Jacob Cohen to Algeria 54: Palestine will never exist as an independent and viable state until Zionism is defeated, militarily or diplomatically.
By Mehdi Messaoudi -March 30, 2023
As usual, the journalist and author of “Printemps des sayanim” jACOB cOHEN? returns in an interview with Algérie 54, to the explosive situation in Israel in the wake of the judicial reform project initiated by Benjamin Netanyahu, the development the Palestinian question, the demonstrations in France, the emerging new world order, and the withdrawal of the organization of the U 20 World Cup from Indonesia.
Algeria 54: The Israeli Prime Minister has just announced the temporary suspension of the judicial reform project, without succeeding in calming the boiling street. How do you read this latest act of this escalation between the Israeli far-right government and the opposition?
Jacob Cohen: To me, the current crisis resembles the attempt by the Zionist, Israeli, global deep state to prevent a democratically elected government with a clear majority from carrying out its agenda. I would even say to disqualify him for a generation. And the “color revolution” he initiated was extraordinarily effective. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis believed in it and mobilized to “save” democracy. You only have to see the relays on the international level to measure the implication of this deep state. For one main reason. With the new government, the Zionist regime lost the “democratic” veneer it boasts to the Western world. A veneer both internally and vis-à-vis the Palestinians. Tolerant country and supporter of the two-state solution. The new government is frankly racist, colonialist, imperialist, expansionist, religious, messianic, fundamentalist and homophobic. Israelis are schizophrenic. In reality, 90% of Jewish Israelis are like that, but they have a reverse image of it. They want to see themselves in the image of their propaganda. And they woke up hungover in front of the mirror held up to them by the election result. Judicial reform was an excellent pretext. First, everyone recognized that reform was necessary. Israel has become a government of judges. Then the opposition did not want to negotiate with the government except to suspend the legislative process and send it back indefinitely. It seems that she played with fire and triggered a devastating process for which the whole country will pay the price.
Algeria 54: For many observers, the withdrawal from the judicial reform project is synonymous with the political end of Benjamin Netanyahu and therefore the end of the far-right coalition. What is your opinion on the subject?
Jacob Cohen: I don’t believe it. Netanyahu is a formidable politician. What he did was not a retreat. He only suspended his project until July and opened negotiations with the opposition before the president of the state. This one is obliged to find a compromise except to discredit itself and let the country disintegrate. Moreover, the coalition did not collapse. And even organized a counter-demonstration that brought together more than 100,000 people. Several of his bills were passed in the meantime, including the creation of a national guard entrusted to an extremist minister. Finally the reform receives a lot of support at all levels which the media do not talk about. The “color revolution” in my opinion has not achieved its goal.
Algeria 54: Voices are raised in Israel to classify the far-right organizations “La Familia” and “Lehava” as terrorist organizations. Is this a harbinger of the dislocation of the Jewish state?
Jacob Cohen: These voices must be very much in the minority. There have been several “left” governments before and none have dared to do this. We should therefore not expect this government to classify these organizations as “terrorists”, a qualification reserved for Palestinian or far-left Jewish organizations. We come back to the same problem. These two organizations express the deep soul of a majority of Israelis, for whom the Arabs are like the Indians of the Wild West, they can only be trusted when they are dead. And some Israelis add: Even forty years after their death.
Algeria 54: The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said in a revealing report published on Tuesday (March 28th) that the number of Israelis seeking asylum abroad had increased dramatically in the wake of mass protest rallies in the occupied territories against the controversial plan of Netanyahu aimed at hijacking the justice system. What do you think?
Jacob Cohen: In fact, the phenomenon of emigration dates back several years or even decades. It is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 Israelis have left their country. And many Israelis dream of moving abroad. Life in Israel is harsh, the society is a “jungle” according to a popular expression. Some European countries have involuntarily accelerated this movement of expatriation. Germany and Poland, Shoah oblige, grant their passport to any descendant of the Jews of these countries of the 1940s. Spain and Portugal do the same (historical culpability) for the Jews because of their expulsion in 1492. C is completely contrived but it works. I know of personal examples of Jews of Moroccan origin born in Israel who obtained a Portuguese passport. There is also a whole class of secular, educated Israelis working in technology sectors who have emigrated by the thousands to Europe or who have European passports just in case. This paradoxically leads to the strengthening of religious and extremist sectors which produce a lot of children.
Algeria 54: Gideon Levy has just published a column on the columns of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which he underlines that a true democracy is equivalent to the destruction of Israel and also the end of Jewish supremacism. What do you think?
Jacob Cohen: If the Haaretz columnist means by true democracy the equality of Israelis before the law and other privileges, including the Arab minority, as well as respect for international law vis-à-vis the Palestinians, then yes, c is the end of Israel and of Jewish supremacy. It should not be forgotten that the Zionist ideology, from its establishment in Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century, contained the seeds of discrimination against non-Jewish populations and their expulsion when the time came. Israel Jewish and democratic State is a vast humbug. And it is getting worse. The law on the nation of the Jewish people adopted in 2018 establishes a certain type of apartheid. For example, a municipality declaring itself “Jewish” can prohibit any Israeli Arab citizen from living there. And everything in daily practice is based on discrimination tinged with contempt for Israeli Arab “citizens”.
Algeria 54: This Thursday, March 30, Palestinians commemorate the 47th anniversary of Land Day. A commemoration which coincides with the rise of repression in the occupied Palestinian territories, the return of the policy of colonization and the debate on a bill aimed at lowering the age of imprisonment to less than fourteen years for Palestinian children. This prompts us to mention the case of Palestinian detainees on hunger strike, administrative detention and the imprisonment of Palestinian children. What will Jacob Cohen say to sum up the human rights situation in Occupied Palestine in the face of the silence of the international community?
Jacob Cohen: This is unfortunately a painful subject from which we do not see the outcome, at least in the short term. And neither the Arabs in general nor the Palestinians in particular make a lucid analysis of the problem. Palestine will never exist as an independent and viable state until Zionism is defeated, militarily or diplomatically. The overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis, left and right alike, are viscerally against it. Let’s see the reality. 2/3 of the West Bank is under Israeli authority with 800,000 settlers. Who can believe for a moment that the Zionist regime will bring back even 10% of them. To believe that Palestine can live in peace alongside Israel is disarmingly naïve. The best it can hope for as things stand is a bantustan under a Zionist protectorate. I regret to repeat myself, but the Palestinians should abandon all illusions, renounce the 2-state solution, hand over the entire West Bank to the Zionists, and fight peacefully for one man one vote, like in South Africa. I assure you that the spectacle of a real Zionist occupation army managing all the problems of the Palestinians would be intolerable in the eyes of the world. It is a prospect that frightens all Western chancelleries. Why are hundreds of millions poured into this Authority every year? To maintain this illusion. We must stop waiting for the solution of the international community. There is only room for the strong.
Algeria 54: France and Israel share the similarity of repression and stubbornness of Netanyahu and Macron. What would you say on this subject?
Jacob Cohen: I don’t necessarily share that view. Macron follows an agenda imposed by Brussels and Washington, even at the cost of destroying France, its industry, its nuclear know-how, its finances, its public services. What interest had France to apply sanctions against Russia, which ultimately backfire, leading to cascading bankruptcies and impoverishing the French? France is no longer an independent country in control of its destiny. It is just a province of Brussels. Add to that the psychopathic character of Macron and you ensure the descent into hell. Macron’s repression is directed against his own people. Helpless demonstrators are blinded or have their hands torn off. We can think what we want of Netanyahu, but he remains a leader who defends the interests of his country, does not allow himself to be manipulated by foreigners and represses peoples other than his own. This is not very moral, but we are on the ground of political Machiavellianism.
Algeria 54: For many observers, the new world order is irreversible. China seems determined to play the role that suits it in relation to its economic weight on the international scene. She has just pulled off a very good diplomatic coup by bringing Iran closer to Saudi Arabia. A rapprochement that will isolate Israel and sign the effervescence of the normalization of certain Arab countries with Israel. What is your reading?
Jacob Cohen: The new world order is taking hold with extraordinary speed. The war in Ukraine was a tremendous accelerator. For Russia to stand up to NATO draws China into a real, very long-term strategic alliance with Russia, because it knows that if Russia collapses, it will be next in line. And this is the reasoning held by several other countries who know that their financial reserves depend on the goodwill of the Americans, that the use of the dollar as a reserve currency condemns them to undergo Yankee legal unilateralism. Even Saudi Arabia has followed this path, which began a year ago. She refused to increase her oil production which would have embarrassed Russia. It welcomed the Chinese leader with great fanfare and agreed to sell its oil in yuan. It engages in a peaceful relationship with Iran, thereby destroying the entire American-Zionist strategy of forming a front of the Gulf monarchies against the Iranian Republic. She has just joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. As a result, the UAE has already reduced its security cooperation with Israel. “Normalizations” in this region will be reduced to their simplest expression. Not to mention that several countries, fifteen including Algeria according to Lavrov, are already knocking on the door of the BRICS.
Algeria54: Indonesia has just given a lesson to the Arab countries which have normalized with Israel, by refusing to welcome the Israeli team, qualified for the U20 World Cup, on its soil. Is this a reversal with its harmful consequences on the strategy of Israeli normalization, via sport?
Jacob Cohen: The Indonesian action is a happy surprise, and of great political courage, because the consequences can be serious for the country, on the sporting level. But it is a gesture of inestimable significance that strikes people’s minds, because it challenges a lot of countries who pretend that things are finally getting better. And he also challenges the major international sports organizations, quick to boycott the Russians and complacent with the crimes committed by the Israelis. The “double standard” is obvious here. If a dozen Arab and African states joined in this boycott, things would take a nasty turn for Israel.
Interview conducted by M.Mehdi
Translated from https://algerie54.dz/2023/03/30/interview-avec-jacob-cohen/
