"The nation-state law is shameful, and the Joint Arab List's decision to turn to the U.N. [asking it to punish Israel on the matter] is a disgrace," MK Eitan Cabel (Zionist Union) tweeted last week.
One must wonder what is more laughable, Cabel's hypocrisy or his logical fallacy. If the law is shameful, why is asking the world to intervene a disgrace? If the law severely undermines equality and democracy, and if we are truly in a "state of emergency" as one leftist lawmaker dramatically proclaimed, then turning to the United Nations is the most natural thing to do to avoid a calamity.
Some have argued, as the Left has, that turning to the U.N. is pointless and hypocritical because the Arab MKs have all the parliamentary means they need to serve their voters' interests.
But the Left can't have it both ways. If the nation-state law cements discrimination against non-Jewish minorities in Israel, shouldn't those minorities' lawmakers pursue every available path - in the media, in the courts or in international bodies – to restore their lost democratic rights?
As soon as the law was passed, the Left launched a campaign portraying it as a turning point in the attempts to make Israel a "Jewish-only state" and make non-Jews second-class citizens. Our intellectual elites, some of finest authors and poets, as well as a whole chorus of journalists and opinion leaders and left-wing politicians, have all eulogized our democracy. Even former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, whose obscene tweets against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are idolized by the Left, has called the law the "segregation law." Barak essentially says the law is a form of apartheid. There is no other way to interpret what he says.
Cabel has been part of the propaganda machine sending this message that the passage of the nation-state law is a seminal event that puts Israel on a path toward apartheid, or even worse, makes Israel an apartheid state.
So why is he criticizing the Arab MKs? According to his logic, which has been supported with vocal and ecstatic cries, turning to the international community not only makes sense but should be an imperative owing to Israel's state of emergency.
Did he expect that this minority, which was allegedly disenfranchised and stripped of its rights, would sit patiently until his friends in the Zionist Union righted the wrong?
"You found the most inelegant way to make the protest against the law unravel," Cabel attacked the Arab MKs. By doing so, he unearthed the simple truth: Cabel could not care less about saving Israeli Arabs from a racist regime; all he wants to do is to foment protests to create the impression that the opposition is active and taking to the streets.
Labor Chairman Avi Gabbay added his own style: "The MKs of the Joint Arab List are besmirching Israel everywhere they go. We are going to fight this phenomenon."
But I have news for Gabbay and Cabel. There is only one way to fight this phenomenon: Retract your statements on the law. You must tell the world that there is no threat of apartheid in Israel, that the law is not racist, that the democratic rights of ethnic minorities are not under attack here.
Turning to the U.N. is yet another example of the flawed logic you have been propagating. Your patronizing attacks on the Arab MKs show that your words are hollow, that you are scared of the demagoguery you yourselves have sounded everywhere and without thought, and that you are trying to cut your losses on the backs of those you are purportedly trying to save.
