Pankaj Mishra writes:

Israel and Hamas have taken to open warfare yet again. The sense of déjà vu, as the militant group’s rocket attacks on Israeli territory are met by retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, is compounded by Western politicians repeating an old formula: “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

That’s undoubtedly true. And yet it’s equally clear that Israeli actions are unlikely to deter Hamas. Nor will re-establishing military superiority over a technologically primitive enemy obscure Israel’s new and acute vulnerabilities.

The shocking images of lynch mobs and street fighting between Arabs and Jews within Israel underscore the fact that the most formidable threat to the country’s present and future stability is now internal. About one in 5 Israelis are Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who stayed in the country after the creation of Israel in 1948, and they have long been disaffected.

Feeling marginalized even further by 2018 legislation that exalted Israel’s Jewish majority above all other groups, as well as the mainstreaming of explicitly racist, far-right Israeli parties, Arab Israelis have now erupted into open mutiny.

The mob violence between Jews and Arabs should not be underestimated: It represents a watershed in the history of Israel. For traditions of co-existence cannot be repaired once they have been so brutally violated. The bitter history of communal fratricide in India and Pakistan tells us that the legacy of hate and suspicion corrode a country from within, making it even more susceptible to far-right movements. [Continue reading…]