Latest
polls from Israel, that bastion of democracy and freedom in the Middle
East, have revealed that almost half of Israeli Jews believe in
ethnically cleansing Arabs from the Jewish state. Although this is
unsurprising in itself, given that Israel's founding entailed the ethnic
cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinian Arabs in 1947 and 1948, it
does, however, put another nail in the coffin of Israel's supposed
membership of the democratic, "civilised" and "enlightened" West.
Even if we ignore Israel's ongoing excesses in "mowing the lawn" in the
Gaza Strip - that is, the periodic and deliberate use of
disproportionate force aimed at flattening everything in sight - and the
military occupation of the West Bank, the ongoing actions and
statements of the political elite have highlighted the increasing
divergence between acceptable societal norms in Israel and the West.
Lest we think that this recent poll is an outlier, below we examine a
short rollcall of some of the more eyebrow-raising antics of Israel in
recent years, ranging from humorously crackpot to morally repugnant.
