Israel is run by a left-wing government, whose first inclination is usually to crack down on free speech:
When it was first announced that Nadia Matar of Women in Green was being prosecuted for "insulting a public servant" via a sharp letter she sent to Yonatan Bassi (see the bottom of this page for text) it was generally expected that this was simply another ploy by overzealous officials to try to silence opponents to their policies.
After all, in the early years of Oslo it took months for Israeli legal officials to finally reach the conclusion that a protestor who held a sign reading "There are 120 idiots in the Knesset" should not be charged for the same crime.
But it appears that Attorney General Mazuz has decided to make an example out of Matar and her trial has been set to open on 14 June 2006 at 10 AM at the Magistrates Court in Jerusalem.
Imagine if this standard were applied in the US--millions of Web pages match the search terms "Bush Hitler." Of course, the Israeli outrage is rather selective: Israel's first Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion, frequently described the Zionist statesman Zev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky as "Vladimir Hitler."
(Hat tip: Mickey)
