Israel's Communist party admits it was behind social protests, Ha'aretz gloats

From Ha'aretz:

The social-protest movement was the secret strategic project of Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). What was previously denied is denied no longer: Khenin's comrades were behind the almost-revolution that shook the country: They were the thinkers and organizers and responsible adults behind Daphni Leef and Stav Shafir and the tens of thousands they ostensibly led. But because communists are serious people, they never cashed in, never spilled the beans to the media and never reaped political capital from the subversive mass movement they spearheaded. Only now, as we sit in the old, charming party building on Ahad Ha'am Street in Tel Aviv, does one story follow hard on the heels of another.

This is not sitting well with many of the protesters who now feel duped.

However, the Ha'aretz writer, Ari Shavit, revels in his idolization of Israel's communists.

Dov (Khenin) and Sharon (Shahaf) and Alon (Green) tell me about how they did what they did so that the people, whom the government is against, would rise up against it.

Many years ago, Khenin and I belonged to an ephemeral student movement that fought for a just society. We were right. We saw the faults of sweeping privatization and the dangers of a polarized class society in which 1 percent gets rich and 99 percent are trampled.

Khenin was the most talented and serious among us...

Does this sound like a news story or a political endorsement for Hadash?

Hadash is expected to get 4 seats in the next Knesset, which just goes to show how far left and unrepresentative of Israelis Ha'aretz now is.

The second half of the article, about the far-left Meretz, eventually even does away with quotation marks - it quotes Zahava Gal-On in a way that makes it appear that Ha'aretz is talking, not Gal-On:

Things will be terrible under the terrible government that Netanyahu will form after the election. But the new government will not last, and it will face potent opposition from a strong Meretz, which will fight the government fearlessly and ruthlessly. Next week, after Meretz doubles its strength, we will once more have a left wing that is returning to itself and restoring its belief in itself, and we will fight for our home.

With Ha'aretz deleting the quotation marks, the line between Ha'aretz as a newspaper and as a far-left mouthpiece has finally been totally eradicated.

(h/t Yoel)