A terror state through time: from Ben Gurion to Netanyahu

On 31 May 1948, a man born in Poland by the name of David Ben Gurion transformed the Zionist terrorist groups – Haganah, Stern, Irgun, and Palmach – into what would be called the “Israeli Defense Forces” (IDF). This man would go on to become Israel’s first prime minister, and his actions laid the foundation for what many describe as a settler-colonial state in Palestine.

(Article by Khalil Harb republished from TheCradle.co)

This fact sums up the occupation state’s very essence today, offering a stark illustration of the indiscriminately violent roots upon which the state and its army were built. Today, Israeli military operations continue in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where tanks crush the bodies of the dead and wounded and where residents are thrown from rooftops or sniped in their homes.

“Causing death or serious bodily harm to civilians for the purpose of intimidating a population” is the very definition of terrorism, in the words of the United Nations General Assembly.

Entire residential buildings are reduced to rubble in the name of “assassinating” resistance fighters, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or even Beirut. The Israeli government has normalized bloody attacks on hospitals, churches, and mosques and weaponized communications technology to annihilate people in homes, offices, and streets en masse – to strike fear into civilians and force them into submission.

The gang state

If there is a single word that best defines Israel’s modus operandi, it is terrorism. From its inception as a political entity through its early campaigns of ethnic cleansing to its ongoing military impositions on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen – not to mention its previous actions in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Sudan – Israel’s history is marked by a blatant disregard for international law and moral principles.

Terrorism is the most powerful weapon for Israel, the ‘gang state’ that is now nicknamed ‘Netanyahu’s gang,’ and its security and military apparatuses. This gang mentality has long been part of the Zionist ideology, which cloaks its goals in lofty religious rhetoric while simultaneously unleashing depraved acts of violence and domination.

Almost a century later, Israel still struggles to attain legitimate standing, its existence perpetually marred by its violent birth and sustained oppression of the Palestinians.

Read more at: TheCradle.co