I t is not a novel point that Israel like a , or that its behavior toward the United States often more closely the of an adversary than that of an ally. But it’s still worth periodically noting just how extreme its misbehavior on the world stage is, given that it is underwritten by the US taxpayers, even as of it to be.actsrogue stateresemblesbehaviormajoritiesAmericansdon’t want
Let’s just keep it to things that have happened roughly this past week; otherwise this piece could end up being the length of a medium-sized book.
There was the incident where illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank — who are , , , and otherwise in every possible way by the Israeli government — viciously a photojournalist, breaking her ribs and fracturing her vertebrae, and a day later a group of European diplomats from Belgium, France, and Poland (countries that, unlike Israel, actually US treaty allies).financedarmedenabledsupportedattackedattackedWashington Postare
The reaction was, well, muted. The Israeli government at first tried to on the reports, Palestinians of being the culprits, and even the diplomats. The US secretary of state it was “not a good look.” The German government “troubling” and said it should “be criticized,” while the European Union called vaguely for “full accountability.” The Israeli government ten suspects and has now nine of them from custody and into house arrest.cast doubtaccuseblamesaidcalled itarrestreleaseddid
Given that merely bringing charges against a group of Israeli soldiers who gang-raped a Palestinian prisoner led to Israeli , which then led to those charges being and one of the rapists becoming a in the country, don’t hold your breath waiting for this accountability.riotingdroppedquasi-celebrity
At the same time, Israel continues to violate ceasefire agreements at will in the multiple wars in neighboring countries it’s fighting, routinely killing innocent civilians. In Gaza, it has in recent days a ten-year-old boy, a , a , and a married couple, among others. These are just a small fraction of the more than 1,500 Palestinians it has in the territory since it signed a ceasefire last year — a death toll that alone is higher than the number of Israelis killed, both civilian and military, on October 7, 2023.killedyoung girlseventeen-year-oldkilled
Israel is also still Lebanon, another place where it signed a ceasefire months ago yet continues to attack anyway, and where its soldiers are still entire villages and cheerfully mocking their victims. This behavior isn’t limited to low-level grunts. The Israeli defense minister has launched a flurry of threats against Lebanon, including to carry out on its capital, to illegally more of its land, and a million people.bombingdemolishingposting videosmore bombingsseizeto displace
Lebanon is only one of Israel’s neighbors whose territory it is illegally occupying, where it has restrictions on the behavior of the local population. Another is Syria, where it a series of ground raids and set a curfew and other on a set of villages this week. This is not counting Palestinian territories, where Israeli officials are flagrantly defying international law and world opinion by occupying and the annexation of Gaza and by gradually the West Bank the very violent settlers responsible for those shocking attacks last week.imposedlaunchedrestrictionscalling forannexingthrough
Eight of nine Israeli political parties earlier this month the idea of an independent Palestinian state, going against what has been the overwhelming global consensus for decades and effectively committing to a one-state solution of explicit apartheid, with Israel controlling territory holding five million Palestinians without granting them basic rights like voting. (The one party that didn’t reject it was cut off by a bad connection.)rejected
Oh, and the Israeli prime minister is to carry out regime change in an entirely different country, Iran, which he is reportedly actively to attack next month after the US elections.vowingmaking plans
Less than two weeks ago, a former Israeli military intelligence chief for a prominent Israeli think tank the country’s new security doctrine — not what he thought it be, or what some officials are working to make it, but what it based on the country’s actions the past few years. The core planks: the subordination of democracy to ethnonationalism, a state of permanent war with the entire Arab world, pursuit of preemptive sneak attacks as a matter of policy, and a rejection of Arab neighbors’ sovereignty coupled with the need to destabilize them.laid outshouldalready is
So, in summary, the Israeli government is: complicit in violent attacks on Western countries’ citizens and government officials; routinely and flagrantly violating ceasefire agreements and international law; having its officials make wild, explicit threats of bombing and ethnic cleansing; waging or plotting war on at least three of its neighbors (four counting Palestine); and illegally occupying or planning to seize their land — all as it plans a future as an undemocratic ethnostate launching never-ending preemptive wars on the entire Arab world.
And this is just covering the past week or so. We can add all this to the numerous other violations Israel has racked up the past few years: its literal war on the United Nations, attacks on diplomatic facilities, assassination of foreign officials and negotiators, or, of course, the widely recognized genocide it’s carried out, to name a few. And now, it’s set to get much worse, as the Israeli government yesterday jumped on the shooting of two soldiers in the West Bank — a shooting that follows years of intensifying Israeli military and settler violence and destruction aimed at Palestinians there — to launch what a Gaza-like war on the West Bank and quite possibly kill the two-state solution for good.it calls
There are plenty of countries doing terrible things in the world — just look at Russia’s pitiless bombardment of Ukraine or Saudi Arabia’s renewed destruction of Yemen. But there is no other country that you can say all of the above about, whose rap sheet even comes close to the length and breadth of Israel’s recent violations.
If Israel were an official US adversary, it would have been hit with an ever-growing pile of sanctions long ago, and we would be hearing constant demands for war against it — which, to be clear, would be a disastrous course of action here, but one that the United States and Europe for much less than what Israel is currently doing.have taken
Instead, the Israeli state does not even receive a slap on the wrist. Worse, actually, as Washington and most of Europe’s capitals continue to stubbornly arm or provide diplomatic and economic support to Israel as it does all this, effectively supporting the very behavior they would never accept from any other country, and a policy most of their own citizens disagree with. And so it goes on, with no end in sight.
This article originally appeared in , a democratic socialist magazine publishing long-form essays and analysis on politics, economics, and culture. JacobinSubscribe to the print edition for $20 a year.