By CARLOS HENRIQUE VIANNA*
There is no doubt that Israel, its citizens and its government, consider themselves a special country in the concert of nations. A state with more rights than others.
“To my Jewish friends, who suffer from so much suffering evoked here”
“In Judaism, “chosenness” is the belief that Jews, through the descendants of the ancients israelites, are the chosen people, that is, chosen to be in alliance with God. The idea that the Israelites were chosen by God is found most directly in the Book of Deuteronomy where it is applied to Israel in Mount Sinai, on condition of your acceptance of the mosaic covenant between them and the Lord God.”
“The three largest Jewish denominations – Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism e Reform Judaism – maintain the belief that the Jews were chosen by God for a purpose. Sometimes this choice is seen as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission – to be a light unto the nations and exemplify the alliance with God, as described in Torah. This is first highlighted in Genesis 12:2.” (source: Wikipedia)
“What we are living through is not a clash of civilizations, it is a clash between the fanatics and the rest of us.” (Amos Oz)
A special country
There is no doubt that Israel, its citizens and its governments, consider themselves a special country in the concert of nations. A state with more rights than others. A state that must tolerate non-compliance with UN resolutions, disrespect for the borders and sovereignty of its neighbors, whether near or far, the carrying out of selective assassinations of its enemies anywhere in the world by the notorious Mossad, and the self-classification of a Jewish state, that is, for its Jewish citizens, with the consequent legal discrimination in some aspects of a civil or political nature of its citizens of Palestinian or other origin.
A State that can respond with excessive force, with total disproportionality, causing an unlimited amount of “collateral damage” to the military actions of the resistance movements against Israel. A State that occupies and dominates the West Bank with fire and sword, since its victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, progressively and continuously annexing the territory internationally recognized as belonging to the Palestinians and formally administered by the Palestinian Authority.
A State, and before its existence, the Zionist movement for the affirmation of the presence of Jews in Palestine, then an English protectorate, which did not hesitate to fight as a guerrilla movement against both the Palestinian residents, the Philistines of the holy books, and against English domination. In this history of the first half of the 20th century, the Haganah (Defense in Hebrew), which “was the main paramilitary organization of the Jewish population in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1920 and 1948, when it became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.”
The Haganah and other more radical groups (Irgun, Lehi) carried out, mainly from 1946 onwards, numerous actions that can be described as “terrorist”, both against the Arab civilian population and against the English military forces, the most publicized action being the Irgun attack led by Menachem Begin against the King David Hotel in 1946, with 91 deaths. “The attack on the Semiramis Hotel in April 1948, carried out by Haganah (or, according to some sources, Irgun) resulted in the deaths of 24 to 26 people. The Deir Yassin massacre carried out by the Irgun and Lehi killed between 107 and 120 Palestinian residents.” (source Wikipedia)
Interestingly, Menachem Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with President Sadat of Egypt, for having signed the Camp David Accords in 1978. The twists and turns of the world…
There were many acts of violent intimidation to expel Palestinians from their villages and properties, especially in 1948, which culminated in the Nakba (Catastrophe), when approximately 700 Palestinians were expelled to bordering countries, many of whom remain refugees to this day. Thus creating the “Palestinian question” after 1948.
I see several reasons why Israel considers itself so special, deserving of an aura of impunity, in the concert of nations. The Jews have always been a persecuted people, without a homeland since their defeat by the Romans. In the 20th century, the Holocaust organized and executed by the Nazi state culminated in an unthinkable way in this persecution of the Jews. The feeling of many that not only the Germans but all of Europe had incurred a historical debt to the Jews, who until then had been predominantly European, was justified. And this feeling of debt and shame extended to many European citizens and states, as well as to the United States, where many Jews sought refuge and became a powerful interest group, with a strong influence on politics and the economy.
The justification for the impunity of the actions of the Israeli government is reflected in these words: “Identity (Jewishness), however, has two times. There is always the risk that it will gradually become an immunization device, especially when managed by a State that positions itself as the guardian of collective trauma. In this case, everything happens as if the State began to say, “We were violated once, no one watched over us, so we have every right to use whatever is necessary to guarantee our inviolability and security against anyone who appears to put our integrity at risk again.”[I]
However, the right of defense of States does not imply a right to continued massacre. Every human life is worth a human life. Forty thousand is not the same as a thousand.
No less important is the influence of religious orthodoxy in Israel in justifying this exception. Unlike the other religions of the Book, Judaism never set out to convert the goyim, Gentiles, non-Jews. A Jew is the son of a Jewish mother or ancestor. This is because, from an Orthodox point of view, Jews are the chosen people and, therefore, must preserve their ethnic or religious purity, through their maternal lineage and respecting secular traditions. Israel is a democracy for Jews, an ethnocracy according to some intellectuals and has a foot in theocracy, given the existence of religious parties that seek and exercise power. Rabbis, synagogues and Torah students have civil privileges that other citizens do not have.
As Amin Maalouf said in The sinking of civilizations: “More than once, I will have the opportunity to evoke the perverse myth of homogeneity, whether religious, ethnic, linguistic, racial or otherwise, into which so many human societies have allowed themselves to be led.” Israel is not a theocracy like Iran, but neither is it a secular and republican democracy.
At the international level, Israel has always enjoyed the economic, military, political and diplomatic support of the United States and also of several European countries. From the United States it has unlimited credit, privileged military aid, partly non-refundable, direct financial support from private individuals around the world and practically a seat on the UN Security Council, assumed by the United States, which vetoes any resolution against Israel in said Council.
When we talk about the very modern and popular IDF (Israel Defense Forces) we are at the same time talking about the American rearguard forces, its aircraft carriers and air defense systems present on the ground, land, sea and air. Whoever challenges Israel, like Iran, is challenging a very powerful and operational alliance. Not to mention the secret services, the “Intel"as they like to mention, not only from the two countries but also from several other Western countries that collaborate with Israel. The targeted assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders are evidence of this.
Israel formed an army before 1948 and became a state in symbiosis with its armed forces. All citizens, except those of Palestinian or non-Jewish origin, are members of the IDF from the age of 18 to 50. Israel won the wars initiated by its neighbors in 1948, 1967 and 1973. It has successfully harassed and continues to harass the armed wings and political leaderships of the resistance movements, known as terrorists, since the 1920s.
Currently, since October 7, a phase of war of annihilation against these movements has been established, something that was also unsuccessfully attempted in Lebanon in 1982 against Al-Fatah. Not to mention the resurgence of mutual hostilities with Iran, a “big dog fight” but desired at least by some of the Israeli leaders, a huge risk for the region and the world.
Israel and the majority of its citizens have several reasons, whether historical, religious, or even empathy or lack thereof, to feel superior and entitled to more rights than the Palestinians. Not only the political and religious far right, but a good portion of the citizens of Israel would like the Palestinians to disappear from the West Bank and Gaza, to emigrate, to be expelled or to die. And more than 42.000 have already done so since October 7, in a daily, systematic killing, in various forms, including through hunger and lack of medical and hygiene care, and simply due to the lack of drinking water.
The dead and wounded are a minority of Hamas activists and a majority of defenseless civilians, the cynically called “collateral damage.” The history of Israel is a history of progressive occupation of lands not assigned to the State of Israel by the UN in November 1947. Just look at the evolution of the maps. From the Sea to Galilee, from Gaza to the Golan Heights, these Syrians have been there since time immemorial. A West Bank occupied by settlements and military roads. The Arab countries and Palestinian authorities disregarded the possibility of a Palestinian state being born in 1948. They made a serious mistake. They tried their luck in wars and were humiliated by Israeli superiority.
And so the idea of two states has been dying for a long time. While some Israeli leaders tolerated or accepted it at one time (such as Isaac Rabin, who was assassinated by a far-right Jewish terrorist), it has long since been discarded by the leadership and even by the majority of Jewish citizens in Israel. The major and middle powers reiterate their support for this solution, which has existed since the end of the Second World War, but they do so half-heartedly, with great hypocrisy and without taking any effective steps to make it a reality, such as promoting the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel.
This is how Amos Oz spoke about the two-state solution in 2017: “What I can say is that I see no better alternative than a two-state solution, simply because Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews are going nowhere, they have nowhere to go. This conflict will not have a happy ending. It will either end in a painful compromise or in an eternal bloodbath. The two-state solution involves a series of painful concessions for Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides will have to give up some of their past and their aspirations.”
The most pessimistic hypothesis of this Jerusalem-born pacifist, the most widely read Israeli writer and intellectual, seems to have prevailed.
October 7th
The events of October 7th were the justification needed for Netanyahu and Israel to move on to a new stage in the construction of the great Zionist dream, the domination of the State of Israel over the biblical territory of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Much remains to be said about what exactly happened on that day, which began with a quick military victory by a guerrilla army over the Israeli border defense, considered impregnable. In this initial confrontation, hundreds of Israeli soldiers and an unknown number of the attackers are said to have died or been taken prisoner.
This was followed by a violent operation to occupy some nearby kibbutzim and kidnap Israeli civilians, which was facilitated by the concentration of young people at a music festival just a few kilometers from the border. The kidnapping of Israeli civilians and military personnel was Hamas' second priority objective, in order to have bargaining chips in the negotiated release of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 9500 of whom were registered on April 17, 2024. Hamas used enormous violence in the occupation of the kibbutzim, some of which fought back, with or without success.
The kibbutzim have their own security system with several armed personnel, trained in the event of an enemy attack. The IDF did not arrive in time to defend several kibbutzim and the young people at the festival, a widespread complaint among survivors. What remained in the official and journalistic versions of October 7th focused on indiscriminate violence against Israeli citizens, particularly women, some of whom were raped, according to reports. The attackers were labeled “barbarians” and “non-human”.
The military inquiry into these events has yet to be made public, but the Western world's moral judgment and political support for Israel was swift, uncritical and supportive of the inflammatory rhetoric of its government and armed forces. This justified the massive collective revenge operation that followed.
Several questions remain about October 7. Why did the IDF ignore the worrying reports that Hamas was openly preparing for a possible invasion or more aggressive action against the border troops? How could Hamas have been so effective and so easily invaded Israeli territory? Was there some kind of complacency on the part of the IDF and Netanyahu in promoting a border incident that would serve as an excuse for the invasion of Gaza? Why did the military take so long to help the kibbutzim and the youth at the festival? How many Israeli civilians died, excluding the military and paramilitary? Was there “friendly fire” in the disorderly flight of the “festival-goers” from helicopters trying to hit the invaders, as reported in the Israeli press?
Israel's military operation in Gaza, which followed the extremely violent October 7th and which continues, seems to be much more than an act of revenge against the Palestinians of Gaza as a whole. A year later, Israel's strategy of making it almost impossible for them to survive and promoting ethnic cleansing beyond the border with Egypt is clear, something that Egypt naturally denies. The Israeli government has already made it clear that Gaza will be something very different, permanently occupied militarily and even more besieged than before, if that is even possible.
“Cohabitation is not a choice but a condition of political life. The events after October 7 indicate that Israel wants to decide which population not should border it, and a movement is already underway demanding the removal of the population of Gaza (…) This has nothing to do with defense, but with dispossession.”[ii]
The ratio of Israeli citizens killed to Palestinians killed, whether they are a minority of Hamas soldiers or a majority of civilians, mainly women and children, is 1 to 40. The number of wounded is higher. This is only since October 7, but if we count since 1948, since the Nakba, the numbers will be more frightening.
The purest hatred permeates the hearts and minds of Jews and Palestinians, both inside and outside Israel, on a daily basis. The law of the strongest has prevailed in the bloody history of these 76 years, since 1948. The law of retaliation, which demands reactions proportional to a violent attitude, is not even in force. The utopia of a secular and democratic Palestine/Israel, with Jews and Palestinians living together in a single space, democratically, comes up against so much suffering, so much contempt, so much accumulated violence. Just as the 1947 United Nations resolution, on the creation of two states, already suggested with little conviction by the English, was buried by many shovels, Israelis and Arabs, Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians and Westerners...
A word about the Arab world
The Palestinian issue is not just a “thorn in the side” for Israel. For many Arab countries, the Palestinians and their leaders are, at the very least, a nuisance. In September 1970, King Hussein of Jordan carried out a massacre of 3000 Palestinian refugees, many of whom were linked to Yasser Arafat’s Al-Fatah organization. This was Black September, which forced the Palestinians who had taken refuge there after the 6 Six-Day War to flee to Lebanon. It is worth noting that Jordanians are the closest ethnically to the Palestinians. Jordan and Israel have diplomatic, economic and even military relations. It is the closest Arab country to Israel, along with Egypt.
The Arab masses are active in supporting the Palestinian cause, but many countries prefer to coexist and reestablish relations with Israel, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which signed the Abraham Accords in September 2020, now frozen. Egypt has had diplomatic relations with Israel for many years, sponsored by generous military aid from the United States. The military defeat of Nasser's Egypt in 1967 had a profound effect on its leaders, especially its armed forces. Saudi Arabia was also moving in the same direction as the Gulf countries, but October 7 froze this Israeli diplomatic offensive.
The truth is that Arab countries are deeply divided and it is the non-Arab countries of Islam, such as Turkey and Iran, that have taken a tougher diplomatic stance (Turkey and Indonesia, the latter timidly) or even belligerent (Iran). Weakened Syria silently swallows the multiple violent violations of its airspace by Israel for targeted bombings, even in Damascus. Lebanon, poor Lebanon, where many Palestinian refugees still live and shares power with Hezbollah, is bitterly suffering from being such a close neighbor of the executioner Israel, which violates its borders at its whim.
In 1948, following Israel's declaration of independence, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the then Transjordan invaded the newly created State of Israel, as they did not agree with the partition decreed by the United Nations. They were defeated and humiliated. Israel emerged victorious and annexed, under the Armistice Declaration in 1949, some territory previously assigned to the Palestinians in the partition established by UN Resolution 181 of November 1947. The idea of a “United State of Palestine”, with Jews and Arabs in a single country, defended by the invading countries, ended there.
Recent history has shown that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as refugees in neighboring countries, can count on some humanitarian and diplomatic aid from Arab countries, but the latter fear Israel and would prefer some kind of relationship with this unwanted but powerful neighbor. The armed wings of Hezbollah and Hamas, already quite weakened, have the very active support of Iran. They are dismissively described by the Western press as “proxies,” that is, puppets.
The regional war
The other strategic objective of Netanyahu's Israel is to weaken or even defeat Iran militarily, which supports the armed wings of Hezbollah, Hamas and other smaller groups in its anti-Israel struggle. To achieve this objective, October 7th and what followed also allowed tensions and acts of war to escalate into a large-scale regional conflict, which is still contained, but which points to the risk of a war between Iran and Israel/the United States and other Western powers, with unpredictable consequences. It is worth remembering that France also actively supports Israel in air defence. Will NATO get involved in this hornet's nest?
To what extent the military escalation will continue with the occupation of southern Lebanon, with the systematic bombing of Beirut and other targets, not only in Lebanon, we do not know. But it is clear that Israel will continue its offensive, without neutralizing Hezbollah. This is because this political party, social and religious movement and its armed wing, is firmly established in Lebanese society as a representative of the Shiites. But they are not an isolated community; they coexist with the Lebanese ethnic and religious patchwork. They have representation in the Lebanese state, ministers, deputies. They are Lebanese, whether Israel likes it or not. Even though they have suffered severe blows, Hezbollah's missile fire on Israel will probably continue in the coming weeks, months, years.
In the same way, Hamas will resurface, as it is the most popular political-welfare-military movement among Palestinians. The survivors in Gaza, who have seen their families and neighbors killed and wounded, who have seen their homes, hospitals and schools destroyed, who live in a territory with one of the worst, if not the worst, quality of life in the world, will continue to produce militants willing to do anything. And the problem of “terrorism” will continue for Israel. And its population will continue to live under tension. There is no military solution to “Israel’s war on terror.”
Western media coverage
I believe many will agree that the coverage of the conflicts in the Middle East by the Western media is revoltingly biased, especially after October 7. This is particularly the case with “guest commentators”, former military men who pretend to be strategists, arrogant university professors, generally repeating in various ways the narrative very well crafted by the pro-Israel media. I speak from my experience in Portugal, where I live, but I suspect that the same is true throughout the wider West.
Although editorial manuals indicate the need to give voice to the various parties in conflict, space has rarely been given to news and comments from the Al-Jazeera, for example. The proportion between the reproduction of Israeli government messages and the statements of its opponents, whether from Hamas, the Palestinian Authority or other Arab countries, is, forgive the redundancy, completely disproportionate. As we know, war is also about information and in this sense, the Israeli government wins by a landslide over its enemies.
The pro-Israel narrative is so informative that it gradually creates a belief in this version of reality in public opinion. It was only when the death toll and the extent of the destruction in Gaza reached enormous proportions that interviews began to be seen with Palestinian residents, doctors from the destroyed hospitals, and UN staff who were not victims of IDF fire.
What was seen and is seen in the coverage of the invasion and destruction of Gaza by Israel, with little resistance from the Al-Khassam Brigades, deserves an in-depth study by impartial journalists and even by academia.
Israel: what future
In this 21st century, the extreme right, in its various forms, has grown enormously and continues to mark the political agenda of many countries. In the West and in the East, in the Global South and in the powerful North. And with it, hatred of those who are different, be they immigrants in rich countries, refugees in all quadrants, Muslims in India, minorities in many others. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and various other phobias mark the present day. Populism and authoritarianism of the State over its citizens have become widespread, and Israel is no exception.
Who is interested in maintaining global war tensions, with the situation in the Middle East at the forefront for many decades? The United States (38,8%), Russia and France account for 67% of arms exports worldwide. Is a more peaceful world in the interests of these companies, which are highly represented in their respective governments?
Israel has the right to exist, but the foundations of its existence were largely based on disrespect for the inalienable rights of the Palestinians who had lived there for so many centuries. There is an original sin, the consequences of which have been negatively exacerbated and are currently at their peak, in terms of the impossibility of coexistence. But can a country, a nation, a State survive and evolve surrounded by enemies or at least by countries that are not friendly? Having to authoritarianly manage occupied territories with hostile populations? A State that allows itself to declare the Secretary-General of the UN “persona non grata”? For how long and at what cost to its population and its economy?
I wish a peaceful future for Israel, an extraordinary country in many ways. But it needs to immediately get rid of Netanyahu and his warmongering far-right government. And it needs to radically change its attitude towards the Palestinians and its neighbors and almost the entire world. It needs to give up its arrogance and strategy of basing its existence on a militarized state and a more or less permanent war against its “enemies.”
Unfortunately, this change is unlikely in the short to medium term, unless it follows tragedies arising from the escalation of the conflict with Iran. Let us hope that these can be avoided.[iii]
*Carlos Henrique Vianna is an engineer. He was director of Casa do Brasil in Lisbon. He is the author, among other books, of A question of justice.
Notes
[I] In “Considerations on the book by Bentzi Laor and Peter Pal Pelbart”, article by Vladimir Safatle in Folha de S. Paul, September 2024.
[ii] In “The Post-Jewish Jew” by Bentzi Laor and Peter Pal Pelbart, cited by Vladimir Saflate in an article in Folha de S. Paul.
[iii] Before any overzealous reader condemns me for the critical tone of this article toward Israel, especially its leaders, I must say the following: I have enormous admiration for the Jews, with so many admirable names that have marked the History of Humanity. They are a people or ethnic group or individuals who share a Jewishness, as you wish, lovers and cultivators of Knowledge, with thinkers, scientists and intellectuals of the caliber of Marx, Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and the contemporary Amos Oz. The list is endless. In the 1960s, I studied at Colégio de Aplicação da UFRJ, where perhaps 30% of the students were Jewish. The excellence of the teaching at CAp attracted parents to choose the best for their children. My wife, my children and granddaughters have the name Bibas, coming from my great-grandfather who emigrated from Morocco to be a rabbi in Belém do Pará in the late 7th century. Unfortunately, the Bibas family name became known after October XNUMX, when a baby boy, Kfir Bibas, was kidnapped from a kibbutz along with his brother and mother. According to a statement from the Al-Khassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, they died weeks later, in early November, under rubble, following an IDF bombing. It may or may not be true. A tragedy. The Bibas are of Iberian origin, emigrating to Morocco and Egypt, which welcomed them after the expulsion of Jews and Arabs from Spain and Portugal. There are Bibas in several countries and even in Morocco.
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