The violent collapse of Israel will not lead to relief for Palestinians in the short term.
How so? Presumably they won’t have time to kill Palestinians if they’re too busy killing each other, and while that is a gruesome thought it’s not more gruesome than what’s already happening.
My suspicion is that a collapse in the Israeli state would look a lot like the present, spiraling out of anyone’s control: the settler terrorists would further ratchet up attacks in the West Bank; soldiers in the West Bank would harass and kill more brazenly, without fear of even the limited accountability that can come from a toothless denouncement or a suspension. Soldiers in Gaza might move from checkpoints and bombing runs to militia pogroms driving through streets gunning down civilians. The limited protections for the relatively privileged Arabs & non-Jews within the '48 borders could evaporate: mobs dragging women from their homes for sexual violence and murder in the daylit streets. And all of this would likely be in a shroud of fog, as the limited journalistic capacity that occasionally breaks through to international attention is drowned out by attention on riots in the imperial core of the nation.
In the long term, this could be a step towards a better future. But in the short term I would expect a shift from organized military-led genocide to a more traditional form of rabid mass ethnic killing.
It’s hard to believe, but Israel currently has restraint. Yes, they’re slow-motion genociding the Palestinians in a grindingly cruel manner, but the reason it’s slow-motion is because they have endless debates and factions and desire not to completely rip their masks off while the rest of the world watches and could maybe react on some level.
If Israel turns into full blown civil war all that restraint goes away. If you’re already at the point where you’re willing to gun down fellow Jews, why not mow down a bunch of Palestinian refugees along the way? If you’re not even in control of all of Israel, where can you move Palestinians to get them out of your way? Just kill 'em.
I have no idea what is best in the short term. I have no idea what is best in the long term. Israel is just fucked. I wish there was some way for all the people who want to kill each other to just go ahead and do that without everyone else getting trapped in the crossfire.
How so? Presumably they won’t have time to kill Palestinians if they’re too busy killing each other, and while that is a gruesome thought it’s not more gruesome than what’s already happening.
My suspicion is that a collapse in the Israeli state would look a lot like the present, spiraling out of anyone’s control: the settler terrorists would further ratchet up attacks in the West Bank; soldiers in the West Bank would harass and kill more brazenly, without fear of even the limited accountability that can come from a toothless denouncement or a suspension. Soldiers in Gaza might move from checkpoints and bombing runs to militia pogroms driving through streets gunning down civilians. The limited protections for the relatively privileged Arabs & non-Jews within the '48 borders could evaporate: mobs dragging women from their homes for sexual violence and murder in the daylit streets. And all of this would likely be in a shroud of fog, as the limited journalistic capacity that occasionally breaks through to international attention is drowned out by attention on riots in the imperial core of the nation.
In the long term, this could be a step towards a better future. But in the short term I would expect a shift from organized military-led genocide to a more traditional form of rabid mass ethnic killing.
It’s hard to believe, but Israel currently has restraint. Yes, they’re slow-motion genociding the Palestinians in a grindingly cruel manner, but the reason it’s slow-motion is because they have endless debates and factions and desire not to completely rip their masks off while the rest of the world watches and could maybe react on some level.
If Israel turns into full blown civil war all that restraint goes away. If you’re already at the point where you’re willing to gun down fellow Jews, why not mow down a bunch of Palestinian refugees along the way? If you’re not even in control of all of Israel, where can you move Palestinians to get them out of your way? Just kill 'em.
I have no idea what is best in the short term. I have no idea what is best in the long term. Israel is just fucked. I wish there was some way for all the people who want to kill each other to just go ahead and do that without everyone else getting trapped in the crossfire.