Henry Kissinger said that the State of Israel has no foreign policy, and everything in it has an internal policy. Justice, but not entirely. If Israel-Iran relations are in the field of foreign relations, then there is, and will soon be, a lot of Israeli policy towards Iran, the United States, the countries that have signed the nuclear agreement and the IAEA.
Fear of civil war
At the same time, in domestic policy, votes in the Knesset have proven that something is falling apart in Israel: before our eyes, two parallel processes are taking place and developing, intertwined tools, which are gaining large dimensions. On the one hand, there is the worrying, sometimes frightening, extremism of the right in the country, in certain publics, in the Knesset of Israel, among Ben Gvir supporters, on the streets of mixed cities in East Jerusalem, and among MKs in the Knesset.
And the second, parallel process: an unprecedented increase in the involvement and presence of Arab residents in the State of Israel. 20 percent, one-fifth of the state’s population, are citizens for everything.
For better or worse: stockpiling and using weapons, “family-based” assassinations, participating in terrorist attacks, integrating Arabs into work and studies, the doctor, the nurse, the hospital director and the cashier at the mall. Parliamentary, it is almost impossible today to form a coalition and a government without Arabs. Fact.
In both of these processes there is a positive and a negative, depending on the eyes of the beholder, chances and also risks so much that there are those who fear that a civil war will break out in Israel. Not God forbid such as shooting in the streets, but a war for control, for positions of power, for public opinion, integration into workplaces, and for the narrative of the state. A Jewish state or a state of all its citizens and how democratic.
A civil war between two Titans: an extreme right, whose voices are loud and even threatening, and an Arab minority, most of whom want a quiet life and a good livelihood in the State of Israel even though they do not like it, and the extreme minority is unwilling to recognize Israel as a Jewish state with an Arab minority.
The Iranian front
The Iranian front is escalating: Prime Minister Bennett is not hiding the fact that “the days of immunity” and “we have stepped up the gear” have ended, while the commander of the ground forces in the Iranian army is threatening: “Iran will completely destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa.”
A long line of assassinations, mysterious deaths, one falls from the roof of his house and two dies from food poisoning at a restaurant meal with a “colleague”. In terms of Israel’s advertising policy, everything is from foreign sources, but admit-no-thanks in execution. Media respondents’ responses range from “I do not know what you’re talking about,” to “an Iranian scientist dealing with nuclear or missile will take into account that he is taking a risk.”
Anyone who has been involved in these operations proves that he is doing within Iran almost as much as within himself, that he has an infrastructure of collaborators and operations manager, people and equipment at his disposal. Recently, such operations have taken place on a short schedule, quite a few operations within days.
The operational level is particularly high. No apparent mistakes were made, and the poison meal partner left Iran even before they began searching for him, it was reported.
It can be assumed that all levels – the initiators, approvers, planners, perpetrators and aides, in Israel and abroad, are aware of the dangers inherent in the method.
against who? Against Israeli targets, against Israelis or Jews in Israel, abroad, in Israeli institutions and missions, in synagogues and community centers, on a bus of tourists from Israel.
Nuclear agreement
There are indications that at the same time the political-diplomatic activity around the Vienna talks and the renewal of the nuclear agreement is renewed. Not for a social visit This week, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, paid a quick visit to Bennett. He must return to Vienna and Brussels with Israeli answers. Jerusalem is not a partner in the Vienna talks, but is there.
The United States and the presidential administration are engaged in a war on Ukraine and China’s threats, with an eye-opener on the Iranian nuclear program.
At the same time as covert activity, diplomatic activity must not be neglected: we lack a large-scale public campaign, not hysterical but professional, of the Foreign Ministry on all its branches around the world that will highlight the expected dangers to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Abrahamic countries and even Europe from nuclear Iran. There are nuclei for some countries, including evil regimes, but these do not threaten morning and evening to destroy enemy cities.
There is a lack of an information system that will explain what is happening these days at sites in Iran: the true meaning of 60 percent uranium enrichment, what is the “break-in time”, who and when will decide, or will not decide, to conduct an Iranian nuclear test. What is the essence of the missile that the bomb will be its warhead.
What types of nuclear weapons could Iran produce? Tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. In all these details, Israeli propaganda must deal, repeat over and over again details that have already been published, repeat a truth that involves an existential danger to the State of Israel, and this is not a phrase, even if the threat is far away.
A completely unstable government
The trouble is that on both issues, the danger of the Iranian nuclear on the one hand and the far-right inner front in front of Arabs on the other, the responsibilities and tasks are currently on the shoulders of a completely unstable government.
A one-year-old government that has a lot of good will and even a track record, but has no votes in the Knesset and support for the electorate. Therefore, there is a danger of elections. And there is one danger in the election – the alternative.
And the alternative is a parliamentary faction, the largest in the Knesset, that renews an unprecedented innovation in the history of the world’s sane parliaments: MKs who vote against bills that match their positions and worldviews, and all to overthrow the government.
And boycott meetings of Knesset committees dealing with state affairs and its citizens. It is the duty of the opposition to overthrow a government, but not at the cost of votes that run counter to the party’s policies and the personal position of the voting MKs.
These are rules of the game bordering on parliamentary violence.