Alwaght- In the eighth decade of occupying Israeli regime's history, Tel Aviv officials are struggling to solidify the pillars of the regime. However, the developments are not going as they wish and the home and international conditions are growing more and more difficult for them. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has recently returned to power with a new cabinet claimed that he would improve the security, political, and economic conditions in the occupied territories. However, the Israelis are seeing every year gloomier than the year before given the developments they are undergoing.
2022 was disastrous for the whole world due to the Russia-Ukraine war which involved all countries, but the situation for the Israeli regime was much worse, to the extent that Tel Aviv authorities have admitted this issue.
UN resolutions
Tel Aviv is resorting to any trick to block leaking of the realities of Palestine to the world and at the same time plays victim to its allies across the world, but these efforts have delivered the reverse, and intensified crimes against the Palestinians have united the world against the Zionists. The anti-Israeli UN resolutions last year epitomized this united stance.
Since the beginning of 2022, 15 resolutions have been approved by the United Nations General Assembly against the Israeli crimes and occupation, almost half of all resolutions in last year, showing that this regime, more than others, has made crises in the world is getting more and more isolated. Only on December 9, six resolutions were passed in the General Assembly against Tel Aviv, marking a black day for the Israelis who are growing detested on the global stage.
“The legal status of occupation”, establishing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Palestinian rights resolution, launching the Special Information Program on Palestine Issue, holding a high-ranking meeting marking the 75th anniversary of Nakba (Palestinian Catastrophe caused establishment of Israeli regime), issuing an order for Israel to retreat from the occupied Golan Heights of Syria to the 1967 borders, and passing a resolution asking Tel Aviv to pay Lebanon more than $850 million for a major oil spill during Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon were the major UNGA anti-Israeli resolutions.
The UN resolutions indicated that despite all efforts by the powerful Israeli lobby, the Palestinian diplomacy has been more successful to inform the world community of the crimes against the Palestinians. In this regard, the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied territories wrote in its latest report that 2022 was the bloodiest year for Palestinians since 2005, as 230 people were killed by Israeli live fire this year. Out of the total number of Palestinians killed, 171 people were killed in the West Bank, 53 in the Gaza Strip, and 6 in the occupied territories of 1948. According to the same report, just in last year 6,500 Palestinians were detained by the Israeli troops, with 4,700 of them still are held in detention. The report adds that in 2022, the Israeli authorities demolished about 833 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank and East Al-Quds (Jerusalem). Also, in 2022, Israeli settlers launched 793 attacks, in 582 of which a lot of damage inflicted on Palestinian property. These attacks injured 211 people.
Isolated on world stage
Qatar World Cup was another event that frustrated Israelis in late days of 2022. Thousands of Israelis who traveled to Qatar to watch the global football event faced huge waves of fury and aversion from the regional and global public, marking further Israeli humiliation and isolation in the world as Israeli media acknowledged. The Palestinians, on the opposite side, were successful in mobilizing the world public opinion in line with their issue. The experience of the World Cup was somehow a finishing shot at Israeli-Arab normalization process, showing that despite diplomatic agreements of the compromising Arab rulers with Tel Aviv, the Muslim nations have conflicting ideas with their rulers on Palestine and are not ready to back down from the ultimate goal of liberation of Palestine. This is while Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed in recent weeks that he intends to bring other Arab countries on board of normalization with his diplomatic efforts. A new law passed by the Omani parliament proved that Abraham Accords are stillborn and others are not inclined to deal with the occupation.
A nightmare called Lions' Den group
The beginning of 2022 was disastrous for the Israeli regime in terms of security, and the extensive Palestinian operations from the Negev Desert to the north of Tel Aviv in March, during which 14 Zionists were killed, promised a bloody year for Tel Aviv. Last year, the Palestinian groups in the West Bank changed the military equations and inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli forces in this occupied region by shifting to armed struggle.
Despite the fact that Israeli forces widened increased their crimes against the Palestinians, the casualties suffered by the Israelis last year were unprecedented in its history of its conflict with the Palestinians.
In its latest report, the Israeli army, acknowledging that 2022 was the climactic point of anti-Israeli struggle, pointed to the increase in casualties in the occupied territories and said that 31 Israelis were killed last year, which was several folds more compared to the year before. In addition, about 500 other Israelis were injured during Palestinian operations, which is the highest number since 2015.
Another part of this report suggested that in 2022, more than 7,500 of stone and Molotov cocktail incidents were recorded. The more important issue is that 285 shootings have been recorded in the West Bank and al-Quds, much more than 61 cases recorded in 2021.
These damages to the Israelis got or serious as the Lions’ Den resistance group, which has become a nightmare for Tel Aviv leaders these days, announced its existence in the West Bank from 2022 and carried out dozens of operations against the Zionist settlers. The group threatened to expand its operations, and on some days, dozens of simultaneous operations have been recorded in its name. The armed group has changed the equations in the occupied West Bank with its special operational methods, which are different from those of the Palestinian groups based in Gaza and has confused the Israeli security and military authorities. The security officials have repeatedly admitted that this group is gaining further power and that they are incapable of dealing with it. For several months, Lions’ Den has been annoying Israeli leaders and increased their costs substantially.
The Israeli army loss in war on Gaza in August was another disgrace for the regime. The Israelis started the war against the Islamic Jihad in order to weaken the power of the resistance in Gaza, but after four days without any achievements, they stopped their campaign and agreed to a cease-fire as always. Following the truce, waves of criticism of the government poured in, admitting weakness in confrontation with the Palestinians and predicting that any future war with Iran or Hezbollah would be “devastating.”
Defeat from Hezbollah
Another bitter issue for Tel Aviv in 2022 was that the regime was forced to withdraw in the face of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Over the past decade and on the strength of unconditional international support and financial power, Israeli regime took advantage of the gas resources shared with Lebanon, while Beirut was deprived of its legal rights due to its technical incapability and political challenges. However, last year Hezbollah and its chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah turned the tide in favor of Lebanon, forcing Israeli regime to retreat and accept Lebanon's conditions. The two sides finally struck a US-mediated deal in October. Lebanon’s border agreement with the Israeli regime was a great victory for Hezbollah, blocking Israeli plunder of Lebanese resources. The achievement was so remarkable that Netanyahu himself said the deal was equal to “selling the land of the Jews”, and claimed that if he took over the cabinet, he would scrap this deal. Hezbollah Secretary General Nasrallah responded that the resistance movement's missiles are locked on the disputed Karish gas field and “if Tel Aviv makes a mistake, it would pay a high price.”
Black days in 2023
In addition to external challenges and tensions with the Palestinians, the Israeli regime experienced a new crisis from within. In recent parliamentary elections in the occupied territories, far-right parties won the power for the first time in two decades, triggering concerns about future of the regime. The hard-line new leaders are the main supporters of the illegal settlement projects in the West Bank and are the top enemy of the Palestinians and a serious opponent of the two-state solution. Under such a cabinet, tensions are highly likely to escalate further in the West Bank. The concerns on this issue are so serious that former officials are uniting their ranks to tackle the new leaders’ ambitions.
Despite the relative political stability brought about by the rise of the far-right groups, the conditions are not favorable for the Israeli regime. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he predicted pessimism, black days, and fear of a dark future for the coming year under Netanyahu cabinet. He also asserted that next year Israeli global position would be weaker and a possible Israeli collapse from within would be accelerated under far-right cabinet. Observers suggest that the new Israeli cabinet is similar to its predecessors with the difference that it will be much more fragile and unstable, because extremism, excesses, racism, a strong desire for killing and cruel settlement plans, aggression, and hatred towards Arabs and all Muslims make its basis.
The reality is that Israeli regime is collapsing from within and far-right assumption of power only brings the full collapse forward, and even normalization with Arab rulers cannot save Tel Aviv from the grand crisis it is immersed in. Perhaps the Israelis would not celebrate the 80th anniversary as they begin to predict.
