We only know for sure that it will fall on a Thursday; the rest is quite unpredictable. I'm referring to the future commemoration of the birth of the State of Israel. The creation of this country on May 14, 1948, was the result of a long and confusing process marked by the old Zionist project, by European antisemitism that reached its peak during the Holocaust, by Jewish migrations prior to World War II, by the same cynical colonial geopolitics of the British Empire, and, of course, by UN Resolution 181. This document, by the way, explains things that are often overlooked when analyzing the conflict; an exhaustive summary would be too long, but I invite the reader to consult it (it is easily found on the internet). Theodor Herzl's movement, consolidated at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, championed the right of the Jewish people to settle in their ancestral homeland in legitimate defense, that is, in response to discrimination and persecution that was not at all imaginary and seemed to be escalating. After World War II, the chilling images of the extermination camps corroborated that Herzl's diagnosis, which he died in 1904, was sound: this could not happen again. This, in fact, is the underlying spirit of the aforementioned Resolution 181, which in no way envisaged discrimination against Palestinians but rather the coexistence of the two communities. What happened next is unfortunately well known. Everyone can emphasize or qualify what they see fit, but there are certain things that are difficult to deny.
Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, proposed dividing the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine into two independent states. 56% of the territory would go to the Jewish state and 43% to the Arab state, although the Arabs were the demographic majority. However, it should be noted that the Jewish territory included the unproductive Negeb Desert (13,000 km², more than half the country). The Resolution also envisaged economic cooperation between the two future states, and Jerusalem would be a territory with a special administration. This is the explicit part of the document. Its background, let's say. moral It was another: the Jewish people had been subjected to unprecedented devastation. The so-called Nazi Final Solution is the perfect example of genocide. Those who consider that this apocalyptic nightmare cannot be compared to what is happening today in Gaza are right, but those who claim that, although we are facing two different historical situations, the Netanyahu government's policy is getting closer with each passing day to full-blown genocide are also right. Legitimate defense against terrorism is one thing, and a grotesquely disproportionate military response that has caused an unbearable number of innocent victims is quite another.
What will happen, then, on Thursday, May 14, 2048? Will the State of Israel celebrate the centenary of its creation as usual? I find it highly unlikely. The Netanyahu government has crossed a red line—red with blood—from which there is now no turning back. Once crossed, Israel's destiny could be that of a pariah state like any other, with or without the complicity of the United States or the diplomatic unconditional support of Germany. The violated red line will not be erased. In recent days, major countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have officially recognized the Palestinian state. This recognition today goes beyond a cosmetic one. look good In international politics, it discredits the State of Israel, placing it in a dark zone of history that it had until now banished. Apartheid South Africa, for example, was in this dark zone.
Beyond UN Resolution 181, the basis of the State of Israel's moral legitimacy has been the victimhood, in my opinion undeniable, of the Jewish people. The Netanyahu government, which is not the Jewish people, has shredded this legitimacy in a way that is now irreversible. What will Israel be like on Thursday, May 14, 2048, if it still exists as we know it now? I obviously don't know. There are 23 years to go, which is a long time, and time erases many things. This, however, is far from anecdotal. Even if there were a complete ceasefire today, the distribution of humanitarian aid were allowed, etc., the damage would already have been done. No, all of this can no longer be erased. Just causes do not expire, but the way they are defended must always be subject to restrictions.
