This is to bolster the spirits of the Quincy (Koch) Institute/TAC magazine’s patrons/fans here, as they get closer and closer to “Mission Accomplished!”
BLUF: "Instead of regional alliances, we will have the war of Gog and Magog that Donald Trump's evangelical supporters are waiting for.
. . .
"Ben-Gvir, one of the lead agents of chaos, really doesn't want us to talk about all this right now. He wants to throw balls of sand in our eyes until it will be too late."
Ben-Gvir is not the only “lead agent of chaos,” nor is the fascist coalition he anchors only Israeli or Jewish He has full U.S. partners, as can be seen here:
While the Israeli media this weekend concerned itself, with infinite seriousness, with the mud ball that was allegedly thrown at Itamar Ben-Gvir at the beach, the entire country continued to sink into the real mud, courtesy of the national security minister and his partners: that is, the project of turning the West Bank into Gaza and Gaza into the West Bank.
These are two parallel deep processes that have accelerated greatly since the outbreak of the October 7 war and its consequences, and are creating a dangerous reality.
In the West Bank, the war in Gaza has raised the scale of escalation on almost every level: On the Palestinian side, the motivation for violence is growing alongside the increase in arms smuggling. Settler violence is more rampant than ever, under the protection of the far-right government, and the army began to deploy in the West Bank with forces, equipment and intensity that are directly influenced by the fighting in Gaza.
Palestinians assess damage in the street following an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the West Bank, Friday.Credit: Ali Sawafta/Reuters
The killing of innocent civilians on a scale that was unimaginable before the war in Gaza has become routine, normalized by what is happening there. And all of this is proceeding alongside the economic oppression that Israel has imposed on the West Bank since October and the political trampling of the Palestinian Authority – this, despite the fact that the PA is still Israel's only partner on the ground in curbing the terror. If this trend persists, it will lead at some point to the complete Hamasization of the West Bank and to rising violence and daily friction among Palestinians, settlers and the army. It will be a second Gaza.
Concurrently, in Gaza itself, the Netanyahu government seeks not only to maintain a permanent Israeli military presence but also to introduce military rule. This is evident from the leaks and reports, according to which Israel plans to take control soon of the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointing at Tel Aviv on a map during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday.Credit: Abir Sultan, pool/AFP
At the same time, the settler movement is already preparing the ground for civilian settlements as deep into Gaza as possible. We know how this goes because we saw them in the West Bank and in Gaza before the disengagement. First, synagogues will serve the army, then there will be permanent yeshivas, staffed with rabbis, and later all of these will become "communities." Teenagers will move into trailer homes, from which they will be removed again and again, until the outposts in Gaza are "legalized."
In Friday's Haaretz, Shany Littman quoted a leader of this movement explaining the plan: "First they will approve our holding prayers of some sort across the [border] fence, then they'll let us be there a little longer, maybe sleep overnight, let's say once a week sleeping there, and that way, gradually, we hope to arrive at a situation in which we actually settle on the other side of the fence."
What's your model, she asked, to which he replied: "The most similar one is the return to Homesh," in the West Bank. "That's what happened there, they didn't wait for authorization, it came 15 years after they started. There were settlement efforts there, a period of staying once a week, a period when they slept there. There were ups and downs. There was a structure there for a while, then they [the authorities] came and demolished it. And today, God be blessed, there are families in Homesh."
Palestinian refugees walk past the rubble of houses that were destroyed during the Israeli army operation in Tul Karm, Thursday.Credit: Nasser Nasser,AP
There are historic days, in the sense that they may determine history for generations to come. If these trends are not stopped soon, it is very possible that the differences between Gaza and the West Bank will be irrevocably erased. Both territories will burn and become more extreme by the day under the occupation and the Israeli military regime and, alongside them, the settlements and outposts and daily violent friction between the civilians.
And above all this, the constant threat, in varying intensities, from every other member of the Iranian axis – from the north, the east and the south. Hell. In these circumstances, the hoped-for expansion of the Abraham Accords can also be tossed in the trash. Instead of regional alliances, we will have the war of Gog and Magog that Donald Trump's evangelical supporters are waiting for.
A hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza could be our last chance to avert this apocalyptic vision. A truce in the Strip would facilitate a certain de-escalation in the West Bank. This certainly will not end the cycle of violence, but it will slightly slow the deterioration and allow for the creation of alternatives. Assuming there will be someone to advance them.
Ben-Gvir, one of the lead agents of chaos, really doesn't want us to talk about all this right now. He wants to throw balls of sand in our eyes until it will be too late.
