2022, the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005. Israeli security forces killed 146 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year. For Israeli Jews, too, the death toll is high; 29 infantrymen and civilians were attacked and killed by Palestinians.
And yet, there is an explanation for why things are about to get even worse. Israel’s ousted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has forcibly returned with the help of the highest right-wing government in the country’s history. His election and his new coalition government are nothing short of a gift to extremists on both sides.
The government’s timeline regarding the Palestinians is incendiary and portends disaster. In a tweet summarizing the new government’s governing program, Netanyahu wrote that “other Jewish people have an exclusive and undeniable right to all spaces in the Land of Israel,” adding the West Bank.
אלecerse קech quin γיסוד של הממשלر erior. ST.
In other words, explicitly killing any option of a two-state solution by advancing de facto annexation through the expansion of the agreement will be a precedent of the government, whose outposts we can hope to legalize outposts that Israel itself has deemed illegal and put de jure annexation back on the table.
Where is the Israeli left, you might ask? Dead and buried, and about to be even more so. The coalition agreements Netanyahu has signed with his extremist partners come with undermining left-wing Israeli NGOs and human rights organizations and depriving “terrorists” of citizenship or residency to allow them to be forcibly deported. The coalition agreement will also likely lead to full immunity for Israeli foot soldiers and police from investigations or prosecutions for opening fire, including in violation of rules of engagement, and even on active outdoor duty.
There have been protests against this extremist agenda, both in Israel and in the community. Israel’s ambassador to France, veteran diplomat Yael German, resigned Thursday in protest at the new Netanyahu government’s policies of hatred, racism and division.
“The statements of your government ministers and the intentions of your law go against my conscience, my worldview and the foundation of the declaration of independence of a Jewish and democratic state. “? https://t. co/DoMdQxcN18
However, the U. S. reaction is in the U. S. The U. S. economy has been disappointing. Biden’s management has opted for a “wait and see” approach, while the U. S. ambassador has opted for a “wait and see” approach. The U. S. military in Israel was quick to congratulate Bibi on her swearing-in on Thursday, touting “the strong relationship between the U. S. and China. “USA and Israel and the indissoluble ties. “
But the real factor is whether Israel’s far-right government will take steps that cross Washington’s red lines. The government’s lifestyle represents the greatest gift to Hamas and extremist militant teams in years, who argue that only force does good. The extremism of the new Israeli government confirms Hamas’s image of Israel as a corrupt, racist and extremist state bent on destroying Palestinians, indifferent to diplomatic or non-violent engagements.
On the Israeli side, even if the new government does not take any direct action against the Palestinians, its lifestyle will greatly inspire Israeli settlers to escalate their already alarming violence. And this, of course, will lead the IDF and border police to further brutality through impunity.
Settlers and see a champion in new Knesset member Itmar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s national security minister, who has been appointed head of border surveillance in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. A messianic extremist convicted of supporting the Kach terrorist organization and inciting racism, Ben-Gvir is well known for having once had in his living room the portrait of Israeli-American terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers.
“Disloyal” citizens.
Naturally, the foot soldiers love him for it. Three foot soldiers were suspended from duty just before the elections, one for assaulting a Palestinian and the others for failing to intervene. And the day after the election, two other foot soldiers were suspended, one for beating an Israeli peace activist and for telling resistance activist Issa Amro, “I hate leftists. Ben Gvir will arrange things in this place. That’s it, you lost. . . The party is over. “
An Israeli soldier told me and Israeli Jewish activists in Hebron: “The parliamentarian will put the order to @itamarbengvir here, he will prevent everything you do, I am following the law here and I say you are acting against the law” after the beating of the soldier. my amigo. pic. twitter. com/dPI60Hr6hH
Ben Gvir went to make a stop in the soldier’s circle of relatives at the time to show his approval of the soldier’s remark. Three weeks later, IDF infantrymen were filmed dancing jubilantly around Ben Gvir, giving him a heroic welcome.
IDF soldiers dancing with former terrorism-linked detainee and new National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the Wall Occidental. pic. twitter. com/809WnsWGtP
But Ben Gvir is the only deplorable guy who got an influential position in Netanyahu’s cabinet. Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has taken on a supportive role in the government as the de facto prime minister of the West Bank, and it is no less dangerous. A supremacist theocrat, Smotrich once told Israeli Arabs: “They are here by mistake. . . Ben-Gurion did not finish the task and did not expel them in 1948. “
In 2017, Smotrich proposed what he called “the subjugation plan” to “erase all Palestinian national hope,” which he derived from the biblical genocidal Joshua bin Nun. His plan would give the Palestinians 3 options: Leave the occupied territories; surrender to live as inferior second-class non-citizens; or resist and receive treatment through the IDF.
What message does it have that these two extremists, almost entirely guilty of the occupied territories and Palestinian life, send violent Israeli settlers and IDF foot soldiers, as well as a green knight, to do as they please?.
The presence of this extremist government, led by a prime minister willing to do whatever it takes to evade responsibility in his corruption trial, sends a message to Israeli radicals that there are no consequences for being ruthless. Meanwhile, on the Palestinian side, the uglier it is, the more popular Hamas and other armed Palestinian teams become. After all, they feed on despair, rage, anger and despair.
Perhaps the greatest damage of all, the devout fanaticism of Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and other members of Netanyahu’s cabinet fuels the misrepresentation of the conflict as devout than political, rallying other people more around uncompromising hatred and fear.
These points in combination create the ultimate storm: a more powerful Hamas, a weaker and paralyzed Palestinian peace camp, more emboldened settler crowds, more IDF foot soldiers with scratched fingers. All that is missing is a coincidence.
The most productive way for Biden management to deal with this approaching disaster is not to sit back and wait, and then fight to involve the damage. It’s the best time to start mobilizing billions in U. S. military aid. Israeli government officials like Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Biden will have to make it clear that the moves will have consequences.
Biden’s leadership will also have to take visual steps to underscore its support for the two-state solution and the right of Palestinians to live in dignity and freedom. Biden will have to work to present a platform and build for Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and advocates of coexistence. He will have to find a way to help the field of peace and protect it from irrevocable death.
Muhammad Shehada is a civil society activist from the Gaza Strip and a student of progression studies at Lund University, Sweden. I was in the public relations fee for the Gaza workplace of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. He is a columnist for The Adelante.
The perspectives expressed in this article are those of the author.
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