By Ali Ghorban Bagheri
Israeli regime’s tactic of using extremist violence to quell the Palestinian resistance and crush the resolve and willpower of resistance fighters is doomed to fail, says a Palestinian analyst.
Mohamad Halasa, a prominent academic and expert on Israeli affairs, in an interview with the Press TV website, expounded on rising violence against Palestinians under the right-wing Israeli cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu, and the courageous resistance offered by Palestinians.
He said the violence must be placed in the historical context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Halasa asserted that the Palestinian people have for seven decades fought against a colonial occupier force that enjoys international and regional support and is bent on destroying Palestinians.
“This colonial force is not only after plundering the resources of Palestinians but also seeks to eradicate the Palestinian and Muslim identity of the land, and therefore, the people of Palestine are fighting a religious and political battle on behalf of Muslims,” he told the Press TV website.
Halasa pointed out that the regime’s doctrine as a colonial power is based on systematic violence, and it uses such violence to win the battle against Palestinians, adding that every time the regime resorts to this logic of extremist violence, it ends up in failure.
“Colonial powers always resort to excessive violence, as France did in Algeria and the United States in Vietnam. Colonialists never abandon violence, even though intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre have extensively criticized this,” he noted.
Halasa said the Israeli army enjoys the support of illegal settlers who advocate violence, and its regular attacks on Jenin and other occupied areas are done under the pretext of protecting settlers.
“The settlers advocate this logic of power through violence. They don’t understand that such actions will backfire against them and that all occupied territories witness retaliatory actions by Palestinians.”
The analyst further stated that the “right-wing bloc” in Israel is responsible for most violent actions, as the bloc and its supporters are a “bunch of fascist and racist people” who even fight each other.
“There is a constant quarrel between Western Jews and those who came from the East, as well as discrimination against Jews of African heritage and those from Yemen and Morocco.”
Halasa emphasized that the ruling right-wing cabinet exploits the Zionist society’s thirst for violence, periodically takes violent action, and then tries to justify it in the name of protecting security.
“Inside Israel, nobody dares to oppose violence. Those who do voice criticism are often silenced and their lives are in danger,” he asserted.
The Palestinian analyst further said that both the right and left-wing blocs in Israel use violence and the society in general advocates systematic violence against Palestinians.
“Theodor Herzl, the spiritual father of Zionism, previously declared that the Israeli society must always think of an enemy because, in the event of peace, the Israeli society would collapse as a colonial society,” he said.
“Therefore, the regime always tries to make people scared of various issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, Hezbollah’s presence on the northern border, missiles from resistance forces in Gaza, and the Jenin Brigade in the West Bank.”
Helseh emphasized that Palestinians, with their willpower and battle experience, will confront the regime equipped with advanced weapons and technologies, including the Iron Dome system.
Helseh concluded that the normalization charade, which is aimed at changing the mind of Arabs, will be of no use to the regime, and that Palestinian fighters must keep actively resisting the regime.
