The Israeli national consensus behind the massacre in Gaza is the result of a fifteen year old process of deterioration of Israeli society, both politically and ethically, a process that….
The Israeli national consensus behind the massacre in Gaza is the result of a fifteen year old process of deterioration of Israeli society, both politically and ethically, a process that cannot be defined other than one of evolving fascism, from top to bottom.
Politically I would rather be Khaled Mash’al than Benjamin Netanyahu today. After a month of its terrible and bloody aggression, Israel will have to pay a heavy – but justified – political price, including a partial lifting of its unacceptable seven year siege on the Gaza Strip. Without a doubt the heroic resistance of the Gaza people, under Hamas leadership, has defeated the fourth most powerful army in the world, despite the pitiful military means they have at their disposal.
This military draw is in reality a political defeat for Netanyahu and his generals. After two bloody months Hamas is not only able to continue disturbing Israeli daily life, but has gained huge popularity amongst the entire Palestinian people. President Mahmoud Abbas, on the other hand, is playing the role of a UN mediator.
The number of Palestinian civilian casualties is huge and will have to be dealt with, sooner or later, by an international legal tribunal. The destruction is incredible, and will require numerous years to be rebuilt. Gaza will, however, recover from its ruins, no doubt about it. The question is whether there is a chance for Israeli society to recover some sanity, or must one instead reach the conclusion that the Gaza madness syndrome has become an irreversible and structural deformation?
The Israeli national consensus behind the massacre in Gaza is the result of a fifteen year old process of deterioration of Israeli society, both politically and ethically, a process that cannot be defined other than one of evolving fascism, from top to bottom: new openly racists laws, racist public discourse, civil and political violence and the delegitimisation of dissident voices.
No wonder, then, that the minority maintaining some sort of moral integrity is speaking about emigration. A few weeks ago, I was sitting with my 30 year old daughter and some of her friends, most of them from an educated, middle class background. The words of Maya reflected the general mood: “Michel, you know the world: can you suggest a place to go?” “For a holiday?” “No, for good. I cannot live here anymore, in this atmosphere, the violence and mostly the inability to explain even to my close friends that we are hurtling toward collective suicide. They are becoming deaf and dumb.” Maya and her friends were all born in Jerusalem and Israel is their natural environment, their smells and colours. But the smell is fetid, and the colours have became blood red.
They indeed may leave Israel, leaving the country to evil people like the ones who, a couple of months ago, burnt Mohammad Abu Khdeir alive. An exceptional case? Maybe still so, but unfortunately the natural result of fifteen years of institutional racism. Almost half a century ago, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz predicted than if colonial occupation lasts, Israel would become a Judeo-Nazi state. We may well have fulfilled this prophecy of Israel’s greatest intellectual.
Michel Warschawski (Mikado) is an Israeli anti-Zionist activist. He led the Marxist Revolutionary Communist League until its demise in the 1990s, and founded the Alternative Information Center.