Israel’s public enemy #1

The Israel Prize for Music was awarded yesterday to Professor Yehoash Hirshberg, the leading authority on Paul Ben Haim, the country’s foundational symphonist. Hirshberg, 84, is a mild quizzical scholar who wears his great knowledge very lightly.

Within hour of the announcement of his award, social media were filled with demands for it to be cancelled. Hirshberg, the online  warriors screamed, had expressed reservations about the Netanyahu government’s urgent drive to disempower the Supreme court and undermine the entire legal system. The newspaper Yisrael Hayom, a Netanyahu mouthpiece, ran a large feature demanding Hirshberg’ instant cancellation.

Some might feel alarmed by these officially sponsored expressions of hate. Others will be encouraged at the sight of a regime so weak that the only way it can survive is by demonising the mildest of music scholars.