HOW ISRAEL WILL BECOME THE VICTIM OF ITS OWN POLITICIANS
Peter Edel
The question is why now? Why has Israel chosen to inflict the bloodiest massacre in forty years precisely at this time? Which circumstances are at work here? Of course the political vacuum in the USA is an important aspect. The mental patient in the White House is most certainly not going to tell his Zionist buddies off, that’s for sure. He never seriously did so during his administration, but now the days of his presidency are counted, the suffering in Gaza is probably the last thing on his mind. And his successor Obama has yet to be inaugurated. It is not very likely that he will arrange a dramatic change of the American policy concerning Israel and the Palestinians (for would he have become President in the first place if he was planning to?). There is more than one indication showing that we’re not at the dawn of a new era with Mr. Obama, beginning with the names in his soon to be government. But apparently the ruling political establishment in Israel still does not want to take any chances with him. Anyway, on itself the political intermission in Washington is not explaining the events in Gaza - which does not mean it won’t be interesting to see how Obama will respond to all of this.
There is more at stake, with the upcoming elections in Israel. Tzipi Livni, the new leader of the Kadima party, is very well aware of a distinctive mechanism within Israeli politics. She knows that in order to be successful in Israeli politics, one has to be tainted with Palestinian blood. As was the case with other Israeli Prime Ministers, such as David Ben Goerion, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon. Livni realizes this charming fact pretty well. Especially since her main opponent in the elections will be the Likud hardliner Bibi Netanyahu, who made it quite clear in his election rhetoric that he will deal with Hamas for once and for all when elected. Israeli politicians are arguing while the Palestinians pay the bill, that’s what it comes down to.
Apart from the circumstances described above, the Israeli attack on Gaza appears to be quite irrational. Not only from a humanist point of view, but also according to political logic. Even when strictly proceeding from Israeli interests, it come across as quite stupid what the leaders of the Zionist state have been contriving lately. For the time being the theory sounds that by putting Gaza in total misery, the Palestinians will eventually turn against Hamas. So, Israel chooses the same strategy as two years ago against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which as history has shown, turned out to be a total failure. For all that Israel achieved with its violence was a stronger Hezbollah in Lebanon.
How can the Zionist clique expect the Palestinians to turn their back towards Hamas just like that after the lesson of Lebanon? The opposite is considerably more likely, that Hamas will come out of this as the moral winner, with more support of the Palestinians than ever before. Also because it is not impossible that Palestinians who voted for Fatah during the last elections, will join Hamas in a reaction to what Israeli is doing. Certainly not a policy in line with Israeli interests, as we will see. Moreover, Israel is driving the leaders of Hamas even more crazy this way than they are already, with more casualties on the side of Israel as well.
So there’s much chance that Israel will achieve the opposite of what it says it wants to do: ending the “terrorism”. Even the last surviving group of Palestinians in Gaza, will continue its struggle against the western colonization of Palestine (because let it be clear that this is what we are still talking about). So wiping out the Palestinian resistance in Gaza will in practical terms come down to killing the entire population. There is little doubt that the religious madmen of settler organizations like Gush Emunim, would go for this option. An overwhelming amount of statements originating from this side is indeed confirming that a Palestinian holocaust is high on the priority list of the religious far right in Israel. It goes without saying that the consequences of such an unimaginable move would be devastating. And certainly not only for the indigenous population of Palestine. For a full blown genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza would without any doubt lead to the rise of a worldwide Anti-Semitism. An Anti-Semitism that may very well endanger the lives of Jews wherever on this planet. Still, it remains a question whether such a dramatic development would keep the most fanatic religious settlers from the option of mass-murder. Their loyalty towards the supposed scheme of religious events is alarmingly solid (“hey you’re a goyim, so you will be my slave after the Messiah has appeared”), which makes their hate of gentiles far-reaching enough to bring it about. Hopefully the secular government of Israel won’t behave as crazy in Gaza.
The ambitions of the ultra-religious scene in Israel are leading to anxiety and prospects of horror. Especially since these fanatics are not only hating Palestinians, but also the government of Israel which dismantled many of their settlements over the last years. Therefore it is clear that religious settlers do not feel bound by the guidelines of their leaders. This may even lead to a situation in which they will take their own initiative towards the Palestinians. Take for instance the possibility that an ultra religious Zionist, who by coincidence happens to be working in Israel’s nuclear facilities in Dimona, takes some highly radioactive material from his workplace to spread it among the Palestinians……. In a country where a Prime Minister was murdered by a fundamentalist from the own legions, nothing seems impossible. But okay, let's assume for the time being that the government of Israel will be able to control this bunch of lunatics. If only because it sleeps better.
Let’s conclude this brief analysis of the recent developments in Israel/Palestine with a little historical background. Therefore we have to go back to about thirty years ago, when Israel began to develop an important policy. A policy that may soon be under fire of the recent electoral considerations in Israeli politics.
In the seventies Israel had strong ties with the Apartheid regime of South-Africa. Israeli officials were fascinated when they saw how the South African racists divided the black population through their support of “Inkhata”, the rival of the “African National Congress”. At the time resistance against Israel within the Palestinian community was concentrated within Yasser Arafat’s PLO, who was closer to Soviet communism than to Islam by then. Contrary to what has been going on in the world over the last decades, Islam was not a political or violent factor in those times. Not by far. And that’s where the Israeli leaders recognized possibilities to divide the Palestinians, hoping that they would be fighting each other somewhere in the future instead of Israel. In order to achieve this, Israel began to support the Islamic movement, like by financing Islamic schools and hospitals.
However, there was one development the Israel leaders had not foreseen and that was the revolution in Iran. That event changed the face of Islam entirely and turned it into a political factor of major proportions. And to put it short: that’s how Hamas emerged from the same Islamic movement that was initially supported and financed by Israel.
Now, it is attractive to say that Israel made an enormous miscalculation. But one way or another: the Zionist state did manage to divide the Palestinians. The violent confrontations between the followers of Fatah and Hamas over the last years, are a strong indication that Israel has been successful in this respect. Because it goes without saying that the Zionists prefer to see Palestinians fight with each other than against Israel. At this point of time the Israeli policy to divide the Palestinians was brilliantly effective. Of course there was an initial price to pay for Israel in the form of casualties resulting from suicide attacks by Hamas, or the occasional Israeli who was so unlucky to be hit by one of the mere flares launched from Gaza by Hamas activists. But these unpleasant side effects were all seemingly fading away as the violence between the Palestinians broke loose. Besides, the Israeli power elite may not have been not unwilling to pay this price to reach the so desired discord among the Palestinians. History proves that Zionist leaders are not reluctant to sacrifice a handful of Jews as long as the Zionist cause is served, so it would not have been unusual.
Anyway, a big success all together for Zionism. The only point is that the once so outstanding move to divide the Palestinians is now endangered by the massacre inflicted by Israel on Gaza. Because consequently Hamas can only grow towards a more powerful position within the Palestinian community. And that will further change the relative balance between Hamas and Fatah, which is definitely not in Israel’s interest. Palestinians won’t be fighting Palestinians anymore in the near future. Instead, they will fight together against Israel, like the way it should be. And that’s how Israel will soon become the victim of its own politicians’ lust for power.
