Haaretz-Backed ‘Treason’ Party Plagued By Disloyalty

Minutes of an executive committee meeting were characterized by bickering, insinuations of ethical violations, accusations of right-wing or Establishment sympathies, and threats.

Tel Aviv, November 22 – A new political party aimed at bringing together concerned citizens who view treason as the primary vehicle for political expression is having trouble maintaining a loyal membership, the Haaretz-sponsored organization reported today.

Mordechai Vanunu, the provisional chairman of the nascent Bogdim (‘Traitors’) Party, told PreOccupied Territory that despite a strong start in recruiting members from Israel’s political left, trust among the core members remained elusive as several prominent party activists have allegedly provided closely-held information to individuals or entities outside the organization without authorization.

“This party was founded as a political alternative to the traditional parties, who cling to the antiquated belief that the best way to achieve effective change in the society is to sell out to the existing political system,” said Vanunu. “Here in Bogdim, on the other hand, our membership realized long ago that the current system lost its legitimacy when it failed to submit to the Arab forces that attacked in 1948. The political culture of Bogdim is one that encourages people to assume that their own ideological conclusions trump the collective will of the rest of the citizenry as expressed in the policies of a democratically elected government.”

Thus, for example, Bogdim boasts among its charter members Haaretz columnist Gidon Levy, who said as recently as this week that French Jews moving to Israel are comparable to Jews who would leave Palestine for Germany in the 1930’s, and Anat Kamm, who violated military confidentiality regulations by providing information to a journalist because she felt her ideology and her assumption that she knew what she was talking about trumped all other considerations. “We’re a group of people who refuse to compromise on our principles for someone else’s idea of the common good,” said Kamm in an interview. “Which is why when I had the opportunity, I sent out Bogdim’s confidential internal documents to every member of the press I could find. Isn’t that what one does with sensitive information?”

Bogdim was still reeling from that incident when, last week, an anonymous source posted another trove of sensitive Bogdim documents on Wikileaks, including minutes of an executive committee meeting characterized by bickering, insinuations of ethical violations, accusations of right-wing or Establishment sympathies, and threats. Vanunu said he was actually proud of that document. “What Bogdim brings to the political table is a questioning of the need for things that no one has thought to question,” he said. “Just as I’ve long questioned the need for a Jewish state when Jews survived for so long without one, we at Bogdim serve as a reminder that perhaps Bogdim is unnecessary, since the society has survived for so long without it.”