Alwaght- The Israeli challenges at home and abroad are so broad now that Israeli officials these days brazenly talk about a possible collapse and add that it is now counting down to disappeance and would possibly not celebrate its 80th anniversary. The outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid admitted in a speech that this regime is collapsing from within and Benjamin Netanyahu will be the weakest prime minister in the Israeli history.
The cabinet Netanyahu is forming is not a rightist one but a “crazy government,” he added. In recent weeks, Israeli officials one after another have expressed concern about the appointment of hardliners in the new cabinet. Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman said that a dark future awaits this regime and asserted that the appointment of hardliners in the new government will only divide the the people.
The fact that the Israeli officials are extremely worried about the future more has to do with internal than external developments. Although far-right parties have gathered for the first time in the cabinet and it seems that they have partially put an end to the political instability that has plagued Israel in recent years, yet concerns about the future are snowballing.
In recent years and especially under Netanyahu, several early elections have put heavy costs on the Israelis. The Israeli media in reports about the economic conditions in the occupied territories talk about vast poverty and high costs of living. Also, the political instability and bad economic situation have progressed to the point where Israeli citizens’ trust in the government and parliament had dropped to less than 30 percent. Even though these problems have been reduced to a certain extent, the danger of collapse from within is the biggest concern among the Tel Aviv leaders, and it seems that the situation is going to be disastrous for them.
Hardliners assume the power
One of the most important reasons the Israeli politicians began to express concerns about the future is the rise of the far-right that are set to unveil their government in the next few days. The thoughts of the far-right, mainly represented by the Haredi Jews, that are expending across the Israeli society are deemed by the migrant Israelis as a ticking bomb that one day would blow off the occupied territories. The Israelis believe that the presence of radical leaders in power will cause polarization in the society. The radicals are trying to spread their thoughts and beliefs among the other Israelis, while the opponents consider them to be against the traditions and beliefs of the Jewish religion.
The expansion of Israeli settlements, the exemption of Haredi students from military service and the allocation of more funds and facilities to orthodox Jews, as well as the tightening of immigration laws and adoption of strict laws concerning immigrants’ adherence to Jewish laws are among the most important demands of the far-right, which have already triggered waves of opposition. Fears about the far-right rise are now running so high that even figures like Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who is himself one of the main criminals, have said that they would do their best to counter the in-the-making cabinet of the far-right.
The laws eyed by the radicals in the Tel Aviv cabinet may lead to the escalation of tensions in the occupied territories, especially with Palestinian groups, and this will make the occupied territories even more insecure, as in recent months, with the increase in Palestinian operations, security is becoming a dream for the settlers who are now afraid of freely moving in Tel Aviv streets.
The far-right parties took their first controversial step by passing a new law on Monday allowing people with criminal convictions to take posts in the cabinet. Also, the parliament has granted a lot of powers to Itamar Ben-Gvir as the minister of internal security, though his radical thoughts and substantial enmity to the Palestinians can spark the war in the occupied territories and, as the Israelis are worried, accelerate the pace of collapse.
The existence of religious hardliners in the cabinet, who seek to pass strict citizenship laws, is incomprehensible to the secular citizens who accepted life in the occupied territories under the condition of living in a secular system and under secular laws and can create many challenges in the society on top of them ethnic collapse across the occupied territories.
Moreover, the far-right rise is worrisome when it comes to foreign policy, and implementation of tension-generating programs can further damage the Israeli legitimacy worldwide. In recent months, anti-Israeli UN resolutions fomented huge waves of antipathy to Israel and its crimes during the Qatar World Cup and proved that the Israelis are growing more and more isolated and losing their allies.
Additionally, the Jews outside the Israeli regime are not happy with the hardliners and even censure policies of a radical cabinet more than others. This can deplete support of the influential Zionist lobbies based in the West. Indeed, increasing global pressures on Tel Aviv would put strains also on these lobbies.
Substantial crisis in military body
Another issue is the crises that have developed in the Israeli military in recent years. Israel needs a strong army to counter security challenges, but its army is a paper lion these days grappling with serous crises. According to polls, one-third of Israeli youth are not interested in military employment, and this is dangerous for the Israelis. Also, the military service desertion, growing depression, and the high rate of suicide among the army forces have set off the alarm bells to Tel Aviv leaders.
Israeli media have recently reported that the decisions made by high-ranking military officials are dealing fatal blow to the army personnel. The media outlets further warn about dismissal of top officers and mutiny among the soldiers. Even the air force, of which the Israelis are highly proud, is in its worst conditions, and the Israeli leaders are extremely worried that in case of a new war with resistance groups, their forces would perform poorly. This comes while the Axis of Resistance, Israel’s archenemy, is growing more and more powerful and adds to its regional wings, each with the power to challenge the Israeli military independently. Successive defeats from Palestinian groups and rise of a deterrence with Palestinians threaten the existence of the Israeli regime, and the leaders of Tel Aviv have well understood this reality.
Reverse migration
The acceleration of Israeli collapse is observable well from the reverse migration rates. Although Israeli officials seek to lure new Jews into migration to the occupied territories by offering incentives, their plans have so far delivered the reverse and over the past decade hundreds of thousands of settlers migrated back to Europe and the US.
According to polls, 59 percent of Israeli citizens are thinking of leaving the occupied territories, and this is a serious threat to Tel Aviv as it has failed to meet the citizens’ wishes. Jews came to the occupied lands with the dream of a better life and security, but now not only do they not have a good economic situation, but because of successive wars, they also see their lives in danger. Recently, secular Israelis under a new movement dubbed “Leave this Land- Together” have started the process of mass reverse migration. They complain that hard-line views are gaining traction in the occupied territories. Officials of this movement warn citizens to wake up and leave before it is too late, because the far-right will damage the regime. In an article published by the Washington Post, Abraham Borg, the former speaker of the Knesset, wrote that the Israeli regime is on the verge of the end of its Zionist dream and is heading towards destruction, and he asked the Israelis to have another passport and explained that he himself has a French passport.
Given all these variables and developments, it can be concluded that the main threats to the Israeli regime come from within than foreign sources. Netanyahu and other Tel Aviv leaders have repeatedly claimed that Iran and Hezbollah are the biggest threat and they intend to destroy the Israeli regime, and therefore called for more international pressure on Tehran. But the fact is that Iran has not directly taken any action against the Israeli regime and it does not need to plan for the Israeli collapse because this regime itself is gradually collapsing and the internal conditions in the occupied territories bear witness to this fact.
Ex-Mossad chief Tamir Pardo once confirmed this fact and held that while there is a lot of talk about major foreign threats against Israel, the biggest threat is represented by the Israelis themselves as they set Israel “on path to self-destruction” that has been perfected in recent years and requires them to stop this disastrous path before the point of no return, because he thinks Israel is collapsing.
Ari Shavit, an Israeli reporter and political analyst of Hebrew media said that they have passed the point of no-return and that Israel is taking its last breaths. He added that there is no longer the “taste of life in Israel”, and the Israelis have realized since they came to Palestine that they are victims to a lie crafted by the Zionist movement.
These warnings by Israeli thinkers come as polls show that one-third of the Israelis believe that Israel will not see the next 25 years. This figure is far less in the eyes of the officials who doubt if it will see its 80th anniversary.
The fact that Israel has reached a point in which its citizens see its collapse close is an outcome of Tel Aviv leaders’ wrong policies over the past seven decades. Palestine which was planned to be the promised land of the Jews is turning into their death land and they increasingly choose leaving over staying in it.
