6 May 2024 12:03 am Views - 768
Inside Israel, however, apart from a small number of human right activists and concerned citizens, most people seem to be happy with the policies of Netanyahu and his ultra right backers.
Those who think that those who oppose Israel’s brutal war in Gaza are just Arabs, Iranians and a handful of lefties
They are also highly critical of the US for its unflinching support of every horrific thing that Israel does under the pretext of securing its borders. These are ever-expanding and will only stop when they reach the Red Sea. This anti-Israel Jewish wave from Western Europe and the US is part of a broader anti-war movement which sees this conflict as the starting point of a new world war.
Student protests
From small Scottish towns to American Universities, protests big and small are now a common occurrence. Columbia University in particular has become a focal point of protests. Pinning the anti-Semitic label on protesters, campus authorities asked the police to violently remove the protesters. But they go on, and this movement is very reminiscent of the wave of anti-Vietnam war protests that rocked American campuses in the ‘60s.
Those who pin the anti-semitic label on these protesters ignore the fact many of them are Jewish. In Berlin, an Israeli woman was arrested last month for holding an anti-Israel placard in Berlin. This was followed by the expulsion of former Greek Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis, whistleblower and outspoken critic of both US and Israeli policy in the Middle East.
Sea of tents
If Israel decides to send its army to Rafah, as hawks close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demand, it will be a slaughter because Rafah is a sea of tents full of refugees with neither bomb shelters nor cover. But the world is watching, and Netanyahu is a politician enough to know this. He is worried about the cost and Israeli casualties. This isn’t like Ukraine, which is now largely forgotten by everyone except those directly involved. Besides, Rafah is close to the Egyptian border, and a major Israeli military action there would not be acceptable to Egypt, and could jeapordise all the hard-earned gains of the Camp David agreement.
But opposing hawks such as his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant who is from an ultra-zealous religious background, could lead to a political crisis within his government, whose aim is to drive every Palestinian out of Gaza by killing or starving them. But the Palestinians too, are like the Jews in their own way. They are hard to annihilate. Gaza is now full of ruined houses without walls or roofs where families sit amidst the rubble. They would rather face death and leave.
They were desperately poor even before the Israeli onslaught because Israeli restrictions and import controls were designed to cripple the Gazan economy. The list is absurd – even musical instruments and toys were banned. Now, Gaza has no economy at all, and people have no money, but they aren’t leaving.
Netanyahu is in a desperate situation. Privately, he may now be having doubts about Israel’s military prowess and invincibility. Hamas has not been destroyed after six months of the most intensive search operations, raids and bombardments. Worse, Iran’s recent retaliatory missile attack sent shock waves through Israel’s government and the military. The missiles were fired from Iran, and that was a game-changing shift. At least 15% of those missiles struck an important Israeli air base housing its prized F-35 attack aircraft.
Netanyahu is in a desperate situation. Privately, he may now be having doubts about Israel’s military prowess and invincibility. Hamas has not been destroyed after six months of the most intensive search operations, raids and bombardments.
Retaliation
This attack was in retaliation to Israel’s bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Several Iranian generals were killed. But there are military people in most diplomatic missions, even spies, and they have diplomatic immunity. That’s no reason for bombing them. Israel has gone a step too far doing that, adding to its considerable security worries.
Netanyahu’s biggest consolation may be Israel’s ‘special relationship’ with the US, with unflinching American support in case it lands in trouble. US President Joe Biden is on record as saying that ‘If Israel didn’t exist, the US would have to invent Israel.’ That must be a very comfortable thought to Netanyahu and his hawkish friends.
But Biden needs to worry about getting re-elected in November. Nicknamed ‘Genocide Joe,’ he knows he’s alienating significant numbers of young, educated voters with his uncritical support of Israel. Many key posts of his administration are filled by members of the powerful pro-Israel lobby, including Zionists. In other words, he’s in a real bind. He betrayed the people of Afghanistan by pulling out American troops from the country soon after coming to power. He followed this with a disastrous policy in Ukraine, pledging support but not giving enough, making NATO look weak and putting Ukraine in serious difficulty. And now, he looks like a willing tool of Israel in its ruthless drive to kick the Palestinians out and create a ‘greater Israel.’
Policies of Netanyahu
Inside Israel, however, apart from a small number of human rights activists and concerned citizens, most people seem to be happy with the policies of Netanyahu and his ultra right backers. Intrepid American journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin reveals a chilling insider view of this Israeli mindset in her documentary series ‘Empire Stories.’ Let’s look at this in some depth in the next column.