Afrasianet - Dr. Mohamed Halsa - "Israel", which the West, through its laxity and cover-up, has contributed to making it a rogue state above the law, insists, in its unruly behavior on cramming the West's leaders into a narrow corner and embarrassing them in front of their people, in a way that does not even save them face.
Europe, Israel's "beloved" and its partner, has not changed, neither before nor after the war of annihilation on Gaza, nor even after Ben-Gvir's deliberate abuse and humiliation of European citizens who participated in the "Freedom Flotilla", and his bragging about it in front of the cameras.
While many governments around the world are increasingly angry about the treatment of the activists of the Global Resilience Flotilla that was headed to Gaza, the European Union countries insist on treating this incident, like many others, as an "individual" behavior that does not reflect the nature of Israel and its political system, and therefore does not require punitive steps against the system that adopts and sponsors Ben-Gvir's behavior as part of an official government agenda.
Above all, let us remember that the leaders of Western Europe have embraced and promoted the propaganda that "Israel, located in the Middle East, full of backward Eastern dictatorships," is "an extension of the liberal democratic Western culture," and has therefore always been patronized, embraced and supported by Western leaders, who raised the slogan "Israel has the right to defend itself" as a justification for continuing to provide it with all the grounds for military and political superiority.
When Israel launched its destructive war on the Gaza Strip, Western leaders adhered to this slogan and did not abandon their unconditional support for Israel, despite the atrocities it committed, and promoted biased rhetorical positions against the Palestinians under the weight of protests and popular criticism in their countries, while positions in support of Israel remained the criterion that governed their relationship with it "from under the table and from above it", so to speak.
Although Israel has proven to the West, beyond a shadow of a doubt, through the behavior of Ben-Gvir and other Israeli politicians, and even through the official government agenda, that it is the most violent of all the "tyrants of the region", as described by Arad Nir, the foreign news editor at the Hebrew Channel 12, in the context of his assessment of the policies and actions of his state "Israel", saying that "Israel is the most violent country in the world, and it is a serial killer state", the West still refuses to change its traditional and lenient pattern of dealing with "Israel" Israel."
Even as the European Union discussed imposing sanctions on Israeli figures over escalating settler violence in the West Bank, which is officially sponsored by the Israeli government, a Politico report revealed that the European Union had removed the names of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from the lists of possible sanctions that were under consideration, reflecting a European reversal of measures that had targeted extremist Israeli figures.
However, Israel, which the West, through its inaction with its excesses and cover-up, has contributed to making it a rogue state above the law, insists, in its unbridled behavior, to cram the West's leaders into a narrow corner and embarrass them in front of their people, in a way that does not even save them face, and put them in the dilemma of being forced, under duress, to take public positions denouncing the crimes of the occupation against their citizens, because of Ben Gvir's attacking, abuse, and humiliation of the European activists of the "Freedom Flotilla" in front of the cameras, and then announcing later, after their release, that they had been subjected to attacks Citizenship in the occupation prisons, as well as beatings, slapping, and electric shocks.
The European Union is currently in the midst of an unprecedented "moral and diplomatic" crisis, as it is not accustomed to condemning the crimes of the occupation against its citizens, so it is trying to get out of the impasse by blaming all the accusations on the extremist Israeli Minister of Security Ben Gvir and acquitting the Zionist entity, the government and the state, of these practices, as abnormal behaviors that do not represent the image of Israel.
With a little follow-up, one can notice that none of the official European politicians or the European press that covered the Ben Gvir incident came to link Ben Gvir's behavior to the official policy of the Israeli government that adopts and sponsors him, or as part of a government agenda implemented in occupied Palestine, because in short, this will expose the hypocrisy and double standards of the European Union, which supports Israel and establishes strategic partnership relations with it in the military, commercial and scientific aspects. Israel", a state and a political system, for this behavior, as if it condemns itself and its policies.
Therefore, it is easier to divert attention from the government of Israel and its "state," and to direct criticism and anger at only one person, Ben-Gvir, and to exempt the political system and the state from the consequences of his behavior, even though Netanyahu stressed in his statement of condemnation against Ben-Gvir's behavior that "Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza."
So did the Israeli Foreign Ministry statement, which condemned Ben-Gvir's behavior, but stressed that the flotilla "proved once again that it is nothing but a propaganda ploy in the service of Hamas." Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev also arrived at the port of Ashdod and posted a video in which she said, "This is what will happen to the supporters of terror who came to break the siege on Gaza." If Israel, the prime minister, the foreign ministry and all the ministers, are considered the flotilla's activists."terrorists" who support Hamas, so is there any doubt that Ben Gvir's behavior did not deviate from the context of the official Israeli consensus?
In short, the European countries wanted to rush to condemn Ben-Gvir exclusively, to show that, although he is a minister and a partner in an extreme right-wing Zionist coalition, he is "normalized" by the values of extremism, its symbol and its title, so that all the Israeli government's similar behaviors appear "tolerable" and "acceptable", because in short, he makes evil possible, he often presents the worst and most extreme model of others in Israeli society, and when Ben-Gvir chooses to make a humiliating parade of European activists, he is "an individual anomaly behavior that does not represent a face. Israel is different" according to the vision of the European Union!
In the face of the global anger against Israel, the European Union countries had no choice but to lead an angry diplomatic campaign, summon Israel's ambassadors to reprimand over Ben Gvir's video, and then announce that Ben-Gvir would be banned from entering their territory, as the culmination of European punitive steps.
However, this "ceiling" reveals the reality of European behavior, which does not bring Europe out of its historical "hypocrisy" when it comes to holding Israel accountable for its transgressions and imposing sanctions on it, and that it is nothing more than a "venting" diplomatic show that absorbs the international anger resulting from Israel's behavior and diverts attention from holding Israel accountable, a state and a regime, to holding Ben-Gvir accountable for his act as an "individual behavior that does not represent Israel's image and policy," and "God has sufficed the believers in fighting."
More importantly, this is a situation in which all three parties emerge victorious; the EU countries appear to have "angered and punished," while in fact they have avoided punishing official Israeli policies. Israel, on the other hand, gains its appearance as a "democratic state" that rejects Ben-Gvir's behavior and condemns it as "an anomalous individual behavior that does not represent Israel's image or values," and avoids imposing European sanctions on it!
For Ben-Gvir, he emerged from this parade campaign more strongly with more electoral votes from the Zionist right, as a symbol of the logic of "Jewish power" that rejects tolerant and apologetic diplomacy. The only losers are international humanitarian law and the Palestinian people, who are paying the price for Europe's hypocrisy and Israel's arrogance.
