By Vestnik Kavkaza
A week ago Israel underwent the parliamentary elections. According to experts, the results of the elections can seriously influence the regional geopolitical situation. According to Tatyana Nosenko, senior scientist of the Israel Department of the Oriental Studies Institute of the RAS, one of sensations of the elections was the party Beit Jegudi (Jewish Home). “The party is headed by a very young leader, Naftali Bennet, who is an Israeli, but was born in America. This man was in the army, in quite elite quarters, made money in a high-tech internet business, sold this business, and went into politics. He is 40 years old, and his main feature is a revival of religious Zionism which used to be one of the most attractive and strong movements in the Israeli political field. There used to be the national-religious party Mavdal, but its positions were damaged in the last few decades. In the last elections it won only 3 or 4 seats in the Knesset. Now Bennet is a representative of religious Zionism. His party is radically right and represents the settlers’ circles. Bennet is a participant in the settler movement and the former head of one of the settler councils. He doesn’t hide his radically negative attitude to the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by establishing two states, he stands for annexation of a great part of the West Bank… Bennet doesn’t want to reject secular voters, and secular young people liked his image, these young people support the settlers’ movement and the idea of a Greater Israel.”
Irina Zvyagelskaya, the head of the international issues sector at the Center of Arab Studies of the Oriental Studies Institute of the RAS, thinks that “the Palestinian problem pales into insignificance. It doesn’t matter that escalation always takes place, but the attitude to the problem became desperate, at least in Israel. This problem cannot be solved! Some ways of living together should be found, but no more… The point is not only in Israel, but in the general situation, even though Israel occupies the territories and a lot depends on it, but the general situation in the Middle East, in the Arab world, I believe, doesn’t encourage serious negotiations with some serious results. Of course the Quartet, the USA, Russia can put pressure on the sides and place them at the table of negotiations, but it is difficult to say what results it will bring. I cannot see a real decision which will settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and establish a new situation in the Middle East.
Under Netanyahu, Iran will ever be the main priority for Israel. It is always said that Iran is the main threat to security, that Israel will have to face Iran in the future, that Israel shouldn’t wait for Iran to create a nuclear bomb and even a program which will protect all its nuclear facilities, the nuclear program. In other words, when Iran will establish such a shield which prevents Israel or another country from taking military measures to destroy the program. It would be impossible, as the losses would be too huge.
I was in Israel when operation Cloud Pillar took place there. I noted several facts which prove that even when carrying out the operation in Gaza, Israel signalled to Iran, first of all. Why? First, 70 thousand people were involved. Nobody needs 70 thousand people for an operation in Gaza. Even 5 thousand people is too much for a land operation. It is a demonstration that Israel is able to gather quite a powerful army easily and quickly and then withdraw it.
The second moment is even more important – it is use of the system Iron Dome. You all know that it is missile interception. It is mobile, and when the emergency alarm was heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the system was relocated to protect the cities. According to experts, it is a powerful and radical weapon, it intercepts 88-90% of missiles. Moreover, experts add that they didn't intercept all the missiles, because if a missile flies to empty land, let it fly. Each launch costs $50 thousand. It is very expensive, therefore, they intercepted only those missiles which could do damage.
However, Israel won’t stop. The system will be modernized and will be called Magic Stick. They believe they will cover the Israeli sky and Israeli cities. What does this mean? It shows Iran that if Israel decides to undertake a military operation, Iran would have no chance of responding, as its missiles would be intercepted.”
