Israeli far right’s ‘miracle’ is a disaster for everyone else

It would take extreme (and probably unfounded) optimism, or more probably sheer insanity, to find any positives in what is currently taking place between Israel and the Palestinians. To portray it as a “miracle” brings insane ideological extremism to new heights altogether.

You are probably more familiar with Israeli ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the more recognizable faces of the religious messianic ultranationalist elements of the Israeli political scene, than Orit Strook. We will come back to the first two destructive characters later but, as for Strook, whenever she speaks in public — and I dare not imagine what she says in private — she makes them look almost reasonable.

She was recently recorded as saying, during a visit to one of the settlements in the Occupied Territories, that how we live now is “like a period of miracles. I feel like someone standing at a traffic light ... and then there is a green light,” referring to the increase in settlement building in the West Bank. “We want to do as much as possible,” Strook added.

Strook would not have attracted so much attention were she not an elected member of the Knesset and minister of settlements and national missions in the current unhinged Israeli government. She is a resident of Avraham Avinu in the city of Hebron, one of the most fanatical and provocative settlements in the West Bank. But the question is: How could anyone in their right mind think that living with a war that started with 1,189 of their own people murdered, women raped and houses burned to the ground, especially as the government she serves in colossally failed in its duty to protect those people, could be considered as living in a time of miracles?

How could a person who claims to be religious believe that, when more than 39,000 Palestinians, who are also children of God and so many of them literally being children, are killed and many others are maimed, starved and exposed to the elements with no shelter, think that this horror show was designed by divine intervention?

Strook’s reasoning for her distorted views is that, thanks to these acts, new conditions have been created that are conducive to the expansion of settlements and, by extension, the annexation of the West Bank and possibly the Gaza Strip. Thus, a peace based on a two-state solution, or indeed any political arrangement that would grant Palestinians political, civil and human rights, is being rendered impossible. This person’s euphoria that such levels of human suffering have created a spinoff she delights in is shocking beyond words.

The members of the camp that Strook belongs to might not all agree with her on the miraculous nature of the current situation, but they still agree that it is an opportune moment to complete what they started more than 50 years ago with a settlement project that is by now one of monstrous proportions. It is a project that, in one way or another, is dictating the nature of relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

And while the eyes of the world are focused on what is taking place in Gaza, on the border with Lebanon and even in Yemen, the settler movement sees the green light (not that any red light ever stopped it) for its project that will lead to the disappearance of the Green Line. They have sneakily, step by step, created irreversible facts on the ground, not only in terms of real estate, but equally structurally and legally, while intimidating the local population into submission.

The current government was born in the sin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legitimization of the far right in order to allow him to escape justice. To this end, he caves in to most of their demands, including giving the enemies of peace within Israeli politics disproportionate powers over the West Bank. Being in charge of the Ministry of National Security, as well as that for settlements, gives them immense power to dictate the future of the Occupied Territories.

Israel’s government was born in the sin of Netanyahu’s legitimization of the far right in order to allow him to escape justice

Yossi Mekelberg

This power was further increased when Netanyahu transferred to one of the most zealous Religious Zionist leaders, Smotrich, all governing powers in the West Bank except those directly relating to security. Smotrich is also in charge of the powerful Ministry of Finance.

With the international focus on other issues concerning the war in Gaza, the Israeli military’s central command signed an order to transfer powers over much of the civilian affairs in the West Bank to a deputy head of the Civil Administration. This is not a case of bringing an end to military occupation, but instead what most observers see as a step of de jure annexation of the West Bank. Yet the world is silent.

The order posted on the Israel Defense Forces website transfers responsibility for a substantial number of bylaws of the Civil Administration — the Israeli body governing the West Bank — from the military to officials appointed by Smotrich at the Defense Ministry. This is the ultimate aim of Smotrich and the settler movement: to gradually achieve full control of the Civil Administration, which effectively extends Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, along the path to full annexation.

For decades, the settlers have perfected their exploitation of administrative-bureaucratic procedures and mechanisms, with the tacit support or apathy of most Israelis, to advance their strategic aims: to grab more land, build more settlements, expand them and, by that, control the occupied land and people.

Earlier this month, the Israeli nongovernmental organization Peace Now revealed that not only does the Israeli government finance settlements that in its own eyes — and only its own eyes — are legal, but is also financing 68 farms it considers to be illegal to the tune of 39 million shekels ($10.4 million) in 2024. This makes a mockery of the rule of Israeli law and of the international community that is united in its objection to these settlements

Last week, at long last, the International Court of Justice published its advisory opinion clearly asserting that the Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The court called on Israel to end the occupation and evacuate all of its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In addition, it called for Israel to pay reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by the occupation. With the exception of the Israeli government, no country has objected to the court’s opinion.

Israel’s government is operating in a parallel universe and believes it can indefinitely defy international law, morality and the need for security and prosperity through peace and political logic. And it does so because it is allowed complete impunity. If you believe in miracles, the one that Israel and the Palestinians really need is one that will remove the warmongers and put people who desire peace in power instead.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg