If Israelis Don't Rise Up Now, We'll Have Nothing Left to Fight for
Israel in on its way to becoming one of those countries that tourists visit because you can buy anything there – from furniture to human beings – for really cheap.
Not that tourists will be coming, after all there's no shortage of crumbling countries in the world, and there's no reason why tourists will schlep all the way to this dangerous region. Slowly but surely we are marching to this reality with eyes wide open, as though in a daze, to the enthusiastic applause of the prime minister's (partly paid and partly volunteered) cheerleading squad.
Israel is steadily becoming a pariah state. The trickle of international sanctions has become a daily occurrence. A few settlers here, an organization there; one day it's from Spain, the next day it's from Japan. Rather than noticing the trend, we've gotten used to it. We've forgotten that these sanctions are a privilege. They are a warning signal. They're what was once called an "intervention" – Israel's friends are taking it aside and explaining that the days when they were ready to pay for it are over. And since there is no tantrum like the tantrum of the privileged, Israel's government cries "antisemitism!"
It's hard to imagine a greater show of chutzpah. These violent settlers, whom many countries have decided to cut off, are not just a small scattering of crackpots. They enjoy the right to live in illegal outposts and abuse their Palestinian neighbors because this government grants them this right.
Benzi Gopstein isn't some strange creature dragged by its beard out of a cave in Hebron. He freely comes and goes at the Knesset, the same Knesset that bars entry to relatives of the hostages. Tzav 9 is not just a radical organization composed of pimply youths from the hilltops – its members are afforded protection by the police and the minister responsible for the police. How many times do we need to see a truck driver being beaten while police officers stand aside before this sinks in?
Countries are imposing sanctions on them so they won't have to impose sanctions on the State of Israel. Here, too, they are well aware of what every Israeli ought to have grasped by now: Israel does not have the luxury of becoming isolated and weak. It would be the end of us. But none of this interests anyone in the current government. And if anyone still had any doubts, MK Tzvi Succot appeared and put forward a bill that would require the Bank of Israel to provide direct banking services to his sanctioned friends from the settlements.
Religious Zionism lawmaker Tzvi Succot in December.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
This is incredible – Succot decided that this is just the time to play chicken with the United States, Britain, European states, Australia, Japan and some other countries I've likely forgotten. This is a game we cannot possibly win. Implementation of this legislation would mean that the Bank of Israel would be considered in violation of the sanctions, and the world's financial institutions would be required to cease cooperation with it. Succot is gambling on the savings of all Israelis. What could go wrong?
We're all familiar with the procedure by now: Steer the country into a bottomless pit, shout "antisemitism!" and move on to the next bottomless pit. This is what happened with Israel's credit rating, for example, when the finance minister ignored warning after warning. And then, from deep inside the pit, explained that Moody's lowering of Israel's credit rating was "a political manifesto based on a pessimistic and unfounded geopolitical worldview." He went into the pit promoting a "God-willing" economy and emerged as an expert in geopolitics.
And this geopolitical expert has a vision. He is taking Israel toward full annexation of the territories, a change he admits is "mega-dramatic" and that he is carrying it out in secret so that other countries won't notice. I have some bad news for him: They've noticed. How do we have the nerve to shout that the court in The Hague is antisemitic when our finance minister openly acknowledges that he committed the crime of which we are being accused?
A board outside the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in June.Credit: Ofer Vaknin
There will come a time when we will long for the days of sanctions on Benzi Gopstein and Tzav 9. Compare the number of people in attendance at Netanyahu's speech before Congress last week with his previous speech there, and you'll get an idea where we're at. About half the Democrats were absent, as though preferring not to be around the weird uncle with bad breath. But in our alternative universe, it was a "strong speech" and "excellent hasbara." This was his big moment, the one big thing he focused on for all these months. The swine's swan song.
We have a prime minister who is afraid to land in Europe because he could be arrested for war crimes. Our very own Milosevic. The Americans and Europeans are mulling sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir – ministers in the Israeli government – and seriously discussing the possibility of sanctions on certain military and police units.
Every day, the water gets hotter, and it's becoming ever clearer where this all is leading. The government won't stop it, and it will continue dragging us down while basking in its closed circle of applause. Without batting an eye, every one of its members will look out the window of a plane flying away and watch as we all burn. If we don't rise up now, there will be nothing left to rise up for in the future.