Will the world soon see the victory of democracy over racism in Israel? – Middle East Monitor

We may be surprised at the result of the pressures that the major public protests and political opposition in Israel have produced. We may see the fall of the far-right fascist coalition, and the formation of a new government without some of the more radical members, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but including others such as former Benny’s Head of Staff. Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, or even Yair Lapid. There could even be another General Election, the sixth from 2019. Such a situation would have been considered unlikely before, but not now.

This is more likely to happen given the increase in the number and segments of society that support the opposition to the government, especially due to the judicial coup and the change in Israel’s identity from a state ” liberal democratic” to state. a state driven by fanatical religious Zionism. It must be added that there is unlimited support from the West, led by the US, for the opposition because judicial “reforms” give politicians power over the courts and a change in Israel’s status threatens America’s strategic interests in the region. This makes it difficult to market Israel and gain support for the occupation state within the US itself, since that support is supposed to be based on “shared values”.

Every day we hear about new sectors joining protests within Israel, including the army, security forces, the media, the judiciary and economists. Foreign governments have expressed their rejection of the judicial coup (although they do not actually call it that), along with political commentators and intellectuals in the West in general and in the United States in particular. Even Jewish Zionists are declaring their rejection of the proposed change and threatening to speak out against Israel in the media. With the possibility that the Israeli economy has lost investments worth billions of dollars, economist Michael Bloomberg has said that Israel is heading for “disaster”.

It is almost certain that the active powers inside Israel affiliated with the left and the center of the “deep state” who consider themselves descendants of the founders, as well as the pressure put on Netanyahu by the West, will not allow the This “disaster”. to happen or this judicial coup to go through. There are many reasons for this, especially that the deep state knows very well that the existence and prosperity of Israel is connected with continuous external support, especially from the USA and the Jewish community there.

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This will not be achieved if Israel abandons its identity and image of being a representative of Western values ​​and a forward base for the colonial powers after their withdrawal from the region after the Second World War.

However, none of the above, despite the importance of what is happening, answers the main question: is there any difference between the essence of the Israeli coalition and the protesters in the streets? A distinction must be made between the position of the two parties regarding the internal dispute about the identity of the state, and their position on the Palestinians and their aspirations for freedom, independence and self-determination.

Regarding the first, the dispute is real, radical and deep, in that strategic thinkers and senior security leaders consider it to be the main threat to the state at this stage, ahead of the Iranian nuclear threat as well as the conflict with the Palestinians. Many commentators and observers have written about the danger of horizontal and vertical divisions in Israel and the possibility of internal strife and civil war, leading to the collapse of the entire state. This would be similar to the historical experiences of the Jews, as Israeli philosopher and thinker David Passig theorized in his book 2021 The Fifth Fiasco – How to escape the traps of Jewish history in the twenty-first century.

As for the position of the Palestinians, they are just differences in approach; the essence is the same for both the government and the protesters. Although some may argue that the chances of peace and coexistence are greater on the center and left compared to the far right, history and reality show that such a conclusion is wrong. Unfortunately, however, this is the story promoted in Israel and the West and believed by many around the world.

The fact is that all the statistics about the conflict in Palestine prove without a doubt that there is no fundamental difference between the vast majority in Israel — left, right or center — when it comes to the Palestinians. Those responsible for the protests in Israel deny the participation of any Palestinian citizen (“Israeli Arab”); it is a “Jew-Jew” conflict and non-Jews can have nothing to do with it. The plan adopted by Yair Lapid to resolve the conflict is only “conflict management” or “conflict mitigation” in economic terms. It has no place in any political horizon that includes the Palestinians.

Let us not forget that many of the wars and military attacks launched by Israel against the Palestinian people – killing and wounding thousands – have been carried out by central governments, which are supposed to have remained, including the wars of 1948, 1956 , 1967 and 1982, the “break”. bones” policy in the first intifada and the Qana massacres of 1996 and 2006.

Left and center parties have implemented all the projects and settlement schemes to control the resources of Palestine over the years since the establishment of the occupation state in 1948. Last year was the worst and most brutal for Palestinians since 2005, with more than 230 killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank; the Israeli government in 2022 was led by the centrist politician Lapid in an alliance with the left.

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All the plans of Israel’s political parties are based on occupied Jerusalem Judaism; promoting and developing illegal settlements; to deny Palestine’s right to an independent, fully sovereign state; denial of Palestinian refugees’ legitimate right of return; and, most importantly, the establishment of a Jewish state in which Jews have more rights than non-Jewish citizens. This is well known to the Western powers that support Israel, but they turn a blind eye and do nothing about it, as long as it does not endanger their own interests.

Human rights are indivisible, and racism, whether overt or hidden behind sweet words, will remain an offensive and ugly act and must be rejected everywhere, regardless of who is responsible and who is the victim . With major human rights bodies such as B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International finding that Israel is inflicting apartheid – a crime akin to a crime against humanity – on the Palestinians, Palestine cannot be allowed to remain under Israeli occupation. be an exception.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.