April 6, 2025
By Dionysios G. Drosos (*)
Everything that has happened since October 7 and beyond appears to have been carefully cultivated within Israeli society.
Featured Image: Sketch by Palestinian artist Mohammad Sabaaneh
When asked by a journalist, “What will happen if the Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza?” an elderly woman replied, “No, no! They want to leave. Normal people don’t want to live in hell!”
Question: “What you’re describing sounds like a plan for ethnic cleansing.”
Answer: “You can call it ethnic cleansing, apartheid, whatever you like. Choose the term yourself.”
The woman being interviewed is Daniella Weiss. She is a member of the Orthodox Zionist and ultranationalist settler party Gush Emunim (“Bloc of Faithful”) in the West Bank. She founded the settler movement Nahala, which helps young settlers (officially referred to as “illegal settlers”) establish homes. During the genocide that followed October 7, she organized “night cruises” off the coast of Gaza so settler children could admire the spectacle of Gaza in flames. She is also at the forefront of colonization initiatives. She has been repeatedly convicted by Israeli courts for violence. In July 2024, she was condemned by Canada (a staunchly pro-Israel country) for inciting and committing acts of violence against Arab residents of the West Bank (which, let us recall, is considered illegally occupied territory, as it violates the boundaries of the Green Line established after the 1967 war).
Many thought it was a joke by an anti-Zionist troll when they learned this woman had been nominated by Israel for the Nobel Prize. But no. She is indeed a candidate, with the argument that “her actions in the West Bank have protected the region from greater violence.”
A few days ago, Weiss’s uncontrollable militias detained and abused one of the directors of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, Palestinian filmmaker Habdan Balal (the other two directors being Palestinian Basel Andra and Israeli Yuval Abraham). Balal was abducted, and his fate remains unknown (as of this writing). The film is a straightforward documentary showing how the Israeli army invaded a West Bank village, expelled its inhabitants, and destroyed a school, a mosque, homes—everything—to make way for Jewish settlers. The film documents events that occurred before October 7, daily realities of 75 years of Israeli occupation.
A few days ago, Israel violated the ceasefire and, in a single night, killed 400 people, including 180 children, who “threatened” Israel’s security. They destroyed Gaza’s last remaining hospital and posted videos of soldiers mocking and laughing uproariously. They blocked humanitarian aid, cut off electricity and water. Trump, with his half-truths and commitments to his Jewish-American donors—notably billionaire Miriam Edelman—gave the green light to this murderous operation. Europe, responsible for centuries of Jewish persecution and the Holocaust, now relentlessly brands any criticism of the crimes unfolding before its eyes as “antisemitism.” The Europe of the Enlightenment and liberalism is too busy (once again) rearming itself against Russia.
Amid these clouds of war, Gaza and the West Bank are disappearing. Among the bellicose cries of warmongering Europe, the weeping and screams of this century’s great crime are scarcely heard. Shame may come later, and always for the wrong reasons.
The Zionists have long since secured their grand dual strategic investment. Primarily through the Jewish lobby in the U.S., but also in the U.K. and other European powers. The strength of this lobby and its scandalously unconstitutional interference in U.S. domestic affairs has taken the American political elite hostage. John J. Mearsheimer analyzes this in his book. Anyone who pointed out the obvious—that this was an agency of a foreign power—was silenced. One such person was John F. Kennedy. Now that the sealed archives of his assassination are open, we will see how far American society can go in this investigation. For the investment we speak of is twofold.
A major ally of the Jewish lobby are Christian Zionists, evangelicals who believe Israel’s dominance is a necessary step toward building the Third Temple and the coming of the Messiah (!), and who demand unconditional U.S. government support for Israel. For those who wave the false flag of “antisemitism” to discredit anti-Zionism, let us recall that at least 90% of Zionists worldwide are not Jewish. A new and hopeful development is the awakening of young American Jews who refuse to let this genocide be carried out in their name. Among them are many Holocaust survivors or their direct descendants.
Increasing voices in America, including Republicans and Trump supporters, openly denounce the fact that the famed America First is, in reality, Israel First. For support of the Zionist entity often surpasses American interests themselves, one of whose strongholds is the state of Israel. For Israel’s sake, three countries in the region (Lebanon, Iraq, Syria) have been destroyed with U.S. involvement. Who has forgotten Netanyahu’s statements before the Iraq war? The Prime Minister of the “sole democracy” in the Middle East claimed he “guaranteed terrorism would end if Iraq were struck and its leadership toppled.” The result is known. Today, he says the same about Iran. If the U.S. engages in war with Iran this time, we could face a global conflagration—not where Europe “expects” (or rather “provokes”) it, this “alliance of the willing,” as they call this new Brancaleone crusade.
The number one danger to world peace is Israel. Not Netanyahu. Israel. Israel’s strategy is to weaken all neighboring countries. This is necessary to achieve the minimum and maximum of its objectives. The minimum is the security of a settler colony on foreign land, which they invaded and maintain by force—a security that demands the systematic ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, who make up half the inhabitants and reproduce faster than the settlers. The maximum is the Greater Israel project. The expansion of borders. Israel’s borders are always provisional; they are not defined by a constitution because there is no constitution. Israel’s borders are wherever its army can enforce control by force, beyond truces, agreements, and conventions, beyond international law.
In Syria, the West rushed to celebrate the collapse of the pro-Russian Assad regime and officially recognized as the new legitimate authority a vulgar Islamist terrorist under an arrest warrant. Yes, the same Islamists the West “hates” and rightly considers enemies of civilization. Of course, the new regime began massacring dissidents, doing what it does best. Meanwhile, Israel, which itself invaded and bombed Syria, tears its clothes and accuses Syria of genocide! The accusation is, of course, correct. Just as Turkey’s accusation of genocide against Israel is correct! All revisionist forces gleefully point fingers at crimes they themselves commit.
And our civilized West? Regarding the terrorist Jolani, it speaks of eliminating the “remnants” of the old regime. For Israel, it’s the right to “self-defense” against infants who, once grown, will become terrorists. For the West, terrorists are neither the suited Islamist nor the kippah-wearing fanatics who glory in the terror they inspire. The “terrorist” is Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, arrested, detained in an unknown location, and threatened with deportation despite his green card. Trump even mocked him on social media: “Hi Mahmoud. This is just the beginning. More will follow.”
In Europe, too, repression, silencing, and firings rage against anyone who dares to say what everyone sees and tacitly approves through their silence. Israel is thus not only the greatest threat to world peace but also to freedom of opinion, expression, and speech in the “democratic” West—at least what remains of it. The only silver lining in this miserable and shameful affair is the degeneration and self-destruction of the notion of “antisemitism.” Who still fears being labeled an “antisemite” by the Mossad’s definition and its Western accomplices?
Why do we say the problem is Israel and not just its criminal Prime Minister? Aren’t there protests against him across the country? Aren’t Israelis divided into two camps—for and against? There is a bitter truth we refused to see in our illusions and optimism when we looked hopefully at the massive anti-Netanyahu mobilizations before October 7. All this agitation is an internal division among Zionist settlers, and in no way—with rare exceptions—does it challenge the core issue of this so-called democratic country: half the population living on its territory lacks full civil rights.
Less than a third of Palestinians are Israeli citizens with limited rights. More than two-thirds are citizens of no country. They do not exist legally. They are not second-class citizens like the former, but what Jews were under Hitler: Untermenschen (subhumans). No empathy can function toward what is entirely alien. They can be arrested without charge, imprisoned, tortured, killed—without explanation or accountability. This is Israel’s right to “self-defense.” The entire Jewish population consents to this. Those who believed the liberal rhetoric of “left-wing” Zionists had any meaning were brought back to reality after October 7.
Two months ago, a regular columnist for Haaretz wrote that Israel today resembles a Tarantino film. Dostoevsky taught us that beauty will save the world. Tarantino taught us that revenge crime is beautiful! Israelis have thus become—writes Carolina Landsmann—a nation of Inglourious Basterds, drunk on the pleasure of killing and celebrating their crimes. And they believe this “beauty” will “save” them. As she writes: blood, sex, and harbu-darbu (a wretched trap song topping Israeli charts, inciting soldiers to mercilessly slaughter all Palestinians). In the same spirit write Hanin Majadli, Falah Saab, and Gideon Levy.
All of Israel, not just Netanyahu, for only 1.8% of respondents said the bombings in Gaza were somewhat excessive. The rest supported them as just or even too limited! A society where over 60% believe prisoners should be raped in jail, and the rest simply favor “classic” torture. Such a society is simply sick in a repulsive way. Comparisons to Hitler’s Germany are unfair to the latter. The Nazis carefully hid their horrors. Israelis flaunt them, boast of them, demand rewards—which they obviously receive from their friends and their exclusive God. And now, they march toward another Nobel Peace Prize!
Everything that has happened since October 7 seems to have been carefully cultivated within Israeli society. All appear to have long been ready to unleash, unfettered, what they have always felt deep down: the natives are inferior beings and must all die. This is not the first time this has happened. But it is the first time we witness it live, applaud it, reward it, and condemn anyone who murmurs half a criticism. How to understand the “irrefutable” argument put forth here by an Israeli community member: Imagine if fanatical Islamists had nuclear weapons! For the fanatical child-killers in Israel, no imagination is needed. They already possess 200 to 400 nuclear warheads.
Translated from Greek by Christian Haccuria
(*) Dionysios G. Drosos is Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
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