Israel once again does what Israel has been doing for decades: inflict on Palestinians—in countless ways petty and bloody—the narrative of hopelessness. This time yet another offing of youngsters (duly and laughably described by a captive press as “militants”) for throwing stones. Israelis do this just to stoke the Arabs, who inevitably react, which, just as inevitably, offers Israelis the rationale to off yet more Arabs, all in furtherance of the larger aim, more land theft.
The message? You have no future here. We Israelis are simply trying to figure out how to get rid of you. Ideally, we can make you so miserable that you’ll pack up and leave. (We even determine how many calories you’re entitled to consume. If memory serves, the last time somebody did that calculation was some 80 years ago for countless Jews; it just wasn’t Palestinians who were doing the calculating.) We may have a solid kill rate—easy enough when a 21st-century military uses civilians as target practice—but you’re making ‘em faster than we off ‘em.
At least for the time being. The new government is headed by the execrable sociopath, Netanyahu, and his supporting cast of rabid right-wingers and religious wing-nuts committed to the (unlawful) expropriation West Bank land and the (unlawful) perpetual subjugation of Arabs. It’s only a matter of time before we hear about—to borrow a phrase—a “final solution” to the Arab problem. While mass killing are unlikely, neither a forced population transfer nor covert birth control can be ruled out.
How did we get here? In short, on the back of Israel’s own hubris and a fact that has been immutable since 1967: political cover from every Western capital, especially Washington, for whatever the Israelis do, no matter how illegal and perverse. For Washington, the motive is the votes of American Jews and Evangelicals, both groups driven by the vapid, intellectually bankrupt Israel-literally-can-do-no-wrong ethos; for European capitals—France and Germany, in particular—it’s hand-wringing guilt for past sins.
Enter US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. As with each of his predecessors since the 60s, he spent yesterday genuflecting to Israeli leaders. He expressed the required “solidarity in this very difficult moment in the wake of the truly horrific terrorist attack of just a few days ago, I think made even more horrific … by the fact that it took place outside a synagogue….” As expected, he stayed silent on Israel’s killings of Palestinians a few days before in Jenin, to which the synagogue attack was a response.
Because that’s the schtick and, scammy and tired as it is, it continues to play decades on. Pretend you’re addressing the matter even-handedly to perpetuate the illusion of Washington as honest broker, but always make it clear that Israel is right, whatever it does. Each Israeli casualty is a catastrophe. Dead and subjugated Palestinians? All their fault. That’s because the “ironclad US-Israel relationship, our commitment to Israeli democracy & security, & further regional integration”—product of US group-think—demands American subservience to Israel.
Nonetheless, the world’s preacher on human rights, likely aware of its hypocrisy on the Israel/Palestine issue, feels compelled to pay lip-service by “discuss[ing] [with Israeli leaders] the two-state solution [and] the urgent need to de-escalate the situation in the West Bank”. We don’t know what, exactly, each party to these conversations said. We can safely say what was not said: Israel, only you stand in the way of a peaceful neighborhood, easily achievable through a legitimately sovereign Palestinian state.
In the traditional pirouette before the press, Blinken “has called for calm after days of violence between Israel and the Palestinians” and reaffirmed Washington’s belief that the two-state solution is the “only path forward. … [A]nything that moves us away from [that] is detrimental to Israel’s long-term security”. It’s unclear for whom this bit of pap was intended. It can’t have been the Israelis, who’ve consistently shouted from the rooftops: no independent Palestinian state … ever.
It’s obvious to any reasonable observer, Tony, that the “two-state solution,” isn’t even in the rearview mirror anymore. It is mere figment, a fraud perpetrated on, above all, the Palestinians. Presumably, Washington wants them quiescent so as to make Israel’s total—truly total—dominion and control over them more comfortable and, therefore, palatable to the world. Why you continue to play this tawdry Washington game we can only guess, but maybe you can find enough decency to just stop talking if a morally depraved spectacle is all you have to offer.
