on August 23, 2024, 2:32 pm
Alastair Crooke is a former MI6 agent and negotiator of hostage releases in the Middle East. He has an intimate knowledge of Israel.
Recently Crooke has written a lot about the internal changes in Israel. The supremacist settlers have taken over the rein:
An eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in cabinet – and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. No one was arrested for the attack and take-over of the two bases. They do not dare.
Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, who also served as Israel’s Defence Minister, had this to say in a video interview on the forces taking over in Israel:
“When you talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir: They have a Rabbi. His name is Dov Lior. He is the Rabbi of the Jewish Underground, who intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock – and before that the buses in Jerusalem. Why? In order to hurry up the ‘Last War’. Do you [not] hear them talking in terms of the Last War; or of Smotrich’s concept of ‘subjugation’? Read the article he published in Shiloh in 2017. First of all, this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.
“My hair stands on end when I say that – as he said it. I learned and grew up in the house of Holocaust survivors and ‘never again’. It is Mein Kampf in reverse: Jewish supremacy: and therefore [Smotrich] says: “My wife won’t go into a room with an Arab”. It is anchored in ideology. And then actually what he aspires to – as soon as possible – is to go to a big war. A war of Gog and Magog. How do you start the flames? A massacre like the [1994] Cave of the Patriarchs? Baruch Goldstein is a student of this Rabbi. Ben Gvir has hung up Goldstein’s picture [in his house]”.
"This is what goes into the decision-making process in the Israeli government”.
Rabbi Dov Lior has been described by Netanyahu as the “élite unit that leads Israel”, because of his influence and control over the settler forces. The 1948 Irgun, drawing heavily on the Mizrahim, is being reborn?
Isn’t it time that the western ruling structures raised their eyes from their reverie, and read the runes that manifest all around them? Some serious players don’t think as you westerners do; they seek Gog and Magog (the prophecy that “the children of Israel” will be victorious in the battle of Armageddon). That is what you risk.
Here is another warning.
The Shin Bet is the internal security service of Israel. It reports directly to the prime minister.
When the head of the Shin Bet goes public with a warning as copied below the situation is more than serious.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la - 18:30 UTC · Aug 22, 2024
Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet sent the most dire letter I have seen, warning against the emerging threat of settler terrorism. He believes it is supported by many in the system and is going to grow into a movement that will threaten the well-being of Israel. Here are the most important portions of the letter, as reported by Guy Peleg of Channel 12:
"I am writing you this letter in pain. In deep fear. As a Jew, as an Israeli, and as a security official, I learned about the increasing phenomenon of Jewish terrorism by the hilltop youth. The hilltop youth phenomenon has long created a significant amount of terrorism towards Palestinians.
With the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the police to enforce the law, and perhaps hidden encouragement from them, the phenomenon is changing and becoming more significant. From the work of individuals, it is now taken up by hundreds. There is no longer a fear of executive detention due to the good conditions they receive there.
Along with the money they receive when freed and the praise they receive from members of Knesset, alongside the delegitimization of security services. It has moved from secretive and narrow activity to open and large-scale organization. Sometimes, it is due to the use of weapons provided by the state. From avoiding the security forces to attacking them. From disconnecting from the establishment to receiving support from parts of the establishment.
The answer is not the Shin Bet. The Shin Bet is a band-aid designed to deal with a small group of extremists. It cannot deal with the root of the problem. What is needed is a coalition of navigators, including ministers, government departments, rabbis, and regional leaders. Without that, it might makes right.
The leaders of this movement attempted to bring the system to a total loss of control. We are on the verge of a process that will change our reality. The damage to Israel and to most of the settlers is beyond description:
1. Global delegitimization even among our closest friends.
2. Significant IDF forces are needed, and they are already struggling to meet operational needs.
3. Revenge attacks that will launch another front in the already existing multi-front war.
4. The entry of new elements in the terror cycle that were out of it.
5. A slippery slope towards lawlessness.
6. Difficulty in creating regional alliances against the Shi'ite axis.
7. Above all, it is a stain on Judaism and all of us.
Continuing in this direction will lead to a great amount of bloodshed and change the face of Israel into something unrecognizable."
The bottom line is that too many elements in Israeli society support Jewish terrorism. Meanwhile, the outcomes it leads to could undermine the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This is a crisis that must be addressed.
Original report:
Shin Bet chief criticized Ben Gvir's conduct in letter to Netanyahu and Galant, Minister demanded he be fired (in Hebrew)
After October 7 Ben Gvir, the Minister of National Security, bought 10,000 assault rifles for 'civilian security teams' in the West Bank. Those armed settlers are his private army. Ben Gvir is also in control of the police.
He orders the the police to hold back while his settler army commits pogroms against Palestinians. This while the Israeli army is busy fighting -and losing- on multiple fronts is a situation that is destined to become catastrophic for Israel.
It is what the ideologues want and what Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon and Ronen Bar fear.
Posted by b on August 23, 2024 at 8:45 UTC
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