By Fazal M. Kamal
The recent murders of three Israeli and one Palestinian teenagers—and the merciless torture of another Palestinian-American teen) are unquestionably barbaric, beyond tragic and comprehensively reprehensible. No rational person can even come close to condoning any such brutality. But if one follows the trail it leads directly to the door of Israel’s leaders and primarily to Benjamin Netanyahu who, partially but not wholly, to appease his extremist supporters has been for months spewing hatred utilizing constantly the language of violence, intransigence and belligerence while punishing an entire people.
It’s merely natural that when the relentless greed for land overwhelms all including the urge for peace and when an entire population is subjected ferocious repression apart from being hounded out of their homes to spend their lives in total indignity and uncertainty, there can be precious little expectation of peaceable solutions. At present though, it appears, the Tel Aviv regime continues to believe that brutal force will bring the kind of peace it wishes, regardless of the inhuman price that is being extracted from the Palestinians.
Here’s only one instance how recent events were provided opportunities. Shortly after it was confirmed that the three Israeli teens were killed Netanyahu, as is his predilection, reacted with words of incitement. Twenty-four hours later, an AFP report states, more than 200 Jewish extremists took to the streets of Jerusalem, screaming “Death to Arabs!”, dragging people out of cars and storming the light rail system in what one witness described as “a pogrom”. Several hours later, the Palestinian youth Abu Khdeir was snatched before dawn as he went to the mosque to pray, with his burnt body found by police shortly afterwards.
And now this is the consequence: “The diabolical murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir is the Shin Bet’s nightmare scenario,” commented Yossi Melman in Maariv newspaper, referring to Israel’s internal security agency. And more to the point and much more significant: “It is a scenario in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict turns into a tribal battle between two communities according to the biblical formula of an eye for an eye, which is likely to leave in its wake destruction, ruin and scorched earth on both sides.” The world is now therefore witnessing more horrors unfold and more deaths as Israel opts for all-out military assaults.
According to the French wire service, two particular extremist groups are also believed to be behind a growing wave of racist, anti-Arab vandalism, euphemistically termed “price tag” attacks which initially began as a reaction to state moves against the settlements but has morphed into a much broader expression of xenophobia. The report goes on to elaborate, “Ideologically, such groups take their inspiration from Kahanism, a racist anti-Arab ideology espoused by Rabbi Meir Kahana whose Kach party and another offshoot were banned in 1994 after one of its members gunned down 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque.” And even though for months, ministers and former intelligence chiefs have been pushing the government to clamp down on Jewish extremists, and declare those responsible for “price tag” violence “terrorists” their calls have fallen on deaf ears, with the government agreeing only to declare the perpetrators as being in an “illegal organization”.
Explaining the extant situation Ludwig Watzal writes: “Nobody should be surprised at the outbreak of racism towards the Arabs in Israel. From the kindergarten to the grave, the Israelis are indoctrinated by Zionism, which is an exclusivist ideology. After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the late Israel Shahak has in his groundbreaking book ‘Jewish History, Jewish Religion. The Weight of three Thousand Years’ elucidated the political implications of this belief system. But the real roots of racism in Israel and the hatred of the goyim can be found in ‘Classical Judaism’, which is used ‘to justify Israeli policies that are racist, as totalitarian and as xenophobic’. And Shahak continues: ‘Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in Jewish attitudes to the non-Jewish peoples of Israel and the Middle East.’ ”
Dr. Watzal goes on to observe: “The crocodile tears of Netanyahu for the murder of the young Palestinian are hypocritical. For the record: Netanyahu and his extremist predecessor Ariel Sharon did not moderate a mob at a demonstration in Jerusalem, which slandered Rabin as a ‘traitor’ and carried Rabin dummies in Nazi uniform, one of the most despicable symbols in Israel. Shortly after, Rabin was assassinated. Not without reason, Lea Rabin refused Netanyahu’s condolences at the state funeral. Therefore, one should not believe the political arsonist who calls for the fire brigade.” Evidently, one of the major hurdles in that conflict is the absence of rational leadership in Israel; especially a leadership that doesn’t equate religion with land.
It’s not that there are no sagacious people in Israel; it’s only that, as in most cases, their voices of sanity are drowned by the always vociferous screeching of the extremists. In this context it has also to be noted that while Israel is touted as a democracy by many of its promoters, to the oppressed Palestinian people the Tel Aviv leadership, naturally and especially because of events since the days of al Nakba, can only be viewed as tyrannical, despotic and murderous. That shouldn’t surprise anyone capable of thinking in logical and secular terms as opposed to cogitating using xenophobic and chauvinistic vocabulary.
For example, soon after the deaths of the teenagers Sima Kadmon commented in a top-selling Israeli newspaper, “And perhaps the incitement we have been seeing for the past week on the social networks, and the tens of thousands of ‘likes’ received by each call for revenge, for murdering Arabs — maybe that is our face…Perhaps something bad has happened to us as a society, and without having noticed, hatred, racism, violence and extremism have taken over our lives like a malignant disease, from the price tag actions to the calls on the streets and on the social networks to murder Arabs.” But at the moment, obviously, the violence-prone and those who have an interest in ensuring that a perennial war persists are winning. What’s even more obvious is that those with a vested interest in this status can’t be moved aside easily.
On the other side Adie Nistlerooy wrote from Gaza: During its military assaults on Gaza, the Israeli army sometimes rings people to tell them; ‘leave your house; we are going to bomb it in a few minutes’. People then have to rush their children out of the house and run for their lives, and wait for that terrible moment when their homes are reduced to rubble. Today, the Al Qaware family received that dreaded phone call. In response, their neighbors gathered on the rooftop, to prevent the airstrike from happening. Since the many drones hovering above their heads can read even the prints on their t-shirts, they would certainly be able to see them (civilians, including children) collectively standing on the rooftop. What happened; the house was bombed anyway. At least 7 people were killed including at least 2 very young children in this attack and over 25 were injured. Rescue workers are still digging through the rubble….”
This then is today’s Palestine. By the time this article is published it’s anybody’s guess how many would be dead, how many would be maimed, how many would lose their homes, how many would lose their livelihood, how many would be rendered orphans…And so the unrelenting massacre continues as the prospect for a peaceful resolution recedes further into the distance. Who in the right frame of mind can even ponder about peace under these circumstances? Still, the aggressive Tel Aviv leadership declares, unabashedly, it wants peace. Clearly, mere pieces of Palestine won’t satisfy their hunger; total subjugation is the objective.
The writer has been a media professional, in print and online newspapers as editor and commentator, and in public affairs, for over forty years
10 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org