Netanyahu’s Savagery Now Threatens to Destroy Israel
July 30—Sources both in the United States and Israel now say emphatically that if the government of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Natanyahu remains in office much longer it will destroy the State of Israel, creating, as he has, what amounts to a civil war between, on the one side, fascist gangs of settlers and religious zealots that support his savage “final solution” to the Palestinian “problem,” whose methods and policy is clearly revealed by his murderous destruction of Gaza and the possibility of extension to the West Bank, and on the other, all those ordinary Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, who oppose him.
The change, they say, must come from the people of Israel who must throw Bibi and his gangsters and murderers out of office, and frog-march them to jail for the crimes they have committed in the name of the Jewish state, that have also been committed against conscience of humanity. Unfortunately, they cannot count on support from the United States, with the weak lame-duck President “Sleepy Joe” Biden and his anointed replacement, the “angry bitch who speaks with forked tongue,” Kamala Harris; nor at this point, from GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump, whom Bibi has blinded with a combination of charm, threat, and support from the prodigious wallets of the pro-Bibi Zionist lobby in the United States.
The latest evidence of savagery that has now spilled back into Israel from Bibi’s campaign in Gaza occurred two days ago as mobs of settlers and religious crazies, inspired and led by several far-right members of the Knesset, and with the apparent support of Bibi’s cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security) and Bezalel Smotrich (Finance), stormed two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bases after Israeli Military Police officers raided the Sde Teiman detention facility and detained nine soldiers on suspicion of sexually abusing a male Palestinian detainee. According to a security source, the detainee was taken to a hospital with severe injuries to an intimate body part—injuries that left him unable to walk.
A security source added that a confrontation developed between military police personnel and some of the soldiers, who refused to evacuate and barricaded themselves in the facility. Some soldiers reportedly pepper-sprayed the military police officers who had arrived to detain the nine suspects. Later the rioters were seemingly allowed to enter the base, who then fought with military police and other soldiers who defended them, resulting in several being injured.
After reports of the soldiers’ arrest, far-right Knesset members, IDF reservists and civilians, including members of the armed settlers’ movement that the zealots have organized and supported, arrived at the Sde Teiman facility to protest. Far-right lawmaker Tzvi Succot, a member of Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party, was videoed leading a group of protesters to the gate of the base, confronting soldiers guarding the gate, and forcing his way through. A stream of protesters then rushed through the gate, chanting slogans against the detention of the soldiers.
Rioters also attacked the Seit Lid base, where the detained soldiers could be tried. Since the attack, security forces have erected a fence at the entrance to the military court, where rioters breached the site the night before. Dozens of Border Police officers and soldiers have been deployed within the base area to bolster security.
“These riots, openly and clearly organized by Bibi’s people and allies,” said a source, “ reveal the deep divide that threatens the existence of Israel. This is an attack on the integrity of the IDF. It shows that some of its personnel are not under the discipline and command of its leaders, something that has been widely suspected for some time, which explains the brutalist and Nazi-SS character of some of what has gone on in Gaza.
“This insanity and religious zealotry has been deployed as a weapon to build Netanyahu’s support. And now it is being unleashed in Israel against the Israeli people. We have seen some of this already in the brutality by police deployed against those who have protested Netanyahu’s government. Under the control of Ben-Gvir, those police have beaten elderly women and hostage family members.
“But it starts with Bibi and how he has ordered the blows to flow in Gaza, even when the IDF leadership opposes it. Israelis have for the most part chosen to not believe what is happening. Bibi tells them to fear terrorists and external enemies from whom he says he protects. But who will protect ordinary Israelis from a civil war, the violence of which is now out of its cage? It is there, and Ben-Gvir’s police are managing it. This reminds me of the German police who turned away, as Nazi brownshirts beat up people who opposed them, and then went after the Jews. And yet, Bibi is still the ruler over all of this.”
Today, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for “an immediate, in-depth, sensitive and responsible investigation into the allegations” of abuse of the Palestinian detainee.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has urged Netanyahu to examine whether National Security Minister Ben-Gvir was involved in delaying the police response to the July 29 far-right riots at IDF bases; Gallant has further called on the prime minister to “take a firm stand against the coalition members who participated in the riots.”
Senior police officers have criticized the police conduct during the riots. “It is sad to say, but the mood in the police is clear, Ben-Gvir didn’t have to say a word,” a senior police officer told Haaretz. Officers also leveled criticism at acting Police Commissioner Avshalom Peled, who sources said did not act as necessary to control the incident. A police source admitted that some rioters at Sde Teiman were identified in real time and known to the police from previous far-right rallies. Apparently, the police have no plans to arrest the rioters at this time.
Israel’s Movement for Moral Integrity has called on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to investigate the civilians involved in the breach of the two IDF bases, which it characterized as “a dangerous escalation of militia takeovers.”
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel led a crossparty statement condemning the “danger of internal disintegration by extremist elements,” adding they “will not stand by in silence, especially in the face of calls from irresponsible leaders who are pushing us to the brink.” The statement was signed by Knesset Members Chili Tropper (National Unity), Eli Dallal (Likud), Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism), Meirav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid), Efrat Rayten (Labor), and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu).
The detained IDF reservists accused of the abuse deny the allegations against them, and are cooperating with the investigation, their attorney said, adding that an urgent request was submitted to prohibit the publication of their names and details for reasons of personal security. One of those accused claimed that the detainee was wounded in a different facility, and therefore the detained soldiers have no connection to the alleged acts.
A doctor at Sde Teiman, after seeing the Gazan detainee who allegedly suffered severe sexual abuse at the hands of reservists, said he “couldn’t believe an Israeli jailer could do such a thing,” adding that the hospital staff at the facility is working hard even as it is being “attacked from all sides. But my duty is to the patients.”
At a July 30 cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that “IDF bases are not to be breached, but selective enforcement allowing Kaplan to be blocked, is also unacceptable,” referring to frequent blocking of traffic on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street by protesters demanding an end to his rule.
“Israel is still strong, powerful and vibrant. It cannot be defeated externally, only by internal and internecine forces,” wrote commentator Alon Pinkas in Haaretz. “It is held hostage by an untethered, narcissistic prime minister and an End-of-Days coalition of zealots determined to march into follies. It tragically seems to exemplify the old line: ‘We are on the verge of the abyss but are determined to take a step forward.’”
Writing in Haaretz after the riots, Tal Steiner declared, “Israel is at a crossroads. It must decide whether it’s a country where the rule of law remains, or a country controlled by armed gangs of right-wing settlers who come to the defense of soldiers even when they’re suspected of shocking crimes with no justification for the country’s security. If we make the wrong decision, we will send a clear message to the whole world: Israel doesn’t want to, and cannot, investigate itself.”