Shalom, Shin Bet

[bemildred]

RECENTLY, the chief of the Shin Bet declared that the “Israeli Arabs,” a fifth of Israel’s population, constitute a danger to the state.

He requested permission for the General Security Service to act against anyone who aims at changing the official designation of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state” — even if they use nothing but completely legal means.

It follows that in the view of the chief of the Security Service, a central figure in the Israeli leadership, the task of the Shin Bet (now commonly known in Israel as Shabak) is not only to protect the state from spies and terrorists, but also from any challenge to its ideological designation, like the KGB in the former Soviet Union and the Stasi in communist East Germany. (The excellent Oscar-winning movie “The Life of the Others,” now screening in Israel, shows how this worked in practice.)

All this is reminiscent of things past. Rather naively, I had thought that they belonged to bygone days which could never return.

Longish, you got to read the whole thing.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=94883&d=12&m=4&y=2007