For supporters on the far-left, far-right and among pro-Iran and pro-Palestinian groups in the region, the riots in Lod and other Israeli cities where Arabs and Jews clashed have fueled a growth in support for what they see as the inevitability of the destruction of Israel and the rise of one Palestinian state. “Israeli media reported violent confrontations in Lod,” reported Al-Mayadeen, which is frequently pro-Iran in its reporting. The report says Israel was forced to “evacuate a number of settlers from their homes” as “settlers cars were burned.”
When these Arabic language media use the term “settlers” they refer to all Jews who live in Israel. Every Jewish town and every Jew is a “settler.” It is why the media in Lebanon and around the region that are linked to Iran and Hezbollah and other pro-Palestinian media referred to the Orthodox Jews who died in a stampede at Meron as “settlers.” The same media refer to Arabs who live in Israel and are citizens of Israel as “48 Arabs,” the insinuation being that nothing has changed since 1948.
These accounts of the conflict are linked to the far-left in the US who also portray the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah as a way for Israel to make Jerusalem a “Jewish city.” Jerusalem has actually had a majority Jewish population since the mid-19th century and the area in Sheikh Jarrah that is disputed was historically Jewish. But for those who see every Jew as a “settler” there is no history of Jews in Jerusalem. It is only an “Arab city.” The fact that most of the first neighborhoods outside the city were Jewish is lost in that narrative. There are no historic Jews in Hebron, Tiberias, Safed, Jaffa, or anywhere.
This “one state” narrative which supports Israel being part of a larger greater Palestinian state that includes Gaza and the West Bank has received a boost by the riots and clashes in Israel. This is because essentially the narrative of the whole area being “one” territory, rather than several different territories is part of several entwined agendas. The Iranian agenda is to destroy Israel. The pro-Palestinian agenda has never stopped seeing all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as “Palestine,” a fact made clear by the maps used in the propaganda. At the same time human rights groups have also increasingly begun to refer to the whole area as “apartheid,” arguing that Israel’s control of Gaza, the West Bank and areas inside the Green Line are all part of the same policy.
The clashes across Israel that have affected Lod, Ramla, Acre, Nazareth, Haifa, Umm al-Fahm, Rahat, Jerusalem, Jaffa and other towns and cities are an indication that a powder keg exists, and it is being enflamed by interests and agendas that would like to connect the rocket fire from Gaza, to the clashes at Al-Aqsa, to a wider struggle. It is not a small matter that the demonstrators in Jerusalem and, according to video also in Umm Al-Fahm, celebrated the rocket fire from Gaza. A dangerous development that some have linked to the clashes in 2000 during the emergence of the Second Intifada and even drawn parallels back to 1991 when Saddam Hussein fired rockets at Israel and some in Israel, under rocket fire, celebrated. For those who propose that the country could be “one state” or a “binational state,” these riots and clashes are a taste of what that state could be like. For Iran and Hamas this is a positive development, seeing riots and battles across Israel. It is fulfilling a kind of prophecy for them. For others who prefer stability and peace, it looks like a nightmare.