The things National Missions Minister Orit Strock said to Army Radio on Wednesday attest to the stuff that the Religious Zionism party and government are made of. "A government that tells soldiers who went to war that's it's throwing it away to save 22 people or 33 people has no right to exist," she said shamelessly.
Both what she said and the way she said it reflect a contempt for human lives, which for Strock are no more than numbers. By her logic, issues of life and death, for those who have been rotting for some seven months in Hamas captivity, become a cost-benefit analysis – her benefit, of course.
For her, the greatest disaster ever to befall Israel since it was established is simply an opportunity to realize the dreams of transfer, occupation, and resettlement.
She displayed no sensitivity to the hostages, their families, and the Israel Defense Forces soldiers, in whose name she purported to speak, nor to the fallen soldiers, whose death she brazenly appropriated.
"A reckless deal that turns its back on the war's goals," Strock said, although bringing back the hostages is one of the war's two declared goals. But the war goals of Strock and her ideological colleagues – Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and their likes – are not congruous with the war goals presented by the government.
They see the war, with the destruction, death, and devastation it brings, as an opportunity to implement objectives that are contrary to the interests of Israel and its people.
At the basis of Strock's and her colleagues' messianic, nationalist and racist vision is the "absolute elimination" of the Arabs Smotrich yearned this week to "blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven" and for Jewish settlement throughout the land, from the river to the sea. This nightmare should keep every Israeli who sees their future here awake at night.
If Israeli society wants to live, it must send people of Strock's, Smotrich's and Ben Gvir's ilk back to the fringes of society, from where they emerged. The one who moved them to center stage is the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – who sold his soul to fanatic, racist messianism in exchange for power. He is the father of all sin.
The hostages in Gaza are not supposed to be measured in terms of cost-benefit, which reflects contempt for human life, because they are part of the Israeli soul that still sanctifies life rather than blood and soil. Strock and her colleagues object to a hostage-prisoner swap deal because they object to the sane, normal way in which the state's affairs must be conducted.
The only way to overcome the force of those trying to sabotage the deal is to activate more public force and increase the public presence in the streets. It's either Strock and her friends, or the hostages.
Source : Haaretz
Link : https://archive.md/w1hgx
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