|
by
Jonathan Kuttab
On
June 4, the Israelis bombed
and
killed Mona Khalil, a 67
year old woman living in
Southern Lebanon.
Ms. Khalil was an
internationally-known
environmentalist with a
special passion for
endangered sea turtles. Her
brightly painted
orange house in the seaside
village of Al-Mansouri,
where
she kept and cared for sea
turtles,
was well-marked and known.
No explanation for the
bombing was made by
the Israeli army, other than
to state that everyone was
ordered to
evacuate that area and that
she lived within the 20% of
the sovereign
state of Lebanon that Israel
had marked for total
destruction. She
refused to abandon her
precious turtles and was
therefore declared to
be a legitimate target.
Israeli minister Bezalel
Smotrich has openly
declared that Israel will
destroy everything in the
territory and that
none will be allowed to
return to it. The Israeli
policy is declared
openly: nothing will
remain. Houses, businesses,
libraries, shopping
centers, schools,
agricultural fields, and
everything else will be
destroyed. The people will
be forced out, unable to
return.
Over
one million people in
Southern
Lebanon face the same fate
as Ms. Khalil: “Leave your
homes, your
land, your schools, your
memories, livelihood,
hobbies, and community.
Flee, or we will kill you.
We don’t care where you go.
This part of
your country is now under
our control, and we do not
want you
here.”
The
story of Lebanon is the
story
of Gaza and of Palestine
itself. The Zionist
movement, whatever else
it is, has determined that
its goals and needs trump
everything else.
While it frequently exhibits
elements of hatred,
vengeance, sadism and
rage, these attributes are
really incidental. Its
defining feature is
a total disregard and lack
of concern for any other
human beings who
happen to be in the way of
its program and policies.
What happened in
Lebanon was the natural
progression of what happened
(and did not
happen) in Gaza. In the
words of Smotrich, “we were
able to destroy
and make Gaza unlivable, and
the world was silent. We can
now do the
same in Lebanon, Syria and
elsewhere.” These were not
just the
rantings of an extremist
ideologue, but they
represent the logical
conclusion of Zionism and
constitute the guiding
political principle
supported by a majority of
people in Israel. This
includes many who
personally despise Netanyahu
and are embarrassed by the
blunt and open
fascism of Smotrich and Ben
Gvir.
It
is important to note that
this
feature of Zionism has been
there all along. Zionism was
a response to
anti-Jewish hatred and
discrimination in Europe,
which posited that
such evil tendencies against
Jews exist everywhere and
that the only
response to it is the
empowerment of Jews through
the creation of a
Jewish state. This state
would need to have and use
overwhelming power
that forces their enemies to
submit. The state and its
power becomes
not a normal function of
those seeking to have a
state like all other
states, but a necessary (and
only) response to the
problem of
anti-Jewish bigotry and
hatred. According to that
logic, the failure
of the state to achieve
complete and decisive
victory would inevitably
result in another holocaust.
Resistance by Palestinians
in any form is
thus seen as an existential
threat and an extension of
the historic
bigotry aimed at Jews in the
Christian West. Palestinian
and Arab
resistance cannot be seen as
a legitimate desire for
freedom and self
determination, but must be
viewed as evil and noxious
terrorism. That
is what Israelis are taught
from a very early age. With
such a
mentality, eternal enmity
and eternal militarism
becomes necessary.
All other values, including
not only international law
but also core
Jewish ethical and moral
values must necessarily be
sacrificed, as the
choice to “live by the
sword” becomes ingrained as
the sole means of
survival. Compromise becomes
treason. Accommodations are
treated as
appeasement. Those who hold
out hopes for a genuine
peace and
reconciliation with
Palestinians are treated as
naive fools, at best,
and as dangerous internal
enemies, at worst. Tribal
solidarity and a
Machiavellian usage of the
levers of power become
necessary and even
virtuous. Deception may be
warranted, but the goals
must remain the
same.
What
is happening in Lebanon,
just
as in Gaza and Iran,
necessarily brings into
question the fundamental
values and ideology of
Zionism itself. Netanyahu,
Smotrich and Ben
Gvir therefore are not
aberrations but the logical
conclusion of the
Zionism dominant in Israel
today. Some of my Jewish
friends point out
that there are other forms
of Zionism, like that of
Ahad Ha Am, which
are more humane and
compatible with Palestinian
rights, morality and
justice. My answer is that
those forms of Zionism have
failed to gain
acceptance, and are only
referred to in Zionist
apologetics. The only
form of Zionism we have
experienced is the
prevailing one, which
sometimes camouflages its
true nature pretending to
favor liberal
democracy, but is clearly
articulated by Netanyahu,
Smotrich and Ben
Gvir. It is also supported
in reality by the rest of
Jewish Israelis,
who only prefer to pretend
otherwise.
The
silver lining is that with
the
stripping off of the mask,
with the horrors of genocide
and apartheid,
many Jews worldwide (and a
small minority in Israel as
well) now feel
they have to deal with this
reality. For many of them,
Zionism and the
state of Israel are no
longer something they can
support. For them,
and for their supporters
abroad, the legitimate
concerns for the
safety and well being of
Jews in Israel must find
their answer in
advocating for Palestinian
rights, for equality, and
for a rejection
of Jewish supremacy in favor
of justice, security, and
dignity for
Jews and Palestinians alike.
This is something that sheer
reliance on
military power and ethnic
superiority can never
provide. Only this way
can they preserve their own
moral and spiritual values,
and ultimately
find peace and security as
well. The alternative is
only more
suffering, in Lebanon,
Palestine, and beyond. As
well as a deepening
of resentment, hatred, and
even anti-Jewish sentiment
worldwide.
|