How messianic fundamentalists took over Israel
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
According to the Book of Numbers in one of its more genocidal inflections, “if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that you let remain… harass you in the land wherein you dwell.”
In an interview with Haaretz political scientist Gayil Talshir explains to Netta Ahituv how those who read the biblical texts literally are now in charge, with an army of them prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to “redeem the Jewish people”.
RK
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Sat 2 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
How messianic radicals came to control Israel – and Netanyahu
Political scientist Gayil Talshir analyzes how the messianic right is shaping Israel’s political leadership and landscape. Now, she says, the left must try to do the same thing
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Biblical literalists aside, can JVL talk a bit about the secular Zionists, who still use the Bible to legitimise exclusive rights over Palestine ?
There exist secular and seemingly progressive Zionists, who still believe in their group having exclusive rights over Palestine, look down on Palestinians (who are apparently just “Arab invaders”), and despite not being religious, will still use the Bible and archaeology to bolster claims, the latter of which seems to become particularly weaponized – for example, interpreting ancient Jewish finds as proof its the land of Jews and them only, ignoring that others inhabited before any semi-mythical Israelites, and that maybe todays Palestinians are descended from them. Funny how people don’t have so much problem accepting todays Lebanese and Egyptians as descendants of the pre-Islamic and pre-Christian population, but when it comes to Palestinians, people will froth at the mouth trying to deny any connection.
This is all scary, of course, underlined here by the Israeli ambassador to Britain having similar extremist views which are accepted by our ruling establishment.
Israel is a basket case, a deranged supremacist entity from every angle there is no left, no centre, no liberal or secular entity that would envisage giving any power or rights to the 50% Palestinians. Zionism is intrinsically a genocidal ideology trying to create David’s kingdom, very similar to Isis in its aims to recreate the Caliphate. It is Israel, not Hamas, that is a death cult. What we are seeing now is a Shoah being inflicted on the Palestinians, as once emphasised by a security chief Dov Weisglas. The only saving hope is that the whole government and its military chiefs, and the whole IDF are indicted for war crimes. Israel is totally isolated together with Biden, Blinken,Rish Sunak and the German state which blindly supports Israel, and the UN takes over Israel and returns it to its rightful owners, and sows the seed for a truly democratic entity, with equal rights for all.