Far-right ethnonationalist Lebensraum, Israeli edition
Perhaps the Redditors were right: Nazism is short for (Na)tional (Zi)onism.
Any U.S. high school student who passed world history class will comprehend the utmost basic background of Nazi Germany’s aims in the 1930s: Hitler’s imperialist-expansion campaign for ethnonationalist ends entailed the seizure of other countries to expand “living space” for Germans. Yet the majority of the American population, which as of typing, remains in strident support for the neofascist State of Israel.1
Consistently in Western countries of contemporary times, it is common to observe the youthful generations as plainly of liberal sympathies relative to their elders. Yet the State of Israel witnesses the direct opposite: the majority of centrist and left-wing opposition to Netanyahu’s policies stem from older voting blocs, while three-quarters of 18-24 year-olds identifed as right-wing.2 And far-right racial supremacism among the ultra-Orthodox, hardline Zionist youth is no suprise, considering “a 2021 study of 16-18 year-olds by the aChord Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that 42 percent of religious Jews and 66 percent of Ultra-orthodox Jewish people ‘hated’ Arabs.”3
Extremist right-wing fanaticism is directly responsible for settlement policies enabling the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs. The 2019 elections demonstrated that—unsurprisingly enough—the rightist parties (namely Likud) were most popular among the over-three hundred thousand settlers who voted.4 Then there was the American citizen Jacob Fauci, a self-boasted Trumpist and (horribly obese) native of Long Island, infamously exposed for squatting in the Sheikh Jarrah home of Palestinian resident Mona el-Kurd and notably admitting to outright theft:5
If I don't steal it, someone else is going to steal it. —Yaakov Fauci
Fascinating how being born with the surname “Fauci” is apparently correlated with descending into a career criminal bent on destroying livelihoods. Oh, also, in case you think the militant-supremacist complex is only present in Israel:
The Oct. 7 attack served as nothing more than ad hoc vehicle for militant Zionism, ostensibly cementing the hard right Israeli narrative that violent ethnic cleansing is a justifiable move against Palestinians. Settler violence against Arabs, already rampant earlier in 2023, spiked in the wake of Oct. 7.6 Their master patron saint, the right-wing extremist politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, was reprimanded by family members of Oct. 7 hostages to “stop talking about killing Arabs.”7 In the nation’s already-toxic political cauldron of mainstreamed reactionism, 60% of Jewish Israelis in a Feb. 2024 poll did not believe in prioritizing the return of hostages over the continuation of destroying Gaza (which of course was code-worded as “destroying Hamas”).8
Even while polls showed Israelis as late as Dec. 2023 by a margin of over 20 percentage points opposing efforts to resettle Gaza amidst the current war,9 it ought to be remembered that Oct. 7 did not in Israel spark a moderation of fanatical right-wing reactionism, but rather a rightward radicalization of liberals and centrists. Support for a two-state solution inverted from 61-30% support to 65-25% opposition over the past decade.10 The Oct. 7 attack overnight became the ever-more-convenient excuse for the Israeli far right to justify their years-long anti-Arab bigotry, insisting that the pogrom demonstrated at long last the untenable effort of conciliation.
This is a snippet of what Human Rights Watch reported on Israeli right-wing extremism, manifested in the form of settler violence:11
Israeli settlers have assaulted, tortured, and committed sexual violence against Palestinians, stolen their belongings and livestock, threatened to kill them if they did not leave permanently, and destroyed their homes and schools under the cover of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza. Many Palestinians, including entire communities, have fled their homes and lands. The military has not assured displaced residents that it will protect their security or allow them to return, forcing them to live in precarious conditions elsewhere.
When in Jan. 2024 Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party leader and Minister of National Socialism- er, National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, openly justified the “the migration of the residents of Gaza” as “a correct, just, moral and humane solution” and admitted, “not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing,”12 it was as plain as a confession can get. No wonder Ben-Gvir and fellow ethnosupremacist pal Smotrich were likened by a Knesset member to 1930s-era Nazi purveyors of Lebensraum policy.13
Laura Silver, Scott Keeter, Jordan Lippert, Besheer Mohamed (Mar. 21, 2024), “Views of the U.S. role in the Israel-Hamas war,” Pew Research Center.
Claire Porter Robbins (Feb. 23, 2023), “How Israeli youth helped usher in the farthest right-wing government ever,” Vox.
Sarah Little (Oct. 31, 2022), “‘People Are Going More Extreme’: Young Israelis Are More Right-Wing Than Ever,” Vice.
Tovah Lazaroff (Apr. 22, 2019), “10 things to know about how the settlers voted,” The Jerusalem Post.
Rayhan Uddin (May 26, 2021), “Who is Yaakov Fauci, the New Yorker squatting in Sheikh Jarrah?” Middle East Eye.
Zack Beauchamp (Nov. 9, 2023), “In the West Bank, Israeli settlers are on an anti-Palestinian rampage,” Vox.
Ariella Marsden (Nov. 20, 2023), “Terrorist death penalty debate risks hostages, families charge Otzma Yehudit,” The Jerusalem Post.
Sam Sokol (Feb. 6, 2024), “Slim majority believes return of hostages should be primary war aim in Gaza — poll,” The Times of Israel.
Yair Rosenberg (Dec. 22, 2023), “The Right-Wing Israeli Campaign to Resettle Gaza,” The Atlantic.
Benedict Vigers (Dec. 22, 2023), “Life in Israel After Oct. 7 in 5 Charts,” Gallup.
Apr. 17, 2024, “West Bank: Israel Responsible for Rising Settler Violence,” Human Rights Watch.
Sam Sokol (Jan. 1, 2024), “Far-right ministers call to ‘resettle’ Gaza’s Palestinians, build settlements in Strip,” The Times of Israel.
Ibid.