The international support for the coalition which makes up the new government of Israel is misguided. It is based on an unrealistic expectation that a particular government will agree to bring about the “pie in the sky” myth of peace and prosperity and the Two State Solution. However, the Zionist apartheid system cannot be changed within the Zionist state and no solution to the injustice that plagues Palestine can be found within the Zionist system itself.

One important fact that is regularly overlooked by people who talk about Israel is that the State of Israel governs a majority of Palestinians, while either pretending they do not exist or treating them as though they are an insignificant minority population. Few if any of the government agencies within the Zionist state care for or care about the needs of the Palestinian citizens of the State. In fact, rarely do Palestinians and their vital interests get any attention or representation in state institutions.

Moreover, even when government agencies and news outlets that are run by the Zionists have an “expert on Arab affairs” it is rarely a Palestinian. And so, even though the new government coalition has been applauded as inclusive because it includes an Arab Islamic party, there should be no expectation that it will serve the needs of the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel.

Ra’am, or the United Arab List, which is the one Palestinian political party that is part of the Bennett coalition represents the Southern branch of the Islamic movement in Palestine. Ra’am is the one Arab political party that is included in the coalition and there are several indications that point to the dissatisfaction with Ra’am decision among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The one umbrella organization that represents the Palestinian citizens of Israel is the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Affairs. Its members include leaders of the various political and civic organizations within the 1948 Palestinian community. The decision taken by Ra’am to join the coalition led by Bennett caused some members of the Follow Up committee to call for its expulsion. According to a report in the Arabic publication Arab-48, Ahmed Khalifa of the Abna’a El-Balad movement, which initiated the move to expel Ra’am members, said:

“We in Abna’a El-Balad do not see that there is a place for any of the vehicles of the Israeli government in the Follow Up committee… The legitimacy of the Follow Up Committee is mainly because it is a unitary body that struggles in the face of Israeli governments.”

Even within Ra’am there are disagreements regarding their decision to join the coalition. Knesset member Sa’id Elharoumi, whose abstention from the vote made it possible for the coalition to move forward, is now expressing serious concerns about the government and there are reports that he might resign.

It should be noted that The Southern faction of the Islamic Movement in Palestine is vastly different from the Northern branch which is headed by Sheikh Ra’ed Salah. The Northern Branch was outlawed by Israel for its stance against the apartheid state and Sheikh Ra’ed Salah is constantly persecuted and has been imprisoned by the Zionist state for his anti-Zionist activities.

The inclusion of Ra’am in the coalition should be viewed as exploitation of the Palestinian politicians which Zionists are willing tolerate in their midst. This so-called inclusion of Arabs in the coalition is a combination of Zionist racism and a lack of integrity of the members of Ra’am.

The Zionists have been displacing the indigenous people of the Naqab and giving their lands to Jewish settlers and the Israeli army for decades.

The Naqab region, which makes up the entire southern half of Palestine represents one of the serious fault lines within the new coalition. Ra’am supposedly represents the Palestinian citizens of the Southern region, which make up more than a quarter of a million people. The Center and Right Wing members of the coalition government wish to enforce what they call a “settlement” that will solve the “problem” of the Palestinian-Beduin towns and villages in the Naqab.

The Zionists have been displacing the indigenous people of the Naqab and giving their lands to Jewish settlers and the Israeli army for decades. The “settlement” of the Beduin problem means displacement and relocation into crowded, poverty stricken townships.

The Palestinian Beduin want to remain on their ancestral lands and Ra’am, which is supposed to represents their interests is sitting in a government that is intent and indeed pressured by the public to act with decisiveness against the “lawless” Beduin. If history tells us anything it is that when Zionism clashes with the indigenous Palestinians, the sheer force of the Zionists always wins. One can be assured that unless an outside power intervenes, this time things will be no different.

The office of Jumaa Alzbarqa is in the southern city of Bir Al-Saba in the Naqab. He is a former member of the Israeli Knesset and he heads the office of the National Democratic Alliance, or Balad. Alzbarqa is from Laqiya, which is a small Palestinian Bedouin town near Bir Al-Saba.

When we met he told me about a conversation he had with another member of Knesset from the “leftists” Zionist party, Meretz. “I suggested that we co-sponsor a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on home demolitions in the Naqab,” Alzbarqa said. However, the Meretz member said he would allow the legitimizing of “illegal construction,” which is code for Palestinian construction.

Regardless of the negligent lack of housing for Palestinians citizens of Israel, Israeli authorities refuse Palestinians when they apply for building permits giving them no choice but to build without a permit. According to a report published in 2020 over 2,000 Palestinian homes are demolished in the Naqab each year.

Naftali Bennett is an Israeli ultranationalist politician, born on March 25, 1972, in Haifa to a Jewish family migrated from the United States. He attended the Yavne Yeshiva High School in Haifa, becoming a youth leader with the religious Zionist youth organization Bnei Akiva. Bennet and his family are followers of Orthodox Judaism.

Bennett graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with a degree in law. He served in the Sayeret Matkal Unit, the elite unit of the Israeli army, which is in charge of carrying out critical operations. Much later in 2018, this unit would come under the spotlight when Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip uncovered two of its vans, which hid intelligence equipment and a dozen Israeli special forces, resulting in the killing of one of the Israeli commanders.

Naftali Bennett served as a commander in Lebanon and the West Bank. In 1996, his force came under mortar fire in Lebanon. Following the shelling of the area by the Israeli army to cover his force, the shells hit the UN compound in the village, killing 102 Lebanese civilians.

Bennett owes his wealth to two information and data protection companies, which he co-owned. Cyota was sold for $145 million and Soluto, where he served as CEO, was sold for $100 million.

Bennett began his political life in 2005 when he was appointed the head of Benjamin Netanyahu’s team, then leader of the Israeli opposition. He led Netanyahu’s Likud party in the primary elections, which he won, paving the way for Netanyahu to become Israel’s prime minister in 2009.

In 2013, Bennet came under fire for saying, “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”

In the same year, Bennet was appointed the director general of the Yesha Council, the main settler advocacy group in the West Bank. He advocated for annexing Area C of the West Bank, which comprises nearly 60% of the territory. Throughout his political life, Bennett has served as the head of a number of political parties, including the Jewish Home (2013-2018), the New Right (2018-2019), Yamina (2019), New Right (2019-2020), and again Yamina (2020-present).

Between 2013 and 2020, Bennett served as minister of economy, minister of religious services, minister of diaspora affairs, minister of education, and minister of defense.

In 2013, Bennet came under fire for saying, “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”

Bennet told the Israeli television channel Keshet 12 (Channel 12) that a war in Gaza would lead his coalition to collapse because the United Arab List, which is part of the coalition, would not support it.

He believes that the relationship with the United States is strategic to Israel, but he has also noted that Israel’s security comes first, and that Israel should not care about what the world has to say about it vis-à-vis Iran.

Bennett describes himself as “more right-wing than Mr. Netanyahu.”

Bennett has described himself as “more right-wing than Mr. Netanyahu.” He is also an advocate of keeping Israel a Jewish state and controlling the Syrian Golan Heights.

“As long as I have any power and control, I won’t hand over one centimeter of land of the Land of Israel,” he said in an interview in February 2021.“There are some things that we all know will never happen … The Sopranos will never return for another season … And a peace agreement with the Palestinians will not happen,” he continued.

Bennett’s vision for the Palestinians is made of a number of points. First, the annexation of most of the occupied West Bank, which will allow Jewish settlers to remain there and give Israel control over water resources.

He is in favor of squeezing most West Bank Palestinians into urban enclaves with limited control over their lives. A few tens of thousands of Palestinians would be granted Israeli citizenship, to “counter any claims of apartheid,” his vision reads.

Bennett notes that no connection between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should be established, and that Israel should continue to have full security control there. He is staunchly against the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He supports improving the living conditions of the Palestinians, rather than giving them a state. In an interview with the Guardian in 2017, Bennett said there would not be a Palestinian state on his watch. “It’s just not going to happen. A Palestinian state would be a disaster for the next 200 years.”

In 2013, Bennett stated that Palestinian “terrorists should be killed, not released,” and in 2018, Bennett thought Israeli forces at the Gaza fence should have a “shoot to kill” policy, which also includes minors.

For Palestinians, it does not matter if Israel’s prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu or Naftali Bennett as their policies are ostensibly the same. Bennett has been inspired ideologically by Netanyahu’s approach of annexation and he has served as a minister under Netanyahu five times.

The upcoming Israeli elections – the fourth in two years – bring little promise of change. These elections bring to mind the famous saying that trying to do something over and over again while expecting different results is a sign of madness. Anyone who expects that the existing Zionist political spectrum will give rise to a progressive or even a slightly liberal coalition lives in a fantasy world. Even Israelis realize that the possibility of change does not exist. The only purpose for calling for elections at this point is to allow Benyamin Netanyahu to remain in office.

When Netanyahu signed the current coalition agreement, which allowed him to remain prime minister, it was obvious that he had no intentions of keeping his word and that at the first opportunity he would break the coalition agreements and dissolve the coalition. New elections mean his coalition partner, former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief General Benny Gatnz, will never take his place as prime minister.

Now, Netanyahu got what he wanted and General Gantz has shown himself to be spineless and pitiful – not surprising for a general who made a career out of the indiscriminate killing and oppression of the Palestinian people. As things stand today, even the most optimistic Israelis realize that the upcoming elections are a colossal waste of time and money.

Even though the right-wing militant settlers criticize Netanyahu from time to time, they know very well that they need him in order to fulfill their own political agenda.

Israelis laugh at their own tendency to seek some new retired general in shining armor that will be their political savior every time elections are called. Many Israelis are still caught up with the admiration of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who was a glorified war criminal and eventually signed the Oslo (so-called) Peace Accords.

Israelis live in the illusion that another such hero will show up, another general with the dust of a recent war – in which he was victorious – still in his hair, and who will see the folly of war and the wisdom of making peace.

However, the myth of the late prime minister Rabin as a warrior-turned-peacemaker has become old. Rabin was no warrior; he was a war criminal and he was no peacemaker. He did everything he could to make sure that Palestinians would never see their right to self-determination materialize. Equally, there will never be any Israeli general who will fulfill that fantasy.

Naftali Bennett can win a huge political victory

Will there be a new general that will come and take over, sweeping through the Israeli political swamp and saving Israel from itself? The answer is no. There is, however, an alternative to Netanyahu that has recently presented itself. This alternative comes from the right-wing religious militant block and his name is Naftali Bennett.

According to a piece in the Israeli daily Haaretz, comparing Bennett to Netanyahu, “They both get their inspiration from the right-wing in the United States and in Israel, the Bible and Ayn Rand, and believe that the strong are right. But as a kippa-wearer and an entrepreneur who made a profitable exit, Bennett beats his rival hands down. Netanyahu might know how to quote the Bible and Ayn Rand, but Bennett fulfills them with his actions and his way of life.”

More and more opinion-makers in Israel agree that, as this article states, “Bennett is undoubtedly the most impressive Israeli politician who has emerged over the past decade.” Compared with Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose corruption has led him to indictment, Bennett is seen as a clean, honest, and caring politician, who pays his way.

Naftali Bennett is currently the chairman of HaYamin HeHadash, or the “New Right” party, and in the latest opinion polls he is predicted to win 22 of the 120 Knesset seats. If these predictions are true, it would be a huge political victory but still not enough to unseat Netanyahu. In the past, Bennett has served under Netanyahu as minister of education and later as minister of defense.

However, he has endeared himself to the Israeli public in his self-appointed role as the man in charge of leading the fight against COVID-19, a role to which Netanyahu has refused to nominate him officially. He is seen today as the leading candidate in the race for prime minister, which is unprecedented for a politician who represents not just the radical right but the religious Zionist right.