The Zionist State and the Zionist Militia
Dr.. Dr. Muhammad Makram al-Balaawi
This is a crucial point when it comes to the conflict in Palestine because of the conflicting narratives. The mainstream media, for example, opts for the narrative of "a Palestinian gunman shot two Israeli brothers in the Palestinian village of Huwwara," while the Palestinian version is that "after the Israeli army killed 11 Palestinians in the neighboring city of Nablus, a Palestinian resistance fighter shot two members of the armed forces who were living in an illegal Jewish settlement and happened to be brothers." According to Israeli media, one of the Israeli settlers was a sailor, while the other planned to serve as a combat soldier in the Israeli army.
Since the early 1990s, Israeli academics and security officials have issued warnings to the government about the destructive role of heavily armed illegal settlers, not only to Palestinians, but more importantly - from the Israeli government's perspective - also to the authority of the Israeli occupation government in the West Bank. However, Israel chose not to act, and in many cases provided the settlers with arms and legal and political cover.
On February 26, armed settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Hawara near Nablus, burning homes, shops and cars, and attacking local residents. The damage was so extensive that some Israelis sympathized with the victims and denounced the settlers' actions. One general described it as a "massacre," an emotional word used by Jews. European diplomats flocked to the village to meet people and express their solidarity. They too condemned the settlers' crimes.
What was new or different about the settler attack on Huwwara that made diplomats feel the need to go there? What the settler thugs did is what Zionism is all about. Israel's founding ideology is a form of fascism. In 1975, the United Nations declared Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination". This decision was later rescinded under intense pressure from Israel's allies on the world stage. However, human rights organizations such as B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have argued that the occupying state has now crossed the legal threshold to be classified as an apartheid state.
Zionists in the United States and Europe seem shocked by what they see in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. They have tended to view Israel through rose-colored glasses as a replica of their own countries, a so-called "hotbed of civilization instead of barbarism."
Europeans see Israel's pillars shaking, as if the state is on the verge of collapse, with its identity as a secular democracy being replaced by far-right Jewish religious rule. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cronies are seemingly moving ahead with their judicial coup that will undermine Israel's already partial democracy. The Israeli Defense Forces and security services are witnessing what could be called a mutiny in other countries to protest the planned judicial "reform." Mass demonstrations have taken place in Tel Aviv over the past ten weeks, and Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum are receiving death threats even as Israeli settlers spread across the West Bank and expose the true face of "democratic" Israel. Far-right extremists pursuing the goals of the Religious Zionist Party are in control. Their followers have infiltrated all the state apparatus and are growing in number. If general elections were to be held tomorrow, they would retain their - admittedly slim - majority in parliament. The shift to the far right seems inevitable and irreversible.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former top security and military officers have warned that Israel could face a civil war if the country remains on this path. Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are trying to divide the army and police and turn them into far-right militias to work alongside illegal settler militias in the occupied West Bank.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned last year of the "curse of the eighth decade." He said Israel could disappear before its 80th anniversary if the ideological divide is not taken seriously.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins next week. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and other Muslims are filling the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Israel has prepared for this by sending hundreds of soldiers to the area. Ramadan has become an Israeli phobia in recent years as it tends to see a sudden spike in violence and sometimes military attacks by the Israeli army during the fasting month. While Muslims go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to seek peace and tranquility, Israeli forces and settlers insist on provoking worshippers to make it clear who their bosses are. Such provocation often generates a strong physical response. This scenario has become a major topic of discussion between Netanyahu and his foreign counterparts.
Israel will be caught between a rock and a hard place: Palestinians who have long dreamed of freedom and are willing to pay for it with their lives, and a divided Jewish community caught in an existential confrontation of its own making. Ramadan 2023 could be another presentation of the "curse of the eighth decade" for the occupying state.
