By Ali Karbalaei

Israel on the path to "collapse"

March 4, 2023 - 20:53

TEHRAN- The apartheid Israeli regime has recently been rocked by many scandals that experts predict will hasten its collapse.

Measures taken by scandal-hit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid punishment in court has seen hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers take to the streets across the occupied Palestinian territories for at least seven weeks now.

The on-going demonstrations have turned violent with settlers engaging in heavy clashes with the regime’s forces.

Last month, the regime’s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned of a "civil war in Israel" and called for talks to be held on Netanyahu's amendments.

"A settlement can be reached regarding the judicial amendments," Bennett said. "There are things that must be fixed and changed, but we should not go from one extreme to another."

"The majority wants amendments, not a change of the system," Benett added, warning of civil war breaking out "over nothing".

The regime’s former attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, says he believes that the current security dilemma has just started, warning that there will be "bloodshed".

According to Israeli media, Mandelblit said, "We are only at the beginning. Things will deteriorate further, and there will be bloodshed inside Israel."

The Knesset (the Israeli parliament) is attempting to overturn the occupation regime's so-called judicial system. 63 members of the Knesset, more than the absolute majority of the quorum, voted in favor of the bill during the first reading.

The move is aimed at strengthening the Knesset, where Netanyahu’s extremist coalition has a majority, as well as the executive body, in order to bypass the Supreme Court's decisions.

Knesset members will also enjoy more powers in the process of appointing judges as a result of Netanyahu’s measures.

The protest organizers argue that Netanyahu aims to use the reforms in order to get rid of a series of charges against himself that date back to 2019. The charges and scandals include fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

According to the organizers, in the most recent demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of settlers protested in Tel Aviv and other settlements throughout the occupied territories, including in al-Quds (Jerusalem). The rallies have been held outside President Isaac Herzog's residence.

Herzog has called on Netanyahu's fascist cabinet to suspend the reforms and hold talks with the opposition in a bid to reach some middle ground. While the ruling cabinet has not ruled out dialogue, it has refused to suspend or postpone the votes on the reforms.

The Israeli president has warned that the situation in the entity is about to explode.

"We are not in a political debate anymore. We are on the brink of a social and constitutional collapse. The powder keg is about to explode," Herzog said.

Netanyahu's political opponents have condemned the measures as a means of "canceling the courts."

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has strongly condemned the proposed reforms, saying they are an attempt for the premier to escape ongoing corruption trials.

"The fact they have a majority in parliament doesn't mean...they can erase the Supreme Court just because the prime minister has been indicted," Lapid said.

The so-called reforms are paving the way for other issues that will be of grave concern for the regime.

Experts have been warning that Netanyahu's actions will lead to long-term damage to Israel's economic growth as well as the Israeli settlers’ standard of living.

Israeli economists published the warning that the regime has reached a status heading towards a financial meltdown and that Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition could have grave implications for the economy.

“Since we published our first petition, there are many growing indications that the damage to the economy could manifest itself more powerfully and faster than we expected,” they warned.

“Even if the markets eventually stabilize in the short term, experience from other countries where judicial and financial institutions were harmed, and research from recent decades shows that we can expect long-term damage to economic growth and Israelis’ standard of living,” the experts pointed out.

The value of the Israeli currency, the shekel has plunged to a three-year low against the dollar, forcing companies to pull their money out of Israeli accounts, as investors and leading high-tech entrepreneurs withdraw their capital fearing a weakened court system and rule of law.

Signatories of the economic warning are the prominent Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman and former two-term Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel.

Other economists have been warning that the radical measures could lead to reduced investments in the occupation’s different industries.

Critics have said giving power to Netanyahu far right cabinet in the Knesset will escalate even further the deadly developments with the Palestinians.

While the bill still needs to pass the second and third readings in the Knesset, the Israeli settlers' have already taken advantage by going on a recent rampage in the occupied West Bank, which left one Palestinian murdered and Palestinian cars, homes, and businesses torched to the ground.

The representative ambassador of the European Union in Palestine joined the chorus of international condemnation in calling for accountability and for perpetrators to be brought to justice after the rampage.

Ambassador Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, heading one of the biggest EU delegations to visit the West Bank, said the officials wanted to see with their own eyes the damage left by the Feb. 26 violence in and around the Palestinian village of Huwara.

"It is absolutely necessary for us that accountability is fully ensured, that the perpetrators be brought to justice, that those who lost property be compensated," Kuhn von Burgsdorff said.

The UN human rights chief denounced the "unfathomable" call by an Israeli minister for a flashpoint Palestinian town to be "wiped out".

The Israeli extreme-right settler, who also happens to be the regime's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made the comments, days after Palestinians staged a retaliatory operation in Huwara in the occupied West Bank and where settlers later went on the rampage.

In addition to a Palestinian being murdered, more than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

"I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out," Smotrich said. "I think the State of Israel should do it."

UN rights chief Volker Turk, speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, denounced Smotrich's comments as "an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility".

Since the start of the year, Israel has murdered at least 65 Palestinian adults and children.

Israel, meanwhile, did not have a representative at the UN Rights Council to listen to the devastating presentation against it.

"In the near future, there must be an end to settlements in occupied land... the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is a tragedy above all for the Palestinian people," Turk insisted.

“My report finds that over the reporting period, lethal force has been frequently employed by the Israeli security forces (ISF) regardless of the level of threat and at times even as an initial measure rather than as last resort,” Turk added.

“My office has also documented several cases of apparent extrajudicial targeted killings by members of the ISF,” he said.

“The report finds that 131 Palestinians were killed by ISF personnel over the past year in a context of law enforcement that is outside any context of hostilities. This includes 65 people who we understand were not armed nor engaged in any attacks or clashes.

“The occupation is eating away at the health of both societies on every level, from childhood to old age and in every part of life. For this violence to end, the occupation must end. On all sides, there are people who know this.” Turk reported.