Samir Aslan did what any father would do. When Israeli soldiers stormed his home in the Qalandiya refugee camp last Sunday to arrest his son, he ran to protect him. This 41-year-old Palestinian was killed. Such incidents are so common that his death did not attract much attention. Last year, 224 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, where military incursions occur on a daily basis. There is every chance that 2023 will be even worse.
The main reason is the ultra-nationalist, right-wing religious coalition government in Jerusalem that includes racist, anti-Arab ministers determined to annex the entire Palestinian territory. Yet the reaction of Israel's Western allies to this alarming, destabilizing development has been unusually quiet. A few issued lukewarm warnings. No one has introduced sanctions or boycotts in the range of those imposed on political extremists in other countries in the past.
The coalition's disputed plans raise a broader, uncomfortable issue for the US and Europe that goes beyond the well-known abuses and impunity of military occupation. In short, can Israel still be considered a reliable, law-abiding ally that shares common values and standards with Western democracies? Perhaps this is why governments are silent?
In key respects, Israel under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu is a burden. He obstructs a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and despises the UN and international law. He refuses to support sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. He rejects the nuclear deal with Iran by threatening war. It sells spy equipment and weapons to authoritarian regimes that violate human rights.
What is perhaps even worse is that Netanyahu's sleazy gang is actively undermining Israel's democratic institutions and civil rights, such as peaceful protest and the rights of the LGBTQ population. Many Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, are fiercely opposed to that government. Experienced politicians warn of "civil war". Diplomats and generals rebel. However, the reckless and opportunistic Netanyahu does not care.
The conventional imperatives for special treatment of Israel are: Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East - it must be supported. It is surrounded by hostile regimes that want its destruction - it must be defended. Because of the Holocaust, Europe and America are eternally indebted to the Jewish people - and that debt must be respected.
This entrenched thinking explains, but does not justify, reluctance to confront the jaded far-right.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party, which advocates the annexation of the entire occupied West Bank, is now in charge of building settlements. One of his first moves was to seize $40 million in Palestinian Authority funds.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the leaders of the Jewish Power party, who was previously convicted of inciting racism, is now the new Minister of National Security. He began his tenure by ordering police to crack down on Israeli anti-government protests, banning Palestinian flags and deliberately making a provocative visit to Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine.
Netanyahu's coalition is moving quickly to tame the judiciary - the same judicial system that prosecutes him for corruption. Meanwhile, criticism becomes increasingly risky. Zvika Fogel of Jewish Power last Sunday accused opposition leaders Jair Lapid and Benny Gantz of "betraying the homeland." It is no wonder that President Isak Hercog felt the need to call for calm.
US President Joe Biden, a staunch ally of Israel, believes that the preservation of democratic values is the key global struggle of our time. Due to Netanyahu's intimacy with the destroyer of democracy Donald Trump, the enthusiastic acceptance of the Brazilian "wonderful" putschist Jair Bolsonaro, friendly relations with Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, Biden must be in doubt whose side the six-term prime minister is actually on. Progressive American Jewish leaders have similar concerns.
The United States has so far avoided open criticism of the Israeli government, and such a shamefully passive approach has been taken by EU countries and Britain.
Biden is sending Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Jerusalem to investigate what's going on, while Netanyahu is due in Washington next month. That will be interesting. So far, however, the US has avoided open criticism. This shamefully passive approach was taken by both EU countries and Britain.
During a visit to Israel last Sunday, Foreign Office official Lord Ahmed blithely declared that bilateral relations had reached "new heights".
The thesis that Israel is under siege by hostile regimes was once true, but not anymore. That country has repeatedly shown that it can take care of itself. The so-called Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco reinforced the established trend towards coexistence, if not friendship, with the Arab world. Netanyahu hopes the Saudis will join next. The anti-Israel haters of the past - in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya - have been defeated, one way or another.
The big exception is Iran, which remains fiercely antagonistic. Sooner or later, Netanyahu will again threaten to attack Tehran's nuclear facilities. A war with Iran would inevitably involve Europe and the US. As much as they hate the regime there, it is not in their interest. So far, they have successfully restrained Netanyahu.
Likewise, an intifada-like explosion in the West Bank, triggered by ministers' attempts to regulate illegal settlements or collapse the Palestinian Authority, would be seen by the West as an avoidable disaster.
Still, there are signs that an explosion is coming, bolstered by recent violence and the rise of local Palestinian armed groups linked to Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
By threatening the Western public's support for the state of Israel, undermining its democracy and confusing its allies, Netanyahu and his hatemongers have proven to be his country's worst enemies. As they create discord to rule, the gap with the West deepens and Israel weakens.
How ironic it would be if after all the "blood and tears" shed since 1948, as the brave former Prime Minister Jicak Rabin said in 1993, the final fatal blow would be delivered from within. Don't forget that Rabin was later killed. His killer? A fanatical right-wing Jewish ultranationalist.
Article taken from "Observer"
Translation: N. Bogetić
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