[D66] Are the Kahanists Accelerating the ‘Collapse of Israel’?

[René Oudeweg]

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  palestinechronicle.com
Zionism Vs. Zionism - Are the Kahanists Accelerating the ‘Collapse of 
Israel’?
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6–8 minutes

By Ramzy Baroud

     Ben-Gvir’s rush to achieve the religious Zionist agenda contradicts 
the traditional form of Israeli colonialism, predicated on the 
‘incremental genocide’ of Palestinians.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir vowed, on August 26, 
to build a synagogue inside the Muslim holy site Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

Ben-Gvir, as a representation of Israel’s powerful religious Zionist 
class in the government and society at large, has been candid regarding 
his designs in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine.

He has advocated a religious war, calling for the ethnic cleansing of 
Palestinians, the starvation or killing of prisoners and the annexation 
of the West Bank.

In his capacity as a minister in the equally extremist government of 
Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir has worked hard to translate his language 
into action. He has raided the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Mosque repeatedly, 
and implemented his starvation policies against Palestinian detainees, 
going as far as defending rape inside Israeli military detention camps 
and calling the accused soldiers “our best heroes”.

His supporters have carried out hundreds of assaults and dozens of 
pogroms targeting Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 670 
Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start 
of the Gaza war. A large number among those killed and injured were 
victims of illegal Jewish settlers.

But not all Israelis in the political or security establishments agree 
with Ben-Gvir’s behavior or tactics. For example, on August 22, Israel’s 
Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar, warned against the “indescribable damage” to 
Israel caused by Ben-Gvir’s actions in East Jerusalem.

“The damage to the State of Israel, especially now … is indescribable: 
global delegitimization, even among our greatest allies,” Bar wrote in a 
letter sent to several Israeli ministers.

Bar’s letter may seem odd. The Shin Bet has been instrumental in the 
killing of numerous Palestinians, in the name of Israeli security. Bar 
himself is a strong supporter of the settlements, and as hawkish as is 
required for the person who leads such a notorious organization.

Bar’s conflict with Ben-Gvir, however, is not that of substance, but 
style. This conflict is only an expression of a much greater ideological 
and political war among Israel’s top institutions. This war, however, 
began before the October 7 attack and the ongoing Israeli war and 
genocide in Gaza.

Seven months before the start of the war, Israeli President Isaac Herzog 
said in a televised speech that “those who think that a real civil war … 
is a border we won’t cross, have no idea.”

The context of his comments was the “real, deep hate” among Israelis 
resulting from the attempts by Netanyahu and his extremist government 
coalition partners to undermine the power of the judiciary.

The fight over the Supreme Court, however, was merely the tip of the 
iceberg. The fact that it took Israel five elections in four years to 
settle on a stable government in December 2022 was itself indicative of 
Israel’s unprecedented political conflict.

The new government may have been ‘stable’ in terms of the parliamentary 
balances, but it destabilized the country on all fronts, leading to mass 
protests, involving the powerful, but increasingly marginalized military 
class.

The October 7 attack took place at a time of social and political 
vulnerability, arguably unprecedented since the founding of Israel atop 
the ruins of historic Palestine in May 1948.

The war, but particularly the failure to achieve any of its objectives, 
deepened that existing conflict. This led to warnings from politicians 
and military men that the country was collapsing.

The clearest of these warnings came from Yitzhak Brik, a former top 
Israeli military commander. He wrote in Haaretz on August 22 that the 
“country … is galloping towards the edge of an abyss,” and that it “will 
collapse within no more than a year.”

Though Brik was, among various factors, blaming Netanyahu’s losing war 
in Gaza, the anti-Netanyahu political class believes that the crisis 
mainly lies in the government itself.

This solution, according to recent comments made by Herzog himself, is 
that “Kahanism needs to be removed from the government.”

Kahanism here is a reference to the Kach Party of Rabbi Meir Kahane. 
Though now banned, Kach has resurfaced in numerous forms, including in 
Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party. As a disciple of Kahane, Ben-Gvir is set 
to achieve the vision of the extremist rabbi, that of the complete 
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Ben-Gvir and his ilk are fully aware of the historic opportunity that is 
now available to them as they hope to ignite the much-coveted religious 
war. They also know that if the war in Gaza ends without advancing their 
main plan of colonizing the rest of the occupied territories, the 
opportunity may not present itself ever again.

Ben-Gvir’s rush to achieve the religious Zionist agenda contradicts the 
traditional form of Israeli colonialism, predicated on the ‘incremental 
genocide’ of Palestinians and the slow ethnic cleansing of Palestinian 
communities from East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Though the Israeli military believes that illegal settlements are 
essential, they perceive these colonies in strategic language as a 
‘security’ buffer for Israel.

The winners and losers of Israel’s ideological and political war are 
most likely to emerge following the end of the Gaza war, the outcomes of 
which will determine other factors, including the very future of the 
state of Israel, per the estimation of General Yitzhak Brik himself.

– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine 
Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited 
with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian 
Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident 
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs 
(CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net