General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, the 20th Chief of Staff of the IDF, was accused in March 2010 of illegally expanding his home on public land. Upon his appointment as chief of staff, Yedioth Ahronoth wrote: "The Attorney General's Office said there were lapses in Gantz's behavior, but they were not serious enough to undermine his eligibility for the position." The Turkel Committee - which investigated the allegations - found no impediment to Gantz's appointment, and expressed appreciation for his "honesty and integrity."

This was one of the rare instances of Israel being consistent. How can an Israeli general's appointment be revoked for land grabbing, when his primary function is land grabbing? The entire state is built on the usurpation of other people's land.

Like many Israeli generals before him, Gantz has recently dabbled in politics, founding the Manna for Israel (Hossein L'Yisrael) party to run in the upcoming elections on April 9. On Sunday, Facebook blocked a video from his campaign. The video claims that all Palestinians killed in Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza were "terrorists" belonging to Hamas, which rules the besieged territory. The video features the phrase: "Only the strong survive." How is this different from Nazi propaganda? An unanswered question.

In the second video, he boasts: "We took parts of Gaza back to the Stone Age." Any sane person might ask: If Gaza had an actual army and was capable of responding to Israel, would it have been sent back to the Stone Age? The video then shows a statistic saying that 1,364 people have been killed in Gaza, all of them - allegedly - terrorists, which contradicts even the official Israeli version. "Three and a half years of calm," he adds, completely ignoring the repeated escalations in Gaza.

We Palestinians know from experience that almost every Israeli election cycle coincides with a massacre, especially if the polls show a close race between the candidates. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu usually finds any excuse to flex his muscles by hitting Palestinians, Arabs, or any easy target.

The competition between old generals and civilian politicians pushes the latter to prove themselves by competing in the shedding of Palestinian blood. Some of them may be more aggressive than the military, because they want to fill that "shameful gap" on their resumes. They want to prove that they are just as ruthless as the military, but with an added bonus: Brains. They have the perfect combination of strength and intelligence, making them - in their eyes - better suited to lead the country than those in the military who might behave like a bull in a china shop.

Gantz's third video shows a 2012 airstrike targeting Ahmed al-Jaabari, a senior Qassam Brigades commander. All these videos and their disgusting messages: "Only the strong survive," "We took Gaza back to the Stone Age," and "Kill the enemy" - all represent Gantz's credentials to his voters in an attempt to embody his party's slogan: "Israel above all".

In the fourth video, Gantz added a dose of "hope" to three doses of intimidation, mixing them to create a magic formula that addresses voters' "anxiety" about security and peace. Israel, he says, needs to seriously pursue peace with the Palestinians. But how, no one knows. From the first three videos, you'd have to be pretty naïve not to get the point.

But how is Gantz different from Netanyahu or any other Israeli politician? They all use the same mixture of intimidation and "hope," sometimes even literally using the same words. It's like a duplicate of Netanyahu's rhetoric.

Israel never misses an opportunity to dazzle viewers with scenes of political satire. All of Gantz's boasted atrocities have been questioned even by Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who say he "hesitated, slowed down, and did not succeed in defeating Hamas." Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel said that all the credit goes to Netanyahu, because all these "operations" took place during his tenure.

Netanyahu holds the record for the longest tenure of a prime minister in Israel. Opinion polls suggest his Likud party is in an excellent position to win again in April. Despite corruption investigations, his chances of retaining his position are very strong. His opponents are many, but they need to win the trust of voters. Therefore, it seems that this time he does not need to prove himself with bloodshed.

Israel repeats its claims that it has offered the Palestinians numerous opportunities for peace, but they have refused. But what kind of peace do Gantz and others have in mind, and in what capacity are they offering it?

Is it the imposition of the will of the foreign occupier on the indigenous people who are supposed to thank the occupier for what he throws on their empty plates? The Palestinians are a free people, and they value freedom above all else. They will not kneel to Netanyahu or Gantz, even if they lose everything, because the real loss - for them - is the loss of dignity and freedom. This is what those who are accustomed to slavery do not understand.
Source: Middle East Monitor