Israel’s far-right fundamentalists want war, settlements & intifada. Netanyahu is facilitating them

Israeli settlers fighting security forces from a synagogue roof during the disengagement in 2005

Anshel Pfeffer writes in Haaretz on 8 July 2024:

Over the last nine months, you may have understood from reading this newspaper that Israel is undergoing the most tragic period in its history, with heavy casualties, 120 hostages still in Gaza and tens of thousands of civilians forced to leave their homes on the borders around Gaza and the north. And you wouldn’t be wrong.

But not all Israelis feel the same way.

There are Israelis like National Missions Minister Orit Strock, who feel like “we’re living in a miraculous time.”  Strock was speaking to a group of settlers in Givat Hanan, an outpost in the South Hebron Hills, and was referring to the ease with which she and her fellow far-right ministers can now authorize and fund more settlement building in the area due to a combination of their control of key government roles and the focus on events elsewhere (the wars in Gaza and the northern border). This has enabled not just new construction, but the displacement of local rural Palestinian communities.

Last week, Strock’s Religious Zionism party boss, Bezalel Smotrich, spoke with concern on how he wouldn’t be surprised if Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar responds positively to the hostage deal and tries to save himself.   Smotrich opposes the growing consensus in the defense establishment in favor of a cease-fire agreement. Two weeks earlier, at a Jerusalem Day event in the capital, he called not only for continuing the war in Gaza “with all strength,” but embarking on a wider war in Lebanon against Hezbollah. He did nothing to hide his excitement at the prospect.  Meanwhile, he’s using his powers both as finance minister and as minister in the Defense Ministry to try to fulfill his “decisive plan,” published back in 2017, to topple the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. He hopes to provoke a Palestinian uprising, which would force Israel to enter all of the areas currently controlled by the PA.

For most Israelis, the war that began on October 7, and the next day on the border with Lebanon, is still focused on destroying Hamas’ military capabilities, returning the hostages and ensuring that civilians can return home. But for a not-insignificant minority bolstered by the presence of its representatives in positions of power, this is a heavenly opportunity to achieve so much more.

For them, this is a war that in Gaza will roll back the Disengagement of 2005 and allow the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there. In the West Bank, it will enable the settlers to eliminate what little Palestinian autonomy was achieved since 1993 by the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the PA.

And then there is a new swath of land of biblical promise opening up in southern Lebanon – or as it was called during an online conference a couple of weeks ago, “northern Galilee.”

This is not government policy. In fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that Israel has any plans to rebuild settlements in Gaza. It certainly isn’t something the security chiefs, fearful of escalation on all fronts and anxious to reach a cease-fire, are looking for. They want a deal that ensures the release of the hostages and gives the stretched Israel Defense Forces an opportunity to recuperate and focus on what it fears could be the biggest test: a war in Lebanon.

However, as a new Haaretz investigation has shown, there are plenty of IDF soldiers and officers who are actively playing a part in it.  According to footage obtained by Haaretz, the IDF currently controls 26 percent of the territory in the Gaza Strip. And while the army claims that this is all for tactical purposes, in many locations soldiers have put up signs and sprayed graffiti heralding the “return,” promising that “settlement will bring security.”

Synagogues have been opened in the ostensibly temporary bases and mezuzahs attached to doorframes. In some cases, Torah scrolls from the evicted Gush Katif settlements have been returned there, even the wooden menorah that once stood in the Netzarim settlement. Dedication ceremonies have taken place, in which at least two brigade commanders were present, where they recited the ancient blessing of “establishing the border of the widow” – made when a new settlement in the promised land is established.

Many soldiers and officers are opposed to these ceremonies, but they won’t interfere. Some see it as good for morale-building. Others don’t want to create discord in the ranks. “I don’t think there’s anything serious going on. We’ve already moved out of some of the places where they put up mezuzahs and no one said anything,” said one senior officer.

But the network of far-right media organizations and social media accounts breathlessly reporting on these events view things differently. Veteran West Bank settler leader Daniella Weiss says this is just how they did things 50 years ago when the first settlements were built: “You start with the [military] bases.”

Far-right media icon Yinon Magal, who encourages soldiers to send him videos of their celebrations in Gaza to post online and screen on his “The Patriots” chat show on Channel 14, summarized it in an interview back in February: “We’re in an amazing period that is great for the people of Israel.”

One senior reserve officer put it somewhat differently: “We’re trying to plan how to get Israel out of the worst predicament it’s been in on all fronts, but we have so many younger troops who are convinced something wonderful is happening.”

Israel is fighting two wars – the official one and a fundamentalist-messianic one. Both wars are ostensibly against the same enemy, but they are also a war between two Israels.

There are those who fully understand the two wars being fought. Especially one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. He understands that his governing coalition is dependent on those fighting a fundamentalist war and he needs to keep them happy or they will bring down his government.
The generals are still convinced theirs is the real war and believe that at some point, a cease-fire will be reached and the IDF will gradually withdraw from most if not all of Gaza. The soldiers who danced with Torah scrolls at the bases on Gaza shore will be happy to go home. Nothing will come of the settlers’ designs.

But the generals have made so many wrong calls since the eve of this war.

Israelis on the center-left who are aware of and opposed to the fundamentalist war hope a local protest movement coupled with international pressure, the threat of sanctions and International Criminal Court arrest warrants will deter those war aims.

But the protests so far are nowhere near the scale of those that took place last year against the government’s plans to weaken the judiciary. And most of the opposition parties in the Knesset won’t join in. Many Israelis who are not fundamentalists either don’t realize the extent to which these two wars are increasingly contradictory or are afraid to challenge the illusion of wartime unity. Or both.

International sanctions won’t hurt the fundamentalists. They don’t travel abroad and would gladly see Israel isolated from an antisemitic world if it meant they could do as they see fit in the West Bank and Gaza. Anyway, they believe Donald Trump will soon be back in charge in America, so why worry?

In the middle are those who are not prepared to align themselves with either camp. They don’t feel Israel is living in a miraculous rapture and keenly feel its losses. But they want to be comforted by the illusion that we are all in this together and that, as the government slogan puts it, “together we will win.”

As the surveys show, they are not totally fooled by the government. They won’t vote for Netanyahu and his partners in the next election. But meanwhile, the fundamentalists are starting to create facts on the ground. Just as the settlers proved in the past, they don’t need to have the support of a majority of Israelis – just as long as most Israelis and their governments don’t stop them from building their reality.

There are those who fully understand the two wars being fought. Especially one person: Benjamin Netanyahu.

He understands that his governing coalition is dependent on those fighting a fundamentalist war and he needs to keep them happy or they will bring down his government. But to limit the scale of the protest, to continue working with the security establishment and the Biden administration, he also needs to keep up an appearance of fighting the other war.

That’s why Netanyahu on the one hand agrees to send delegations to Doha and Cairo for talks on a possible cease-fire and hostage-release agreement, while putting out briefings that are aimed at hampering those talks. While Israel stumbles between the two wars it is waging, he is focused on his own personal war for political survival.

This article is reproduced in its entirety