The following goes to the issue of the headline of the article shared by Chas earlier, and adding context to it:
Settlers are causing mayhem in the West Bank
Palestinians are close to rebelling
I can’t provide the complete quote below as I’m not a subscriber but this captures the meaning of the NatCons and their “satellites,” Kevin Roberts’ “Third-way” Heritage Foundation, quite well, as extensions of the “Settler Movement, quite well, as the three are “fused” together per the quote below:
"been schooled in the fusion of state violence and spirituality. This is the template that Hazony now offers to the world via the neutralized language of National Conservatism. Like his Zionist predecessors, he too imagines Israel as a light unto the nations—an illiberal model for the international nationalist brigade."
So this is by way of introduction of how any political analysis of the U.S., and its wars, must begin, by discarding “binary” analysis of the system and applying a “trinary analysis,” to take account of the Settler Fascist Movement now openly operating in the U.S. as Kevin Roberts/Heritage Foundation’s “Third-way,” in collusion with the Republican Party whose new House Speaker in integral to this, with the likelihood that our next POTUS will be the restoration of NatCon Trump, and countries like Meloni’s Italy and Orban’s Hungary under NatCon rule currently.
"How an Israeli thinker became one of Trumpism’s foremost theorists"
"The Israeli writer Yoram Hazony is one of the American right’s most celebrated thinkers — and the personification of a quietly influential Israel-American right-wing world of ideas.
As Haaretz is behind a paywall, here are some short, but pertinent, recent article on the political dynamics in Israel, and of their U.S. “New Right/Right-wing Peacenik” allies.
Sunday’s remark by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit), who said that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip is an option, is a problem not for Israeli public diplomacy but rather for Israeli reality.
The problem is not any particular statement, but rather the power and legitimacy enjoyed today, in Israel as a whole and in the government, by the Kahanist, messianic Jewish far right, which supports annexation and occupation and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, sees the current war as an opportunity and scorns the international community, international institutions and the laws of war.
This was not a slip of the tongue. In an interview with Radio Kol Barama, Eliyahu said that “there are no uninvolved [civilians]” in the Gaza Strip. Asked by his interviewer whether that meant Israel should drop a nuclear bomb on the Strip, he responded, “That’s one way.” And his subsequent “clarification” – “It is clear to anyone who is sensible that the nuclear remark was metaphorical” – is ridiculous. A metaphor for what?
Nor is he a lone exception. Eliyahu’s party colleague, lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer, told Army Radio on Sunday that “the Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there – death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Entire swaths of the government belong to the dangerous far right: Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Simcha Rothman, Orit Strock, Avi Maoz, Zvi Sukkot, Limor Son Har-Melech and their confederates.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response was lame. Eliyahu’s statement, he said, was “disconnected from reality,” and the minister will be barred from cabinet meetings until further notice. He ought to have fired Eliyahu, but he chose not to do so; he prioritized preserving his government over preserving Israel.
Netanyahu isn’t the solution, but the problem. He has legitimized Kahanism and the far right. During his years in power, Israel has grown more extreme, and people who used to be loathsome pariahs are now senior cabinet ministers. Ideas and values that used to be outside the consensus, such as “transferring” Arabs from Israel, a second Nakba and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, have been normalized under Netanyahu’s irresponsible leadership.
He is the one who lent legitimacy to political alliances with admirers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein and the murderer of the Dawabsheh family. Under his leadership, the settlers have begun setting their sights on the West Bank’s Area B, which under the Oslo Accords is under Israeli security control and Palestinian civilian control. And the settlers’ radical “hilltop youth” have moved from being intelligence targets of the Shin Bet security service to serving as ministers, Knesset members, aides and advisers.
The far right’s membership in the government has painted the entire government, and all of Israel, in far-right colors. The only way to solve the problem is to remove the far right from the government, and from the bounds of Israeli legitimacy. The only way to repudiate Eliyahu’s statement is to repudiate him and those like him. The Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism parties must be fired from the cabinet immediately. (TP-good luck with that when the entire U.S. Right supports the foregoing!)
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
The IDF intends to recruit settlers who have not undergone military service and place them as regional defense militiamen in their area of residence.
The recruits are expected to undergo accelerated basic training for three weeks, after which they will be armed and stationed in the settlements. The program is open to civilians between the ages of 27 to 50, who have not served in the military.
Candidates were asked to fill out a form to indicate, among other things, their religious affiliation such as ultra-Orthodox, national-religious, national ultra-Orthodox, religious or other.
Only ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlements are included in the list of localities that the candidates will secure. The settlements are Ibei Hanachal, Ma’ale Amos, Emmanuel, Beitar Ilit, Modi’in Ilit and Tel Zion.
A designated website states that candidacy will be evaluated according to “various criteria,” but does not specify what those criteria include. A person who called the army to inquire about the program was told that basic training would begin in two weeks and that he would receive the salary of a regular soldier, and after that the salary of a reservist.
Settlers and soldiers in Hawara, after the murder of the Yaniv brothers and the reaction pogrom carried out by Jews there, in February (those photographed have no relation to the article).Credit: Moti Milrod
When the interested party asked if a criminal record would prevent his enlistment, the military representative asked if that criminal record was “something like hilltop youth,” referring to the radical, often violent settlers from illegal outposts. He asked not to elaborate. Later, the interested party was told that this depended on the nature of his criminal record. He was also told that he would be able to fill the position in a community that was not his place of residence, but that the army would not provide him with lodging.
Another person who inquired about the program and told the military representative that he had been a hilltop youth, was asked if he had a criminal record. When he answered in the affirmative, he was told that in some cases the army would “overlook it if he was serious. It depends,” and was told to register so that his candidacy could be examined.
The Emanuel settlement, last year. (Those photographed have nothing to do with the article)Credit: Hadas Parush
Earlier this week, the army suspended a reservist after violating numerous army procedures. The soldier, a company commander of a regional defense unit in the Etzion Bloc, shot at a Palestinian violating the rules of engagement, blocked Palestinian traffic opposite the entrance to the Ma’ale Amos settlement in opposition to his brigade commander's orders.
He blocked roads to Palestinian traffic together with settlers who are not soldiers, failed to prevent the building of unauthorized roads around settlements, and conducted unauthorized tours while on duty. The company commander was suspended, but not dismissed from duty.
This IDF company is composed mainly of residents of settlements.
Furthermore, as previously published in Haaretz, since the start of the war some 1,500 ultra-Orthodox men above the exemption age for military service (26) have submitted requests to be enlisted to reserve duty.
Their requests were submitted within the framework of the “Phase B” program, a designated track for ultra-Orthodox men that was introduced two years ago, primarily for positions as drivers’ in the health professions, and identifying the deceased.
"In view of current circumstances, we received many requests from citizens who received an exemption from military service in the past and who wish to volunteer in the IDF. For years, the IDF has made it possible to enlist as part of the “Phase B” program, a process that includes recruitment to basic training, after which volunteers can enlist and contribute to active reserve service. The IDF looks at all inquiries, checks with the relevant authorities and approves them accordingly,” an IDF spokesperson said.
Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionism party called on Israel's defense minister on Sunday, not to allow this year's olive harvest in the West Bank, citing a danger to Jewish residents nearby.
"Parts of the olive harvest in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] olive take place near Jewish residential areas, main roads and IDF bases," wrote Sukkot – who last week was appointed chairman of a Knesset subcommittee on West Bank issues.
A Palestinian harvests olives near the Israeli wall near Hebron in the West Bank, last month.Credit: Reuters/Mussa Qawasma
The harvest, he went on, "grants Palestinians access to places they are usually barred from due to security considerations."
In his letter, Sukkot claimed that since Palestinians workers "worked in the towns, collected intel, documented forces and took part in the massacre" of October 7, the olive harvest must be limited to locations that pose less danger.
Settlers at the olive grove where the shooting occurred, Saturday.
A longtime target of the Shin Bet security service, Sukkot has been arrested numerous times. In 2011 he was questioned on suspicion of involvement in setting fire to a police commander’s car, against the backdrop of demolition of structures by Israeli authorities at an unauthorized West Bank Jewish outpost. He was never charged. During the same period, restraining orders were issued against him on several occasions barring him from the West Bank. The last of the restraining orders was issued in 2012, following intelligence that he was leading what was described as “covert and violent activity against Palestinians.”
Over the years, Sukkot shifted to political activity and has come out publicly against violence, although he has continued to claim that there is no such thing as ”settler violence.” In April 2021, Sukkot was filmed pushing and kicking the head of the Sebastia Palestinian village council.
On Nov 6, 2023, at 5:08 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
VIOLENCE PERPETRATED by Jewish settlers in the Palestinians’ West Bank
has risen sharply since October 7th. The Israeli army and the settlers
have, in total, killed at least 155 Palestinians in the territory, the
core of a would-be Palestinian state, since Hamas committed its
atrocities against Israel. This death toll is a fraction of the number
killed by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in the same period. But it is rising dangerously fast. The occupied West Bank is getting closer to boiling over.
Last
year was already the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank for 20
years. Settler groups have become bolder and the army has intensified
its raids on Palestinian towns and cities. But since October 7th things
have dramatically worsened. At the current rate, the four weeks
following the Hamas attack will have been more deadly for Palestinians
in the West Bank than the whole of last year.
In
particular, the war in Gaza has aroused some of the more violent groups
of West Bank settlers. Some are out for revenge for Hamas’s atrocities.
Others are simply taking advantage of the situation to lash out while
Israel’s army is busy elsewhere—in Gaza and on the northern front with
Lebanon. As a result, the West Bank’s Palestinians are feeling even more
vulnerable than usual.
In
Qusra, a village south-east of the city of Nablus, four Palestinians
were killed by settlers on October 11th. The next day, during a funeral
procession for them, two more were shot dead by settlers, according to
Hani Awda Abu Alaa, the town’s mayor. “[The army] assured us over the
phone that the new route was secure,” he said. “But they set a trap for
us…We encountered a large number of settlers who attacked us with stones
and bullets.” The mayor accused Israeli soldiers of “protecting the
settlers”.
What
has changed in the past few weeks is that elements of the army and
those settlers who are bent on violence appear to have teamed up,
according to Yonatan Kanonich of Yesh Din, an Israeli watchdog that
monitors Jewish settlements in the West Bank. “People sometimes wear
army trousers or shirts, they have weapons,” he explains. “You don’t
understand if it’s a settler or a soldier, you can’t really tell. It’s
all the same now,” he says. “If the soldiers stood back idly before, and
didn’t do anything, now they are joining the settlers in their
attacks.”
Some
500,000 Israelis live in settlements (excluding East Jerusalem) in the
West Bank regarded as illegal by the UN and foreign governments,
including America’s. They are often cited as an obstacle in peace talks
and plainly undermine the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian
state. The building of settlements has steadily increased since the
Israeli-Palestinian peace accords signed in Oslo in 1993.
Since
October 7th President Joe Biden has urged Binyamin Netanyahu, the
Israeli prime minister, to rein in the settlers—in vain. Extreme
right-wing settlers who hold key posts in Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet seem to
have no wish to calm things down. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the
national-security minister, grinned as he handed out rifles to Israelis
to protect “settlements and the cities”. Mr Netanyahu’s current
government has delighted the settlers by earmarking large sums for
settler roads (from which Palestinians are generally barred) and by
giving Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist settler who is the finance
minister, extra power over planning regulations in the West Bank,
though the last word on this still lies with Mr Netanyahu and his
defence minister.
On
the ground, settlers are rarely punished for initiating the violence.
In June they rampaged through Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town, setting
fire to homes and cars. One Israeli officer branded the settler attacks
“nationalist terrorism”. But no serious consequences followed. Once
labelled as rogue operators, violent settlers now have representation in
Israel’s coalition government.
For
years some Palestinian officials and foreign observers have been
warning of a third intifada, or uprising—and now fear it is likely to
break out. “It has already exploded,” says Tawfiq Tirawi, a former
Palestinian security chief with strong ties to the West Bank’s refugee
camps who fell out with Mr Abbas. “The people are brimming with anger
and a revolutionary spirit,” he says.
So
far unrest has been mainly limited to protests in Palestinian cities.
The Israeli security forces, sometimes aided by the Palestinian
authorities, have arrested thousands to keep a lid on things. Israeli
checkpoints have been sharply curbing Palestinian movement.
Some
Palestinian campaigners say the Israeli government, with the help of
settlers, wants to depopulate the West Bank of its Palestinians. Near
the big city of Hebron, 13 Palestinian villages, they claim, have been
thinned out as a result of threats of settler violence. “It’s clear they
are planning and organising…you are talking about an organised
militia,” says Shawan Jabarin, a veteran human-rights activist in
Ramallah, the Palestinians’ administrative headquarters. He says many
Palestinians see the violence as part of a plan eventually to push them
out of the West Bank altogether. “It’s about revenge,” adds Mr Kanonich.
When
Hamas burst out of Gaza to murder Israeli communities across the border
on October 7th, most of the Israeli soldiers stationed in the West Bank
were regulars or conscripts. But in the next few days, as around
360,000 reservists were called up, most of the regular troops were
deployed either to take part in a ground offensive into Gaza or to the
northern border with Lebanon in case of war breaking out with Hizbullah,
the Shia Muslim militia. Many Israeli reservists and a number of senior
commanders are deeply hostile to the settlers and would like them to be
restrained. But they fear that other groups of reservists left behind
on the West Bank may be unable or unwilling to do this. Israel’s army
and border police have rarely arrested settlers for violence, though one
ringleader has been put into administrative detention without being
formally charged.
The
Palestinian Authority, which is supposed to administer chunks of the
West Bank, is largely powerless to protect Palestinian civilians. Its
senior officials are strongly against the prospect of another intifada,
fearing that that would give Hamas an opportunity to become the dominant
Palestinian force in the West Bank. In any case, much of the violence
takes place in areas where the Palestinian security forces have no
freedom of movement or jurisdiction. Palestinians reckon it is
unthinkable that they would arrest or directly confront a settler.
One
veteran Palestinian security official says he fears that a single
incident may spark an intifada. “I smell blood in the West Bank,” he
says. “I don’t know where it will be, but it is coming: the settlers are
going to do something terrible.” ■
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