The benign term “Hilltop Youth” to name radical settlers deserves to be permanently canned. And after the latest wave of hate crimes perpetrated by these extremists against Christian and Muslim holy sites, the renowned Israeli writer Amos Oz called them “Hebrew neo-Nazis.”

At an event marking his 75th birthday last Friday, Oz said terms like hilltop youth and price tag were “sweet names for a monster.”

Oz added that in his mind, perhaps the only difference between neo-Nazis around the world and perpetrators of hate crimes in Israel is that “our neo-Nazi groups enjoy the support of numerous nationalist or even racist legislators, as well as rabbis who give them what is in my view pseudo-religious justification.”

Oz’s intervention comes at an important time. Haaretz is reporting sectarian tensions are running at an “all-time high” in Jerusalem. One scholar of Christianity, Yisca Harani, has even appealed to the churches to “keep their people inside” ahead of a rally planned for yesterday at Mount Zion. “There are some days it’s better not to be out and about in the streets.”

Israeli public culture seems to be experiencing an identity crisis. Haaretz readers woke up to another rude awakening yesterday, an editorial saying, “In Israel, Jewish terror exists.”

Hate crimes by Jews against Arabs have become routine in Israel — not only in the West Bank, where they are an integral part of the occupation and settlement policy. Last month 16 incidents targeting Arabs were recorded in the West Bank and Israel, compared with 17 in the first three months of the year and 48 in all of 2013. But these attacks, euphemistically called “price-tag”…

(Also a terrific Amira Hass piece on the routine nature of Israeli soldiers bullying Palestinians.)

The other side isn’t taking it lying down. A settler council has filed a complaint of incitement against Oz. The council chairman Sagi Keizler states:

“The author’s statements are grave incitement to racism, for which he deserves the Nobel Prize for racism, …the police won’t be able to ignore the author’s serious incitement.”

And this bizarre claim re their complaint:

“Keizler said he believes the police are going to arrest Oz later today.”

We are often told that no one should use the Nazi analogy for contemporary atrocities. Susan Page of USA Today said as much two weeks ago on MSNBC. But Israelis don’t feel that compunction. The new Jewish Independent published a graphic of Oz a picture of Oz sporting a Hitler mustache. The hateful graphic– of Oz “with facial hair,” as the Independent put it– accompanies a piece by American-Israeli Yori Yanover accusing Oz of “Der Sturmer style” and “a malevolent attack on the ‘Hill Youth.’”

There’s that benign expression again. Isn’t it time for the world to see these extremists for who they really are?

(Hat tip Karen Platt)