ISRAEL: WHERE THE ‘LEFT’ ARE RIGHT AND THE RIGHT ARE FASCISTS

There should be no misunderstandings about the results of the recent elections in Israel; the ‘left’ in Israel are only slightly to the left of the ultra extreme right-wing religious nationalists and racist Greater Israel Zionists. The political spectrum in Israel is vastly different than most in the West understand. The real ‘left’ in Israel is virtually non-existent. The surprise rise of the so-called ‘left-centrist’ party Yesh Atid led by Yair Lapid in the elections over the ultra right-wing Habayet Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party led by fascist Naftali Bennett will not make the slightest bit of difference to Netanyahu’s quest for a confrontation with Iran.

Bennett, at least, has made it very clear where he and his party stand with regard to a future Palestinian state; there simply will never be one as far as they are concerned. Furthermore, it is there intention to ensure that, not only will there be no Palestinian state, but all those places where Israeli settlers are now in the West Bank will be annexed to Israel with a view to ultimately annexing all of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip to form Greater Israel.

While most commentators in the Western media are saying that the emergence of the Yesh Atid party has cast a shadow over Habayet Hayehudi’s Greater Israel aspirations, those commentators have ignored the Iran factor.

As it turns out, the only thing going for Bennett and his crew of fascists is that they are up-front about their intentions; there is no pretence about what they want – unlike Netanyahu who for years has pretended that he would accept a ‘two-state solution’ knowing full well that the conditions he offers under which he would accept a Palestinian state would not ever be accepted by the Palestinian people. Netanyahu’s Likud party and their right-wing allies have proved by their actions in building a wall on Palestinian lands and followed by years of grabbing more and more Palestinian lands for settlements and stealing Palestinian water that what they really want is the West Bank to be surreptitiously taken over and entirely absorbed into Israel. Since outright invasion, occupation and annexation of all the lands they really want, including the Gaza Strip and even south Lebanon up to the Litani River, can no longer happen under the present Middle East status quo, the right-wing’s only option now is to provoke a war with Iran that will provide the opportunity to overrun the lands they want on the pretext that they need to prevent the Palestinians and Arabs from retaliating for a war against Iran.

While virtually all the various parties of Israel hum and ha over the so-called ‘two-state solution’, the one thing they all have in common is their hatred of Iran and the world of Islam and, when push comes to shove as Israel finally does confront Iran, all of these parties will be getting on board the Greater Israel bandwagon.

There is no ‘Left’ left in Israel anymore; there is only the right, extreme right and the racists and fascists. The present political situation in Israel will not stop Netanyahu and his push for war against Iran. It will not stop the march of the right toward a Greater Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people. It’s just a matter of time.