I find much of the "haider shock" being expressed all over the
euro-world a convenient sop to ordinary policies of
polite-establishment-brutality...here's an israeli's take on the double
standards  we have all come to internalize...


Scapegoating Haider
> By Ze'ev Chafets
> Jerusalem Report Magazine
> February 28, 2000 edition
>
> Excerpts: (The full article is available online at
> http://www.jrep.com/Viewpoint/Article-0.html)
>
> "Joerg Haider's Freedom Party is part of the new
> Austrian government
> coalition and Israel is outraged. Prime Minister
> Barak, by recalling our
> ambassador, has led the chorus of moral outrage.
> Senior politicians from
> Foreign Minister David Levy to Likud leader Ariel
> Sharon have thundered
> against this threat to European democracy. A
> bipartisan delegation of
> Knesset back-benchers stormed into the Austrian
> Embassy in Tel Aviv to
> express their shock - shock! - that a man like
> Haider could assume a role of
> political influence in Vienna. And the government of
> Israel, in a state of
> high dudgeon, has officially pronounced his party
> neo-Nazi.
>
> "I would like to add my own voice to this festival
> of indignation, but
> unfortunately I cannot.
>
> "As far as I can tell, Haider's main message is that
> there are too many
> foreigners in Austria, and that immigration
> threatens the country's economy
> and traditional ethnic composition.
>
> "Which brings me to Israel's role in the war on
> Haiderism. It so happens
> that we have an immigration law, too, the Law of
> Return. Under it,
> full-blooded Jews, half-breeds, even quadroons are
> admitted sight unseen.
> Goyim need not apply (converts are the extremely
> rare exception that proves
> this rule).
>
> "It is also the case that Jewish-gentile couples who
> want to get married
> must leave Israel to do so. And that, until
> recently, the Ministry of
> Interior kept a blacklist of half-breed immigrant
> children for whom less
> money was allocated to schools per head than for
> Jewish thoroughbreds.
>
> "Then there are the Arabs of Israel, 20 percent of
> the population, who are
> routinely the victims of second-class citizenship.
> Public rhetoric on this
> subject makes Haider look like Tom Hayden. When the
> Intifada began, for
> example, President Chaim Herzog, a respected
> liberal, warned Arab citizens
> in unmistakable language that any breach of loyalty
> on their part could put
> them in jeopardy of mass expulsion.
>
> "In short, if the accusations against Haider are
> chauvinism and xenophobia,
> our politicians are not in the best position to head
> the prosecution."

amen, awomen, and in spades for everyone, not just israel...
fs