Haaretz: “Radical Messianics” and Netanyahu Are the Problem in Israel

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper took issue with remarks made by President Biden on Dec. 12 in Washington, in which the latter had basically blamed Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for blocking a two-state solution. The implication was that if Prime Minister Netanyahu dumps that minister, and makes a few changes in the government, he could then align with the U.S. on a workable policy.

There can be no doubt that Ben-Gvir as well as his ally Belzalel Smotrich are ultranationalist fanatics, but they are not the only problem, as Haaretz points out:

“In describing the political situation in Israel, Biden even did Netanyahu a favor when he said the Prime Minister ‘is a good friend, but I think he has to change — with this government.’ Later he explained that ‘this is the most conservative government in Israel’s history’… Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they — they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution.’”

The truth is, according to the daily, that “Netanyahu’s government is anything but conservative. It’s a revolutionary, rightist, radical, messianic government that advanced a regime coup and is dreaming of annexing the territories.” But also Netanyahu “prefers to flee from the option of a Palestinian state, as he has done for years, even at the price of fostering Hamas…. Netanyahu has turned his objection to a Palestinian state into the main part of the survival campaign he is conducting these days.”

Haaretz further accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of “not acting for Israel’s good but only for his political survival. Biden, the problem isn’t ‘Ben-Gvir and the new folks,’ the problem is Netanyahu.”

The former head of Israel’s domestic secret service Shin Bet, Ami Ayalon, also views Israel’s current policy in Palestine as a “huge failure”. Speaking Dec. 11 at the Carnegie Endowment, he recognized that Israel’s policy was to use “divide and rule” tactics to foster a conflict between the leaderships of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which caused Hamas to grow stronger.

On the current policymakers in Israel, he said the country is controlled by “chaos agents”, whose goal is to create a “human disaster” in Gaza, because “from the chaos we shall start again.” “This is exactly the theory of the most radical, fundamental Muslim organizations”, of ISIS and al-Qaeda, he went on said. That is why you can’t go to war without defining a political goal.