Defending former MK Michael Ben-Ari (Otzma Yehudit) in his effort to run for the 21st Knesset is not easy.
Ben-Ari went on a tirade against the Supreme Court after it reversed the Central Elections Committee's ruling and disqualified his candidacy because of his extremist views.
The decision to ban him from the Knesset was not really based on any legal justification; it was handed down because if he Ben-Ari rejoined the Knesset, it would not look good.
When a Jew says unpleasant things, those messages get amplified. When MKs who call themselves doctors call for full-fledged terrorist attacks, everyone just moves on.
This was clear when the Arab party Balad crossed the superficial Supreme Court threshold more than 15 years ago and got the stamp of approval to participate in Knesset elections.
But there is a rule here that must be followed: You cannot disqualify an individual while at the same time allow their party to compete in the election.
In September 2016, when then-President Shimon Peres was on his deathbed, one Balad MK said: "Let's remember who Peres really is – a tyrant who was directly responsible for war crimes that were committed against us. That is why he is covered with our blood from head to toe. Is Peres nearing his inevitable end? We don't know, he has seven lives and we must keep in mind that he is one of the arrogant figures of the imperialist Zionist enterprise and the settlement enterprise, and among those who brought about some of the worst calamities for the Palestinians and Arabs."
It's hard to tell when ideological and emotional hatred becomes terrorism, and that specific MK – Basel Ghattas – was ultimately sent to prison because he broke the law to help Palestinian terrorists.
In fact, one senior security official said that Ghattas was dangerous inside the Knesset.
Another Balad member, Azmi Bishara, was an MK until he was outed as a Hezbollah agent.
Current Balad MK Jamal Zahalka once told Haaretz that Bishara viewed the Oslo Accords as surrender, but "I saw it as a lifeline for the Palestinian national movement."
Zahalka added that Bishara was ultimately vindicated because the accords "created the false impression that there was peace between the national movements of both sides."
Hadash candidate Ofer Cassif, who got the Supreme Court's green light to run for the Knesset despite being disqualified by the Central Elections Committee, is a communist.
As such, he has fought Zionism and the Jews according to the Stalinist philosophy that has remained unchanged for the past 90 years.
Whatever ideological shifts there may have been on the radical Left around the world and in Israel, there is one tenet that it has never shed: its hatred toward Zionism and the struggle against it.
The radical Left compared Israel to Nazi Germany well before the Six-Day War. This is part of the new anti-Semitism, which has been around since the early 1950s. But as you know, there is no law against anti-Semitism in Israel.
