{"id":310350,"date":"2025-12-22T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=310350"},"modified":"2025-12-20T07:20:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T07:20:31","slug":"the-noose-of-ben-gvir-why-only-israels-narrative-of-annihilation-is-actionable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/the-noose-of-ben-gvir-why-only-israels-narrative-of-annihilation-is-actionable\/","title":{"rendered":"The Noose of Ben-Gvir: Why only Israel\u2019s Narrative of Annihilation is Actionable"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Far-right Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
(Photo: video grab)<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Dec 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Three dominant narratives contend for the future of Gaza and occupied Palestine, yet only one is being translated into consequential action: the Israeli narrative of domination and genocide. This singular, violent vision is the only one backed by the brute force of policy and fact.<\/p>\n

The first narrative belongs to the Trump administration, largely embraced by the US Western allies. It rests on the self-serving claim<\/a> that US President Donald Trump personally solved the Middle East crisis, ushering in a peace that has supposedly eluded the region for thousands of years. Figures like Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and US-Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee are presented as architects of a new regional order.<\/p>\n

This narrative is exclusive, domineering, and US-centric. It was exemplified by Trump himself when he declared<\/a> the Gaza conflict \u201cover\u201d and presented a \u201cpeace plan\u201d that strategically avoided any clear commitment to Palestinian statehood. The entire vision is built on transactional diplomacy and a dismissal of international legal consensus, positioning US approval as the sole measure of legitimacy.<\/p>\n

The second narrative is that of the Palestinians, supported by Arab nations and much of the Global South. Here, the goal is Palestinian freedom and rights grounded in international law and humanitarian principles.<\/p>\n

This discourse is frequently shaped by statements from top Arab officials. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, for example, asserted<\/a> last April that the two-state solution is \u201cthe only way to achieve security and stability in this region\u201d,\u00a0 adding a warning: \u201cIf we disregard international law, (\u2026) this will open the way for the law of the jungle to prevail.\u201d This narrative continues to insist on international law as central to true regional peace.<\/p>\n

The third narrative is Israel\u2019s\u2014and it is the only one backed by concrete, aggressive policy. This vision is written through sustained, systematic violence<\/a> against civilians, aggressive land seizures<\/a>, deliberate home demolitions<\/a>, and explicit government declarations<\/a> that a Palestinian state will never be permitted. Its actors operate with chilling impunity, rapidly creating irreversible facts on the ground. Crucially, the failure to enforce accountability for this pervasive violence is the primary reason Israel has been able to sustain its devastating genocide in Gaza for two full years.<\/p>\n

This narrative is not theoretical; it is articulated through the chilling acts and legislative pushes of the highest-ranking government officials.<\/p>\n

On December 8, Israel\u2019s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared<\/a> in a Knesset session wearing a noose-shaped pin while pushing for a death penalty bill targeting Palestinian prisoners. The minister stated<\/a> openly that the noose was \u201cjust one of the options\u201d through which they would implement the death penalty, listing<\/a> \u201cthe option of hanging, the electric chair, and (\u2026) lethal injection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, meanwhile, announced<\/a> an allocation of $843 million to expand illegal settlements over the next five years, a massive step toward formal annexation. This unprecedented funding is specifically earmarked to relocate military bases, establish absorption clusters of mobile homes, and create a dedicated land registry to formalize Israeli governmental control over the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

This policy of territorial expansion is cemented by the ideological head of government, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself made<\/a> it clear that \u201cThere will not be a Palestinian state. It\u2019s very simple: it will not be established,\u201d calling<\/a> its potential creation \u201can existential threat to Israel.\u201d This unequivocal rejection confirms that the official Israeli government strategy is outright territorial expansion and the permanent denial of Palestinian self-determination.<\/p>\n

None of these Israeli officials shows the slightest interest in Trump\u2019s \u201cpeace plan\u201d or in the Palestinian vision of statehood. Netanyahu\u2019s core objective is ensuring that international law is never implemented, that no semblance of Palestinian sovereignty is established, and that Israel can contravene the law at a time and manner of its choosing.<\/p>\n

The fact is, these narratives cannot continue to coexist. Only real accountability \u2014 through political, legal, and economic pressure \u2014 can halt Israel\u2019s advance toward continuing its genocidal campaign, destruction, and punitive legislation. This must include the swift imposition of sanctions on Israel and its top officials, comprehensive arms embargoes against Tel Aviv to end ongoing wars, and full accountability<\/a> at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As long as the pro-Palestine narrative lacks the tools to enforce its principles, Israel and its Western backers will see no reason to alter course. States must replace symbolic gestures and prioritize aggressive, proactive accountability measures. This means moving beyond simple verbal condemnation and applying concrete legal and economic pressure.<\/p>\n

Israel is now more isolated than ever, with public opinion rapidly collapsing globally. This isolation must be leveraged by pro-Palestine forces through coordinated, decisive diplomatic action, pushing for a unified global front that demands the enforcement of international law and holding Israel and its many war criminals accountable for their ongoing crimes.<\/p>\n

A lasting peace can only be built on the foundation of justice, not on the military reality established by an aggressor that does not hesitate to employ genocide in the service of its political designs. This is the undeniable moral frontier: confronting and dismantling the impunity that allows a state to pursue extermination as a political tool.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>The Palestine Chronicle. His last book is <\/em>The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London) and his forthcoming book is <\/em>These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is <\/em>www.ramzybaroud.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 Dec 2025\u00a0–\u00a0Three dominant narratives contend for the future of Gaza and occupied Palestine, yet only one is being translated into consequential action: the Israeli narrative of domination and genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":310351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,3729,1559,532,405,1854,101,100,1199,2242,87,865,1029,1966,88,2416,427,3534,2897,880,99,70,965],"class_list":["post-310350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-ceasefire","tag-collective-punishment","tag-colonialism","tag-colonization","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-famine","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-hunger","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-holocaust","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310352,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310350\/revisions\/310352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}