“However in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them – the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites – as the Lord your God has commended you” Deuteronomy 20:16-17 is the mantra guiding Netanyahu and his band of fascists.
Belief in this philosophy allows the Israeli industrial killing machine to defy its Western patrons, world opinion and the Israeli opposition, and delve into Macbeth’s option “ I have so far stepped in blood; returning is as tedious as going over”.
Netanyahu has said too much. He is motivated by hatred of the “human animals”. Hatred is a lethal motivation that needs an enemy. An eradicated enemy needs replacement by another and another and another. A political leader instigated by hatred is the source of instability. The Israeli PM has raised the bar too high believing that his Western support will keep the supply door of the latest and most modern arms open and that his incursion into Gaza would be a picnic. So, he locked 2.5m Palestinians, women and babies included, into a prison and threw away the key.
After two months into the war, realisation is dawning down. Israel is excellent at a blitz war, carpet bomb, destroy enemies’ defence equipment and force them to surrender. The Palestinians today seem to be of a different breed. Non-stop bombing has neither destroyed their morale nor their spirit. They are guided, just like the Vietnamese, the Iranians, the Cubans, South African ANC and FRELIMO by a mystique. Words are around that they can last 6 months in their tunnels, a time when Israel will feel fatigue and demoralized. How long will the economy, already grinding so slowly, and the Western support last? The West have to save face in Ukraine and face dedollarization and the Middle East who are daring to look eyeball into eyeball with the USA to say NO and to regulate their petrol supply in their favour for once.
The group of observers that are pessimistic of Israel’s victory is increasing by the day. Ari Shavit, a seasoned journalist, foresees the demise of Israel “as we know it”, if it goes head down on its present path. Recently, Ami Ayalon, a former head of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service, predicts “the end of Israel” if it persists on its territorial expansion. Both are authors and have warned Israel about the dark future awaiting it if it continues the expansionist formula. Their argument relies on the history of occupation ……………….. the Crusaders, the South African Apartheid regime, Portuguese occupation of Angola, invasion of Vietnam by the USA etc. Injustice may exist longer than its expiry date but it will have to disappear one day.
Israel may momentarily bask in its “success” by silencing and persecuting dissenting voices within and outside Israel. But the wheel of History will go on turning. There will remain 6m plus deeply traumatized and angry Palestinians outside of Palestine to remember the humiliation of their fellow countrymen and to take revenge. The Gaza war may turn out to be the beginning of the end, but not for Palestine. Maybe for Netanyahu who will end up like Macbeth. But just as apartheid South Africa’s bloody supremacist regime imploded, so will Israel’s, sooner or later. Israel has wasted countless opportunities to end its occupation and live in peace with its neighbours. Abba Eban once beautifully quipped: his country has “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.
Dawood Auleear
