Two powerful ministers in the Netanyahu government have used war to
further their dream to drive all Palestinians out of Palestine and
achieve their messianic vision of a theocratic Jewish state ‘from the
river to the sea’ [photo credit: Times of Israel]
Greatly assisting their efforts the IDF has mounted significant new
attacks in the West Bank using ground troops and air strikes to hit
refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm. Al Jazeera which has been reporting
on the ground from the West Bank had its bureau in Ramalllah raided and shuttered by the IDF on 22 September.
On 25 September the New York Times carried a detailed account,
illustrated with videos, about the way in which the military was using
bulldozers to destroy homes and businesses in the two towns and to block
emergency vehicles and ambulances from coming to the aid of the
wounded.
The NYT website quoted a local senior government official saying:
“We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish
businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer
field, and a tree in the middle of a road. What was the point of all of
this?”
The videos show streets and water and sewage mains being destroyed, a
garden roundabout ploughed under and homes and businesses including a
jewellery shop being bulldozed. The IDF claims it was carrying out
necessary anti-terrorism actions. In response to a list of questions
from the NYT it said it followed international law and
“undertakes all feasible precautions to avoid damaging essential
infrastructure,” a claim the videos in the article clearly challenge.
Rabbi Yoffie calls Smotrich and Ben-Gvir “the fanatic, messianic duo
leading Israel to disaster.” The pair believe their racist vision of a
theocratic Jewish state from ‘the river to the sea’, one that is
ethnically cleansed of Palestinians, is within reach. (The theocratic
underpinnings go beyond what Netanyahu’s Likud Party in its 1977 founding platform
decreed but not that far beyond. The original party platform states
“between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli
sovereignty.”)
Prior to the Second World War neither America nor Britain sanctioned
Nazi ministers but perhaps they should have. And while it is most
unlikely that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris should she win in November will
heed the rabbi’s call and sanction Ben-Gvir and Smotrich what about the
UK?
Thus far the Foreign Secretary David Lammy has played a timid hand. When asked about settler violence
he insisted "we are very worried about escalatory behaviour, very
worried about inflamed tensions" adding "I'm absolutely clear: if we
have to act, we will act.”
Given the Balfour Declaration and its historic role in the
Arab-Israeli conflict perhaps Lammy should step out from under the
shadow of his American counterpart Antony Blinken and take a bold step.
After all it was his predecessor as Foreign Secretary David Cameron who
took the first step by sanctioning
four violent settler thugs. Why not take the next one and sanction
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, the ministers spewing racist hate whilst enabling
and empowering the thugs? Why not send a signal that Netanyahu's
messianic duo endanger not just the Middle East but the world?
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