Ayman Ahmed
The deep divisions in the Israeli society were on display, yet again, as the election results of October 27 were announced. No party or bloc got the necessary 61 seats to form a government. The indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, Likud, got 26 seats while his coalition bloc garnered 53, still way short of a majority.
It was no better for Netanyahu’s main challenger Gadi Eisenkot. His Yashar party won 21 seats and his bloc’s total was 48. After the polls closed, he promised to bring about “change” in Israel.
In the zionist snakepit, change only means tinkering with a few domestic policies. Politicians of all stripes, vehemently opposed to each other and prepared to drink their blood, are united on the theft of Palestinian land and their ethnic cleansing. They are also united on waging endless wars, especially against Iran. So much for change.
Voters were asked to judge the indicted war criminal Netanyahu on the numerous wars he has started amid calls for an independent inquiry. The question of security (for Jews only, of course), the ultra-Orthodox draft, and the judicial overhaul, were also issues of contention.
The myriad political parties and their leaders competed with each other on who could prosecute the wars more efficiently and how quickly they could achieve land theft by ethnically cleansing the Palestinians.
This is strikingly evident in the concentration camp called Gaza as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There was not even a hint that the zionists’ genocidal policy against the Palestinians should stop because it is illegal and morally repugnant. Morality is not part of the zionist war criminals’ conduct. Palestinian prisoners face rape and torture in Israeli dungeons.
The overwhelming majority of Israelis support the genocide and rape of Palestinians, whether carried out by rightwing zealots or the so-called Left. The right-left differences relate to the pace of ethnic cleansing, genocide and dispossession of Palestinians.
Their hatred erupted in fights at various polling stations. Netanyahu’s supporters started the attacks. Violent squatters (erroneously referred to as ‘settlers’) that take sadistic pleasure in attacking and killing Palestinians, turned on each other.
That did not mean that they had abandoned their violent attacks on Palestinians trying to exercise their right to vote. Palestinians constitute 20% of the zionist entity’s population but they are treated as second class citizens.
The deeply fractured political landscape forces the formation of blocs. As the election result showed, even these are not enough. So, the blocs seek alliances with smaller parties. The latter demand their pound of flesh and exercise enormous influence on policies.
Since no bloc has secured 61 seats—the number required to form a government—intense jockeying for support from smaller parties is underway. It may be days or even weeks before a new alliance emerges. In the meantime, the indicted war criminal Netanyahu will continue to rule.
The Palestinian parties (Joint List and Ra’am) between them secured 19 seats. If they join either of the zionist blocs, that would put it over the 61 seat mark. The zionists, however, are loathe to form an alliance with them. While these Palestinians are Israeli citizens, the racist zionists do not want to work with them.
It also raises the question about whether the Palestinians should be competing in elections organized by their occupiers. Further, under Israel’s Nation State Law passed in July 2018, the entity is declared “Jewish”.
The law unequivocally states that the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is “unique to the Jewish people”. It makes Israel a racist state. When Palestinians participate in elections under such a law, they accept their status as second class citizens.
What was equally revealing in the election was the abandonment of the rhetoric of peace or negotiations with the Palestinians. These once served as a façade to conceal Israeli settler-colonialism. Today, ethnic cleansing is pursued openly. There is no difference on this policy between the left and right.
Leading to the election, the indicted war criminal Netanyahu ordered a full lockdown of the West Bank. This occurred in the aftermath of the killing of two Israeli soldiers.
Two Palestinians from Hebron were involved in the October 23 shooting. They opened fire at an Israeli military checkpoint. The Palestinians were martyred after a 20-minute gunfight with the occupation forces.
The zionist occupiers imposed a sweeping military lockdown on Hebron. All entrances and exits were closed preventing Palestinian movement, subjecting them to collective punishment.
Did the western regimes or their equally complicit media issue even a whisper of condemnation for such zionist barbarism? Perish the thought. Heavily-armed Israeli troops raided homes and detained at least five Palestinians, according to WAFA.
A Palestinian driver was critically wounded when the zionists shot him in the chest in Dura, southwest of Hebron. The Ibrahimi Mosque was closed to Muslim worshippers.
Not satisfied with such barbarism, the indicted war criminal Netanyahu, touring Hebron with his war minister Israel Katz, instructed the army and other occupation forces to “immediately impose a closure on the city of Hebron” and prepare for a “full lockdown” of the entire West Bank starting October 23.
He also announced the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank as had been applied to refugee camps, where Israeli forces displaced tens of thousands of residents. A large number of homes were also demolished in what rights groups have said are crimes against humanity.
Heavily-armed zionist squatters backed by soldiers rampaged across the occupied West Bank. More raids occurred and a number of houses were demolished. These crimes against the Palestinians have continued unabated.
In Ramallah, the squatters burned and cut down dozens of olive trees in the Al-Qibla area south of Burqa, WAFA reported. In Sinjil, the squatters attacked olive harvesters and broke branches off fruit-bearing trees.
It was no different in Nablus. Zionist occupation forces fired tear gas canisters toward Palestinians in the agricultural plains of Salem and Beit Furik, igniting fires. In Burin, settlers attempted to set fire to a Palestinian home and its surroundings under Israeli military protection.
In Jenin, located in northern West Bank, occupation forces gave families in Khirbet Suruj one week to evacuate their homes and agricultural structures. The community includes more than seven homes and ten livestock sheds, with families who have lived there since 1950 and hold land title documents. Such legal niceties, however, are no bar to zionist criminal acts of theft.
The Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Khaled Abu Jumaa was arrested by the occupation forces after he delivered the Friday khutbah and led prayers at the mosque on October 23.
In the collective west, Netanyahu is presented as the only obstacle to peace. This is a gross misrepresentation of Israel’s reality. Every Israeli politician of whatever political stripe, is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the theft of their land. They are all also committed to endless wars and Israeli expansion.
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