Israeli Analyzes: Jerusalem Is Not United, and No Flags March Without Security Protection
Jerusalem, MINA – Analysts in the Israeli newspapers issued today, Monday, said that the events in occupied Jerusalem yesterday did not prove the existence of “Israeli” sovereignty in Jerusalem except a show for the occupation’s security force along with the racist manifestations of the Israeli participants in the provocative “flags march”.
The parliamentary correspondent for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Amichai Atali, stressed what many in Israel repeat, “Jerusalem is not really united, and the only ones who celebrate its partial unification are the ones who wear knitted hoods,” that is, the followers of religious Zionism and nationalism and the extremist Israeli right groups.
About these extremists, he added, “Let us see them walk alone, on a normal day, from Augusta Victoria (hospital) through the Bab al-Asbat Gate to the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque). None of them would have dared to do so. And almost no Jew in the world would do. Moreover, going down this path with the flag of Israel is certain suicide.”
He stressed that “the flags march worth nothing. Yesterday, after the end of the march, no one thought of carrying out a similar march alone. We must stop lying to ourselves. There was no Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem during the era of Naftali Bennett. There was no such sovereignty for Netanyahu, Olmert, Sharon and all their predecessors either (in the prime ministership of the Israeli government).
For his part, Haaretz military analyst, Amos Harel, pointed out that “despite the many efforts made by the extremist Israeli right-wing activists yesterday, the flags march in Old Jerusalem has not yet led to a major escalation between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, we watched the usual manifestations of racism and violent fights between Jews and Arabs.”
According to him, the difference between this year and last year may be in Hamas’s pledge last year that it will defend Al-Aqsa, “and this time the movement’s warnings were more general and did not mention steps that will be explicitly implemented.”
Harel continued, “The timing for a new military escalation, while the reconstruction work in the Gaza Strip is progressing relatively, is not comfortable for Hamas. It is likely that the efforts of the mediators, the Egyptian intelligence operatives, have paid off in recent days, and that Hamas expects to receive compensation if it continues to show restraint.”.
The Netanyahu government changed the course of the “Flags March” last year, following intelligence information that Hamas would launch rockets toward Israeli settlments.
This year, the Bennett government behaved differently, Harel said. “Its move was accompanied with talks about national sovereignty and the eternal capital, but the reality is that it is caused by internal political imperatives. The prime minister is under great pressure from the right parties, especially from the rebellious members of his party, Yamina. A change, of course, would have led to a crisis in his coalition, which lost its majority in the Israeli Knesset. (LKG/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
