Israel invokes mythic theology to obliterate Palestinians. Why won’t the US stop its ally?

During a panel discussion at the Doha Forum 2024, the Foreign Minister of Norway, Espen Barth Eide, asserted that the solution to the Palestine question does not lie “in the continuation of the occupation” or “in the process of annexing lands”. The only way to ensure peace and coexistence in the Middle East, he said, was the establishment of an “integrated Palestinian State” that includes “the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and relevant parts from Jerusalem as enshrined in Oslo Accord”.

However, there is good reason to believe that Israel has other ideas on the matter. In January, just as Israel’s campaign of shock and awe was reaching apocalyptic proportions, Israel’s Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had asked Jewish settlers to return to Gaza after the war. He told them: “If we don’t want another October 7, we need to return home and control the land.”

Less than 10 months later, in October a two-day conference titled “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” was organised on the border of Gaza by members of Netanyahu’s Likud party and Nahala, a group whose members see themselves as the redeemers of the Biblical “Promised Land”.

At the event, Ben-Gvir warned Palestinians: “The land of Israel is ours...leave to other countries” because it is “the best and most moral...

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