{"id":313415,"date":"2026-02-23T12:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313415"},"modified":"2026-02-19T07:27:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:27:46","slug":"israel-on-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/israel-on-the-brink\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel on the Brink"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

IDF soldiers in Gaza in May 2025.
(IDF Spokesperson\u2019s Unit \/ Wikimedia Commons\/ CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Amid the largest genocide of this century in Gaza and the violent ethnic cleansing on the West Bank, two prominent Jewish historians believe that one democratic secular state in Palestine is not only achievable but inevitable.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

17 Feb 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Two prominent Jewish historians have recently written from different perspectives \u2014 one economic and political; one largely theological and moral \u2014 that the state of Israel is doomed and living on borrowed time.<\/p>\n

Despite coming in the midst of the largest genocide of this century in Gaza and the violent ethnic cleansing on the West Bank, they believe that one democratic secular state in Palestine is not only achievable but inevitable.<\/p>\n

In his latest book, Israel on the Brink: Eight Steps for a Better Future<\/i><\/a>, llan Papp\u00e9 writes that Israel is self-destructing economically, militarily and politically as it finds itself abandoned internationally.<\/p>\n

According to Papp\u00e9, the farcical two-state solution is \u201ca rotting corpse\u201d and the only way forward is decolonisation, the return of Palestinian refugees to their land, accountability for those who have committed crimes and a new model of statehood for Palestine and the region.<\/p>\n

A corollary to Papp\u00e9 is the moral and religious critique of Zionism by Canadian Jewish historian and biblical scholar Yakov Rabkin who holds that the Zionist movement is a death trap for Jews, the region and the world.<\/p>\n

In his recent book, Israel in Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism<\/i><\/a> and his earlier work, What is Modern Israel<\/i><\/a>, Rabkin relates how the Jewish state represents a complete repudiation of the most fundamental values of Judaism.<\/p>\n

In Israel, he says, values such as tolerance, morality and humility have been replaced with a new muscular Jewish identity that extols nationalism, aggression, violence and conquest. Traditional Jewish culture is looked upon with contempt.<\/p>\n

Rabkin recounts how Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of the terrorist Jewish militia Irgun, described transforming the \u201cYid\u201d from the shtetels of Eastern Europe into the New Hebrew:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur starting point is to take the typical Yid of today and to imagine a diametrical opposite\u2026because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks decorum, we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty. The Yid is trodden upon and easily frightened and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to be proud and independent. \u2026 The Yid has accepted submission and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to learn how to command.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you hear echoes of Nazi master race philosophy, it\u2019s no accident. Jabotinsky is channeling the views of early Zionist eugenicists such as Arthur Ruppin who sought \u201cthe purification of the [Jewish] race\u201d and \u201cmaintained his ties with the German theoreticians of racial science even after the National Socialist regime took power.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Jewish religion, Rabkin dismantles the Zionist myth that the land of Israel was a God-given promise to the Jews \u2013 a claim \u201cbased on a literal interpretation of the bible that diverged drastically from the teachings of Rabbinical Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yakov M. Rabkin, 2017. (Alexandr Shcherba \/Wikimedia Commons\/ CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To begin with, he explains, Palestine was never a homeland for Jews who, in fact, came from Mesopotamia and Egypt and migrated to Canaan (Palestine).\u00a0 There, according to the Talmud (the foundational source of Jewish theology) Abraham and his descendants were instructed by God to disperse to the four corners of the earth and never<\/i> to return \u201cen masse and in force\u201d to the land of Israel until they had become spiritually purified.<\/p>\n

In other words, until the coming of the messiah, Jews should stay where they are, which, in fact, is exactly where they have been.<\/p>\n

Ashkenazi Jews have lived in Europe since Roman times and had been thoroughly assimilated into European culture.\u00a0 In the 19th century, many were socialists, communists and members of the Jewish Labour Bund which emphasized the right to thrive in their own culture, speak their own language (Yiddish) and fight for justice in the countries they inhabited, Rabkin says.<\/p>\n

As a result, when Zionism emerged as a movement at the end of the 19th century, most Jews viewed it as a reactionary cult and a bourgeois adventure opposed to the interest of the Jewish working class, the author argues.<\/p>\n

But some of the strongest opposition, Rabkin writes, came from religious Jews who believed Zionism is in direct conflict with the values of Judaism, which teaches that the Torah (the Jewish bible), and not a nation, is what binds Jews together. In the words of one Orthodox Jewish scholar, Zionism was \u201ca spiritual corruption\u2026that borders on blasphemy,\u201d Rabkin says.<\/p>\n

The opposition to Zionism, of course, was muted with the Holocaust \u2014 a genocide that Zionists immediately seized upon as an opportunity for nation building in Israel.\u00a0 Not only did Zionists actively thwart Jews from emigrating to other countries during and after the war, they used the Holocaust as a lever to bolster the Jewish population in Palestine, argues Rabkin.<\/p>\n

In fact, Nazi anti-Semites and Zionists became joined at the hip. \u201cThe anti-Semites wished to be rid of the Jews, the Zionists sought to gather the Jews in the Holy Land,\u201d writes Rabkin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leopold von Mildenstein in Palestine in 1933. (Wikimedia Commons\/ Public Domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 1933, Rabkin recounts, the high-ranking Nazi SS officer Baron Leopold Elder von Mildenstein travelled to Palestine with his good friend German Zionist Federation leader Kurt Tuchler. After his return, Mildenstein wrote laudatory articles about the Zionist enterprise and a special medal was coined to commemorate his visit.\u00a0 On one side was a Swastika, on the other, The Star of David.<\/p>\n

Today, the Zionist ideology first espoused by Theodore Herzl in 1896 and transmitted through every Israeli leader from David Ben-Gurion, Menahem Begin, Ariel Sharon and onward has morphed into the most right-wing, militant and genocidal government in Israel to date.<\/p>\n

The rabidly racist cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are now followers of a new messianic movement called National Judaism \u2013 what Rabkin describes as \u201cthe dominant ideology of vigilante settlers who have harassed, dispossessed and murdered Palestinians in the West Bank and encourage the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince its inception in the late 19th century, critics of Zionism warned that the Zionist state would become a death trap, endangering both the colonisers and the colonised alike,\u201d writes Rabkin. \u201cFor those voices\u2026the Zionist experiment was seen as a tragic mistake [and] the sooner it ended \u2026 the better for humanity as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concluding with his own reflection as an observant Jew he writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish teachings frequently attribute the root causes of communal suffering to internal moral failings. In this light, Israel\u2019s current trajectory \u2013- marked by impunity, hubris and cruelty, all of which contradict Jewish values \u2013- appears destined for moral and political ruin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One Democratic, Multiethnic State<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ilan Pappe at the University of Exeter, April 2023. (Fjmustak\/Wikimedia Commons\/ CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Papp\u00e9 shares Rabkin\u2019s view that Israel is in a suicidal spiral that will ultimately lead to its collapse. But, then, he takes a giant leap into the future to look at what he envisions emerging from the ruins \u2013 one democratic, multiethnic state in Palestine.<\/p>\n

Israel on the Brink<\/i> starts with the disastrous events from the time of the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the founding of the Israeli state in 1948 to the rise of the religious right settler movement in recent years.<\/p>\n

Like a building engineer surveying a crumbling structure, Papp\u00e9 points out the fatal cracks in the foundations of the Israeli state that will ultimately widen and lead to the collapse of the Zionist project \u2013 an event that he believes \u201ccould well change the course of world history in this century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crack No. 1 \u2014 a very big one, according to Papp\u00e9 \u2014 is the rise of messianic Zionism \u2014 the belief the Holy Land was given to the Jewish people by God to hasten redemption. Pioneered by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook (1865-1935) it was<\/p>\n

\u201cthe most extreme form of Zionism: a fusion of messianic ideas with unashamed racism towards the Palestinians and contempt for secular and Reform Judaism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kook\u2019s disciples form a direct line from his son, Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook to today\u2019s far-right West Bank settlers and the dominant political coalition including ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.<\/p>\n

This movement, writes Papp\u00e9, represents one of the most serious cracks in Israel\u2019s unstable political foundations \u2013- a schism between religious right and political Zionists that, ironically, despite their differences, shares the same goal of maintaining Jewish supremacy in Palestine.<\/p>\n

Other foundational cracks exposed by Papp\u00e9 are: the \u201cunprecedented support for the Palestinian cause around the world,\u201d deepening economic troubles as the wealth gap widens, investment dries up and the most affluent professionals flee the country (estimated to be over half a million since 2023).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook with Israeli forces at the Western Wall shortly after Israeli forces captured it in 1967. (Wikimedia Commons\/Public Domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Added to the list are the \u201cglaring inadequacy\u201d of the Israeli military that, while capable of bombing Gaza to rubble, is not trained for real combat and unable to defeat Hamas; and the crumbling civilian apparatus that is incapable<\/a> of adequately housing the thousands of Israelis displaced<\/a> by the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the biggest crack of all \u2013 the rise of a new Palestinian Liberation Movement at the same time that the Zionist project \u201cis careening towards a cliff edge.\u201d This is a movement of energised young Palestinians who, \u201cinstead of pursuing a two-state solution, as the Palestinian Authority has done fruitlessly for several decades, \u2026 are seeking a genuine one-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge, according to Papp\u00e9, will be to meld youthful fervour with a clear political agenda. \u201cEvery successful revolution in history arrived when the creative energy of the masses met the programmatic vision of a confident organisation that could voice their demands,\u201d he writes, \u201cwhat Leon Trotsky described as \u2018the inspired frenzy of history.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The guiding principle at the centre of this revolution is justice<\/b> \u2014transitional justice <\/b>which involves legally addressing systemic human rights violations and holding the guilty accountable and restorative justice<\/b> to provide restitution to their victims, Papp\u00e9 says .<\/p>\n

First and foremost, this means giving the 6 million Palestinian refugees who were driven off their land since 1948 the right of return <\/b>to their towns and villages.<\/p>\n

Next, is the dismantling of Jewish settlements<\/b> in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Isolated outposts occupied by fanatical settlers will require total demolition but the sprawling urban settlements built since 1967 will present bigger challenges.<\/p>\n

In any case,<\/p>\n

\u201ctransitional justice will involve deconstructing the legal framework of the apartheid state and supplanting it with one that does not discriminate between Jews and non-Jews in property ownership, urban planning and land use.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But perhaps Papp\u00e9\u2019s most sweeping vision of all is reconnecting Palestine with the entire Eastern Mediterranean, the Mashreq<\/b>, \u201cwhich were organically linked to each other by cultural, social, economic, historical and ideological ties dating back centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

This entire region, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in relative harmony for thousands of years before the European colonial powers carved it up with artificial boundaries, could be reconnected with Palestine inspiring \u201ca wider revolution in all the Mashreq.\u201d<\/p>\n

In regard to the millions of Jews who will remain living in post-Israel Palestine, Papp\u00e9 believes they will be willing to contribute to the building of this new future: \u201cThe way other Jewish communities elsewhere in the world view themselves as part of their respective countries can be replicated in post-Israel Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Envisioning a Future<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gaza solidarity demonstration in Berlin on Nov. 4, 2023, organized by Palestinian and Jewish groups. (Streets of Berlin \u2013 Free Palestine will not be cancelled\/Wikimedia Commons\/ CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Israel on the Brink<\/i> concludes by conjuring up a post-Israel Palestine in the form of a fictional diary where Papp\u00e9 is both observer and participant in the building of a future society \u2014 beginning in 2027 and culminating in 2048, 100 years after the founding of the Israeli State.<\/p>\n

Over this time, he witnesses Israel becoming increasing isolated internationally; the nations of the world imposing crippling sanctions and cutting off diplomatic relations; the mass exodus of Israeli citizens; towns and streets being given back their Arab names; new political coalitions being formed between Palestinian and Jewish parties; fears that the capitalist model will leave power in the hands of an affluent Jewish and Palestinian elite creating a new form of apartheid; the creation of a new educational system and the recognition of returning Palestinian refugees as full citizens.<\/p>\n

Is this just wishful thinking to imagine the brutal, racist stain of Zionism will be washed away in the foreseeable future and a new democratic state emerge in its place?<\/p>\n

The roadblocks are formidable\u00a0 \u2013-\u00a0 from the continued military occupation of Gaza under Trump\u2019s Orwellian Board of Peace to the massive 82 percent support<\/a> among Jewish Israelis for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, making Israel what American political scientist Norman Finklestein calls<\/a> \u201ca whole society that has been effectively Nazified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Ilan Papp\u00e9 nor Yakov Rabkin are under illusions about the obstacles; they only believe that the creation of the State of Israel was a tragic historical mistake and, in the interest of the Palestinian people and all humanity, it must come to an end.<\/p>\n

One way, as Palestinian author Ghada Kharmi has written<\/a> is that, \u201cThe U.N. that made Israel must now unmake it, not by expulsion and displacement as in 1948, but by converting its bleak legacy into a future of hope for both peoples in one state.\u201d<\/p>\n

This would certainly be a first step on the road to the one-state solution that Papp\u00e9 and Rabkin envision \u2013 one that we can only hope to see the beginnings of in our lifetime.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Stefan Moore is an American-Australian documentary filmmaker whose films have received four Emmys and numerous other awards. In New York he was a series producer for WNET and a producer for the prime-time CBS News magazine program 48 HOURS. In the U.K. he worked as a series producer at the BBC, and in Australia he was an executive producer for the national film company Film Australia and ABC-TV.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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