GAZA (Realist English). Israel’s hatred of the Palestinians is formed and driven by three main feelings — fear, envy and anger, according to Al Jazeera political analyst Marwan Bishara.
“Fear is a major factor – it can be irrational but also instrumental. It should come as no surprise that Israel has continued to fear the Palestinians well after it occupied all their lands and became a mighty regional and nuclear power. Because its fear of the Palestinians is not merely physical or material, it is existential,” he pointed out.
Bishara reminded of the content of an article by an Israeli columnist titled “Why all Israelis are cowards”, published in 2014:
“An Israeli columnist wondered in 2014 what kind of a society produces cowardly soldiers who shoot unarmed Palestinian youth from a long distance. Some four years later, in 2018, it was indeed surreal to watch Israeli soldiers hide behind fortified defences as they shot hundreds of unarmed protesters for days on end.”
The Al Jazeera columnist stresses that “Israel fears all that is Palestinian steadfastness, Palestinian unity, Palestinian democracy, Palestinian poetry, and all Palestinian national symbols, including language, which it downgraded, and the flag, which it is trying to ban”.
“Israel especially fears Palestinian mothers bearing new babies, which it calls a “demographic threat”. In sum, fear generates hatred because, in the words of another Israeli observer, a state that is always afraid cannot be free; a state that is shaped by militant messianism and ugly racism, against the indigenous people of the land, cannot be truly independent either.” he added.
Marwan Bishara says that “Israel hates the Palestinians for being so integral to the history, geography and nature of the landscape it claims as its own.”:
“Israel has long resorted to theology and mythology to justify its existence, when the Palestinians need no such justification … Israel has tried to erase or bury all traces of Palestinian existence, even changing the names of streets, neighbourhoods and towns.”
The columnist of the Arab TV channel is sure that love is always better than hate:
“Hatred is destructive and feeds into more hatred. Hatred is devastating to the hateful and the hated… Israel’s hatred will not drive the Palestinians out but it may well drive the Jews out and away.”
