Israel is withdrawing from the occupied city of Jenin in the West Bank today. On Monday, Israel launched the biggest military operation in the Palestinian Territories in 20 years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the mission was to cull terrorists from safe havens in the Jenin refugee camp. And he’s hailing it as “mission accomplished.”
Israel invaded Jenin
The problem is that Netanyahu’s claim is no more credible than Putin claiming Russia invaded Ukraine to cull Nazis. Even worse, Israel claims it killed ten terrorists. But collective punishment of Palestinians has become its tradecraft.
Regardless of the truth, Israel has left behind:
- at least 12 dead and over 100 innocent Palestinians injured – with no hospitals to treat them,
- scores of homes, businesses, and hospitals damaged – with thousands homeless, and
- Jenin’s infrastructure destroyed – with no water or electricity.
Netanyahu’s wag-the-dog mission
Media reports focus on the death and destruction Israel left in its wake. That’s understandable. But the real story is why Netanyahu ordered this invasion.
Even if you buy his claim about protecting Israel from Palestinian rockets, consider this: What if Blacks had rockets in the South African townships during apartheid? Would you have had any sympathy for Whites complaining about those Blacks launching missiles in their cities? No, because no fair-minded person would.
Moreover, you’d think Israel would have political and moral scruples about inciting Palestinian boys to hurl rocks at Israeli tanks. After all, it is willfully indoctrinating them to become Palestinian men launching missiles at Israeli cities.
It speaks volumes that at least four of the twelve Palestinians Israel killed on this occasion were teenagers. That suggests that, even if they were rock-hurling adolescents, Israel would label them dead terrorists too.
That said, I believe Netanyahu ordered this invasion of Jenin to further his political ambitions, not to ensure Israel’s national security. He did so to appease the right-wing members of his governing coalition. You know, the ones who have publicly called for Israel to wipe Palestinian villages off the map.
Netanyahu feels obliged to appease them because of the Faustian bargain he struck with them. That’s why Israel’s treatment of Palestinians mirrors Apartheid South Africa’s treatment of Blacks. And that’s why those right-wing members are shepherding judicial reforms to torpedo his corruption trial and keep him out of jail.
In other words, apartheid-like racism and self-interest motivated Israel’s death and destruction in Jenin this week. As it happens, though, I telegraphed and decried this cynical mission months ago in “Israeli Judicial Reform Protests Should Address Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians Too” on March 7.
Israel choosing apartheid, not peace
I’ve been lamenting Israel’s march down a primrose path to an apartheid state for years. Yet to comprehend the political machinations afoot, it might suffice to cite “Instead of Peace Israel Settling for Apartheid?” from May 1, 2014.
No less a political and moral authority than former US president Jimmy Carter inspired that post. It stemmed from his plea in his seminal book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006). This invasion of Jenin vindicates my verdict. Israel is settling for apartheid.
Yet the most damning feature of Israeli apartheid is the way the United States is aiding it. After all, US political and economic boycotts helped end apartheid in South Africa. By contrast, US aid – to nearly $4 billion annually – is helping continue apartheid in Israel.
No doubt South Africans appreciate the role the US played back then. Even so, they are leading developing countries in decrying the double standard the US shows in cuddling Israel’s apartheid. Indeed, this double standard also explains South Africa leading those countries in choosing autocratic China and Russia over democratic America and Ukraine in the war now raging in Europe.