will beat you or simply subject you to a humiliating body search… When you hear the knock on the door and are taken off to interrogation… And you don’t understand how it happened to you… And then you remember that, yes, you did have unkind words for the prime minister while waiting at the grocery check-out… And somebody thought that it would be patriotic to snitch on you. So that the roof does not cave in on us all…

When more political parties will barred from running in the elections – and not just from the Right – it will be because you remained silent now.

This week, the half year of administrative detention for Meir Ettinger and Evyatar Slonim, arrested after the murders in Duma, is up. Of course, they were never indicted. Nobody even attempted to claim that they were connected to the murders in Duma. It is reasonable to assume that the defense minister will pressure the justice system to leave them in jail regardless. Why? Because now it is possible.

After all, if they are released, people will ask some hard questions. Why were they arrested in the first place? And after the “state above all” speech of the head of the Religious Zionists, no real opposition to their continued detention can be expected.

So why not? When you open the window for the icy wind, it enters. Simply because it can.

It’s time to wake up and let the sun of liberty shine in.

 

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Moshe Feiglin is the former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. He heads the Zehut Party. He is the founder of Manhigut Yehudit and Zo Artzeinu and the author of two books: "Where There Are No Men" and "War of Dreams." Feiglin served in the IDF as an officer in Combat Engineering and is a veteran of the Lebanon War. He lives in Ginot Shomron with his family.