Why do Israelis feel so threatened by a ceasefire?
JVL Introduction
One thing unites the vast majority of the Israeli population, from the secular to the religious: horror at, and rejection of, any call for a ceasefire.
So the UN security council ceasefire resolution has been greeted with almost universal rejection. It is “dangerous, unfair, and Israel will not accept it” says Yair Lapid, head of the opposition Yesh Atid.
Why is Israel is so gung-ho against a ceasefire (and for invading Rafah), asks Meron Rapoport?
His answer, in essence, is that after the destruction of the status quo pre-October 7 Israelis faced a choice: either a political solution that genuinely recognized the presence and rights of another people in the land between the river and the sea, or a war of extinction against the enemy.
Never having really internalized the first option, the Israeli public has chosen the second.
RK
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine, in partnership with The Nation and Local Call on Fri 29 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Why do Israelis feel so threatened by a ceasefire?
Halting the Gaza war means recognizing that Israel’s military goals were unrealistic — and that it cannot escape a political process with the Palestinians.
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I am afraid that Meron Rapoport is engaging in wishful thinking. Ceasefire or no ceasefire there will be no political solution with the Palestinians.
What is driving the genocidal attack on Gaza with large sections of Israel quite happy to either wipe out the Palestinians altogether or drive them into exile once again?
I suggest people read my latest article in Electronic Intifada
Israel’s Holocaust trauma is a myth
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-holocaust-trauma-myth/45376
In essence Israel’s reaction is the reaction of any colonial power to an uprising of those it colonises. Did America behave any differently in Iraq or Vietnam? Or the British after the Mutiny in 1857 or in Kenya against the Mau Mau?
Because Israel is a settler colonial state any political solution will be impossible without a de Zionisation of Israel. Those who believe in 2 states (i.e. a demilitarised Bantustan) are not thinking coherently.. Oslo was an attempt at Bantustanisation. It didn’t even mention a Palestinian state and the situation today has gone far beyond that in terms of a critical mass of settlers.
It is hard to imagine how or even if the situation today can be resolved. Israel is engaged in perpetual war against not only the Palestinians but the Arab peoples despite the collaborationist Arab regimes.
The scenario is extremely bleak because unlike South Africa Israeli Jews are roughly half the population in Palestine. Without major upheavals in the Arab East I cannot see any resolution in the immediate future. Certainly no peaceful resolution.
Israel’s “threat” narrative – aided and abetted by the US, UK and EU – is the same centuries-old scam: ‘Convince people to believe absurdities and they’ll be more willing to commit atrocities’.
Just last week (March 25th) a Congressman for Michigan – AIPAC-funded evangelical Christian, Tim Walberg, said:
“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AFqbphV3BTo
This is the same man who previously declared: “I will not support the right to call for a violent genocide” – after Rep. Rashida Tlaib was censured in Congress (November 2023) for tweeting ‘From The River To The Sea’.
Having now literally called for a Palestinian nuclear holocaust, what’s the likelihood of Tim Walberg also facing censure?
Might it be that, having once started down this path of destruction – and, dare I say it, self-destruction – stopping would mean having to face the reality of what they have done? It’s a hopeless trajectory, since the best they can hope for is the total destruction of Gaza, and everyone in it, at which point there is nothing left to destroy, and they fall into a dark pit of their own making.
Articles like this, which raise the real issues, need to be published in Israel! It seems no one is publishing them there, is that right? How about asking Ha’aretz to publish (or reprint) this and other articles like it?
Tony’s on point with his analysis.
Like other colonial regimes, Israel is scared of Palestinian unity, so its tended to play divide and rule, a good example being playing Fatah and Hamas off each other. There needs to be internal reconciliation amongst Palestinians so they can revitalise the national struggle, including the PLO, which might also have to entail ditching the PA and Abbas.