Arnon Grunberg

Axix

Regional

On Chernobyl – Harel in Haaretz:

‘Ranking figures in Israel – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF generals – frequently speak about seven fronts on which the country is fighting and emphasize the recent achievements against the Iranian axis, notably in Syria and Lebanon.

However, those achievements do not solve the fundamental problems that caused the regional war to erupt, namely the Gaza Strip and, more broadly speaking, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overall.’

(…)

‘The poorer the prospects for a hostage deal look, the more calls we are hearing from the political arena to expand the operation to Gaza City, south of Jabalya, in a manner that matches, to an amazing degree, the "Generals' Plan" – the plan the IDF General Staff insistently denies having anything to do with.
Only a few kilometers separate the southern outskirts of Jabalya from the northern neighborhoods of Gaza City. Notwithstanding a previous military operation in November 2023, many buildings in Gaza City are still standing. The number of civilians who remain there is higher than the IDF surmised originally – apparently more than 100,000 people. Thousands of Hamas personnel are active among them, some of them engaged in preserving civilian rule and public order, others in planning the next confrontation with the IDF.’ (…)

‘In backrooms, a harrowing term is being whispered: the "Chernobylization'" of the Gaza Strip. After the leak from the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986, the Soviets quickly dug a tunnel in order to prevent radioactive material from infiltrating the groundwater. The allegory here is what will ostensibly have to be done in the whole area north of the Gaza Stream, namely the Netzarim Corridor: massive obliteration of the infrastructure above and below the ground. Only afterward will it be possible to talk about the return of the inhabitants. When will it happen? No one knows.’

(…)

‘After all, it's not reasonable that the country experienced the greatest disaster in its history while the person bearing the central responsibility for it is to this day not paying any political price. Still, as usual, it's probably too early to eulogize Netanyahu. He will cling to the helm, making use of all the means available to him, both kosher and not.’

Read the article here.

The Chernobylization is not even a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing.

They (Netanyahu and his men) believe that Trump doesn’t mind ethnic cleansing. Not that Biden did mind much, but at least his administration paid lip service to the idea that ethnic cleansing is not a great idea.

The future will tell us what price Israeli society will pay for the war crimes committed next door and within its own borders.

Sometimes countries (France-Algeria) and empires (US) don’t pay a huge price for their atrocities.
Maybe the branch of the empire (Israel) will get away with the atrocities. But empires can be capricious. And Israel is a special case.
I wrote already about the zero-state-solution. No Jewish state at all.

What about the three-state-solution?

The theocracy called Israel, Palestine, whatever that may be, and a truly liberal Jewish state somewhere in let’s say Wyoming?

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