#Israel has no real way out if every political alternative leads in the same direction. #Zionism is a poison that will keep dragging Israelis toward ethnic cleansing and genocide unless they confront the premise of “a land without a people for a people without a land.” That promise depended on treating Palestinians as though they did not exist or could simply be removed.
Pundits present #Eisenkot as a “normal” alternative to #Netanyahu. But a return to normalcy requires more than replacing one leader. It requires rejecting the idea that any leader embodies Israel or is above being challenged or removed from office. It also means recognizing that Israel does not speak for all Jews and that criticizing Israel is not #antisemitism. At this point, criticizing Israel and condemning Zionism is an act of mercy.
Removing Netanyahu will mean little if his policies remain in place, and I doubt they will change. What does “normal” even mean for a country facing accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity? If it means less religious fanaticism while Palestinians continue to lose their land, homes, and rights, it is not a new direction. At best, it is a pause.
The way pundits describe Eisenkot raises another question: why foreground his ancestry rather than his nationality? He is an Israeli of Moroccan heritage. Calling him Moroccan as a substitute for Israeli makes no more sense than calling Netanyahu Polish.
My objection to “Mizrahi” is that it groups distinct communities under a label that defines them in relation to the Ashkenazi establishment. These Israelis are not peripheral to Israel. They are Israel, and their Arab Jewish heritage should be understood as something they were told to leave behind.
That is why it is troubling to see foreign media repeat these labels without examining their history or political purpose. Israel’s Eastern European establishment, with Golda Meir as an extreme example, treated Arab culture as something to erase and hostility toward Arabs as a condition of belonging.
The irony is that pundits now present an Israeli of Moroccan heritage, with a surname that sounds Ashkenazi, as the face of a return to “normal.” But neither his ancestry nor his surname tells us whether he offers a different future. Only his policies will.
