Barak Warns of the Fall of Israel

Al-Masry Al-Youm, Egypt, May 12

Israel has been going through a state of national confusion and instability, which only intensifies every time it tries to impose itself on the Palestinian people – be it in forced expulsions of Palestinian families, violence and brutality against Muslim worshippers, or blockades on Palestinian towns and villages. This state of confusion centers on several strategic challenges faced by the government of Naftali Bennett. First, Bennett’s government recently lost its parliamentary majority, after a senior member of the coalition surprised her colleagues and resigned from her role. With the number of coalition seats now equal to the number of opposition seats, Bennett’s government is at imminent risk of collapsing. Second, the United Arab List-Raam has threatened to suspend its membership in the coalition in response to the repressive policy against Palestinian worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque. Finally, Israeli society is being torn from the inside due to racial, ethnic and religious tensions that are finally coming to bear. In this context, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned that the biggest existential threat to the State of Israel is its internal crisis – that is, the deepening sense of hatred among Jews. In an op-ed published in one of Israel’s leading newspapers, Barak outlined the deepening schisms within the Israeli public, and attributed them to an “unholy alliance,” between former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the dark extremists found on the far right. Together, Barak claims, this alliance seeks to ignite a religious war that would set the region on fire. In order to prove his point, Barak mentioned what he heard from one of the leaders of the Israeli intelligence services, who claimed that there are “strong chances” that Israel would find itself on the path toward a civil war. Further evidence of this is the circulation of videos on social media depicting Jewish settlers and religious figures blaming Bennett for the death of Israelis and calling Jews to bear arms to defend themselves. – Hussein Khairy (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)