Bernard Spiegal

The project to create an Israeli imperium over swathes of the Middle East is well under way. Hubris attends the project, as time will tell.

Israel, led by a man, Netanyahu, with pronounced megalomaniacal tendencies, allied to maniacal, Jewish supremacist Knesset members and government ministers, knows no bounds in its pursuit of ‘security’ via domination.

But ‘security’ is but the veil that masks Israel’s twofold true intent: first, the elimination of Palestinians from the land between the river and the sea; second, domination of the region via a mix of agreements with Arab authoritarian regimes, and where these cannot be achieved, by perpetual military actions against state and non-state actors in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. 

Gaza: eliminatory programme

So far as Gaza is concerned, it looks as though Israel is pursuing the so-called ‘surrender or starve’ plan, contrived by IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eiland.  From Ha’aretz:

‘That plan calls for all the residents of northern Gaza to be evacuated to humanitarian zones in the south, with those choosing to remain deemed Hamas operatives and legitimate military targets.’

For Israel, there is no such thing as a humanitarian zone. Rather, it’s a public relations sticker attached to a lie. The lethally-loaded lie that civilians will be safe in Israeli-designated ‘humanitarian’ zones. They will not. In the last year Israel attacked, killed and injured civilians who sought shelter in Israeli-designated ‘safe’ zones after the population was told to move to those areas.

North Gaza, cleared of Palestinians, will allow for the establishment of new Israeli settlements. Those Palestinian displaced from the North will have no choice but to head to southern Gaza, there, no doubt, to face an updated version of an Israel-imposed siege. Talk of an Israeli withdrawal from the south, to be replaced by some sort of regional or international force, seems no more than hokum.

West Bank: eliminatory programme

In pursuit of Israel’s eliminatory programme, under cover of the world’s attention being focused on Gaza and Lebanon, Israel is perpetrating against West Bank Palestinians a litany of unspeakably brutal, murderous acts.

Israel’s purpose in historic Palestine is in plain sight. There is no need to speculate. Israel’s strategic objectives have been broadcast to the world – literally. At the UNGA, in September 2024, Netanyahu showed a map of the Middle East with the West Bank and Gaza erased, and those Occupied areas as part of an expanded Israel.

This is all of a piece with the Likud’s – P.M. Netanyahu’s party – 1977 manifesto:

a. The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

b. A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a “Palestinian State,” jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel. and frustrates any prospect of peace.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah is likely to result in the south of that country being occupied by Israel, this justified by Netanyahu referencing his late-addition fourth war aim: to enable the 600,000 Israeli citizens evacuated from the north of Israel to return home.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has made clear that Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah ‘without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut.’ ‘Everywhere’ and ‘without mercy’ are the defining features of Israel’s mode of operation wherever the IDF treads. Killing and maiming civilians is standard practice.

There’s a telling contrast here: Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem has said his group ‘will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centers [sic] and barracks,’ which looks like a commitment to avoid targeting civilians.

More widely, Hezbollah has made clear from the outset of the war one year ago, that it is acting in support of Gaza and that a ceasefire in Gaza will prompt a ceasefire in Lebanon. These outcomes depend on Israel accepting a ceasefire – this it has consistently rejected.

Israel’s reluctance to agree a ceasefire, at least while it thinks it is winning the war, is no doubt tied to Israel’s aim of pursuing its wider ambition: to be the undisputed hegemon in the region. This achieved by being aligned to autocratic, anti-democratic Arab countries, all undergirded by the USA, the UK, and the West generally.

Shoulder-to-shoulder

The USA and UK fund and arm, genocidal Israel. They stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with it, the stench of hypocrisy permeating their every action and word.  It is barbarity-by-proxy, the USA, UK and the West more widely, trampling over the ethical imperatives they lay claim to. 

Israel has exceeded even its own cruel self, able and willing to impose an intensity of death and suffering on Palestinians and Arabs beyond even our wildest imaginings.  And why not? Permission has been granted, and the means provided, by the USA, the UK and the West.

Israel, a society generally divided against itself, nonetheless has found some sort of cohesion in the public’s general support for the slaughter and wanton cruelty being perpetrated in the Occupied Territories and now also in Lebanon.  

Meanwhile, not one of Israel’s war aims have been achieved. They were:

1. The elimination of Hamas and its military capabilities
2. The return of all the hostages taken during the 7 October attack
3. Ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer poses a threat to Israel
4. Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes.

 At the top of this article, I suggested that hubris attends Israel’s two-pronged project to secure regional hegemony coupled to the elimination of any sort of significant Palestinian presence in what is now Occupied Territory. Has Israel over-reached itself? The yet to be answered question.