The other day, I asked our good friend, Dawn Pine, to provide his perspective on the current situation in Israel. If you haven’t been keeping up with the news – and, given what a crazy world we live in, I don’t blame you at all if you have simply switched off the Boob Tube – Israel is currently fighting its umpteenth campaign against Hamas and the Palestinians. On top of that, there has been quite a bit of noise over at The Unz Review about Kung Flu cases spiking in Israel. And that is on top of the fact that Israel simply cannot figure out how to form a government. So I asked The Male Brain to provide his perspective on things, and he very graciously obliged. My thanks as always to him for his continued excellent contributions to this site.

Multiple fronts – The Current Situation in Israel

That saying is currently the best description I can give of the situation at hand here. It seems that the state of Israel (already a news item globally from its beginning) is in a (semi) ongoing crisis.

Our beloved host has asked me to try to illustrate what the F is going on over here. I’ll do my best to describe 3 main “fronts” in which we are “combating”. I’ll do it from easiest to hardest in terms of problem-solving. This post is written BTW on reserve duty.

Covid19 – Difficulty Level: Normal

Most of you reading that heading will think I may have lost my marbles. I assure you that I have not.

Current status of Covid-19 in Israel is so good that it’s been off the main headlines in the past month. This week we had an average of 35 new cases per day and the positives rate is now under 0.2% for the last 2 weeks (usually over 30K PCR tests). Almost 60% of the population is now inoculated (Israel is using the Pfizer vaccine) and there is not much to do. Restrictions are lifted (I plan to go to a stand-up show with one the girls I’m seeing), no masks outside are required (inside is still required).

We are now at a stage where the doctors went on a warning strike, so it looks like things are back to normal. We occasionally get “warnings” but most people just went back to their “normal life”. I do see people on the streets with masks. I estimate it at ~20%, but some of them had their mask on inside and “forgot” to take it off.

We already updated our vaccine validity to the end of the year. Talks are that we might even extend it more.

Conclusion: on our way back to normal.

Israeli Politics – Difficulty Level: Hard

Current Israeli politics seems like Italy or France in 1960s. No Resolution.

We had 4 elections in 2 years. The main issue this time is… EGO. We had a temporary government for almost a year (everybody knew it was temporary), which was supposed to have PM rotation. It was not the first time Israel had PM rotation- when it happened in the 1980s it was extremely successful. The thing is that this time there was very little trust between the centre-right wing party Likud (headed by Netanyahu the current PM) and the centre-left party (headed by Gantz – former chief of staff).

Currently, Netanyahu failed to create a coalition, even though right wing total parliament representatives constitute 60% and with support of Raam (the new Arab party) it would have even gone to 68%. However, 2 parties of right wing orientation decided “not to join”. Gideon Saar (a former Likud member and minister) ran on a “Never Netanyahu” platform (he had 10% of the reps) and would not abandon his position. Benet (former Netanyahu chief of staff and right wing politician) actually supported his former boss, but tried to become the first PM on the rotation (and got it) but then got greedy. His lack of trust with Netanyahu pushed him to the other side.

Currently, the head of the Center-Left major party Yair Lapid (former minister of treasury, TV celebrity and writer) has the mandate to try to establish a coalition. It doesn’t seem like he is succeeding. The result will be that the president (in Israel it has no executive power) will give the mandate back to the parliament and if within 21 days a coalition won’t be fomed – we will have our fifth election In 2.5 years.

Netanyahu is also standing on trial for bogus BS crap. He is charged with deception and breach of trust because he asked the owner of one of Israel’s news websites for positive publicity (there was no actual good publicity) in exchange for regulation benefits. The case is ongoing but has a sensationalist flare to it but less actual law breaking. However, Netanyahu’s reputation as “magician” (he pulls a rabbit out of the hat every now and then) is damaged since he was unable to create a coalition.

Conclusion: Looks like fifth election in September. Chaos rules supreme

Potential Civil War – Difficulty Level: Expert

For the past few decades, Israel had pockets of Anarcho-Tyrany. Some of the Muslims (e.g. Beduins) were neglected in many aspects, including law enforcement. Those pockets started to develop criminal mentality that was waiting to erupt.

After a long year of Covid restrictions came the tension with Gaza and Ramadan. That started a chain reaction of unrest. Mixed towns (such as Lod and Jaffa) saw riots, and I mean REAL riots. Burning of electrical infrastructure, hunting of Jews in order to kill them. It has been a long time since they were held accountable. In the era of identity politics, they believe that they are victims and show disrespect to their country.

Exactly 100 years ago, the same things happened. Is seems that this is a powder keg just waiting for a match to blow itself up.

The main problems are: Police and Politicians.

The Israeli police are not doing well. Corruption, managerial issues, focus on PR, lack of public trust and being part of the deep state are the most known illnesses of this important body. The police did not have a commissioner for over 2 years until January this year. The new commissionaire came from the border police and almost all of his experience came from there. On top of that, we had civil tragedy in the 2021 Meron crowd crush where 45 people died and the police have responsibility for at least part of it.

The main issue was the focus on “easy to catch” crimes. Arabs are not that. Trying to go against gangs is not easy, but Jewish Israelis are more individualistic, therefore easier to target. Therefore, the police arrested people trying to defend themselves. Remind you of something?

I’m also stating for the record – it is a minority among Israeli Arabs, not a majority. However, politicians on both sides used the situation for their advantage since the last millennia. Arab politicians used to cry, “Oppression! Discrimination!”, yet when it was time to do something – they never did. On the other hand, governments never bothered to actually start dealing with the problems.

Conclusion: Will take some time for things to relax. Leftists will claim that the government should invest more in the Arabs, rightists will arm themselves. Next round in a few years.

Israel-Hamas Round… Whatever – Difficulty Level: Infinite

Yes, we are under fire again. Yes, the IDF response sometimes seems too harsh. Here is the real problem – both sides have a chasm between them, not a gap.

Brief history – Israel left the Gaza strip in 2005. Since then every few years we have a military operation starting with rockets being shot on Israeli territory after {insert your favourite excuse here}.

It happened in 2009, 2012, 2014 and now. Same thing keeps repeating itself. Israel lacks the will to go full “Sherman” on Gaza and the Hamas has no actual power to do anything but harm. In the meanwhile, schools are going back to COVID-19 style learning and people stay clear of public places and near their shelters (Israeli homes are equipped with “shelter room” if built in the last 25 years).

The main challenge of Israel is that it wants to be left alone (meaning peace and quiet), while the Hamas wants to destroy the nation and erect an Islamic state. That chasm will not be closed until Hamas will relinquish his doctrine or Israel loses the will to exist. Both are unlikely in the short-medium run.

Conclusion: “Shall the sword devour for ever?” (2 Samuel 2:26). Maybe not forever, but at least until the next generation.

Didact’s Take

First, my thanks again to our good friend for supplying some much-needed clarity into the rather confused, and confusing, situation over in Israel. It is clear that the nation faces a number of problems that will not be easily or quickly resolved. This is not surprising, given Israel’s history and the fractious nature of the Jewish people – just read the Bible and you’ll see that they’ve been quarrelling between themselves about politics and leadership since, well, forever.

The major problem that Israel faces right now is its inability to deal with the “Palestinian Issue”. A lot of people on the Left decry Israel as LITERALLY NAZIS!!!! in a regime that keeps something on the order of 5 million Arabs imprisoned in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. There is some justification to this line of argument. About 2 million Palestinian Arabs live in the Gaza Strip, which is one of the least free and most unpleasant places to live anywhere in the world.

What most on the Left forget is that Israel itself has only about 7 million Jews, and about 2 million Arabs with Israeli citizenship live among them in a country that is barely 424Km long and maybe 15Km wide at its narrowest point. Israel quite simply has no choice other than to keep the Arabs out if it wants to protect and preserve its identity as a Jewish nation.

In my view, Israel’s existence and self-defence is something of a litmus test, for people on both the Left AND the Right.

For those on the Left, Israel represents an oppressive regime that brutalises and terrorises innocent Arabs. That strikes me as a fundamentally ridiculous argument. Here is the harsh, unpalatable truth that nobody wants to say:

NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS.

Actually, that is not quite accurate, given that the Israelis themselves go to considerable pains to avoid inflicting civilian casualties upon the Palestinians. But it is not too far from reality either. The Palestinians are nothing more than pawns to be used for the political games that the Arabs play among themselves. Being amoral familists, as they are, Arabs care nothing for the Palestinians, whom most of them consider to be dirty troublesome rabble.

Don’t believe me? Just ask the Jordanians. The Palestinians rightly belong to Jordan. Yet the Jordanians want absolutely nothing to do with them and have no desire whatsoever to incorporate the West Bank into Jordan, even though they could do so fairly easily. And that is because Jordanian Arabs detest their Palestinian “cousins”.

The rest of the Arab world doesn’t give a shit about the Palestinians either. If they did, the Saudis, Syrians, Lebanese, and Egyptians would permit the Palestinians to come over to their countries and build a new life there. But they don’t. They regard the Palestinians as little better than unwashed vulgar monkeys to be used for political purposes, and that’s a polite interpretation of their views.

The Right doesn’t get away cleanly either. The very same people on the Right who claim that Israel has an absolute and inherent right to defend itself – which, since it is a nation, it does – are the types who say that America is nothing more than a proposition and that the West should welcome in the entire Dirt World as a moral imperative. They claim that the West has a moral duty to defend Israel and sustain it, but then turn around and deny their own people the same rights.

This is equally ridiculous and equally facile. The reality is that the Jews of Israel have no interest in being preached to by what they consider to be a bunch of jumped-up Jesus freaks – and, again, I’m being polite in relaying their sentiments. They are more than capable of taking care of themselves and they don’t need Western patronising.

As for the ultimate solution to the Palestinian Question – well, the only way forward is probably a literal Endlosung. I am NOT saying that this is what I want – it isn’t. But it is the only logical outcome. You have two sets of people who want and claim the same land. Both have legitimate claims to the territory. One owns the land now through sheer military power. The other agitates for rights that it will never receive, but poses an existential demographic threat to its counterpart.

That can only end in one way – extermination. And it’s going to happen whether you and I want it or not. Let’s face it – who in the Arab world is going to lift so much as a finger to stop Israel from driving every last Palestinian into the sea?

Iran isn’t Arab, it is Persian, and as such thoroughly dislikes the Arabs to begin with.

The rich Arab Gulf states recognise that Iran is a far greater threat to their existence and way of life than Israel is, and have since entered into alliances with Israel to unite against a common enemy.

And all the while, Israel itself is split by fundamental differences that it cannot overcome.

Whatever else happens, this particular story is unlikely to end well, for anyone concerned. But, it is what it is. For now, all that we in the West can do is hope and pray for our friends over in Israel, and support them as private citizens in whatever capacity we can, if we so choose. But our governments and militaries absolutely should KEEP THE F**K AWAY from that particular Gordian knot.