The Israeli war in Gaza has brought devastation to the strip, accompanied by the massacre of civilians, mostly women and children; however, it may have another casualty, the state of Israel itself.
Prior to the war, Israel was hardly on a solid footing. It faced many threats on a variety of fronts, most notably, the judicial reforms.
Eight months of protests against the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his extreme Cabinet members, had turned many inside Israel against him.
Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, had expressed grave concerns about the push for the judicial reforms with the US President Joe Biden stating publicly that Netanyahu should not go for it. But Netanyahu did not or could not back down.
Meanwhile, former Israeli politicians, like the former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, have expressed grave concerns regarding Israel’s survival, saying the entity will cease to exist before the 80th anniversary of its establishment in 1948.
He pointed to the fact that, historically, Jews had never ruled for more than 80 years throughout history, presaging a doom and gloom scenario for Israel, such as is currently unfolding in occupied Palestine.
Since the anti government protests broke out eight months ago, the Israeli economy has been on a downward spin. This included lowered GDP growth, a decrease in investment, especially in the technology sector.
Far right Israeli ministers, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, promoted a crackdown on Palestinians, which included near daily raids resulting in deaths, injuries and detainments. The death toll had reached over 250 per day.
Itamar Ben-Gvir has been pushing the envelope for possession of the al-Aqsa mosque, which is his long term goal for Judea.
The number of incursions into the mosque by settlers, accompanied by Israeli security forces, was increasing.
Hamas and the resistance groups issued warning after warning about the desecration of the Al-Aqsa mosque and that the resistance would retaliate when it saw fit; however, those warnings had fallen on deaf ears, until October 7th when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was executed.
Defense One News which is close to the US military, had this to say about the Hamas and resistance fighters: “They have absolutely exquisite intelligence of the location of Israeli Secret Bases, on their communications capabilities. They knew exactly where to go, knew where the critical communications nodes were, that they were able to destroy with drones and other kinetic strikes to try to impede the response.”
They certainly did, and more importantly, Israel was caught off guard and in the blink of an eye, its illusion of invincibility was shattered.
Dropping US made bombs on innocent Palestinian civilians did not solve Israel’s problems. It actually made them worse. And this carnage which included deaths on a massive scale, mostly women and children, has engulfed the entire world, which came out in protest against the Israelis
And, like a house of cards, it brought the rest of its supporters down with it, leading to the resignations of a number of high ranking US officials.
The US image has been tainted, once again, as an accomplice to war crimes, as it was in Yemen.
A State Department official, Josh Paul, resigned over the Biden administration’s militaristic approach to the conflict, saying he could not support sending arms to Israel, which he believes to be short sighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse.
US politicians, mainly Democrats, were also voicing their anger at Israel and US military assistance.
Spain’s Acting Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, one of many government officials around the world who are currently rethinking their relations with Israel, has accused Israel of carrying out a “planned genocide” in Gaza and called for economic sanctions against Israel, as well as the suspension of diplomatic relations.
Many Israelis are blaming Netanyahu for the imminent downfall of Israel, and have demonstrated against him, demanding his resignation.
Settlements have been evacuated along the Gaza border.
Hampered by an incompetent army, an economy that is tanking, and a war that has been lost already, the occupied territory is charged with hate between armed settlers and Palestinians, ready to blow up at any moment.
For all intents and purposes Israel is currently facing an existential threat of epic proportions.
