Israel heading towards national suicide

Latest peace talks latest futile exercise

The day after Palestinian freedom fighters, Hamas, attacked occupied Southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu  declared war on Gaza vowing to wipeout Hamas without a trace saying “No talks with Hamas”.

However from the very beginning many fair minded Jews, including journalist   Gideon Levy and Ilan Pappe , Professor of History at the University of Exeter,

Israeli historian and political scientist, warned that Hamas cannot be defeated.

However wisdom dawned on Netanyahu, ten months later today, when he  agreed to negotiate with Hamas after killing around 40,000   Palestinian civilians  -more than half of them children- injuring around 90,000 while 10,000 missing. Those who were buried alive in the rubble of destroyed buildings are yet to be known.  At least 370,000 housing units in Gaza have been damaged, including 79,000 destroyed completely.

Netanyahu agreed to talks with Hamas because Israel is collapsing.  According  to Times of Israel already more than half a million Israelis left occupied Palestine since October  7.    Highlighting the seriousness of the situation former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged Israeli citizens not to leave the country  as Israel is going through the most difficult period since its creation in 1948.

 The head of the Israel Defence Forces said the army is facing troop shortages amid rising casualties in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Yet enlisting more troops is difficult due to rising public opposition to the war and an open conflict between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his defence minister.

 In a related development, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that dozens of reserve soldiers announced that they would not return to military service in Gaza, even if they were to be punished. Hundreds of reserve soldiers in the Israeli army have travelled abroad without informing their commanders due to the ongoing war on Gaza, where the occupation forces have suffered heavy losses over the past months.

One columnist pointed out that with military significantly weakened  Israel is struggling to survive. Oppressive Arab dictators who handed over the task of keeping the region stable  under Israel’s effective control, feel threatened.

In the economic front  predictions are that Israel may never recover from its post-October 7 economic collapse. The Palestinian resistance managed not only to destroy Israel’s internal security perception, but also to erect significant risk barriers for foreign investors. 

 The economic toll of the war may cost Israel an estimated $400 billion in lost economic activity over the next decade – threatens Israel’s economic future. For Israel, 90% of the economic shock will come from indirect effects: reduced investment, slowing productivity growth and labor market disruption.

 Since October, Israel’s government has subsidised the salaries of reportedly 360,000 mobilised reservists deployed to Gaza – many of whom are high-tech industry workers in finance, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Israeli officials face the challenge of needing to restore confidence and a sense of security – which will not prove easy – to boost investments.

“Beyond a clear military and political outcome both in the Gaza Strip and along the Lebanese border, and a repatriation of the hostages, this requires a clear and goal-oriented economic policy. It is not yet clear how this will eventually be addressed,”

 Tourism suffered the most .   Across Israel, restaurants and stores remain empty.  A long list of airlines cancelled or suspended the majority of their flights to Tel Aviv, and many tourists cancelled their plans to visit Israel.  Prior  to October 7  visitors to Israel numbered above 300,000 each month. In November, that figure reportedly sank to 39,000.  And  now it may be almost nil.

Construction, accounting for 14 percent of Israel’s GDP, has taken a huge hit  .  The Israel Builders Association said that Israel’s construction industry was operating at roughly 15 percent of its pre-October 7 capacity

The Gaza war’s ripple effects throughout the greater Middle East are also negatively impacting Israel’s economy.

Israel imports diamonds, cars, petroleum, and broadcasting equipment, among other things, goods that come via the Red Sea. The recent Houthi missile and drone attacks in this body of water in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Gaza have not only disrupted global trade but also impacted Israel’s imports. Many of Israel’s imports from Asia are now being rerouted around Africa, bumping up costs.

In a recent survey, aid organisation “Latet”   found that more than 45 percent of the public fear that economic hardship awaits them either later on in this war or after the war finishes. What is clear is that those Israeli families who were already living in poverty or who qualified as food insecure prior to October 7 will suffer the most from the economic problems stemming from this war.

Worldwide television footages of Israel’s   barbarity on Palestinians who were deprived of water, food, medicine  and electricity  and destruction unleashed  exposed its   savage nature. Today Israel and its blind supporter US remain the two most hated   countries in the world.

It was this situation which ,perhaps, forced Netanyahu to agree to peace talks.

The so called  peace talks are unlikely to succeed as US and Israel together with their Arab stooges wanted a corrupt and sellout Palestine Authority type authority to manage Gaza while Hamas , learnt from past experience, wants nothing but a self government run by Palestinians in Gaza.

The ultimate target of US-Europe and Israel is to create Greater Israel which include Gaza, West Bank, part of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia . In fact US Secretary of State  Anthony Blinken who is more a messenger boy of Israel  than a secretary of state  of the   most  powerful country in the world-  are unlikely to agree to a Palestinian rule in Gaza .

As pointed by columnist As`ad AbuKhalil Israel’s military performance has not been impressive at all. Its forces have committed massacres and crimes of genocide but there are no military victories to speak of and no dismantling of Hamas’ structure.

According to Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy, “Israel would be delighted to cleanse Gaza of the Palestinian people. The problem is that it is not ethical, not legal, and not practical at the same time.”

Latheef Farook, Senior journalist, is based in Colombo. Sri Lanka