As the world waits to see if Israel and Iran become ground zero for World War Three, I’ve been asking myself how any nation, let alone a tiny sliver of bleached rock, sand, and palm trees, can pretend it’s all-powerful and immune.
Sure, Israel and America share a kind of proxy operation worldwide, but the wider world is a lot bigger.
The lead of a story by Gideon Levy on Middle East Eye answered the question for me this morning. The famous Israeli journalist and author wrote:
“A society cannot go far with its head buried in the sand, and will certainly be unable to cope with the real challenges confronting it.”
Israel’s Core Fanaticism
Levy also says, “There is not a single Israeli, not one, who knows where his country is headed.” The grandson of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Levy was for a time a typical mainstream Israeli, a full-fledged proponent of what he termed the “nationalist religious orgy.” Today, the fears that pushed extreme nationalism to the forefront in Israel seem an inevitability. Like so many, the question whether or not Israel will exist in 20 years or so is preeminent. And, there is no talk of the long-term future and peace. The learned author reveals that his country is suffering from repression, denial, and self-delusion propagated by the same people eradicating Palestinians like insects.
Israelis probably still fear another holocaust is right around the corner. Given Bibi Netanyahu’s fatalistic fanaticism of late and the multipolar world growing imminently disgusted with the American hegemony (and friends), it’s not difficult to visualize. And it seems every Israeli is desperate to establish an escape route once Humpty Dumpty finally does fall off the Wailing Wall. To be clear, many of us criticizing Israel and the Zionists are concerned not simply for the state of Israel but for the Jewish community worldwide. Most writers and analysts are afraid to even hint at what could become a “Jew hunt” a thousand times worse than the Nazis perpetrated. We cannot be, however. Most Jewish people have had this on their minds since before Israel was reformed in Palestine.
Like anyone with Jewish friends or even good Baptists taught about the Israelites, I shudder to think about this unthinkable event in human history. Turning back to Levy’s analysis of the current situation, we find the indisputable truth right before our eyes. A man who identifies as a “Patriotic Israeli” consolidates what has to happen to avert a horror humanity could never live down:
“Equality. Equal rights from the river to the sea. One person, one vote. So basic and yet so revolutionary. This path requires a parting of the ways with Zionism and the rejection of Jewish supremacy, and letting go of the entire self-definition of both peoples – but it represents the only ray of hope.”
The Solution Equals Truth
Anyone who is not a fanatic can quickly sort through everything that’s wrong in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. Indeed, Hamas is to be blamed for the hellfire and death delivered to Israel. However, as Levy and others point out, we must ask the most important question before passing judgment. After all, why has Hamas been attacking Israel? Gaza, the open-air prison where humans are treated like bugs by the Israeli government, is the catalyst for the potential Holocaust to come. The world is tired of the few not only ruling the rest of us but abusing, torturing, robbing, and drone-killing us. Americans are much more obtuse, even though our government and leaders are as detestable in these affairs. Gas prices and sporting events, live or on TV, matter more than a nuclear detonation over Jerusalem.
To make matters worse, millions in my country believe that Israel is the “chosen land,” and that the Hebrews were the first people in Palestine. I see memes all day on social media with ridiculously outdated ideas to support the killing of tens of thousands of unarmed women and children in the Gaza shooting gallery. We are brainwashed even more than the average Israeli is.
I wrote a sarcastic piece about solving the Palestine affair with a 50-megaton air blast over Israel’s capital precisely for the same purpose Gideon Levy wrote his most recent story. I fear there is no future for Israel unless Netanyahu and the people behind him are stopped. It’s almost as if the legitimate Zionists want another Holocaust. And forgive me for saying we should investigate their role in the last one. After all, who benefitted the most from the carnage of WW2?
One thing is certain, the last thing any of us need is the nation of Israel running loose on the good ship Earth, threatening to blast us all to hell.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”