To Julio García Jarpa,
colleague and dear friend
who left us before our time
A noble and good man, loyal like few others.
Just a few days ago, after reading my previous article,
with his traditional humor he wrote to tell me
“Write poet, you have a future”
That’s how it will be dear brother, I promise I’ll keep doing it
Until the victory. Always!
Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to postpone his judicial reform proposal seems to close a period of great convulsions in the Zionist State. However, the events that have occurred in recent weeks seem to suggest otherwise.
It is worth clarifying, however, that it is not about “letting the candles fly” for the end of Zionism in the short term, but rather showing all the political, moral and ethical rottenness of the regime and the end of the myth of homogeneity and solidity of the Zionist system of domination.
On this occasion, we will not make judgments, we will only stick to pointing out the events that have occurred in the last six months. Let them be the ones who speak for themselves, so that everyone draws their own conclusions. We will begin in September of last year, when, from my point of view, the escalation of internal conflicts began that – for now – culminated in a situation that clearly exposes the fragility of the Zionist State:
September 9. Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin, the new commander of the Israeli army’s northern command, warned that Hezbollah would fire some 4,000 missiles into the occupied territories in the first days of a possible upcoming war and that Israeli leaders would be the first to be attacked.
October 4. In an interview with the media, the former head of the Military Intelligence Division of the Israeli army, Amos Yadlin, gave his opinion on the maritime agreement with Lebanon that was being discussed in those days. Yadlin said: “The criteria for the deal have not been published, neither in Israel nor in Lebanon. We have to assume that when finished, the Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah got everything he wanted. For that, he feels satisfied…”
October 4. For its part, the Israeli media said that Hassan Nasrallah had “succeeded in the battle of conscience in the negotiations to demarcate the maritime borders”. They added that Lebanon is united over the maritime deal while “Tel Aviv is divided.”
October 8. The Israeli channel Kan considered that “neither the commander, nor the Israeli or Western intelligence man can see inside Nasrallah’s head and manage to analyze what he plans.”
October 11. Following up on the issue, the Israeli media claims that Tel Aviv has been obsessed with Nasrallah, taking only his threats into consideration. According to them, Nasrallah forced Israel to back down on gas extraction in the Karish field and make major concessions in the maritime conflict with Lebanon, noting that the Zionist army has been put on alert in anticipation of the next speech by the Hezbollah leader, fearing any attack on the Karish gas platform before or during the speech.
October 13. The Palestinian factions pledged today in Algiers with a nine-point declaration to move towards national unity and put an end to the division that has kept the nationalist movement Fatah and the Islamist Hamas at odds for fifteen years.
October 14. Israeli media and circles continued to monitor the repercussions of the maritime border demarcation agreement with Lebanon, focusing on the conflict with Hezbollah. They considered that the Israeli military deterrence is being crushed by Hezbollah and added that Nasrallah’s satisfaction with the deal is a “dangerous indicator” in this regard.
October 18. Israel summons the Australian ambassador, following the anger over Canberra’s decision to revoke recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli regime’s capital.
October 25. Two facts mark successive political defeats of the Zionist regime in the international arena. First, Russia’s loud and clear warning to break all relations with the Israeli government if it was to carry out the sale of arms to Ukraine and secondly, the Australian government’s decision not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist state.
December 14. The Israeli occupation acknowledged Tuesday that it failed to capture two fighters from the “Lions’ Den” resistance group during an assault in Nablus last week.
December 14. Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs, Benny Gantz explicitly acknowledged the growing challenges of the Tel Aviv regime in several areas, including security, just as an Israeli NGO revealed the chaotic economic situation of more than a quarter of the country’s households. For all this, some analysts concluded that Israel is on the brink of explosion.
December 22. The Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post said that a delegation from the Nazi Azov regiment from Ukraine recently visited Israel. Nazis and Zionists reunited, setting up an explosive alliance that shows that the Zionists forgot about the Holocaust.
December 27. Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi urged Netanyahu to “listen to the position of security and army officials before making any decisions regarding the military establishment.” In a rare phone call between them, differences erupted. Kochavi rebuked Netanyahu for transferring powers from the Security Ministry and the military to the extremist religious movement represented by Religious Zionist Party leaders Bezalel Smotrich and Jewish Power Itamar Ben Gvir.
December 29. The Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post considered that “Hezbollah’s military development is a major strategic threat to Israel, as is Iran’s nuclear program.”
January 4, 2023. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) revealed that a large majority of secular Israelis feel their lifestyle is in jeopardy from the new far-right government and also predicted an increase of emigration from the country.
January 9. Israel’s military leadership is concerned about the strength of Lebanon’s Hezbollah at a time when the Israeli army is in a “tragic situation.” An article in the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post noted that most Israeli security officials “emphasize behind closed doors and sometimes publicly” that Hezbollah, with its approximately 150,000 rockets and its elite forces, known as Radwan, are the biggest threat to the Zionist regime.
January 15. Tens of thousands of people protested yesterday in Israel against the attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reform the legal system to weaken the judiciary with measures such as allowing Parliament to annul Supreme Court rulings and control the appointment of judges.
January 18. Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the religious Zionist party, proposed a concerted push to speed up the annexation of the West Bank. Likewise, he raised more immunity for Israeli soldiers who attack or kill Palestinians, as well as denial of medical services to LGBTQ people and a diminished Supreme Court. All this happened as part of the negotiations to support Benjamin Netanyahu, who was sworn in as prime minister on December 29.
January 23. After the resignation of the Israeli ambassador in France, now the ambassador in Canada has resigned in protest against the extremist cabinet chosen by Netanyahu.
January 23. At least 130 Israeli companies have announced in a statement that they will halt their operations “as a warning to the Israeli cabinet,” in particular, in rejection of the plan to overhaul the judicial system.
February 21. Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s general internal security and intelligence service, warned that the tension in the territories occupied by Israel could compromise the stability of the Zionist entity. Bar warned about the increase in internal division, the rejection of government policy and the growing protests.
March 1st. Hundreds of reserve officers from the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence Unit 8200 have warned that they would stop volunteering if Netanyahu’s proposed judicial amendment plan is approved. In a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Harzi Halevy, and the head of Military Intelligence (Aman), Aron Halifa, the officials said they observed “a disturbing accumulation of signs of real fears about Israel’s security.”
March 3. The circle of protests has widened in Israel. Currently, it is going beyond its political framework to affect the army considered the bedrock of Israeli society as well as the intelligence services. The crisis also seems to deepen the division between Ashkenazis and Sephardim.
March 5. The reservists of the 69th squadron of the Israeli army air force have announced that they will not appear at some exercises scheduled for the week in protest of the judicial reform that they consider a “coup”. Of the 40 reserve pilots of this squadron, known as the Hammers, 37 have signed a letter addressed to the head of the air force, Tomer Bar, in which they announce that they will join the boycott against Netanyahu and will not attend his training.
March 8. At the request of the Israeli government, Pentagon chief General Lloyd Austin’s meetings with Israeli leaders were changed, and his arrival in Tel Aviv was delayed by protests.
March 11. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets across the country over the weekend in what has been called the largest protests in Israel’s history.
March 12. Experts say the Saudi-Iran deal has worried Israel, as the pact “threw cold water” on Netanyahu’s ambitions, while leaving Israel alone in the region and derailing the attempt to Tel Aviv to isolate Iran.
March 13. The former head of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad), Tamir Pardo, warned that “Israel has reached a very dangerous” and “unprecedented” situation. He said that: “I am 70 years old and I never imagined that we would get to this point. Here we are before the greatest existential danger since 1948”.
March 16. The president of the Zionist entity, Israel Herzog affirmed that: “Anyone who thinks that a civil war is something we won’t get to, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Now that we are approaching the 75th anniversary of Israel, the country is on the brink of the abyss. A civil war is a red line and I will not allow that to happen.”
March 15. The Spanish journalist and writer Eugenio García Garzón stated in an article published on the Globalter portal: ”The results of the elections held on November 1 [placed] Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of the […] government with a program that [ promised] radical changes in the judicial system and in other areas. His main allies are extremely nationalist and religionist, [sic] even more so than Likud, so the policies Netanyahu will pursue will be more polarizing. In reality, the polarization has been growing in the last decades, which have mainly had Netanyahu as prime minister. The opposition fears that the legislature that is about to start will bring a further erosion of democracy, more even than what has been seen in the last decade, and they have good reason to fear it.
March 16. Israel is alarmed by an “unusual incident” in which an explosive charge was detonated next to the Megiddo crossing, on a road near the West Bank separation line, near Jenin. Journalist Amos Harel reported that: “The Shin Bet and the military have been concerned for several months about increasing attempts by ‘terrorists’ in the West Bank to prepare explosive devices.”
March 18. The army is in eye of the internal storm Officers in full service intend to terminate their contracts with the army if the parliament passes the judicial amendment laws. The Israel Hayom daily reported that some 450 reservists from the special operations apparatus and 200 from the offensive cyber service, located in sensitive posts at AMAN, the Shin Bet and Mossad, said they did not [want] to have contracts “with a dictator”. Channel 12, for its part, affirmed: “… the outlook looks bleak and there are fewer and fewer signs of a negotiated solution.”
March 19. Yair Netanyahu, son of the prime minister compared the anti-judicial reform protesters to Nazi “brownshirts,” adding that what was happening in Israel was “Just like what happened in Germany in the 1930s.”
March 19. Israel Beitenu party leader Avigdor Lieberman called the prime minister the biggest threat to the country, more so than Iran and Hezbollah. In turn, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said that Netanyahu was responsible for the most serious “national” crisis that the country has gone through because “little by little he is dismantling the economy and security.”
March 19. Former Israeli military affairs minister and current parliamentarian Benny Gantz said the civil war in Israel appears to be a real thing because of reports of violent clashes between Netanyahu’s supporters and opponents. The 11th consecutive weekend of anti-Netanyahu protests saw a notable escalation in violence and verbal abuse against protesters by cabinet supporters, who beat, cursed, harassed and assaulted critics of the judicial reform plan. Gantz warned that violence against protesters “begins to break out and a fratricidal war is on the horizon.”
March 22. The Jordanian Parliament voted in favor of a request to expel the Israeli ambassador, Eitan Surkis, after the “racist” statements by a minister of that regime against Palestine and Jordan.
March 22. The Palestinian resistance group “Lions Den” has vowed to expand its operations against the Israeli regime in support of the prisoners, warning that Israel will not enjoy security. In a statement, they stated that: “The hour of confrontation has drawn near and the drums of war have begun to beat in every inch of our blessed land. We are fully prepared to engage in larger battles with this brutal enemy.”
March 23. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted an illegal psychological campaign against Israeli citizens during a military operation in the Gaza Strip in May 2021, the Haaretz daily reported.
March 26. Prime Minister Netanyahu removes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from office over his objection to judicial amendments and his call to suspend them.
March 26. Thousands of protesters have gathered outside Netanyahu’s home following the ouster of the defense minister and are calling for him to leave the government, an unprecedented move during the protests. At the same time, the army raised the state of alert due to the loss of control due to the internal division within its forces.
March 26. Israel’s Consul General in New York, Asaf Zamir, announced his resignation on Sunday, shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
March 27. Israeli embassies joined the general strike, so that the mass protests have become “globalized” against the measures of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
March 27. Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday called on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately halt proceedings related to the judicial amendments. According to Herzog, the scenes on Sunday night reflected people’s painful feelings and concern. He pointed out that the economy, society and security in Israel are threatened.
March 27. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett informed the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper of an agreement between Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, and Palestinian factions to carry out a simultaneous attack on Israel.
March 27th. Amid relentless protests across Israel and continued calls from the opposition, the government has decided to postpone approval of the reform of the judicial system until the end of July. However, the political party Otzma Yehudit published a statement, according to which its leader and Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, agreed with the Prime Minister to postpone the approval of the reform until the next summer session of parliament. Ben Gvir reported that he had agreed to lift the veto for the postponement of the approval of the law in exchange for the commitment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the legislation be brought to the Knesset (parliament) for approval in the next session, in case of that during the recess the respective agreements are not reached”.
Draw your own conclusions. For me, it is the beginning of the end.