Rogel Alpher: Israeli Minister Shaked Takes After Mussolini

Izraelská ministryně spravedlnosti Ayelet Šakedová volá po "morální a politické revoulci". Sionisté se nemají nechávat omezovat univerzálními lidskými právy jednotlivců, ale předevší posilovat národní principy, národní koncept, identitu a historii. De facto stejně definoval doktrínu fašismu i Benito Mussolini, říká autor článku Rogel Alpher a vychází přitom z knihy historika Jacoba Talmona s názvem "Mýtus národa a vize revoluce" z roku 1932.

Jak píše Talmon o Mussolinim: "Národ byl nadřazený, super-osobní realita... morální zákon, tradice, mise, která propojovala minulé, současné i budoucí generace a všechny jedince".

Pro Musssoliniho byl národ "morálním zákonem" a "tradicí". Šakedová aspiruje na morální revoluci v tomto duchu, který by sionistický, židovský národ proměnil v jakýsi morální zákon, který bude zavzovat své členy ke "komunitě" a bude preferovat národní cíle před univerzálními právy jednotlivců.

Šakedoví vede národní revoluci proti tomu, čemu říká "revoluce práv" z 90. let, jejímž výsledkem podle ní bylo, že se Izraelci přestali vnímat jako "komunita".

"Mussoliniho fašismus, stejně jako ten Šakedové, byla 'revoluční negace' individualismu a liberálnosti", píše Rogel Alpher a cituje Talmona:"Národ byl na prvním místě... determinující vše".

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Don't call the justice minister a fascist metaphorically, as hyperbole or a provocation – call her that because it's literally what she is

Fascism is a worldview that worships revolutionism, so it is not surprising that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked openly calls herself revolutionary. Speaking at the end of August, Shaked announced a “moral and political revolution” aimed at strengthening national principles at the expense of universal individual rights.

“Zionism,” Shaked said, “should not continue and will not continue to bow down to the system of individual rights interpreted in a universal way.” She called for grounding individual rights within a nationalist context in which national tasks, identity and history take preference over universal individual rights.

Shaked is leading a national revolution against what she terms the “rights revolution” of the 1990s, as a result of which, she argued, “we stopped seeing ourselves as a community.”

In his book “The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution,” historian Jacob Talmon notes that Benito Mussolini wrote his “Doctrine of Fascism” in 1932 “as the ripe fruit of Fascist self-knowledge.” Mussolini’s fascism, like that of Shaked, was the “revolutionary negation” of individualism and liberalism. “The nation was the primary datum ... all-determining,” Talmon wrote.

In the spirit of Mussolini, Shaked seeks to place nationality above the individual and above liberalism, which grants the individual universal rights without reference to national identity. Or as Talmon wrote in regard to Mussolini: The nation “was a superior, super-personal reality ... a moral law, a tradition, a mission binding together generations past, present and future, and all the individuals.”

To Mussolini, the nation is “moral law” and “tradition.” It is in this spirit that Shaked aspires to a moral revolution that will turn the Zionist-Jewish nation into a sort of moral law that will bind its members into a “community” and give national tasks preference over universal individual rights.

Her goal is a national identity in which the individual is a partner to a Zionist mission that gives the individual the sense of belonging to a “community.” According to Talmon, Mussolini said about such a mission that “the individual was supposed to make himself into an instrument. ... His life was duty, dedication, service, sacrifice. This view of nationhood and of the individual in relation to it was an ethical conception which covered the whole of reality.”

And it is in light of this perspective that Shaked declares decisively that Zionism “will not continue to bow down to the system of individual rights interpreted in a universal way.”

The individual must serve the nation and be willing to sacrifice himself for it. The nation, and not the individual, is “the primary datum ... all-determining.” The nation shall not bow to the rights of the individual. The individual is an instrument by which the nation shall realize its mission. The rights of the nation come before the rights of the individual.

Shaked should not be called a fascist metaphorically, as hyperbole or a provocation. The justice minister, who champions a moral revolution based on giving national missions preference over universal individual rights, is literally a fascist.

Her goal is not equality between citizens, regardless of race, religion or history, but rather, as Talmon wrote of Mussolini, the purpose is to raise up the nation that is now thirsty for a place in the sun. Shaked’s statements are the ripe fruit of her own fascist self-knowledge.

Rogel Alpher
Haaretz Columnist

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