Perspective 146. Israel's Far Right: Off the Wall?

Right-wing extremism seems on the rise world-wide, and with the departure of Benny Gantz and his National Unity Party, the far-right parties in Israel’s government will have more say.  Are these extremists a threat to efforts to end the Gaza War and to find a path forward to a modus vivendi between Israel and the Palestinians?

Yes. Apart from opposing a cease-fire and trying to block humanitarian relief to Gaza, the annexationist extremists in Netanyahu’s coalition are moving to make Israel’s hold on the West Bank permanent and even – reality be damned! – resettling Jews in the Gaza Strip while pushing out Palestinians.  Nor does it stop there.  Should war with Hizballah break out, there are fantasies of Jewish settlement in southern Lebanon, halfway to Beirut. 

In perspective, rabid ideologues on Zionism’s wacky fringe have always set their sights far beyond the limits of common sense and realities on the ground.  Vladimir Jabotinsky’s original Revisionist movement arose in protest against conceding the East Bank of the Jordan to Jordanian King Abdallah’s great-grandfather and his Hashemite dynasty.  Biblical Israel, they proclaimed, extended to the Euphrates River (in today’s Iraq).

But be reassured.  Hagai Ben-Artzi, brother of Sara Netanyahu, has declared that “we don’t want a meter beyond the Euphrates River.”  So Iran may relax, though not Iraq, Syria, or Jordan.

In the meantime, the Israeli imperialists will have their hands full with the West Bank and Gaza.  As Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir (Jewish Power) has allowed West Bank settlers to attack Palestinians without police interference, in an apparent attempt to encourage emigration.  But three million Palestinians, over 80 percent of the population, remain. 

In Gaza, there remain 2.3 million Palestinians, who have nowhere to go and in any event no intention of going anywhere.  Roughly seventy percent are refugees from what is now the state of Israel.  And yet there is now a caucus in the Knesset for Jewish resettlement in Gaza.  Ben-Gvir even claims that the present government “is committed to returning to Gaza.”  And a recent poll shows 32 percent of Israelis actually in favor.

So if the West Bank and Gaza, why not Lebanon?  A recent rally tried to drum up support for expansion to the Litani River.  After all, the Israeli army at one time made it all the way to Beirut.  True, it turned out to be a bitter experience – but maybe next time the Lebanese will welcome the intruders and willingly turn over the keys to their homes.

With such fantasies in the heart of the current regime, who needs nightmares?