At the heart of the current turmoil engulfing Israel is a pathological liar and a pervasive lie. The liar has long been exposed, but the lie that he and others have long propagated has only now begun to unravel.
It is no coincidence that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far lied in a crisis of his own making. He is known among his former and current coalition partners to be a liar: a pathological liar, a serial liar, and my favorite, the “liar of all liars”. Even Western leaders such as former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former US President Donald Trump thought the man was an insufferable liar.
It is true that in some of these cases it is a case of pot calling kettle black, but rarely has there been such a broad consensus on a politician, except perhaps Trump. But then again, Netanyahu is a trumpian politiciandevoid of moral scruples and always advancing their interests at the expense of others.
In 2022, Netanyahu led a populist campaign of lies against Israel’s elites, media and judiciary in a successful bid to regain the prime ministerial post he had lost a year earlier. This self-proclaimed liberal then formed a coalition government of tyrannical fascists and fanatics to take on the old liberal “deep state” and transform it into a fundamentalist “Jewish state.”
Until now he has insisted that there is no personal agenda behind his judicial agenda, which aims to subjugate the courts to the whims of the ruling majority. But in reality, he made a Faustian deal with Israel’s most fanatical parties that allows him to remain out of prison and in command of state power, despite being indicted on multiple counts of corruption. In return, he is helping them impose their ultra-religious agenda on state and society and further marginalize Israel’s Palestinian minority.
Netanyahu has proven ready to do everything in his power to stay in power, including colluding with the most rogue and dangerous elements in Israeli politics to undermine the secular liberal Ashkenazi-dominated establishment that built the foundation of the state. Israel and shaped its development. .
Secular, Ashkenazi and morally challenged, Netanyahu enjoys broad support among the ultra-religious, ultra-nationalist and Sephardic communities, all of which helped make him the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Israeli state. Dubbed the “King of Israel” after him, Netanyahu probably thinks he too can shoot anyone on Dizengoff Street and still not lose a vote.
This Trumpian arrogance led him to force his radical, anti-liberal and transformative legislative agenda through the Knesset with a very small majority, ignoring growing opposition domestically and internationally, especially from the US and Europe.
That was a mistake; a stupid mistake.
Netanyahu’s detractors were quick to conclude that once his judicial “reform” is passed, eliminating judicial oversight and bypassing the Supreme Court, the prime minister and his cronies will be able to legislate any law regulating any aspect of Israeli life, with no legal means to stop them.
In response, hundreds of thousands of secular and liberal Israelis from all walks of life took to the streets to protest his attempts to undo his former Ashkenazi-dominated liberal order and replace it with a new autocratic government. They threatened to paralyze the state, closing ports, the Tel Aviv airport and universities, until their demands are met.
Under intensified street pressure, Netanyahu finally backed down on Monday and delayed a parliamentary vote on his agenda in hopes of calming tensions. His promise to reach a national or parliamentary consensus has so far been downplayed by protesters as a ploy to end the problem.
But some of the opposition leaders, such as his former coalition partner Benny Gantz, appear willing to compromise, in the name of national, read Jewish-Israeli interest.
Many of the protesters waving Israeli flags in a show of patriotism and in defense of their freedoms do not seem to realize or admit that as long as their colonial Israel maintains its oppressive Jewish supremacy in Palestine, its entrenched system of apartheid will continue to fuel tyrannical fascism and bigotry.
They do not seem to realize or admit that the new generation of rebel religious extremists, such as ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, are by-products of Israel’s occupation and illegal settlement enterprise, and that judging by their large and growing numbers of followers among the Israeli youth, are destined to become very powerful and very dangerous, as long as the violent apartheid regime persists.
And while there is no moral equivalence between Israel’s drive for domination and the Palestinian struggle for freedom, the last three decades of apartheid have had similar effects on both the occupier and the occupied, strengthening religious and extremist elements in both. societies and threatening new cycles of destruction. violence which in turn will lead to more fanaticism.
It is not yet clear how or when the current turmoil will end, but what is clear is that the current schism within Israeli society will continue to deepen unless Israel addresses the biggest lie of all: that of being a Jewish democracy, an occupier. liberal and a civilized executioner of another people, the Palestinians.
This lie became widespread in the early 1990s, when the US-sponsored peace process granted Israel the privilege of becoming a prosperous settler-colonial state over 78 percent of historic Palestine: a laborious, liberal state. with secular Tel Aviv at its center, fully integrated into the West and the Middle East, along with an independent Palestinian state.
The alternative was to continue expanding its illegal Jewish settlements to become an apartheid state like South Africa, stretching over the entirety of historic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, with two separate political systems, economies and infrastructure, dominated by a more Fanatic and illiberal “Jewish state” with religion-laden occupied Jerusalem at its heart.
Arrogant and greedy, Israel rejected the overly generous Palestinian offer of coexistence, believing it could have both: rule all of Palestine and enjoy peace, prosperity and international legitimacy.
This was propagated early on by none other than Netanyahu himself, who came to power in 1996 after conjuring incitements against the peace process, which led to the 1995 assassination of his predecessor, Yitzhak Rabin.
Thanks to its American patron, Israel has long had it both ways. Over the past 30 years, Washington has propped up Israel’s economy, invested in its high-tech industry, funded its military and pushed for normalization with much of the world, while ignoring deepening apartheid and rising violence.
But the decades of staunch American support that have allowed Israel to brazenly pull its weight and address the region’s realities with utter disdain have also allowed the rise of doomsday fascism and the fanaticism that may well lead to its demise.
So let me be clear, as the deception unravels and the lie catches up with the liar, Israel must end the charade, break out of its Zionist trap, and stop claiming to be both colonial and liberal, Jewish and democratic, secular and fanatic. , oppressive and peaceful, apartheid and humane.
It’s time for Israel to choose wisely before the fanatics make the choice.
