In a new documentary, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich detailed his desire to conquer not only all Palestinian territory to the Jordan River but also the Syrian capital of Damascus and territories extending as far as Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Smotrich, the Finance Minister in the Israeli cabinet and head of the Religious Zionism party, made the comments in a recently released documentary entitled Israel: Extremists in Power. The documentary was produced by Arte Reportage, a Franco-German broadcast news magazine.
When asked about his goal, Smotrich tells the interviewer,
“I want a Jewish state … It is a country run according to the values of the Jewish people.”
The interviewer then asked Smotrich whether he thought the borders of the Jewish state should extend past the Jordan River. Smotrich responded by saying,
“Absolutely, but slowly … Our great religious elders used to say that the future of Jerusalem was to extend as far as Damascus.”
The documentary narrator then added,
“Bezalel Smotrich has a maximalist vision of the promised land. And it includes all Palestinian lands, but also territories in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. Even in Saudi Arabia. A radical vision admittedly, but one that is accepted in public debate in Israel.”
I've seen settlers genuinely refer to a "living space" problem 😬
Manifest Destiny > Lebensraum > this
Death to Amerikkka
Wow that's horrific. Sure am glad one of the Vice Presidential candidates didn't explicitly endorse such a policy recently or anything like that
Israel is really a Start up nation. Its politicians throw unhinge ideas and america just help them develop, optimize and support their projects to execution
Or put another way israels rhetoric and actions are the unmasked true nature of current US policy. Seeing how deeply entrenched israeli interests are in us govt and propaganda etc.
I was gonna say foreign policy only at first but i bet considering the brutality with which mild levels of dissent are put down here, it's just that we haven't yet tested how far the militarized police is willing to go.
The support of Israel is also a trade show for US policy, showing the perks of allying with the US, showing the consequences when you go against it. However, the Israel first policy undermines US policy and by extension weakens Israel. I really think the US policy is to grasp on their last standing in the middle east because deep down the US' present in the region is untenable.
Funded by the country that brought you such bangers as "Manifest Destiny" and "The Three-Fifth Compromise"
In an insulated section of my brain, the Lion of Damascus breaking Israel would be funny. As if Bashar al-Assad were power scaled to be equal to a Russian winter. But of course, there is no moment too soon for Israel to stop its illegal occupation, genocide, and warmongering.
yeah starting wars to annex the territory of all surrounding nations will definitely make Jewish people safe
can't get past the border of lebanon
yeah we'll keep going all the way to damascus
a country run according to the values of the Jewish people.
And by that he means "the values of Jews who agrees with me". Fascists loves to ventriloquise the people, first to inflate perceived support for their own ideas, later to exclude and marginalise any opposition.
the future of Jerusalem was to extend as far as Damascus
It is, as a secular united Arab republic.
israel won't stop until it is as much of a minority apartheid as their former ally south africa used to be
You know that old disproven idea that children learn abusive behavior from their parents? Isreal really keeps making me think of that cycle of abuse fr
Such a scenario would inevitably expand the open-air prison model of Gaza to the majority of Israeli-occupied lands. That would add a huge number of non-Jewish people to the Israeli state and obviously they can’t give all those people first class citizen status and a vote while keeping it a “Jewish” state. The mental gymnastics the West would need to pretend such a country is a “free democracy” would be astronomical.
I think you're wrong.
Looking at the tactics used in the past year, I believe the entity would rather sweep and ethnically cleanse all civilians out of areas they wish to control. They have no desire to compound their current demographic issues. Israel would demolish every building and murder or deport every person in their new lebensraum.
It would certainly be a problem that they would trial many solutions to before they came to a final one.
You’re right they’d want that, but it would also be biting off way more than they can chew. They’d turn the entirety of the region against them, Russia would probably get involved to stabilize things, and while America’s tolerance for Israeli shenanigans is huge, invading an ally like Saudi Arabia would break that.
