Israel’s deadly and destructive operation in the West Bank | The Listening Post

Israeli streets have been packed with protesters demanding the end of the Netanyahu government but Israel's Army keeps going backing up the settlers terrorizing the West Bank and taking the genocidal war against Palestinians beyond the ruins of Gaza we get a former Israeli insiders view of what if anything the outside world is going to do about it plus they say that money talks and the world's richest man Elon Musk just can't help himself throughout Israel's genocidal war on Gaza another horror story has been unfolding just 50 kilometers away with global attention focused on the Strip the military occupation of the West Bank has intensified with settlers taking more Palestinian land the Army destroying more homes roads and water systems and the mass arrest of Palestinians many of whom end up in Israeli prisons notorious for the inhumane conditions there this past week the violence spiked the Israeli military raided key cities such as Janine citing a surge in militancy and an unproven allegation that Iran is backing armed resistance groups if the past year has taught Palestinians anything it is that neither international law nor the global media can be counted upon to hold Israel's farri government to account for its war on Gaza what cause do they have for hope that things will be any different in the West Bank while the Israeli occupation forces are waging a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza in Paro they are continuing with this settler Colonial project in every place in the West Bank no matter what your religion is no matter what your age is no matter what your gender is everybody is targeted news audiences are not skilled at multitasking and news outlets tend to tunnel in on one story at the expense of others therefore Israel's Savage assault on Gaza has diverted attention away from conflicts like the war in Ukraine the Civil War in Sudan and the story unfolding just a 30-minute drive from Gaza in the West Bank the destruction inflicted there by the Israeli military has been heavy but not close to the devastation rought on Gaza and so the images and Casualty figures coming out of the West Bank have not made the front pages but ever since October 7th Israel through its settler movement has set off an unprecedented level of violence there land theft and it's escalating Israel is trying to signal to the world that what happened in Gaza will be replicated in the West Bank through the Tweet of e elkat the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kats is not sending a message to the Palestinian Community he's sending a message to the International Community testing the waters by saying that they might replicate what happened in Gaza in the West Bank Israel always likes to uh build a boogeyman and now it's Iran is building these networks of resistance and it forgets that it creates the conditions for the resistance to arise in the first place so over the last week we've seen one of the largest military invasions we have seen the Israeli Army destroy over 70% of the roads there much of the electricity and and water infrastructure has also been destroyed it's really important to understand that what we're seeing in the West Bank is an expansion of the genocide in Gaza this is not a new Israeli strategy the strategy has always been to take as much land with as little Palestinians as possible among the many news platforms selling this story short are media outlets in Israel their focus has been on the Israeli captives held in Gaza six of whom were found dead last week killed by Hamas Fighters when they do cover the story in the West Bank the disregard for international law which Israel is constantly violating stands out Israeli news channels take their cues on that from the Netanyahu government in a press conference this past week the Israeli Prime Minister presented a map minus the borders showing the West Bank eradicating the fact that the land is illegally occupied this is what that map should look like in this press conference he completely effaced the West Bank uh and the Palestinian Presence by only including uh Israeli sovereignty over the land from The River To The Sea and this is symbolic of an Israeli unwillingness an official unwillingness to see the Palestinians as having rights on this land and also of seeing Palestinians an obstacle towards the erection of a pure Jewish State and and what this means is daily practices of humilation for now but in the long term also means that Israel is bent on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine this is his de facto annexation of the land under the framework of the settler Colonial project that he is implementing in gazda under a genocide and in the West Bank with the in intensified settlements that we are witnessing on daily basis this is not the first time let's remember that last September at the UN Netanyahu held that map from The River To The Sea nobody dared to question him and what's even more audacious is that the International Community has accepted this in fact the Israeli regime has continuously built settlements in the West Bank and what that shows is that the Israeli regime has no interest in in any kind of Palestinian autonomy on any part of the land of colonized Palestine that has been the Israeli State's policy for decades and there's been a marked acceleration of the settler movement under the current government in which two Israeli settlers from the extreme right bezel smotrich and itar Ben gavier hold key cabinet posts the result of which can be reflected online through videos like this one posted by a settler in the West Bank celebrating the theft of EV even more Palestinian land backed by a soundtrack of cheery [Music] music Orin Z is an Israeli journalist based in Tel Aviv since the Israeli authorities have banned Al jazer from the country we had to interview him online it's a bit like the videos we've seen on Tik Tok or Instagram from Gaza of soldiers committing different crimes killing shooting shooting vandalizing looting and they're uploading it with their faces with their username or they're not shy they're proud in the crimes they commit it's a bit different trend from the West Bank but it's the same [Music] logic they see nothing wrong in kicking Palestinians out taking over Palestinian land the difference is that after the war they're much more proud and are bragging about those crimes ever since the invasion of Gaza Palestinian journalists have reported relentlessly from the ground there bearing witness in the absence of international news teams Israel has locked out foreign journalists unless they are embedded with its military and agree to have their work censored foreign reporters face no such restrictions in the West Bank yet remarkably few of them are there covering the story they have essentially left the job to Palestinians who face far greater risks than Outsiders do these reporters came under Israeli gunfire in Janine last week and were menaced by Army bulldozers citizen journalism can be dangerous as well Palestinians in the West Bank reflexively record and document what is happening on their land despite knowing that the Israelis have arrested more than 10,000 of them since October 7th somebody has to every Palestinian is documenting but we also need to talk about the fear that those citizens um encounter if they want to impose so my students my colleagues who live in different cities would post videos of continued war crimes against their homes against their children schools hospitals yet people don't really dare to share if they want to commute on any checkpoint any isra Soldier can ask for their smart devices and they basically go into their photos their videos their WhatsApp or telegram groups so they had invaded our privacy they had invaded our basic human rights two Palestinian journalists who work for international media were shot at in kufan near janin by the Israeli Army despite the fact their card has a press sign it's with the same logic that we've seen in Gaza that all Palestinians are guilty in what happened on October 7 and this include also Palestinian journalists who are trying to do their job but are being attacked and shot at it seems they Army doesn't want them to operate doesn't want them to report and so we've really seen an escalation of that and in particular in in the areas of Janine and and tar we've seen horrific footage of Palestinian journalists being chased by Israeli army jeeps and bulldozers uh unless we forget the Palestinian city of Janine was where veteran journalist Shireen Abu was assassinated in 2022 um by Israeli soldiers so these journalists are working under incredibly difficult conditions and really we owe a huge amount of thanks to these people for bringing our live reality to a global audience the question is how many in that Global audience are watching and what about International leaders Israel's allies from the United States to Europe Europe to the Arab world how far will they allow the Israelis to go with a settler Colonial project that since October 7th has gone into overdrive and what will it take for the quote International rules-based order to apply those rules and enforce them against a Zionist state that has turned [Applause] genocidal moving on now to Tech Bild millionaire Elon Musk musk has spent the past few months doing his right-wing provocateur thing on his platform X posting one inflammatory or false tweet after another Tarak NAFA has been tracking the output this week despite his sometimes cartoonish Persona Elon Musk is still the richest man in the world and he's using his money and influence to push a hard right agenda in the US and elsewhere this week musk has been all over X he's been railing against a Brazilian Supreme Court Judge who ordered a ban on his platform in the country over its refusal to remove disinformation then we saw a lot of the kind of posts he's been putting out for months now prot Trump right-wing often slightly weird talking points there was this forchan style screenshot with a theory about how quote high testosterone alpha males are the only people able to think freely musk then posted this clearly AI generated image of Kamala Harris that he appeared to be trying to pass off as genuine and finally there was this retweet of a New York Post article about migrants flooding New York's justice system musk asked when is enough enough this is now a fairly typical week for Elon Musk according to a recent report from the center for countering digital hate he's posted at least 50 false election claims on X so far this year posts which were viewed nearly 1.2 billion times that's the kind of reach he has since endorsing Donald Trump for president musk has publicly flirted with the idea of joining him in office for better or worse he has made himself a part of the election debate but as the Brazilian courts have made clear he's not Untouchable speaking about the judicial takeown of X president Lula D Silva said Brazil showed the world that it isn't obliged to put up with musk's Far Right free all just because he is Rich thanks darkk back to Israel now where public anger aimed at Benjamin netanyahu's government is on the rise more and more Israelis including members of netanyahu's own cabinet accused the prime minister of sabotaging ceasefire negotiations that would bring Israeli captives in Gaza home but as protesters flooded the streets of Tel Aviv demanding the net yahu stepped down there has been noticeably little criticism of the savagery being rought upon the Palestinians of Gaza the war crimes committed in the name of the Israeli State Daniel Levy is a former senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister's office and going back to the early 90s was part of Israel's negotiation team during the Oslo Peace process he knows Israeli politics from the inside out and is now the president of the US Middle East peace project Daniel welcome to the program thank you let's start with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis we saw on the streets protesting this week demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu resign even calling for a ceasefire in order to get those captives home but not demanding an end to an 11mon long genocide in Gaza right unpack that for us please so let's be clear that there is a cohort within that protest movement who are very aware of Palestinian realities today predating October 7th and for whom this is the way to at least end the immediate Horrors that is a small minority you have a larger cohort of Israelis who are skeptical about the leadership Netanyahu benav smotrich they may know that not everything is okay but the preponderance of what they're identifying with here is the fade of those hostages and they're saying look you neglected those people once on October 7th the failures that led to that and now you are neglecting them again by refusing to do a deal and they are placing the lie and share of the blame at the feet of prime minister Netanyahu but if you want to understand at a deeper level why are we not seeing more of an outcry as to what is going on there then sure October 7th let's not make light of it that's a traumatic experience but it's 11 months later what Israelis have been treated to is a Relentless media barrage which has served this idea that nothing to see there anything that's happening in Gaza is hamas's fault a prime minister of course and a leadership that continue to offer a lot of lies we saw that in the uh press conferences rare press conferences given by Prime Minister Netanyahu an opposition that does not offer opposition so the entirety of the Zionist political Spectrum in Parliament is behind this war none are questioning the war if you dig further the Decades of dehumanization of Palestinians the inability to see that humanity and equality in a way you couldn't keep Palestinians living Liv under those conditions you couldn't maintain what the international court of justice has now called an aparte regime if you weren't dehumanizing Palestinians long before all this began the fate of the captives is Central to the media debate in Israel right now it's personal for a lot of Israelis let's face it but is anyone really confronting the reality that Netanyahu has no intention of a deal that would bring them home that in the Warped world world of Israeli politics a country that we continually hear described as the only democracy in the Middle East somehow it suits the prime minister to continue this War I think it's important to pause on how personal this is not just because yes there would be people who knew those being held in Gaza but also because for 300 plus days those personal stories have been piped into everyone's home it an Israeli friend of mine described this almost like a reality show because you'd been exposed to to so many of those personal stories so that we have to have that in the background of our analysis and it might surprise those watching us to know that many in Israel are far more critical of their prime minister of the leadership he offers in terms of who is to blame for this and they look at this and they don't say what the US administr is saying which is well it all depends on Hamas all of the blame is on Hamas they're saying no prime minister Netanyahu and they using this terminology at the protests and in the bib critical media the blood is on your hands secondly Netanyahu is trying to rebuild himself politically as the indispensable Irreplaceable wartime leader to do that you have to continue the war right but thirdly let's not forget this is also ideolog logical for nanyu and for his Coalition and for his liud party is this the moment where you can deal a death blow a knockout blow to the idea of Palestinian rights equality and National aspirations for another several Generations just as the first displacement the knar of 1947 to 49 did way back then the polls show that Israeli still overwhelmingly support the war in Gaza but something deeper is also coming out of Israeli Society the mainstreaming of some really extremist points of view especially about Gaza we saw an example of that this past week a widely shared clip of from an Israel based podcast take a listen the title of the podcast two nice Jewish boys forgive us if we don't give a if you know everybody there dies it's just the way we feel it if you gave me a button to just erase Gaza every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow I would press it in a second how accurate a reflection is that of Israeli public opinion unfortunately this is much more widespread than one would want to imagine it's not the only voice I don't know how exactly to quantify it but I think what we can say is there's a strategic significance to the prevalence the ubiquity of this kind of discourse in the media because the sense among a significant body of Israelis is we've maintained an occupation we've denied these people their right for decades but this is the moment where maybe we can put an end to this displace the Palestinians finish the job that benuron began so to do that you have to inoculate your public from the ugliness of a nudge nudge wink wink we know what's going on but it has to happen and it's okay we all think like this right there is more to this certainly than security because it's not going to bring security there is more to this than revenge this is for some part of a program where Palestinian territories will be uninhabitable permanently for Palestinians and I think that there is a legal question here as to the culpability as to the responsibility of these broadcasters for incitement to genocide and after the Rwanda genocide many of the leadership of the rtlm radio station were held accountable and we should remember that and remind people of that and look to that kind of redress finally you wrote recently that it would be smart to come up with a new starting point the fact you said that America is not a friend of Peace in the Middle East but in fact an enemy explain why you think that and what should journalists understand about the changing face of politics in the Middle East right now the reality we still seem to live in with the Middle East is as if geopolitics power politics in the world world hasn't shifted since the Oslo process began 1994 1994 a this unique unipolar American moment and the us could make the claim that it can organize things we're not there today the US didn't deliver for the Middle East there was more war of course I'm not suggesting that there is an alternative Global hegemon who we should be welcoming what I'm saying is the US acts in what it perceives to be it interest it's not a friend of Peace if peace isn't sufficiently in its interest that's how the US acts and it's not like the jury is still out we have the evidence that the US is not going to deliver what that behooves us to do is twofold first of all to correctly set the expectations of what the US can be encouraged and prevented from doing mitigate some of the damage stop the US from being able to continue some of the worst excesses of what it's doing in the Middle East the other part of that story is the US is not the only player and the more we exclusively focus on the US we more we feed into that narrative I would like when you know the UN Security Council meets the twom minute sync the next day on a media channel may include one other country but it will invariably mostly what did the US ambassador say at the UN I want to know what the Chinese Ambassador is saying at the security Council the French the I want to know what the Russians are saying it's important I want to know what those global South voices who have in the case of South Africa taking Israel to the icj in the case of the broader icj opinion what Malaysia Indonesia the African Union some states in the region what they have done is to shift the legal discourse on this question and if we are stuck in this American Centric approach we encourage the idea that it's not your responsibility because let's just wait to see what America says enough of waiting they're not going to get us out of this problem and that's something that the Palestinians I think have largely internalized but not their leadership in ramala and it's something the rest of us need to internalize Dan Levy we wish you all the best with your work with the US Middle East peace project and thank you for joining us here at the listening post today thank you