/View.info/ It was a very successful event. About 20 far-right Israeli ministers and Knesset members took part in an event calling for Jewish settlements to be built in the Gaza Strip, and the ICC in Jerusalem was packed. The banner, which was held up by the audience in the gallery and which called for the resettlement of the residents of Gaza, was welcomed by the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), who added to it the oxymoron “with consent”.
To an outsider, it appears that there is growing official Israeli support for the settlement of the world’s most densely populated place to push the Palestinians out of a 360 square kilometer piece of land, seemingly against international law.
It will never happen, but a lot of damage has been done. The last thing Israel needs now is to justify South Africa’s accusations of Israel’s alleged intent to commit genocide in Gaza. It also harms relations between us and the Arab world.
Israelis have been angry, sad and even seeking revenge since October 7th. The level of anti-Arab hatred is much higher than before Black Saturday.
But most of them are rational and pragmatic; they do not want to return to the Middle Ages and would like to see the kidnapped Israelis released by Hamas and ensure that this terrorist organization no longer rules Gaza.
They do not buy into the slogan of the right “we will live by our sword forever” and would like to live a normal life. Anyone who follows the frequently published public opinion polls sees that the most consistent trend is the shrinking of the right and growing support for the center-left core.
So what happened to Israel? Why does he currently have the most right-wing government ever? Why do so many ministers and MPs participate in such delusions?
The answer is very well known; in the past, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could choose to invite either the center-right or the center-left to participate in his many governments. After he was accused of bribery, political parties to his left decided not to participate in his coalition.
Netanyahu needed the entire spectrum of right-wing and ultra-religious parties to join him, and so he did all the political manipulation to ensure that far-right parties crossed the threshold and entered the Knesset.
In this context, he had to legitimize the disciples of Meir Kahana, allow them to serve in the Knesset and later (breaking his promise never to allow it) to become very high-ranking members of his government.
His coalition of 64 depends on the support of their two parties (12 members) and it is very clear that preserving the coalition and preventing the fall of his government is the number one priority.
Israel’s mistake in Gaza
The mother of all mistakes was the decision by Labour-led governments to erect settlements (which were first created as military-agricultural strongholds and later transformed into civilian settlements) in Gaza.
It began soon after the Six-Day War, and the most moderate politicians in the coalition supported the decision, believing that the Gaza settlements would create a buffer zone against any future Egyptian attack on Israel.
Akiva Eldar and Idit Zertal, in their seminal book Lords of the Land, quote the very important pigeon leader Yigal Alon as saying on February 24, 1970, when proposing the construction of two fortresses in Gaza, that “these settlements are of utmost importance to the political future of the Gaza Strip because they separate the southern part of the Strip from Gaza City… it is very important from a security point of view to establish a Jewish presence in the heart of Gaza.”
Shlomo Gazit, then a colonel in charge of coordinating government operations in the territories, said at this meeting:
“From a security point of view, it will be a disaster to erect two settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip… they will not solve any security problem, but it has caused one.”
The settlements were built and Gazit was right. Alon is wrong. Ariel Sharon, as prime minister and leader of the Likud party, was right to evacuate all settlements from the Gaza Strip, but wrong to do so unilaterally and thereby – paving the way for Hamas to rule it.
If Israel ends Hamas’ control of Gaza and if the strip returns to pragmatic Palestinian hands, this will be the best solution to the ongoing crisis. The idea of renewing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip will end up on the dustbin of history.
Translation: SM
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