AMERICAN journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen has argued that there is no difference between the so-called left, centrist and right parties in Israel, as they are all Zionist and believe in colonising Palestine.
The director of ‘Killing Gaza’ made the comments in an interview with Press TV aired on Saturday, after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s most extremist former prime minister, and his ultra-right coalition are now set to be in power following the election earlier this month.
‘There is no fundamental difference between the so-called left-wing, centrist, and right-wing parties in Israel; they are all Zionists, meaning they believe in colonising the land of Palestine and maintaining its indigenous residents at best as second class citizens, or expelling and killing them.’
The only difference, he said, is in terms of how they see fit to carry out this project.
‘The so-called Zionist left wants to maintain a more gentle and softer occupation of the West Bank, with Palestinians remaining docile in their sort of enclaves separate from Jewish society, and for the Israeli military to be as soft as possible while still maintaining a programme of total conquest,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Cohen described the centre in Israel as ‘essentially right,’ and ‘hyper-nationalist’ which believes there is no compromise with Palestinians.
The centre has now been joined by the far right, because of the so-called ‘left hypocrisy,’ he said, adding that the centre has come to basically agree with the hardcore Israeli right wing that the regime should end the conflict with the Palestinians and repress the resistance.
The Israeli right plans to finish the job it started in 1948 and expel all Palestinians from their land and ethnically-cleanse all of Palestine, even beyond its borders into Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights, and even into Jordan and Egypt, he said.
The idea of right versus left blocs in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) is misleading. In fact, when it comes to the Palestinians and the occupation, it is difficult to distinguish the right from the left.
Today, justification for ethnic cleansing and genocide is rife across the Zionist political spectrum, from the left to the right and the far right.
Here are some examples given by the journalist Ben White.
‘I do not think that Arabs want peace, what I want is to be rid of them and to maintain a Jewish majority in the land of Israel,’ said Former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid.
‘Only the strong win and parts of Gaza have been sent back to the Stone Age,’ Israeli minister for military affairs, Benny Gantz, said.
‘Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and them alone,’ Netanyahu claimed.
None of these statements were made by fascist rights associated with far-right Israeli lawmaker Itmar Ben-Gvir and the other newly-elected parties, Cohen pointed out, adding:
‘As the politics of the temporary Zionist entity surge to the right, the end of the Zionist dream is also increasingly in sight. Zionism is crumbling from within as it moves ever closer to a new fascism.
‘The Zionists are not trustworthy or reasonable partners for peace. The only option for the Palestinians is liberation. The power of organised Zionism must be broken.
‘The resistance is poised to play its role in destroying Zionism, from the outside.
‘Netanyahu, a war criminal, is back at the helm of the temporary entity while standing charges on corruption and political dysfunction.’
During Netanyahu’s previous term over 3,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces, including 799 children and 342 women. His role led to the destruction of over 8,000 Palestinian homes, leaving over 12,000 homeless.
- The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Aerospace Division says Iran possesses global-level drone power and is now a pioneer in missile technology.
Speaking last Sunday, Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said Iran now stands on par with global powers in terms of unmanned aerial vehicles, and its achievements in this field have challenged the world’s powerful armies.
‘There are many other (military) achievements, which will be unveiled in due time; for example, the ability to hit enemy targets at a distance of 1,500 kilometres.’
Hajizadeh added that in terms of missile technology, Iran stands above the global level, adding: ‘The recent announcement of our advanced hypersonic ballistic missile, which is able to manoeuvre outside the atmosphere is nothing new, but … represents a generational growth spurt, and our enemies will not be able to come up with a new technology to counter it for many decades to come.
‘In the space field, we were recently able to launch the Qaem 100 satellite carrier, which operates on solid fuel,’ the Iranian commander continued, adding: ‘We will put the first satellite into orbit during the current year, using the Qaem 100 carrier.’
Earlier this month, the IRGC Aerospace Force successfully launched the Qaem 100 three-stage solid fuel suborbital carrier which is the first of its kind to be manufactured by Iranian scientists.
It is capable of putting satellites weighing up to 80 kilogrammes into orbit 500 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
Over the past few years, Iran has succeeded in manufacturing and putting into space different satellites as well as launching various carriers.
Late in June, Iran tested its domestically-developed hybrid-propellant satellite carrier rocket called Zuljanah for ‘predetermined research purposes’ for the second time.
- The commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) says a US-led task force will deploy over 100 unmanned vessels in the Persian Gulf region’s strategic waters, in spite of stern warnings from Tehran against such deployments.
General Michael Kurilla said on Saturday that the deployment will be completed by next year, claiming that it aims to stave off maritime threats.
‘By this time next year, Task Force 59 will bring together a fleet of over 100 unmanned surface and subsurface vessels operating together, communicating together and providing maritime domain awareness,’ said Kurilla, who was sanctioned by the Islamic Republic last month for supporting terrorism and inciting violence against the Iranian nation during the recent riots.
Task Force 59 was created in Bahrain in September 2021 to integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into the Pentagon’s Middle East operations, after a series of drone attacks blamed on Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said earlier in the day that the pervasive presence of unmanned vessels by extra-regional countries has doubled the region’s problems.
‘We consider the presence of foreign forces in the region to be a threat to the peace and stability of the region, and we believe that they have become a threat to the Persian Gulf region and the Oman Sea, as well as energy security in the region,’ Amir-Abdollahian said at a joint press conference with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Tehran on Sunday.
He added the Islamic Republic believes that ‘regional countries are capable of preserving the peace and security of the region by themselves.’
Top Iranian officials and commanders have repeatedly warned against the presence of foreign forces in the region, saying Tehran deems such presence to be contrary to regional peace, stability, and cooperation.
Meanwhile, US CENTCOM commander Kurilla also said that, in addition to the unmanned vessels, the US is ‘building an experimentation programme here in the Middle East to beat adversary drones, with our partners.’
He was apparently referring to Iranian drones, which he claimed to be ‘the greatest technological threat to regional security’
This is after a top IRGC commander announced that Iran has developed a homegrown hypersonic ballistic missile which can penetrate through advanced and sophisticated air defence shields.
And Iranian Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, said the country’s destroyers will also be equipped with the country’s own developed Abu Mahdi naval cruise missiles.
Although faced with severe US sanctions targeting its military, Iran has successfully advanced its defence programme in recent years, achieving what the former head of the US Central Command once called ‘overmatch’ – a level of military capability which makes a country extremely difficult to defeat.
Iran ‘can strike effectively across the breadth and depth of the Middle East. They could strike with accuracy, and they could strike with volume,’ General Frank McKenzie said last year.
‘Iran’s strategic capacity is now enormous,’ he said. ‘They’ve got overmatch in the theatre – the ability to overwhelm.’
Despite the commotion created over its military development, Iran has made clear that its missile and drone programs are defensive in nature.
The Islamic Republic keeps reassuring its neighbours that it wants peace and stability in the region and friendly ties with neighbouring countries.
Iran has also voiced willingness to provide advanced scientific and military technologies to friendly and neighbourly states.
