So, thanks to Hamas’ attacks and Israel’s response, England, Canada and Australia have recognized the existence of a State of Palestine for the Palestinian People, in their historic homeland. Well, in part of their historic homeland. Not in the eastern part, because that’s under the colonial control of the Hashemites, installed by the British. And that’s the type of colonial control that must never be challenged, because it’s not white or Jewish.
Also, Australia insists that the State of Palestine must finally hold democratic elections. And that “the terrorist organization Hamas must have no role in Palestine.” Which runs into the unfortunate paradox that the reason why Palestinians haven’t had democratic elections in many years is precisely because Hamas would win such elections.
(Not to mention that even those Palestinians who don’t support Hamas still largely do not support two states for two peoples. The “two states” that they have in mind are Palestine, a Muslim state (that’s the official PA position) ethnically cleansed of Jews, and a not-lasting-long-as-a-Jewish-state-Israel, with its two million Arabs supplemented by Palestinian returnees.)
But if Palestine is a state, what does that actually mean? As Einat Wilf pointed out, “Is Palestine a State for the purpose of assuming responsibility for having invaded Israel to commit a horrific massacre? Is Palestine a State for acknowledging that the millions who already live in that Palestine are not and cannot be “Palestine Refugees” into the fifth generation?” No, of course not!
Matching craziness for craziness, Israeli MK Itamar Ben-Gvir responded as follows:
Now, it may be correct for Israel to take some steps in return. And the PA is certainly no peace partner. But while chest-thumping feels good, there is no point in proposing impossible things. “Crushing the PA”? Is he seriously proposing that Israel should go to war against the trained and armed PA forces, along with the 2.5 million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, among whom live half a million Jews that would need protection in such a war? We don’t even have remotely enough soldiers for Gaza, and Ben-Gvir wants to open a new front that will be vastly greater?!
This sort of pointless, counterproductive, vain chest-thumping is not unique to Ben Gvir. None other than our Minster of Defense, Likud MK Israel Katz, declared that Israel will colonize Yemen!
Some people love it that he’s “talking tough” and say that this the only language that is understood in this part of the world. But it’s not “talking tough” to claim something that every single person with a brain knows is not going to happen. And at a time when people claim (and some genuinely believe) that Israel wants to conquer the Middle East, it’s not remotely helpful.
It’s embarrassing to have a Minister of Defense who tweets such idiotic things. But of course, he’s not remotely qualified for the job anyway. He received the appointment for one reason only - that he is a Bibi loyalist who wouldn’t raise any problems with the wholesale draft exemption for charedim.
Meanwhile, it’s precisely this sort of crazed nonsense from the government that has contributed towards Israel’s diplomatic isolation. Of course, loyal tribalists do not care about diplomatic isolation, because they foolishly think that the support that Israel currently relies upon for its economy and military is either guaranteed or entirely unnecessary. Rome Shmome!
So much craziness on all sides. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of religious Jews left Israel today to spend Rosh HaShanah in Uman. Because Rebbi Nachman. You know, the person who said this:
Apparently, they understand Rebbe Nachman’s phrase “Wherever I travel, I travel to Eretz Yisrael” to mean that when a person leaves Eretz Yisrael to travel to Uman, he is travelling to Eretz Yisrael!
Ah well. May next year be a better one. With less extremism, more appreciation of the complexity of issues, and more basic sanity. There’s always hope for change.
