The phoenix-like rise of Benjamin Netanyahu from the ashes of defeat a few years ago really is the defining story of the nation of Israel as it has gone from a state created for the preservation and safety of the Jewish people to one wholly dedicated to the open genocide of Palestinians.
Israel’s far-right finance minister’s call for a Palestinian town “to be erased” was harshly condemned by US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday, who described the comments as “repugnant” and “irresponsible.”
Bezalel Smotrich, who also leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, said earlier on Wednesday that the Palestinian town of Huwara “needs to be erased.”
The incendiary comment was in reference to the town in the occupied West Bank where two Israeli brothers were shot and killed on Sunday, prompting a rampage through the area by Israeli Jewish settlers that left at least one Palestinian man dead, others injured, and homes and cars burned.
Smotrich was asked Wednesday why he had liked a post on Twitter after the brothers were shot, but before the settler rampage, saying that Huwara should be erased.
“I think the village of Huwara needs to be erased,” he told a reporter at a conference run the Israeli business magazine The Marker. “I think the State of Israel needs to do this, and not – God forbid – private citizens.”
Price issued a strong condemnation from the US State Department podium Wednesday, saying, “I want to be very clear about this. These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting.”
“And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence,” he said at a State Department briefing.
Price also called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments.”
“We condemn, as we have consistently, terrorism and extremism in all of its forms, and we continue to urge that there be equal measures of accountability for extremist actions, regardless of the backgrounds of the perpetrators or the victims,” he said.
Netanyahu built his comeback along with Israel's far-right fascists who want to see Palestinians wiped off the face of the Earth in a precarious coalition of zealots, revanchists and hardliners, so he can't push too hard or it will all come down. On the other hand, the Biden administration is making it very clear that there are big red lines and that crossing them will cost Netanyahu dearly.
Without US support, Israel is in dire trouble. But without his rogue's gallery of a cabinet, Netanyahu is in trouble himself.
Don't expect the situation to get much better here, and for it to get infinitely worse for Palestinians.
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