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The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been one of the bloodiest and most dramatic of the 20th century and so far the 21st century. It has been rooted for almost 80 years and just 12 months ago the situation worsened to levels unimaginable until recently.
On October 7, 2023, the Islamist group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israelkilling 1,400 people and kidnapping 200 others. A blow that was responded to by intense bombing by the Israeli Air Force on Gaza and later by an invasion of Gaza territory.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, combined with the total blockade of Gaza, More than 41,600 people have died and nearly two million have been forced to flee their homes.while tensions in the region worsen day by day.
The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, ally of Hamas – both proxiesi.e. allies of the Islamic Republic of Iran – entered the conflict and attacked northern Israel, with a harsh response from Tel Aviv which resulted in the death of its leader, Hasan Nasrallahon September 27, during an Israeli bombing of his bunker in Beirut.
This attack, along with the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya and other commanders of the group and Hezbollah, were followed by Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanonbombings in the capital and other cities across the country, which forced more than a million people to flee the nation of cedars.
The Iranian government has not stood idly by in the face of attacks against its allies and On October 1, it launched its largest attack against Israel, with more than 200 missiles. which did not cause serious damage thanks to the effectiveness of the Israeli defense system known as Iron Dome.
In turn, other allies of Tehran such as the Houthis in Yemen or the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq are harassing Tel Aviv, As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls on Muslims to unite against ‘common enemy’in what is getting closer and closer to a regional war with unpredictable consequences.
Netanyahu
Over the past year, the figure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acquired particular importance. Netanyahu, who previously served in office between 1996 and 1999 and between 2009 and 2021, He is the leader who has been in power the longest.even surpassing the founder of the State of Israel in 1948, David Ben-Gurion.
The Israeli leader, accused of corruption, was harshly criticized for his failure to predict the Hamas attack on October 7 and carried out a harsh crackdown on Palestinians in an attempt to improve its image, leading to charges of war crimes and genocide before the International Court of Justice.
Over the past year, Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on Gaza and the recent invasion and bombing of Lebanon, were harshly criticized and led to increasing isolation from Tel Aviv by the international community, with the exception of its great supporter, the United States.
As of now, Netanyahu has yet to reveal what his response would be to the Iranian attack less than a week ago. and it is suspected that the target could be Iran’s important oil installationswhich support a significant part of the economy of the Islamic Republic.
The link with Valladolid
The Israeli Prime Minister interviewed has an unknown link with the capital Valladolid and it is that of his father Benzion Netanyahu (Warsaw, 1910-Jerusalem, 2012) He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Valladolid on April 27, 2001.during an event in which his son Benjamín was present.
Historian by profession, Benzion NetanyahuAnd He specialized in the history of the Jews in medieval Spain and had a great ideological influence on his son. An avowed revisionist Zionist, he was a supporter of Greater Israel and opposed the 1948 partition of Palestine into two states, one Arab and the other Jewish.
He was repeatedly in favor of the deportation of Arabs from Palestine. and its ideological current ended up inspiring the founding of the Likud party in 1973.which is currently managed by his son.
In his university life, he specialized in history and he was mentored by Josef Klausner, one of the great revisionist scholars and intellectuals. and great-uncle of the writer Amos Oz.
After teaching in several universities abroad, Benzion returned to Israel after the death in 1976 of one of his three sons, Yonatan.in Operation Entebbe to rescue hostages at an airport, becoming a widower in 2000, a few months before his investiture as Doctor Honoris Causa in Valladolid.
Throughout his life he maintained strong right-wing nationalist positions, which led him to criticize any territorial agreement with the Palestinians and to describe the country’s progressive groups as a threat.
Benzion’s main area of teaching was Spanish Judaism and published a 1,400-page essay: “From Anarchy to the Inquisition”in which he attempts to refute the consensus on the reasons for anti-Judaism in medieval Spain by arguing that it was the popular classes who encouraged the creation of the Inquisition.
student protest
On May 21, in the midst of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, the Student Assembly with Palestine demanded the withdrawal of the title of honorary doctor from Benzion Netanyahu, recalling that he was an “exceptional Zionist leader”.
The Assembly also requested the “suspension of academic relations with Israeli universities and higher education establishments” that “they do not expressly condemn the aggression against the Palestinian population” and “the commitment that no new agreement will be signed if these circumstances do not arise.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unknown connection to the city of Valladolid as it prepares to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack and the escalation of a decades-old conflict which appears poised to lead to regional war if no one can stop it.
