“AN INVIABLE GOVERNMENT”

The consequences of the last arm wrestling between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian resistance was undoubtedly the cause of Netanyahu's departure from power in Tel Aviv, but will it be for the better or for the worse?

By Yossi Tevi

It was the last order that sealed his political fate. Certain that he would continue to count on the customary impunity to exercise power without measures over the Palestinian population, Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu with the advice of the head of the “Shin Bet” and his war cabinet ordered the bombing of the news offices that were located in the towers of "Al Jawhara" and "Al Shuruk" and the preparation for a land invasion to definitively end "Hamas" and consecrate a total and definitive occupation. No one objected to the first, but with regard to the invasion not everyone agreed since such an operation would imply a cost in human lives (especially their own) unpresentable for public opinion.

Likewise, "Bibi" as a good autocrat -a term used Manicheanly by Biden's obsequious- was confident and determined to win over the extreme right-wing sectors of the Jewish population, who trusted that he would do whatever was necessary to comply as he often commented with some of its officials "with the wishes of our fathers who founded the state of Israel." Another objective was to distance himself from his old colleague Naftali Bennett, another far-right and practicing Jew who, turned into a contender with his “New Right” group, had been positioning himself very well before the first incidents broke out in Sheikh Jarrah.

This is how Netanyahu decided to risk everything for everything, using as an excuse that the arrival of his adversaries to power would endanger the stability and very existence of the state. Bennett, a wealthy die-hard religious Zionist who not long ago claimed that killing Arabs was of no consequence and that he aspires to take over the West Bank makes many wonder how he is different from Netanyahu? Apparently the differences, regardless of whether or not one is a "devotees", pass through the view that each one has on their political role to contribute to the Zionist cause and the means with which they will support the state of Israel. But without a doubt that the leadership at the head of a messianic like Naftali Bennett does not give rise to tranquility and, on the contrary, brings very bad omens (many more than those they endured with Netanyahu) for the Palestinians.

Likewise, the fighting within Zionist political circles is fierce to such an extent that rumors circulate that occult rituals of Pulse Denura (death curse) are resorted to, which is nothing other than Jewish black magic. We must not lose sight of the fact that this is a power struggle between the most extreme sectors of the Israeli right -secular and religious- and this is not good news for those who expect some sign of pacification. That is why Netanyahu knew where to touch to raise the stakes and for this he had the resources provided by the state and from his supremacist discourse, he promised to make them available to the greatness of the Jewish people. Once again, "Bibi" appealed to the discourse with messianic content that extremist Zionists both in Israel and in the US are so pleased to hear, but undoubtedly with greater interest in dazzling the latter who are the ones who contribute with their pressures and contributions to the state funding.

When Hamas leader Islamil Janiyeh denounced on television the fraud and arbitrariness that was being perpetrated in Sheikh Jarrah and called on the Palestinians to revolt, he undoubtedly struck a chord with the Tel Aviv bully who as usual and to give a lesson. , ordered to cut the transmissions by bombing the facilities of "Al Aqsa TV" that were in the complex of "Al Jawhara" and "Al Shuruk" in central Gaza. This action not only cost the life of a journalist but also that of several children from a family that lived in the sector. At that moment "Bibi" must have thought "my supporters are watching me and expect an iron determination from me" without being interested in the least in the criminality that attacking journalists represented, much less killing innocent civilians. Of course, these fanatical Zionist sectors and with an increasingly important penetration in the Knesset, celebrated this determination of this "prophet" of the Great Eretz and welcomed and blessed the carnage they were about to cause.

The decision of the Israeli court ordering the eviction of Sheikh Jarrah's Arab families to hand them over to the Jewish settlers was the spark that set off everything. This type of arbitrary decisions that Israel has imposed de facto on its occupants for years, have been the daily bread and the demonstration of an international legal anomie that has not been (or has not wanted to be) advocated by the United Nations. This is another facet of the colonialist and expansionist plans of a state that exercises the occupation of foreign territories without being understood by the general laws. On this it is worth asking: Why do the Palestinians not have the right to their own administration of justice? Do courts of an occupying force have jurisdiction and competence over their occupied? Is the exercise of these jurisdictional powers legitimate and legal under these conditions?

But Bibi did not count on the unison and general uprising of the Arab-Israelis from all the populations that live in the interior towns. Although the uprisings in the West Bank were massive and bloody, to counteract them the Israelis had the help of the Palestinian police forces of the PNA, causing the deaths of 11 Palestinians and costing old Mahmmoud Abbas the little respect he enjoys outside there. It was the beginning of the end for Bibi.

Netanyahu and his supporters realized that they had screwed up by trying to belittle the loyalty of Arab-Israelis to their roots, which are a significant portion of the population. To try to stay in power, Bibi needed to reach an agreement with Arab parties, despite the abhorrence that this causes to the extremist sectors that supported him. In Tel Aviv, the most pragmatic Zionists know that ending all the Palestinians would not only be militarily and politically impossible, but also economically intolerable since Israelis benefit from the workforce of their occupied through the proportion of jobs that wealthy citizens do not want. perform. Simply a lousy business.

Bibi's unpopularity had been on the rise for months. His prosecutions along with his wife as customary con artists were embarrassing a part of the Jewish community while others care little if their political leader is a white-collar thief or a simple con man as long as he maintains the security and prosperity of their economies. It was for this reason that the settlers of the illegal settlements and in particular those that border the Gaza Strip, blindly gave a vote of confidence to such an ethically reprehensible prime minister. But on the outcome of your Apartheid policies, was there any moral itch among Israelis for your government's actions against the Palestinian population? Until what happened in Sheikh Jarrah and the brutal bombings on Gaza, except for left-wing activists and independent humanitarian NGOs, few were the ordinary Israelis who protested for this reason, but it became part of the massive popular discontent that soon developed. in street demonstrations with thousands of Israelis brandishing Palestinian flags not only in Tel Aviv, Haifa or Jerusalem but also in London and New York and in other EU countries calling for an end to the occupation.

To make matters worse, as has been leaked from within Netanyahu's own cabinet, the effectiveness of the anti-missile system "Iron Dome" has been much debated and the conclusions about the bombings against Hamas military infrastructure yielded an unjustifiable failure.

Netanyahu and his cabinet ended up collapsing and today a new coalition arrived in their place, undoubtedly much more dangerous and damaging to the integrity and rights of the Palestinian population; in short, for regional peace. Given this, how viable is a government of religious extremists for the subsistence of the state of Israel?