 West Asia and the Horn of Africa. Two regions which over the past few years have seen intensifying conflicts. Two regions in which the United States of America continues to play a crucial role. And two regions which have seen major developments in the past week. We'll be discussing both on this episode of Mapping Fault Lines. We're joined by Prabir Prukayastha. Prabir will start with West Asia, specifically Israel, where after years of political chaos, the fifth election taking place in close to four years, and this time it looks like he is back with a majority which might be quite low by our standards of other countries, but which by Israeli standards is a good enough majority to be in power for quite some time. Now, of course, he's also come at the head of a government which is likely to be even more right-wing than his previous governments. So, first of all, could you take us through what these elections right now tell us about the situation and the political context of Israel right now? Well, there are two significant things that have happened in this election. I'm leaving out Netanyahu coming back after all the charges of corruption, etc., that he has had. I think the two important parts is whatever little left forces existed in Israel and also Arab voice, both seems to have been almost marginalized completely as a result of the selections. So, they're now going to be there in the parliament because they haven't crossed the 3.5% threshold that is there and therefore they don't have it. They're now going to be there represented. In fact, that's also why this swing to the right becomes even more important. The second part of it which you, I think, are also referring to is that there is an openly right-wing party which has advocated that the Palestinian population should have no rights, that they should have no political rights. If they disagree, then it should be forcibly deported. In fact, the argument was that it should be a completely Jewish state and the Palestinian population should actually be forced to leave Israel. This was what Meir Kahane, the original founder of this ideology represented, forcefully throwing out of the Palestinian population and make the Jewish only land. This is the strand that has come into the parliament this time and this is what Netanyahu has allied with openly. Now, why should it surprise people in the world? Because we all regard Netanyahu as a right-wing in any case. We also regard the bulk of the political parties now in Israel, essentially arguing for very little rights for the Palestinian people and slowly disenfranchising them in various ways. Here, the difference is that it is officially doing so. It is doing so with the sanction, apparently, of religion because they are arguing this is what is there in our religion and the texts call for this. It is really the Old Testament, i for an i, tooth for a tooth and also who should be considered human beings and who are not really fit to be called human beings. All this unfortunately is there in the religious texts of that time. But don't forget it's more than 2000 years old. So, those are the things which are being espoused today and of course there is a serious problem with that. So, when you look at the right-wing which is Netanyahu, then it is quote-unquote a secular right-wing if you will. The ethnicity is the identity issue. Of course, it's a Jewish identity, Jewish majoritarian outlook, all of that is there. But it is not referring to all its practices from, say, the Old Testament. And that's what makes a difference from what is identified in Israel as a religious right, which is what this is. Don't forget, we had Baruch Goldstein, a follower of Meir Kahane who openly killed a number of Palestinian people and essentially justified it. That was the strand that this is what we have to do, kill these people, exterminate them. That was the message that came through. And also the fact that the person who is leading this party, Itamar Ben-Gorir, he has also been a great fan of Goldstein and of course, Meir Kahane. This is the strand which has come openly to power and they hold the whip hand because without that Netanyahu's government falls. And having so many elections take place, therefore the stability coming from this is itself the one which will destabilize Israel. And we are likely to see therefore the growth of this conflict even beyond what it is today. That means an open espousal of export the Palestinians to other countries. Now who is going to take them is a different issue but slowly disenfranchise them, take away their citizenship, take away various rights. All of these I think are on the cards now. These things have been happening all this while. While they have been saying these are not true etc. etc. These things have been happening but this is now going to happen officially. And I think that is the nature of the state then that is going to come into question. And it's reported that when we might actually get the internal security ministry and control the police, so all the more likelihood. That's a very important point because that's how actually they infiltrated the army and now they infiltrate the police that we can see the consequences of this. Absolutely. In this context of course, big question for the Palestinians because they have I think also over the years there has been an increase in Palestinian resistance as well in various methods in various forms. And Israel has responded by in the most brutal way in 2022 I think having seen the largest number of deaths since 2005 or 2006 even when a so-called liberal government was in power. So do you also foresee the resistance sort of intensifying not only in the occupied territories but also what is called 1948 Israel over the years? I think both places the resistance is going to be stronger partly because the 48 Palestinians 48 Israelis whichever whatever term you want to use are the ones who were not openly under attack for a long time but increasingly last 10-15 years the fact that they're isolated they don't have access to various facilities they're essentially second-class citizens all of that is intensified and they have started to participate in some of the movements that are taking place across Palestine as well as what would be called Israel in that sense. So occupied Palestine or in Israel there has been movements and there has been solidarity which has been building. Which way does it go? This is a big question it will depend actually on what happens in Israel also it's not going to be Palestinians deciding alone because it's also going to some decisions are also going to be made for them by what Israel is going to do and particularly this right-wing government. So I think it's very much open to which way it is going to go and it's the part of a much larger picture in West Asia. There is also Iran there is also Syria there is also Lebanon so how all of these are going to shape up is also going to address for Israel the question are they a part of West Asia or are they just simply a western extension into West Asia. I think that's the existential larger existential question for Israel. Still with all that we are seeing now feel that they are an external intrusion into West Asia on behalf of the West. I've been moving on to the other topic which is also very significant which is that a peace deal has finally been signed in Ethiopia. This happened on the 2nd of November ending close to two years of war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray people's liberation in front of a very brutal war huge humanitarian crisis going on there. A lot of allegations of western involvement in and their support for the TPLF as well. But finally a peace agreement signed in South Africa apparently the TPLF is said to be disarmed reintegrated into the Ethiopian political system. So could you tell us take us through why this agreement is significant and you know of course what what will happen is a big question we're not going there. But right now why is this agreement quite significant? It's been a brutal war for last two years but if you look at the larger history Tigray Liberation Front or what it represents ran Ethiopia for quite some time and it was backed by the West. If you remember also the relationship between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalis has this triangular relationship also has had its problems in which the United States has once supported Somalia, once supported Ethiopia and Tigray was their favored support base in the region. They destroyed Somalia after that part of history but Eritrea held out. Now this time it is the Eritreans as well as the other groups in Ethiopia who did not accept the dominance of the Ethiopian government for more than 30 years by the Tigray Liberate or Tigray based identity which ruled in this country. That led to this kind of upsurge earlier, removal of Tigray government at one point and then that was the response to the Tigray Liberation Front had. They wanted them to take back power and therefore the military revolt that took place. So the complex picture over here is not very different from what's happening in other parts of Africa but the ex-colonial powers and the United States wants to keep the African groups fighting each other and through this deciding who is the winner, who is the loser tries still to maintain their neocolonial exploitation, the resources of the region. Tigray was their favored player. Now Tigray has clearly lost the military war therefore they had to come to an agreement but how much they will still retain their power how much will they continue to be backed by the United States? These are the key questions. The future of Ethiopia as all of this colonial wars is whether the countries which are under this kind of attack can rise above the imperial invasions that are taking place by going with one side or the other whether they can really overcome that and that is a much more difficult question because already the identities, ethnicities, etc. have been fanned up to the extent that the original nation states which existed to put them back together is not going to be that easy and I think that is the much larger battle we are seeing in Africa whether it's of Saharan Africa or now in Northern Africa and already we have seen the destruction of Somalia. What's going to happen to Mali is not clear. Ethiopia has been under this kind of civil war for quite some time. So the gradual destruction of the states doesn't bode well for Africa or for the world. Can we overcome therefore the colonial interventions in this places and see whether nationalist forces are able to build a unity among themselves and therefore reject the foreign interventions that are taking place in France and other colonial power in Francophone Africa and of course the United States with its number of floating bases in Africa which we have talked about earlier. Thank you so much for being here. So there we have it an election and a peace agreement to two different regions of course but also two processes that could have a huge impact on the configurations of various geopolitical configurations around the world. We will be discussing many similar issues in future episodes of Mapping Frontlines until then keep watching your slick.