Everything is Connected

When we look at Jewish Israeli society, we all recognize and can recite the "divide and rule" policy the regime has been employing for years. And without a doubt, it has been successful. Netanyahu and his partners have managed to fracture Israeli society into tribes, ethnic groups, geographic areas, and political opinions in such a way that people are almost willing to kill each other over differing views. Similarly, the same people, the same prime minister, are conditioning us to see the larger reality as if its parts are disconnected, as if they are separate. What happens inside Jewish Israeli society is separated from what happens inside Arab Israeli society; all of this is separated from the occupation and the Palestinian-Arab society; this is separated from the unprecedented aggression in Gaza; the regime’s coup is unrelated; the trial against the main defendant is also standalone; and so on. Divide and rule on a bigger scale. But that’s not really the case. Dani Danieli connects here some points we are used to seeing as separate, and this is truly just a brief overview. Open your eyes.

Ayala Shalev, Editor, That’s About Us

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Everything is Connected

Dani Danieli

I assume that when someone says something like "Everything is connected," they risk being attributed with suspicious or even "conspiratorial" intentions. I’m aware of that, yet I take the risk as I gaze upon the bleeding Israel on the cusp of 2026.

Sadly, many of us have experienced the recent years, since the full-right government was established, as terrifying ones, evoking harsh associations, to the point of using terms like destruction, civil war, or civil strife, and the like.

And yet, it’s important to remember, when it comes to perceiving reality – and especially when it’s oppressive – that people experience things in different ways and with varying intensities, even within very large groups crudely defined as the liberal-democratic camp. These groups, which I focus on, have taken to the streets in struggles and protests that began over 8 years ago. These struggles initially centered on opposition to governmental corruption, then resistance to the regime’s coup, and later in massive demonstrations calling for the return of the hostages, emphasizing their abandonment; and as time passed, there were also protests expressing outrage at the prime minister and his coalition and government partners’ evasion of responsibility for the October 7, 2023 massacre that occurred on their watch, as well as the various failures of the security forces.

Like many of you, I participated intensively in these protests and demonstrations, not always with enthusiasm in the face of the overt patriotism displayed by thousands of flags... but I, along with a few other friends from several human rights and peace organizations, sought to bring a different perspective to the protests and demonstrations, one no less important than those mentioned above and connected to them.

Beyond statements against the way the war was conducted in the Gaza Strip, and primarily against the horrific array of war crimes committed by the IDF against an uninvolved civilian population – including the terrible slaughter of tens of thousands of infants and children – we added the claim that the deeply problematic conduct of the Israeli government and the IDF is clearly linked to the ongoing occupation of the West Bank since 1967 and its consequences.

It must be said that most of the good Israeli women and men who participated in these struggles – Israelis characterized as part of the democratic-liberal camp, and most of whom would undoubtedly agree with this characterization – struggled greatly to hear, and certainly to accept, this connection, which seems as clear as day to us. We received quite a few responses, especially in the early stages, claiming that it’s not right to discuss the "occupation" when we’re fighting to bring back the hostages and captives. "Why now?" they asked us. "Not now!!" they got angry. And slowly, as the war dragged on and became more entangled, one could see a growing openness to this analysis of the situation, though not a dramatic change.

More and more people realized that there are clear "connections" in reality, even though our minds are not trained to perceive them, and that they are crucial for understanding the situation. Thus, the most prominent opponents to hostage deals and stopping the war were the politicians from the extreme right-wing parties and their supporters – those who supported, and continue to support, the injustices of the occupation in the West Bank, including settler atrocities that intensified greatly, to a large extent "thanks to them," during the war and in its shadow.

The same politicians who are backing to Jewish terrorism and ethnic cleansing not only blocked deals to return the hostages but also aligned, almost unanimously, with Trump’s Gaza Riviera vision, which at one point included the expulsion of a significant portion of the population there. It’s no wonder that these people, who are motivated in part by a messianic vision to conquer the entire land, didn’t wait and presented – right in the midst of the war, while soldiers were dying, Gazans were being massacred, and hostages were rotting in tunnels – plans for settlement in the Strip. These plans were not received positively in Israeli public opinion in general or among the democratic-liberal public in particular, but the "penny" about everything being connected truly didn’t drop. And it didn’t drop even when, in the shadow of the war, other things happened, the most prominent of which was a vigorous attempt to renew the regime coup. Although the entire right was mobilized for this, once again, the most enthusiastic leaders who stormed with fiery anger against the Supreme Court and the law enforcement authorities were the extreme right-wing parties, and here too there’s a connection. Weakening the judicial system and taking over law enforcement authorities is a cornerstone necessary for realizing the idea of annexing the West Bank, and perhaps even the entire Gaza Strip or parts of it.

And what about the connection between what has happened in the Gaza Strip over the past two years and what has happened and is happening in the West Bank? We all remember well – and must remember – what Hamas did on October 7, 2023, but that provides no justification for what we are doing. It seems we are becoming more and more like our tormentors.

The terrible destruction, both human and physical, of the Strip aligns perfectly with the harsh mistreatment of the civilian population in the West Bank. The escalation of Jewish terrorism, which often operates in a despicable symbiosis with security forces functioning as full-fledged occupation militias, has created and continues to create a cruel living reality for the population there. This reality is less murderous than in the Gaza Strip, but for tens of thousands of Palestinians suffering from numerous and varied forms of abuse, it amounts to "slow death." And above all, in the reality of "everything is connected," there hovers a malevolent spirit of "Jewish supremacy" mixed with the dehumanization of Palestinians as such, which we have all been subtly conditioned to accept over the years. That same dehumanization spills over into the inflamed discourse of hatred and incitement within Jewish-Israeli society. It’s also necessary to say, when discussing Israeli society, that there is a "spillover" of harsh police practices – applied for years against the population in the West Bank – into the police’s conduct at demonstrations and against human rights activists in Israel.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, there are other connections, and I’m holding back from delving into those involving the criminal defendant, a key figure and "pivotal player" in the "everything is connected" web, but the page is too short to cover them all. What I must still say is that, in my view, the reality of "everything is connected" is the most dangerous. The costs of the original sin of the ongoing occupation are skyrocketing, their impact is evil and threatening, and they don’t stop at the border, even if it seems that way to many living on this side of it. Frustratingly, only a minority in Israeli society understands and grasps the magnitude of the multidimensional damage that affects every area and layer of our lives.

And I am searching – and still haven’t found – the fulcrum for change.

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Dani Danieli is a secular-humanist rabbi, organizational consultant, and activist.