In a single moment Thursday evening, everything came together into one image. An armed man began firing at passersby on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, as the last of the day’s protesters and demonstrators against the judicial coup scattered to their homes. The first reports were confused, as is their wont: Was it a terror attack, a criminal incident or perhaps an attempted political assassination? For one moment, the protest linked up with the occupation.
The picture soon became clear. The attack had nothing to do with the protest, but it’s no longer possible to keep obscuring the connection: The occupation is at the root of most of the evils Israelis are now demonstrating against, even if they are not willing to admit it. It is the root of all evil. If not for it, Israel would be a better place; if not for it, many of the forces of destruction would not be so strong. That is why it is time to admit that the occupation and the settlements have defeated the State of Israel. They won, and it collapses under them. What began in the June 1967 Six-Day War and the April 1968 Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Hebron reached the very heart of the country, settled in it, ate it from the inside and caused it to rot. The process took longer than anticipated, but now it is happening before our jaded eyes with alarming speed. The die is cast. It’s a shame that the protesters and demonstrators do not see its origins.
It was never right to connect everything to the occupation. Those who did so were taking the easy way. Israel faces a host of other challenges and evils that have nothing to do with it. But the occupation overshadows everything. Its curse lies over the judicial coup as well. Most of the forces that drive the coup sprouted in the hothouses of the settlers or their champions and accomplices. If there is no occupation, there are no settlements – and if there are no settlements, there is no Bezalel Smotrich, no Itamar Ben-Gvir and no Simcha Rothman. Simple as that. If there is no occupation, there are not so many kippa wearers in every nexus of power. If there is no lust for annexation and greed for territory, there is no Yariv Levin. If there was no occupation, there would still be racism, but less. Maybe even Benjamin Netanyahu would have been different. All of Israeli politics would have been different, had maintaining the occupation not become its main goal.
The occupation gave birth to the new, generic Israeli wheeler-dealer: a bully, accountable to no one. Aggressive, usually ignorant. Dismissive of law and order, of the world. Everything is permitted, including lying, for the sake of the Land of Israel. Corruption was also born there, between the Dotan Valley and the South Hebron Hills. It’s not that there were no thieves and murderers before the Yesha Council of settlements, but judicial rot, deceit as a norm, theft as being politically correct and of course violence as a legitimate and even revered phenomenon – these all flourished in the occupation. If it is permitted there, then why not here? Those who were trained to burn and shoot in Hawara as a first and preferred option will not easily let go of this a few kilometers to the west. I’ll say it again: Not everything is the occupation’s fault, but much more is its fault than Israel admits. It’s very sad that the majority of the protest camp has not yet recognized this.
If not for the occupation, there would be no judicial coup. Yes, it’s that extreme. The judiciary – not the worst system in Israel’s government – was chosen as a target for the upheaval mainly because it is the last check on the final release of the reins. Even with the legal system as it is, it’s possible to do nearly anything in the territories, but its elimination will loosen the last restraint. Then it will be possible to steal in broad daylight instead of in the darkness of night, to execute people with benefit of trial and not only by targeted assassination, to expel, arrest, torture and destroy without hindrance. Thus, the hardening of the occupation is one of the main motivations for the coup. Without it, the right could live with the judiciary if only it would take its hands off Netanyahu.
Imagine Israel without the occupation. You would see such a different country.
Not everything is the occupation’s fault, but much more is its fault than Israel admits. It’s too bad that most of the protesters still don’t recognize this.