Fighting the Shock Strategy

PALESTINE - ISRAEL, 17 Mar 2025

Amos Gvirtz – TRANSCEND Media Service

10 Mar 2025 – We must not let Trump and Netanyahu’s shock strategy distract us from the essence of the coup they are carrying out and the danger of it. These are two heads of state who came to power after being indicted for criminal offenses. It seems there is a kind of “legal” logic when such leaders begin initiating regime change for the purpose of elevating themselves above the law and perpetuating their rule.

A person facing criminal charges – who the weakness of the legal system did not prevent from running for office – begins a process of criminalizing the governmental system. At its center stands the principle that the ruler and the government are above the law and includes the weakening of any factor intended to limit their actions and power. Such a ruler did not come to serve his people, he came to control them.

Until the war in Gaza, we thought the legal coup was focused on standing above the laws of the state. Now it turns out that it includes overriding international laws (conventions)!

Netanyahu sent the IDF to a full-scale war in Gaza and is now continuing it in the West Bank. The goal is to transfer the Palestinians from the occupied territories. Egypt, Jordan and the rest of the Arab world oppose it. Biden opposed the transfer – and its alternative, genocide – although he provided the weapons that make it possible. Trump has already expressed support for the transfer from Gaza and is backing the war in the West Bank.

Trump’s shock strategy is based on a multitude of decisions taken on a multitude of issues in a short time. His opponents simply have a hard time keeping up. Netanyahu’s shock strategy is based on a never-ending war that makes it difficult for his opponents to deal with the multitude of laws and actions on the ground pertaining to the coup.

The madness of the two has reached the point that, in response to the issuance of arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Trump has declared sanctions against the court! Here, the coalition is promoting a law that will punish any Israeli who dares to publish incriminating material against Israelis which might come to the court in The Hague! The criminal punishes his accusers! A code of conduct for criminal organizations will become “law” in Israel under Netanyahu’s rule.

These things have a very unique aspect for Jews in Israel and around the world. All Jews carry with them the memory of the Holocaust that the Nazis committed against our people. But it’s not just us, it’s “never again” as a lesson for all of humanity. Indeed, after the end of World War II and as a lesson from it, work was begun on the laws of war (the four Geneva Conventions) and on human rights conventions, which came to provide protection for the defenseless. Now we see that Netanyahu’s Israel, in cooperation with Trump and several other leaders of their ilk (Putin, Orban and others), are doing everything in their power to combat the lessons of World War II. They refuse to be limited by the Geneva Conventions and the Human Rights Conventions in their efforts to achieve their goals.

The United States played an important role in shaping the developed world after World War II. Europe achieved a prosperity unknown throughout its history. Its success made it a destination for refugees from war-torn and poverty-stricken countries where the lessons of that war had not been learned. This in turn led to anxiety about immigration and the rise of the populist right. Now, in Europe too, there are forces working to return the world to the days before World War II.

At a time when the United States has a president who is working against everything it has built, and Israel has a prime minister who is working against the lessons of the Holocaust, opponents of the regime-change coup here have a much greater role than preserving democracy. We must engage in saving the world from the danger of these leaders.

These are people who came to power illegitimately (via the weakness of the legal system), who act for illegitimate goals, and who instead of serving their people, harm them, their neighbors and the entire world. Therefore, their rule is illegitimate. The fight against them should include civil disobedience, with an emphasis on refusing to cooperate with their rule.

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Amos Gvirtz is founder of Israelis and Palestinians for Nonviolence, was chairperson of the Committee against House Demolitions, and a peace and human rights activist. He is a former Israeli representative to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and wrote the book, Don’t Say We Did Not Know. It is live in the Amazon store and is available for readers to purchase here. In Kindle you can read it for free.

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This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 17 Mar 2025.

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