[News] Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/09/22/tel-avivs-losing-brands-israeli-coup-and-the-death-of-false-democracy/>
Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy
Ramzy Baroud - September 22, 2023
------------------------------

[image: Image of a man on a balcony with an Israeli flag.]

Image by Jorge Fernández Salas.

>From its very onset, Israel has constructed a brand for itself, a powerful
gimmick that was predicated on two main pillars: democracy and stability.

The main target audience for this brand has been powerful Western states
that wielded disproportionate political, economic and military powers.

These Western governments, along with their influential mainstream
corporate media, did their part, by polishing Israel’s image – as most
democratic and most stable – while tarnishing that of their Arab and
Palestinian enemies – or anyone else who dared criticize Israel.

It mattered little whether Israel was truly a beacon of democracy and
stability, because these terms are often conjured up and used to
conveniently fit the interest of those in power.

To maintain the charade, Israel’s task was fairly straightforward:
conveying a facade
<https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1334895/the-deceptive-facade-of-israeli-democracy.html>
of democracy at home – even if this democracy is racially-oriented and
exclusionist – and providing enough ‘stability’ to allow foreign companies
to trust that their investments in Israel are safe.

Actual, verifiable truth, in these kinds of situations, is hardly relevant.
All that matters are slogans and cliches – and enough people in power who
are willing to repeat those slogans, and even believe in the cliches.

Over the years, Israel thus emerged as the “only democracy
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/29/israel-proving-still-democracy-middle-east/>
in the Middle East” and an “oasis of freedom and stability” that is
protected by “the most moral army
<https://www.stogether.org/here-is-why-the-idf-is-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world/>
in the world”, and so on.

But this pseudo-reality can only exist in relative terms; for Israel to be
elevated, the Arabs had to be tarnished and demeaned, despite the fact that
it was Israel that illegally occupied
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/>
Arab land and waged repeated wars on Palestinians and other Arab nations.

The perfect illustration, until recently, of the successful Israel model is
a statement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on September
13, 2012, almost precisely 11 years ago.

Toasting top military commanders at the Israeli Army General Staff Forum on
the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, Netanyahu summed up Israel’s sense of
triumphalism in a few words.

“We live in a volatile and stormy region. Its explosions and storms are
increasing. The strength of the IDF has helped ensure that we remain an
island of stability amidst the storms,” Netanyahu said
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-in-a-stormy-middle-east-israel-remains-an-oasis-of-calm/>
.

Two facts may have escaped Netanyahu, back then. One, that much of the
“explosions and storms” in the modern history of the Middle East were
outcomes of Israel’s own doing – military invasions, occupation and other
destabilizing factors.

And, two, in the words
<https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/news-opinion/change-is-the-only-constant#:~:text=Heraclitus%2C%20a%20Greek%20philosopher%2C%20is,the%20only%20constant%20in%20life.%22>
of Heraclitus: “The only constant in life is change”.

11 years after that declaration, Israel is now learning that it is no
longer isolated from the “volatile and stormy region”.

It is important to underscore that the long-perceived Middle Eastern
‘chaos’, as juxtaposed with Israel’s ‘stability’, are not inherent values
in history.

The Middle East – in fact, much of the Global South – has remained victim
to former Western colonial powers for many decades.

Rarely a coup, a revolution, a political crisis or an economic collapse
experienced in that part of the world, has taken place without Western
involvement, direct or otherwise.

Arabs, the architects of one of the greatest and longest-lasting
civilizations in human history, are not innately ‘chaotic’, as Israel and
its Western benefactors maintained through their relentless propaganda.

Such a conversation is now outdated, anyway, as Israel, itself, now
epitomizes political instability and social chaos.

A viral video dating September 7 showed dozens of Israeli soldiers from the
‘elite’ Golani Brigade destroying their own military base.

The leaked video
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230907-israeli-soldiers-riot-in-leaked-footage-from-army-training-exercise/>
could be dismissed as an isolated incident if it were not for the fact that
at least 10,000 Israeli army reservists have declared that they will not
join their military units if Netanyahu’s judicial reforms are confirmed.

Thousands have already refrained
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-21/ty-article/.premium/thousands-of-israeli-army-reservists-will-refuse-service-if-judicial-coup-approved/00000187-04b4-d6c8-adb7-56ff06440000>
from returning to the army, and the number is in constant increase, while
hundreds of thousands of Israelis continue to occupy
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/israel-protests-judicial-curbs-supreme-court-challenge>
the major squares of all Israeli cities, demanding an end to what they
perceive as a far-right coup.

Israeli military analysts and highly-regarded journalists are engaging
<https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israeli-military-democracy-benjamin-netanyahu>
in political and moral questions that would have been, only a few years
ago, considered unconceivable: what if the army turns against the people?
What if the people overthrow the government? What if Israel is no longer a
democracy?

In fact, many already agreed that the latter scenario
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-eve-of-rosh-hashanah-poll-finds-more-israelis-feel-pessimistic-about-coming-year/>
has already actualized.

They include two former heads of Israel’s powerful internal security
service, the Shin Bet. In a letter, made public on August 31, they urged
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-08-31/ty-article/.premium/former-shin-bet-chiefs-urge-biden-to-not-host-israels-netanyahu-at-white-house/0000018a-4d2f-d775-a79a-5dbf49430000>
US President Joe Biden not to meet Netanyahu.

Such a visit would be seen as “legitimizing the government coup,” they
wrote, accusing the Israeli leader of “causing severe damage” to Israel,
particularly the “strategic relationship between the US and Israel.”

The task of marketing Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” is
no longer an easy sell.

With the ‘democracy’ pillar crumbling, the ‘stability’ pillar is falling
apart, as well. And without stability, investors simply run away.

The rush to escape
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/foreign-investments-in-israel-plunged-60-in-1st-quarter-this-year/>
the Israeli market has already begun. The flight of capital, by Israel’s
own estimation, is so extreme, it took many market analysts by surprise.

The first three months of foreign investments in Israel was a meager $2.6
billion, a drop of 60% compared to the years 2020 and 2022, according to a
recent report issued by Israel’s finance ministry, which excluded 2021.

Certainly, what is taking place in ‘democratic’ and ‘stable’ Israel is
truly unprecedented.

Israel’s current vulnerability is accentuated by the massive and rapid
changes
<https://undispatch.com/a-seismic-geopolitical-shift-is-underway-in-the-middle-east/>
to the political map of the Middle East and the world. As the US-Western
stronghold on the region and other parts of the world weakens, Israel’s
once powerful geopolitical position is growingly compromised.

This should present Palestinians with the opportunity of exposing Israel’s
losing brands – that of false democracy, social instability and outright
apartheid.

Israel must now be pressured to acquiesce to international law which
guarantees, in principle, justice and freedom for the Palestinian people,
and inalienable ‘Right of Return’ for their refugees.

Without Palestinian freedom, Israel’s future is sealed as that of an
unstable country with undemocratic institutions, permanent apartheid and,
indeed, perpetual chaos.

*Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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