Moderate Israelis

As the legacy media tells it, all the pressure for annexation of Palestinian territories comes from the Israeli "hard right". They make it sound like it was the "extreme right-wing" members of Netanyahu's governing coalition that pressed him to commit the genocidal destruction and terror in Gaza. This is a very convenient narrative for the so-called "moderate" Israelis who can wring their hands and whine about the terrible situation and the dangerous neighborhood and blah blah. Poor us. After all we've been through. These so-called "moderates" were fine with the situation pre-Oct.7 when Gazans were living in an open-air prison and settlers were attacking residents of the West Bank and the Israeli military was murdering civilians with impunity. Those moderates believed their "one state solution" of apartheid would last forever. In a comment to an article on Trumps plan for forced removal, an Israeli moderate spells it out quite clearly: "The Palestinians, on October 7, made sure they'll never realize their dream of statehood. It's all on them. Your sympathy for them is wasted." Because in their collective mind the occupation began on Oct.7, the planned ethnic cleansing "is all on them". They were on a path to statehood but got impatient. All the oppresion before that date is washed clean. The genocide and demolition and murder of journalists and doctors and children they just watched is all washed clean. The moderates just want to turn the page and move on. In this sense, Trump's insane proposal articulates the fantasy most Zionists have harboured for decades: maybe the Palestinians will just disappear! Maybe we can tap our heels three times and when we open our eyes The Territories will be a fantastic beach-front resort! And all this horror will have just been a bad dream. And I won't have to feel any guilt and my children won't have to live with this legacy of genocide. This is not unlike climate denialism. At its core a fantasy that it will just go away if we wish it hard enough. Who wants to stare into the abyss? No one.