Israel's Expulsion Doctrine
Israel believes it can expel the British, humiliate the Spanish and punish the entire world without retribution. Up to now, it was right. But the day is drawing near when Israel will have to open its eyes and discover that, actually, there's a world it has broken away from, as it has from it, and that it faces a new reality
The United Kingdom is on tenterhooks. Following the expulsion of the Netherlands and Spain from the international coordination center for postwar Gaza in Kiryat Gat, Israel is now deliberating whether to expel Britain's representatives as well.
Britain's Nakba is on its way, and this could have been funny to the point of tears were it not for the fact that the underlying reality is patently unfunny. Israel is imposing sanctions on the world. Yes, you heard right.
Instead of the other way round. A country of almost universally acknowledged genocide and apartheid, a state on which almost no meaningful sanctions have been imposed to date, is punishing the world. The defendant is serving as the prosecutor.
This is perfectly congruent with the Israeli mindset. The world is to blame (for antisemitism), so the world will pay. It's all because of those Muslim migrants – that's what the media and the politicians keep telling us. All the megalomania and blindness are at play here.
The international coordination center for Gaza is a body with no great significance. It is located in the industrial zone of Kiryat Gat. Almost a year after it was set up, Gaza is mired in its ruins just as it was beforehand. Israel continues to kill there almost as much as it did before the cease-fire. The expulsion of His Majesty's delegates will not change a thing in Gaza. The issue is Israel's arrogance and chutzpah.
While Europe endlessly deliberates the proposed construction in area E1, which will split the West Bank into two parts, Israel is already punishing it. The illegal construction in E1 is not the issue. The hundreds of thousands of acres the settlers have taken over in the last two years didn't bother Europe, but Europe has now constructed a scarecrow for the sake of which it is ready to man the barricades.
But the West Bank has long been split, and annexed de facto for even longer. Europe is threatening to impose sanctions on produce originating in Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a punitive measure, and the enterprise is facing collapse.
In the face of this hollow and embarrassing European lip service, Israel stands arrogantly, displaying its detachment from the outside world's reality.
"Israel is sending a message to Europe – Britain may pay a price," said one grotesque headline, worth a thousand witnesses to the extent of disconnect and arrogance.
Israel believes it can expel the British, humiliate the Spanish and punish the entire world without retribution. Up to now, it was right. But the day is drawing near when Israel will have to open its eyes and discover that, actually, there's an outside world it has broken away from, as it has from it, and that it faces a new, unfamiliar reality.
The days of being the West's darling, in which Israel was allowed anything, are over. Expelling Britain from Kiryat Gat to please Likud voters is nice, and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar is probably bursting with pride, but the bill will arrive, even if it tarries for some unfathomable reason.
America is changing, and Europe is just waiting for a green light from the other side of the Atlantic to settle scores with Israel, which for decades has been running wild, doing as it pleases in a way that no country that is not a global superpower allows itself to.
Israel and the world are growing apart. Israel boasts about committing war crimes; it's an electoral asset. But the idea that Israel can continue displaying arrogance toward the entire world while it continues as is its wont is the most dangerous idea for its future – much more than the money sent to Hamas or the Iranian nuclear program.
Disconnecting from the world will carry a price every Israeli will have to pay. Most governments around the world don't really want to sever ties with Israel, and they are pinning their hopes on the expected change of government as an (imaginary) way out of this mess. But Israel will not change, certainly not sufficiently, and the world will have to change its attitude toward it.
A country which for decades has been ignoring every resolution passed by the international community, as well as expelling Europe from Kiryat Gat, will not be absolved.
One day, the world will finally be able to enter the Gaza Strip. Having viewed its horrors, it'll no longer be possible to continue being silent in relation to Israel. The "expulsion" from Kiryat Gat will also be remembered in London.