Samson
And The 2nd Nakba - A Short Study of the Jewish Hercules
28 March 2010
By Gilad Atzmon
As much as many of us enjoyed watching the humiliation
of Israel and PM Netanyahu in Washington this week, I
am reluctant to suggest that the emerging crisis
between America and Israel may also be a red light
warning for all of us. The current crisis may lead to
some devastating consequences as far as Palestine,
Iran and the Middle East are concerned.
“Netanyahu and Obama are at a point of no return”
claims Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar. “As far as
President Barack Obama and his senior advisers are
concerned, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to
blame for nothing less than damaging the standing of
the U.S. in the Middle East and the Muslim world.”
It may be possible that the Americans have started to
gather that there is no partner for peace in Israel.
America clearly has had to shun its ‘kosher ally’. The
American military and political elite already admitted
this week that Israel is a strategic burden on the
U.S. Seemingly, the only people who genuinely believe
in the American Israel strategic bond are AIPAC and
its list of obedient ‘Sabbath Congressmen Goyim’. But
unfortunately, this is just one side of the story.
A deeper reading of recent events would suggest that
the latest American Israeli rift is actually led by
Netanyahu’s political partners. Interestingly enough,
as much as America reveals growing disapproval of
Israeli policy, the anti American attitude,
demonstrated by Netanyahu’s allies at home, is
overwhelming. It doesn’t take a genius to grasp that
some of Netanyahu’s cabinet members are doing
everything in their power to fire up a storm between
Israel and its ‘closest ally’.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the man behind decisions
that sparked the recent diplomatic crisis, said this
week 'Israelis voted for this government's path,
according to which, there will be no compromises on
(the) Jerusalem issue'. He also used the opportunity
to thank his creator for giving him “the right to be
the minister who approves the construction of
thousands of housing units in Jerusalem". Along with
his latest disastrous visit to Washington, PM
Netanyahu found time to consult with his Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to Ynet,
Lieberman advised his PM “not to capitulate in face of
American pressure”.
I guess that most political analysts fail to
understand the depth of the Israeli right wing
expansionist and racist conviction. Unlike Sharon,
Peres, Livni, Rabin, Olmert, Barak and even Netanyahu
himself, who along the years, paid a limited respect
to the West and the US in particular, Netanyahu’s
cabinet is dominated by right wing Zionist hawks. They
follow David Ben Gurion’s old mantra: “it doesn't
matter what the Goyim (Gentiles) say, the only thing
that matters is what the Jews do”. Netanyahu’s
political partners are not willing to compromise or
acquiesce to American conditions.
Netanyahu’s political allies are convinced that at
least momentarily they will do better without Uncle
Sam. They realise that the days of the ‘Jew-only
state’ are numbered unless some radical moves are put
into action. They grasp that unless the Jewish state
implements measures that would push the entire
Palestinian population out of Israel, the Zionist
dream will come to its end and pretty soon.
Those hawks also realise that once Iran gets a hold of
a nuclear capacity, Israel’s ability to maintain its
status as a ‘regional terror-inflicting power’, would
disappear overnight. Netanyahu’s cabinet members grasp
that if Israel wants to survive as a Jewish ethnocracy
and a regional super power, Israel must confront Iran
soon and ethnically cleanse Palestine of its
indigenous population, in an act that will complete
the objectives of the 1948 Nakba. Israeli hawks who
currently dominate Netanyahu’s government and Israeli
politics realise that a bond with America can only
restrict and even jeopardize their sinister plans for
the region.
It is obviously hard to predict Israel’s next move.
However it is crucial to remember that at the heart of
the Zionist collective narrative we find Biblical
stories like that of Samson, a tale of a suicidal
genocidal character. Samson is the Jewish Hercules. He
was granted some tremendous strength by God to combat
the Jew’s enemies and to perform some ‘heroic’ feats
unachievable by ordinary humans. He wrestles a lion,
he slays an entire army with only a donkey’s jawbone
and eventually when the time is ripe, he commits mass
murder. Single handedly he crushes a Philistine temple
killing thousands, including the elderly, women,
children and himself.
I do not know whether Lieberman regards himself to be
the new Samson. Looking at his recent picture, he is
probably not fit enough to fight a lion. However, the
genocidal tendency together with suicidal inclination
is absolutely there.