Everything Is Permitted in the Land of Insanity

by Ari Bussel

Alexander (Aleksander) Bar-Yehuda was a Hungarian Jewish poet. Fifty-five years ago he signed his book Shirat Yisrael (“The Poetry of Israel”), which was published in Tel Aviv in 1962.

Shaul Kanzler, the translator into Hebrew, wrote in the introduction about the poet:

“He is one of many whom the storm of history hurled, with violent force, into a new–old homeland. Yet the warm beating of his heart was not stilled, and his courage of spirit and the delicacy of his soul alike burst forth from within him and gave expression to his new experiences, to his freedom— that of a Jewish man who can say aloud what lies in his heart.”

Kanzler recounts about the poetry and the craft of translation:

“Although these poems were written in the Hungarian language, they are already Hebrew poems, written with an Israeli sound, in the spirit of love of the homeland, and what is even more astonishing than that—an unreserved (absolute) admiration for the Israel Defense Forces. Had these poems been the product of a young Israeli, this would not have surprised us; but they are the fruit of the spirit of an immigrant, and this must arouse both our wonder and our admiration at once. … The Hebrew spirit of the poems helped the translator to do his work properly and brings the reader closer to the poet, who lives and walks among us.”

Kanzler concludes with a message to the public:

“These poems are beneficial and uplift the spirit of our public, and some of them are even worthy of being studied by the youth, as an example and model of love of the homeland and its defense. They are an expression of the sighs of a patriotic heart—the aspiration of a Jewish man who desires to be, in heart and soul, a Jewish Israeli.”

I came across the book at an auction, listed for shipment out of the country. I do not know how it found its way there, nor who the target audience might be that would be willing to pay for it (almost certainly many times more for shipping than the cost of the book itself). Usually my “finds” belong to people who have passed away and no one wants them. The same is true of Israeli stamps. Books, stamps—things whose world has passed.

I confess that the computer struggled with the Hebrew, and several times tried to change words written in the spoken language of the Land of Israel more than half a century ago, as if they were not understood or recognized by it, or perhaps had never existed at all. After prevailing in my battle with the computer, I tried to learn a bit more about the poet, but the search engine (itself powered by artificial intelligence) suggested that perhaps I had erred in the name, perhaps I had meant another poet, and it promptly offered me a suitable alternative (in its opinion). There is no denying it—everything has become so easy today on the computer, but one must not rely on it!

Until the book reaches me, I must make do with Kanzler’s introduction, and I found it particularly appealing.

See what was written, and how it described the Israeli reality in the youth of the modern State of Israel (a new–old homeland—already then they knew to emphasize that Israel was not created ex nihilo in 1948; it is not the result of the world’s guilt feelings over the Holocaust, and we did not steal the country from others):

A Jewish person in the Land of Israel can say aloud what lies in his heart.

Here, the judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Israel, in infinite wisdom, ruled in honor of the Hanukkah holiday, 5786, that red shirts bearing the English inscription “Hapoel Ultras against the scum of Kahane, the Israel Police, Maccabi” are permitted and protected speech, and that the Israel Police must not do anything to the thousands of Hapoel fans who purchased them and prepared to appear at games in deliberate provocation.

Screengrab via X

These are exactly the same judges and the same Supreme Court that permit wild demonstrations from Kaplan Street toward the Ayalon highways, yet would not dare allow the exact same thing against the ruling elites. They are protected; against them it is forbidden to express an opinion.

These are also exactly the same judges and the same Supreme Court for whom the defamation of the State of Israel around the world—even to the point of bald-faced lies to the High Court of Justice—does not trouble them, and who do everything in their power to bury what happened and to isolate and protect those involved.

This concerns edited films that were distributed by the Military Advocate General— a major general in the IDF— and her associates, both in Israel and abroad simultaneously, through which IDF soldiers were found guilty in the eyes of the world even before they had any right to defend themselves against the accusations leveled at them. The main thing was that they hurried and released the accuser-allegedly back to Gaza, in order to make the whole affair disappear.

While the judges plug their ears and shut their eyes and ignore the blatant lies, the attempts at cover-up and burial, the world understood the gravity of the hour. (The last time Sinwar—may his name be remembered in infamy—understood the gravity of the hour, he invaded Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023.) The UN Secretary-General—whatever—claimed that the Israeli Military Advocate General must be protected, and the UN—whatever—praised her actions, which “exposed from within the crimes of Israel.” (When the UN and its institutions come out to defend something connected to Israel, all the strongest warning lights flash—“See, a real danger lies before you!”)

Not many weeks passed, and Palestinians who had been imprisoned in Israel came out with “the truth”—at enormous risk to themselves, it was claimed—that they too had undergone torture and rape by Shin Bet and IDF interrogators, and here they are telling us in minute detail: one was raped while Nazi (sorry, Israeli) guards stood and laughed, and another was raped by a dog (while Israeli guards stood, held it, and enjoyed every second).

The main thing is that the judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Israel protect those who made the films, leaked them, and caused immeasurable damage to the State of Israel. A lie is very easy to spread. Fighting a lie is difficult to the point of impossibility.

If anyone is guilty of fanning internal hatred, it is indeed the judges of the Supreme Court in their ruling regarding the “scum” shirts. If someone dared to enter with such shirts before them, against them personally, they would act immediately; but here it is about this freedom or that freedom, about exaggerated rights.

How detached are the judges of the Supreme Court? They do not intervene when lower courts humiliate and occupy the Prime Minister of Israel three or four days a week—dealing with pictures of a dog, or Bugs Bunny, or champagne, or cigars—while Iran attacks us. Anyone who has been forced to run with their children every night for twelve days straight at three in the morning to a shelter, with anxiety that does not let go—thank the wisest of judges.

If the police are “scum,” what else will they permit? Burning trash containers? Burning cars? Flares fired toward the Prime Minister’s home (that is permitted, but a bullet toward the Supreme Court building is the end of the world). Let’s see what happens in the world when demonstrations against us are permitted, calling for a global intifada: two years in Australia led to 15 murdered and 40 wounded on Hanukkah Eve at Bondi Beach. Never mind—the honorable judges perhaps assume we have two years in our pocket before we see the first signs of protests against the police!

In the United States we went through “Defund the Police” (which turned into abolishing the police entirely). Why should the Supreme Court in Israel be interested in allowing attacks on the police? Is this another layer in a complete takeover of all state institutions, or are they afraid of something?

Here in the U.S. there is a very clear distinction between “free speech” and “hate speech.” In Israel, just as there is no constitution, there are also no boundaries to the freedoms that the Supreme Court allows—as long as it suits them and only people from their side.

Here is another case: for those of us abroad, on the front lines of international consciousness and the battle for public opinion worldwide, it is difficult to nearly impossible to fight when accusations come from Israelis—especially from former officials (heads of the Mossad, Shin Bet, generals, prime ministers, and more). There are of course the permanent slanderers—Haaretz newspaper, and at the head of the attackers there Gideon Levy and his partner in activism Amira Hass—as well as organizations like Peace Now, the New Israel Fund, and others. Who does not remember that “Israel murders Gazan children as a hobby”—a claim etched in stone (since its speaker is a major general in reserve and one of the main spokespeople of the opposition), promoted worldwide to the point of “Israel murders one child every hour, for more than two years now,” all of this “as a hobby.”

But when the IDF itself raises various accusations, broadcast across the internet—on Army Radio, no less—how can one argue otherwise? And when the Minister of Defense wants to shut down the station—this should be his decision—and even brings it to a decision of the entire government—who stands in opposition? One would expect the UN-whatever, its Secretary-General, the New York Times, and others to line up and fight against this despicable idea. But no! The Attorney General, with all the prosecutors under her authority, stir the pot and have already published their claims publicly, so that even the court in The Hague can latch onto them and make use of them.

The day will come when the Attorney General will need to be arrested and tried in a military court for treason and damage to the State of Israel. But the High Court of Justice shields her like an “Iron Dome,” and even missiles from Iran do not faze her. She carries on—together with those who hate and destroy from within.

The blame does not lie only with the judges. It also lies with the universities. How they protested what happened at universities around the world—cried out, raged. Yet the very same things are happening in Israel, and here, in the halls of academia, it is academic freedom, and everything is permitted and protected. (Elites operate in a very similar fashion—both in law and in academia.)

Once, the founding generation asked when the day would come that we would be like all other nations, and we would have criminals and thieves and more. They did not expect us to reach what is happening today.

There were times when there were values such as love of the homeland, the Israel Defense Forces, patriotism, freedom, and the aspiration of the people of Israel, with a willing heart, to be Jewish in their land—the Land of Israel. Today everyone worries about an additional passport, while an entire group that runs the country labors at its destruction.

Indeed, long live the freedom of the Jewish person to say aloud what lies in his heart (the police, Maccabi, and Kahane are “scum”). Whoever fiercely defends this freedom at this time also advances precisely the same right of the world to go out with a call for a global intifada—and for us—hush—it is forbidden to respond. Thus ruled the Supreme Court of Israel.

This is precisely the problem of a Supreme Court that has inscribed on its banner values that do not correspond to the values upon which the modern state was founded. These are distorted values—built of the same basic building blocks, therefore they appear familiar to us—but woe to the state whose values are these.

The United States went through a very difficult period that resembled what is now happening in Israel. Parents who cared about the education their children were receiving became terrorists; Christians, Christmas, and Easter became forbidden and despicable; members of the security forces became the most hated thing; and criminals from abroad who brought dangerous drugs and trafficked human beings for prostitution and slavery were granted free entry into the U.S., flights to whatever city they wished to live in, immunity from prosecution, and the right to vote. They received housing, financial assistance, and more that even those who served in the U.S. military do not receive to such an extent. Tens of millions streamed into the United States—and to hell with U.S. citizens. To this day, the Democrats continue their support for these insanities—only the patience of the voter has run out.

Exactly the same approach. In Israel too the roles have been reversed: Nukhba terrorists receive the attention of the Supreme Court, and the supreme ruler is the Attorney General. When will people wake up in Israel? When will an Israeli Donald J. Trump be elected for a second term to restore order to its proper place?