A cold civil war in Israel

“Livni suggested that other extremist groups want to turn Israel into a religious law state, a matter that would send Israel over the edge. She also noted that this situation in itself is the end of Zionism.” This statement was made on 10 January 2013. Today, there are legal amendments being studied by the Knesset that would stipulate that the Torah be considered the first source of law, especially in matters that are not addressed legally.

What is occurring in Israeli today is a coup against the foundations on which it was built, determined by the founding fathers of Zionism. The majority, if not all of these founding fathers are secularists and do not believe in God. Today, Israel is rambling and delirious, but this rambling is turning into legislation. According to Arab Member of the Knesset Ayman Odeh, there is a legislation in the Knesset that obliges judges to resort to “Torah rulings” and texts in issues not addressed by civil law (this is a draft bill proposed by chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Nissan Slomiansky, that stipulates that the judges rely on the principles of Jewish rulings in the cases that are not clearly determined by legislation. In other words, religious law dominates civil law, and breathing life in the vision of a religious law state, according to the words of an Israeli writer.

The seed of Zionist delusion was planted by the fascist minds of the leaders and fathers of neo-Israelites when they shed the blood of the Palestinians and removed the “others” from the circle of humanity. Once this seed grew and matured, it became part of the “new” Jewish mindset in the case of those who were raised in a racist environment. These people now started to look at those opposed to their opinions as enemies, and the “left-wing” in the eyes of the religious have now become justified targets. It seems that the moment Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on 4 November 1995 at the hands of extremist right-wing Jews, after leaving a crowded festival supporting the peace process under the slogan “yes to peace, no to violence” was the moment that the long and complicated process of turning Israel from “an oasis of democracy” into a state governed by religious gangs started.

“I’m a proud terrorist” is the title of an article written by Rabbi David Meir Druckman, one of the top Jewish clerics, in which he described the Jews who kill Arabs as “righteous”. Druckman also called on the Israeli government to grant medals to those who attack Palestinians, considering their actions an implementation of the Lord’s orders. In addition to this, he also called for burning down all the schools where Jews and non-Jews study (Haaretz, 14January 2015). According to the data of the manpower department in the Israeli army, 60 per cent of officers in the combat and special units in the Israeli army are religious individuals affiliated with extremist religious parties and groups who follow the teachings of the most extremist spiritual guides in Israel. This information was taken from a report published by the army’s manpower department on 15 October 2014.

Most intelligence officials are now members of religious groups, and the representation of the religious in the Mossad has increased, causing the Mossad to appoint rabbis to issue rulings before they execute operations. These Jewish rabbis are calling for wrapping the bodies of Palestinians killed in clashes in pigskin in order to deter others, believing that those who are wrapped in pigskin do not enter heaven. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu says that all the children of Palestinians who committed attacks against Israelis in the heart of Jerusalem should be hung on a 50-metre tree. Meanwhile, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, one of Israel’s top clerics, said that each student attending a Jewish religious school is worth more than 1,000 Arabs. There is also a rabbinical ruling that says that Palestinians do not necessarily need to attack the Jews in order to seek revenge against them, and that there is enough proof that they have the intention to do so. Rabbi Rosen believes that “our religion allows us to kill the Palestinian animals. This is what Joshua did to the giants.”

This is the logic followed and believed by the Israeli ultra-religious regarding the fate that should be met by the Palestinians. After the development of such beliefs and its enrooting in the hearts of the “religious”, the secular left-wing, or any Jewish opposition, have been considered enemies. Therefore, we see left-wing writers, such as Uri Misgav, writing very important articles about this new phenomenon in Haaretz newspaper on 30 January 2016 titled “Israel is in a Civil War, Not a War of Brothers”, in which he talks about the silent civil war occurring in Israel for the past 20 years. He says in the article: “For at least 20 years, Israel has been engaged in a civil war. Most of the time it could be described as a cold civil war, though it is certainly accompanied by shows of violence, whose height was of course the murder of the prime minister in the city square, after he was marked as a traitor and betrayer It was a quite clear declaration of intent. Nonetheless, the war is being conducted under a conspiracy of silence. It does not mean it does not exist, only that it is kept quiet.” He ended the article with something of a prediction, “Prior to that, we must recognise reality. The dream is over. A decent person must decide where he or she stands. The terminology is important: This is a civil war, not a war of brothers. Naftali Bennett cannot be my brother. He is undermining my existence. Every man to his tent, O Israel.”

Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 10 February 2016.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.