Israeli Infighting about which Brand of Apartheid they Prefer Can be a Good Thing

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Each Saturday the number of Israelis that come out in protest of the new regime, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, increases, which has caused some confusion internationally as to what this means and how this will affect the Palestinian people. The answer to this has a number of layers, but one thing is for certain, the protests aren’t about Palestinians at all.

Last Saturday, Zionist media recorded that around 110,000 Israeli protesters demonstrated against the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The presence of a few Palestinian flags, amongst a sea of Israeli ones, at the "Tel Aviv" demonstration has caused confusion as to what the protests mean and whether we are seeing a pro-Palestinian current rising throughout the Zionist population. 

The first element that has to be addressed here, is the claims that there is somehow a pro-Palestinian element to the demonstrations that are ongoing against Netanyahu. Although there are a small number of Israeli Leftists who will carry the Palestinian flag, there is no indication that any large number of demonstrators had any sympathies with the plight of the Palestinian people. Even if it were the case that thousands carried the Palestinian flag, or harbored sympathies, which did not occur, the protests are in opposition to policies that Israelis feel endanger their brand of Zionist rule. 

Despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime being the most hardline right-wing Zionist administration in history, his removal from power would not benefit the Palestinian people in any substantive way. The Israeli opposition is headed by Yair Lapid, who was interim Prime Minister until December of last year, the second biggest opposition politician is Benny Gantz, who was the former minister of war and led the Israeli military in various massacre operations against the Gaza Strip, the worst being in 2014.

The Zionist population, living on ethnically-cleansed Palestinian land, are primarily upset with two things; Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his coalition partners, in addition to policies concerning plans to overhaul the Israeli judiciary. The Zionist entity does not have a constitution and is open to countless reforms to its legal system, something that Israeli PM Netanyahu seeks to capitalize on for individual gain and forwarding the agenda of the far-right Zionist camp. On the other hand, the Israeli opposition - in other words, the moderate right-wing camp - believe that the legal reform endeavors of the Netanyahu regime endanger the nature of their alleged “Democracy”, whereas the far-right camp argue that “democracy has spoken” through their decision to elect Netanyahu and the far-right in the November elections last year.  All of this is to say, the demonstrations are regarding a set of internal disagreements within the Zionist movement, none of which are advocating for Palestinian human rights.

In fact, part of the concern that has been voiced by the Israeli opposition, has been that the extreme nature of the policies against Palestinians and the undermining of the Palestinian Authority, could endanger Israeli security and cause a Third Intifada, which they sorely do not seek. Instead, the opposition camp intends to maintain the status quo, keeping Palestinians under occupation, maintaining apartheid and slowly working on their ethnic cleansing program. These liberal Zionists seek to have the Palestinian question slowly fade into the background as they carry on with other issues and aren’t wanting to deal with the issue head on, they would rather maintain the status quo and occasionally run military operations as happened for the past 18 years.

Where the demonstrations and anti-Netanyahu action in general could make a difference for the Palestinians, is in the weakness, and this brings to the way the regime operates. The battles between the Israeli opposition and the ruling coalition could result in violence in the streets, strike action and turn Zionists against each other. Even in Netanyahu’s coalition, the more strategic minds belonging to the ruling Likud party are already finding it difficult to deal with the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism alliance, who take irrational steps that provoke tensions. Last week for instance, Israeli occupation police forces evacuated an illegal settler outpost that was built on Palestinian lands near Nablus, a step which was taken by the Israeli minister of war, Yoav Galant, who chose to ignore the calls from Bezalel Smotrich to delay the evacuation. This incident became a point of tension between the Religious Zionism alliance and the rest of the Netanyahu coalition.

The way this disunity amongst the Zionist public and political elites will affect the Palestinians is in its destabilizing effect and in making the regime predictable, hence easier to out-strategize. The Palestinian resistance forces now have an enemy which is far more emotional and more predictable, the provocations of the extremists in Netanyahu’s administration will also inevitably bring more of the Palestinian public out in opposition to their policies. If the Israelis are fighting each other, half of the Zionist public has no faith in their rulers, and the whole regime's structure is based on predictable emotion, if a revolt comes from the Palestinian people it may have a much greater effect overall. If another situation, such as the one that took place in May of 2021; where the Palestinian people inside the 1948 occupied territories and occupied al-Quds come to the streets, organizing strike activity, in addition to strategic armed confrontation taking place, "Tel Aviv" will be in a weak and vulnerable position.

In addition to this, the provocations of this new administration over al-Aqsa may end up drawing in outside forces to participate in a battle against the Israeli military, which would have devastating consequences for the Zionist entity. Although these internal debates don’t do anything immediately for Palestinians, the mass demonstrations and disunity, from the Zionists, can be taken advantage of and makes for an easier opponent. It is well known that the Palestinians do not possess the weapons capabilities of their occupier, but with the capabilities, they do have they are still able to inflict strategic defeats, as we saw during the battle of Saif al-Quds in May 2021.