Israel: What a Difference between Now and Then!

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has recently asked all its embassies around the world to get ready to launch a public relation campaign ‘to repair’ the Israeli image and reputation which have reached horrifying low ebb that is negatively affecting Israeli ‘national security’!! The Ministry has doubled the public relation budget to run this international campaign. It also asked its embassies to rally the ‘die hard’ supporters of the Zionist state from among the Jewish communities, fundamentalist Christians who call themselves the ‘Zionist Christians’, journalists and politicians to join this campaign. An increasing number of people around the world now see Israel in the same image of the most despised and hated regimes of the past twentieth century, the Nazi regime and the South African apartheid system. For their part, Israeli officials believe that this image is in dire need for beautifying touches. Yet, regardless of the touches needed, the ugliness of this Israeli image seems to be beyond reparation.

The world used to view Israel in the past as a small and democratic country trying to survive in the middle of ‘a feudalistic barbaric’ region filled with ‘corruption’. This image now seems to be changing with the world seeing Israel as a colonial occupier, an apartheid regime, an abuser of religion stealing Palestinian lands and a killer and jailor of thousands of Palestinian children (and many others).

Most recently, the Israeli press and news media described Israel as a country being governed by very corrupt politicians who could not handle a fire in the forest of Haifa, but could arrogantly risk to “start a war which might bring thousands of rockets falling on all major cities of Israel”. Furthermore, one of the main issues currently debated in Israel is the rise of the “organized crime” and its progressive dominance over Israeli politicians. The two main criminal groups according to Israeli news media are: “The Abu-Rjeili Family and The Russian Mafia”. Drugs, prostitution and money laundering are producing billions of dollars in profits which desperately need to be cleaned for a price! Another issue discussed openly in the Israeli press relates to religious Jews who are producing seven or ten children in each family ‘to match the Arab birth rate’, but they refuse to work or serve in the Israeli military because they are only devoted to the ‘study of the Torah’.

The transformation of the Zionist entity from a secular state into a religious state which began in the 1970s under the Likud party has encouraged Muslim fundamentalists “to take up arms demanding religious states of their own”. This transformation has also turned the Arab / Israeli conflict into a ‘fight till death’ which can only end, according to some fundamentalist and even secular groups, by “weapons of mass destruction” hitting “major cities in America and Israel, as well”. The notion of such a ‘fight’ between fundamentalists from both sides of the spectrum has now drawn attention of  the ‘Christian Right’ in the USA who call themselves ‘Christian Zionists’ and are eager to see an “Armageddon” in the Middle East with a river of blood which they believe would bring the ‘ Second Coming’. These so-called Christians and Christianity are absolutely innocent of their self- fabricated beliefs,  formed the republican base that supported the election of  former US president George Bush the son. They are the most ardent supporters of the neo-conservatives who won the recent congressional elections.

All secular western countries are Christian states in the eyes of many Muslims because of the ‘Christian Crusades’ that came in the past to plunder the ‘Muslim East’ in the name of religion. Seeing Israel robbing the Palestinians of their land and freedom with ‘western Christian help’, Al Qaeda militant organization raised up with the ‘the New Jewish / Christian crusade’ slogan which has been attracting thousands of Muslims who are ready ‘to die in defending Islam’. The emergence of the ‘Zionist Christians”, has now ‘confirmed’ Bin Laden’s slogan which is resonating throughout the Arab Islamic World. A conflict between fundamentalists who are hell bent on trying to remove each other is indeed “a fight till death”, thanks mainly to the Israeli colonial / Jewish fundamentalist policy.

Israel is currently losing its legitimacy as a state with more nations casting doubt on its status in many ways. On the other hand, some world governments are now recognizing the 1967 borders as the official borderline of the Palestinian state, raising doubt on the legality of the self-claimed Israeli borders, thus, making Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestinian and Arab lands null and void. Meanwhile, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, thanks to the Palestinian civil society movement, has grown to become the current policy of many civil society and non-governmental organizations.