It’s been almost six full weeks since Israel’s fifth parliamentary election in three years. Prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is having difficulty cobbling together a coalition with his would-be fascist partners (are we already seeing rumblings of a not too far off 6th election?) yet things remain as awful as ever for Palestinians.
And in case anyone is worried that Israel has been too lenient and forgiving with its Palestinian opponents of apartheid, this man, who stands to be in the next government says you ought not worry; Israel is ready to unleash hell on Palestinians soon. Imagine how bloodthirsty and delusional this Israeli lawmaker (in the prior link) must be. Imagine believing that the concept of “proportionality” was ever a deciding factor, other than one to be intentionally abrogated, in Israeli military policy. It’s simply absurd.
But as bad as things are in Israel, J Street used its annual meeting last week to double-down on liberal-Zionism. The group had a keynote speaker who extolled the virtues of racial and ethnic separation, this from someone who in today’s Israel is considered too far to the left to be electable; U.S. Secretary of State Blinken told the crowd not to expect any changes from the administration on Israel policy, shocker; and last but not least and definitely least unexpected, the message to attendees was not to give up on Israel, no matter the demonstrable evidence.
It’s almost enough to lead a cynical person to believe that there’s a symbiotic relationship between Israeli fascists and liberal Zionists in that the fascists know that the liberals won’t ever give up on the idea of Israel, no matter how murderous and Orwellian it is, and the liberal Zionists know they can always blame the fascists for all that is wrong there, and that it could all change if only the right conditions came about and fund-raising off that idea has proven to be a somewhat viable long-term strategy. Slowly people are wising up to reality.
