Three observations on the current state of Israel

The number of issues worthy of treatment, explanation and clarification in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its ramifications is almost innumerable. However, we will limit our discussion to only three of these issues, which I believe are the most worthy of being addressed at this explosive stage, full of blood, destruction and suffering on the one hand, and of opening the door to positive change in the global system, starting from Palestine, and from Gaza in particular, on the other hand.

These three issues are: (1) the storming of the Sde Teiman (Yemen Field) camp/detention center in the Negev Desert by Israeli government ministers, Knesset members, and masked Israeli army soldiers, and the Beit Lid camp near Netanya; (2) the implications of America (and other Western countries) sending naval vessels, planes, and soldiers to the region in a massive and unprecedented military buildup; (3) the issue of choosing Yahya Sinwar to head the political bureau of Hamas, to succeed the martyr Ismail Haniyeh in this position.

Storming of "Side Timan" and "Beit Lid" camps

We will begin with the first topic, the storming of two Israeli army camps by ministers and large numbers of other rabble. This unprecedented event has many dimensions, the first of which is extremely important, which is the exposure of the depth and breadth of the fragmentation of the Jewish street in Israel. The second, and more important, is that the Israeli and international media did not address it with the focus it deserves, and the Arab press did not address it, according to what I noticed (despite my following and keenness to scrutinize it).

It is true that ministers, Knesset members and other rabble, including masked soldiers carrying their personal weapons, stormed what the Israelis consider the “Holy of Holies,” which is the Israeli army, which Ben-Gurion described on the day he announced its formation and dissolved all Zionist organizations and gangs, as the “melting pot” that would melt Jewish immigrants to Palestine from different countries, societies, civilizations, traditions and languages, to form one unified “people.”

This event revealed that the "melting pot" had stopped and failed to achieve the goal assigned to it, and that there was a vertical and horizontal rift in the Jewish community in Israel, Zionist and non-Zionist (the Haredim, the Orthodox Jews, do not embrace the racist Zionist ideas and doctrine, but they benefit from and exploit the achievements of the Zionist movement). In addition to this, there are the clear differences, to the point of treason, between some political leaders, the leaders of the army and the security services with all their names, and the enormous differences between the Ashkenazi Jews of the West and the Sephardic Jews of the East, and all the other differences and disagreements that can be imagined. But there is one point where all the political leaderships represented in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) agree, and that is the pathological hostility towards the Palestinian people. The latest manifestation of that hostility was the vote in the Knesset on what I call “Israel’s right to self-determination for the Palestinian people,” which spoke of Israel’s rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state “on any part west of the Jordan River,” which is “legislation” that was opposed only by the Knesset members from the Arab parties.

Many have addressed the incident of civilians and racist right-wing political leaders storming two Israeli army camps. But what has not received attention is the more important significance of this event. The real purpose of the Military Prosecutor issuing the decision to arrest nine Israeli soldiers serving in the Sde Teiman camp/detention center, to investigate them on charges of committing extremely heinous crimes and violations, in the unethical and inhumane investigation and torture of Palestinian detainees in that detention center, is directed primarily and only at the judges of the International Criminal Court, telling them, falsely, that the judicial apparatus in Israel investigates and punishes those who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, which means that there is no justification for the intervention of that court, and responding to the request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to arrest and bring the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defense in his government, Yoav Galant, for investigation and trial, since its right to intervene is limited (according to the basis on which it was established and formed) to dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in countries that suffer from the absence or weakness of their judicial apparatuses.

The American Western crowd in the region

Here we come to the implications revealed by America's mobilization of military forces, of all types and kinds, around Israel.

This massive military buildup also reveals a very important and even more important piece of evidence. The clear evidence is that America (and the Western countries) are keen on Israel and will never allow a defeat that could lead to its demise in its current form and shape. But the most important evidence is that Israel is incapable of protecting itself. We can say and repeat with complete confidence: what Israel lost as a result of the October 7 earthquake cannot be recovered, no matter what it does, and no matter what massacres and crimes it commits.

Then we finally arrive at the many implications of choosing Yahya Sinwar as head of the Hamas Political Bureau, succeeding the martyr Ismail Haniyeh. They are also many implications, but the most prominent are two: one of the most important, and the second of the most important.

The first is that the Israeli policy of assassinations of political or military leaders is a sterile policy, a barren, unproductive policy. Less than a week after the assassination of Haniyeh, Hamas’s institutions with the authority agreed to fill the void left by the absence of Ismail Haniyeh, by choosing Yahya Sinwar to head its political bureau.

The most important indication of Yahya Sinwar’s selection for the highest political position in the organizational hierarchy of the Hamas movement is twofold: The first aspect is that the Hamas movement, especially in light of the October 7 earthquake and its consequences, recognizes that the movement’s field leadership, on the land of Palestine and in the Gaza Strip, is the most worthy and capable axis of leading the work.

But the second part of the significance of Yahya Sinwar’s election to lead Hamas is no less important, and perhaps even more important. Through it, Hamas sends a message to the Palestinian people, and to the peoples and countries of the Arab world, saying something like this: Hamas is a struggling Palestinian national movement that puts its Palestinian national identity above all its national, religious, and other identities. It complements these identities, belongs to them, and cooperates with them, but it sets out from a starting point: the national identity.

A final note that must be recorded, although it has no direct relation to all of the above: The Israeli occupation and colonial authorities’ detention of Brother Jibril Rajoub, the prominent Palestinian leader and well-known charisma holder, Secretary of the Fatah Movement, and Chairman of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, on his way back from Jordan to Palestine, recently, after his participation and attendance at the Olympic Games in France, carries many meanings and indications, pointing to an Israeli escalation directed at all those working in the general national political sphere, which requires a general Palestinian response, which may reach, and should reach, the point of forming a “Palestinian government in exile” that leads the national work, far from the ability of the Israeli security services to control its movements.

What Israel lost as a result of the October 7 earthquake cannot be recovered, no matter what it does, and no matter what massacres and crimes it commits.