Since Israel carried out a blunt attack in Beirut to assassinate senior Hizbullah military commander, Fouad Shukr, on 30 July, assassinating the top Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran the next day, the region has been living on edge, awaiting revenge from both Hizbullah and Iran.
Early on Saturday, Hizbullah carried out a measured attack on Israeli military targets, demonstrating that all Israeli cities could be hit by its short- and medium-range missiles, and that the old rules of deterrence no longer existed. Israel was forced to shut down its key airport while residents, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet members, rushed into fortified shelters.
Israel’s retaliation was equally contained, confirming that despite all war drums coming out from Tel Aviv by extremist ministers backing Netanyahu, the Israeli government and security establishment is fully aware that after 11 months of intensive fighting in Gaza, Israel is in no position to launch an expanded war against Lebanon. Yet, it is unlikely ever to stop pressing the United States to fight on its behalf, against Iran and all its allies in the region.
Hardly a day later, however, Israel’s infamous National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – dubbed a member of a terrorist group by Washington – threatened to set the entire region ablaze by declaring he would establish a synagogue on top of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, and that he would continue to violate the sanctity of one of Islam’s holiest sites by leading group prayers there by his extremist supporters.
The minister who – together with fellow cabinet member Finance Minister Bezlael Smotrich – has openly called for starving Palestinians in Gaza and deporting them from their land, told an Israeli radio station on Monday that Israeli law does not discriminate between the religious rights of Jews and Muslims at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The claim is blatantly false, considering that according to the agreements between Israel, as an occupation force following the 1967 War, and Jordan, as custodian of the holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem, only Muslims may be allowed to pray at the holy site. Non-Muslims, including Jews, are allowed to visit only during limited time slots, and are not supposed to pray there.
“It’s not like I do everything I want on Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir added. “If I did everything I wanted on Temple Mount, the Israeli flag would have long been flying there.” Asked if he would put a synagogue on the site if he could, he answered, “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Meanwhile, the Heritage Ministry headed by Otzma Yehudit’s Amichai Eliyahu declared it secured $543,338 in funding for Jewish educational tours on the flashpoint Temple Mount. Early after the war started in Gaza, Eliyahu made headlines when he declared he would support using a nuclear bomb to wipe out Palestinians living in the densely populated Strip.
In response to Ben-Gvir’s comments, Netanyahu issued an oft-repeated, meaningless statement that has no connection with the reality on the ground, supporting extremists like his own ministers. The Israeli premier claimed that there was “no change to the official status quo on the Temple Mount,” but avoided mentioning his ultranationalist coalition partner by name.
Ben-Gvir’s reckless statements were not only condemned and criticised by Palestinians, Arab and Muslim countries, but even members of the Likud Party, including Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, who called on Netanyahu to remove the minister from his post overseeing the Israeli police, and warned that the Otzma Yehudit leader’s “lack of thinking could be paid for in blood”. Benny Gantz, head of the opposition National Unity Party, said he expects little from Netanyahu, “who allowed an irresponsible arsonist to bring us down into an abyss in exchange for political quiet.”
Yet, the thirst for blood among Israel’s cabinet members was not limited to threats against the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Since Netanyahu took office, there has been an unprecedented escalation both in settlement activity in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as violent attacks by armed settlers offered protection by the Israeli army against Palestinian villages and towns.
Those attacks redoubled following the war in Gaza, along with nearly daily Israeli army raids on key Palestinian cities in the West Bank, such as Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm. Nearly 650 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank over the last 11 months, and more than 10,000 were arrested by the Israeli army. Those numbers are usually ignored while focusing on the ongoing war in Gaza where the number of Palestinians killed has exceeded 40,300 victims.
Late on Monday, Israel killed five Palestinians in the Nour Shams Refugee Camp near Tulkarm. Meanwhile, one Palestinian was killed and three others injured after Israeli settlers opened fire in the West Bank village of Wadi Rahhal near Bethlehem. Attacks by settlers are becoming a daily event, with hardly any action from the Israeli army or security agencies to prevent them, confirming that the real plan is to annex the West Bank and kill any hope of it becoming part of a future Palestinian state.
The talks hosted in Cairo this week, and attended by Qatar, the United States and Israel, in the hope of bringing an end to Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, were already complicated due to Netanyahu’s intransigence and attempts to sabotage them by making new demands at each round. Israel’s continued brutality in Gaza, the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem is pushing the region into a heightened state of tension once again, making the mission of Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediators nearly impossible.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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