The cry that was launched by Chairman of the International Association of Holocaust Survivors Noah Flug against the decision of a group of Israeli rabbis to prohibit the rental or sale of property to non-Jews was highly noticeable. Naturally, the side targeted by the aforementioned decision is the Arabs from among the Palestinians of the territories occupied in 1948. As for Flug, he believed that the rabbis should recant their decision, which was similar to the ones issued by the Nazi administration in Germany to oust the Jews from their homes and gather them in ghettos. He also warned against the weak reaction of Benjamin Netanyahu's government toward the decision that was signed by Jewish rabbis belonging to the Haredi and National-Religious wings and are spread in towns and settlements extending from Metula on the Lebanese border to Eilat on the Red Sea. Flug's statements, which were supported by a number of Holocaust survivors, pointed to the continuation and increase of the shift toward the extremist right-wing among the Israeli public, and the retreat of the influence of the peaceful movements in the Israeli society. One may argue for a long time about the origins of right-wing extremism inside the Zionist movement since before Jabotinsky and his “Iron Wall” - on which the heads of the Arabs seeking the elimination of Israel should be smashed – as he stated. One may also talk about a split Israeli political personality embodied by the bloody and racist practices against the Palestinians and the other Arabs since the 1948 Nakba on one hand, and the insistence on the rule of the law and justice when dealing with domestic Israeli issues (bearing in mind the segregation to which the Jewish Easterners and Falasha were subjected throughout decades). However, what was clear at the level of the rise of the extremist and hostile movements within the Israeli society and among the Israeli politicians - thus rendering each new government “the most extreme in Israel's history” – is this convergence with the nihilistic and rampant tendencies in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Those who focus on the rise of the Israeli racist inclination against the Palestinians and disregard the campaigns targeting religious and national minorities in the Arab countries are terribly mistaken. For example, it is not yet known what remedy the Iraqi authorities are proposing for the quasi-daily attacks targeting the Christians, except for a few security measures. As for the Egyptian government, it does not seem to be giving the required attention to the issue of the Copts and the fierceness with which they have started to face any violation toward them, after years of endurance and patience. In the meantime, the relations among the sects in Lebanon are not archetypical, while Sudan seems to be heading toward a new civil war between the North and the South, a few years after the truce during which each of the two sides refilled its weapons and ammunition warehouses. This goes to say that despite its attempts to differentiate itself from the region and its climate, Israel seems to be drowning in sectarianism and racism, just like all its neighboring states and communities. It would even be accurate to believe that it is benefitting from the segregation to which the Jews were subjected to export some of the most harmful position at the level of the social fabrics in the region. Consequently, we are entering another vicious circle of actions and reactions, racist practices and retaliations, and inaugurating a new round of the game of blames and questions revolving around which side is racist and which side is sectarian.
