While attending the screening of The Palestine Laboratory Episode 2 on Saturday 26 July at Dendy Cinemas in Newtown, I had the opportunity to pose two critical questions to veteran journalist and author Antony Loewenstein during the Q&A session.
1. Propping up dictatorships to undermine democracy
Zia Ahmad:
“As you stated, almost the whole of the Middle East is dotted with Arab dictatorships. Now Israel has been projecting itself as the only democracy in the Middle East for decades. Do you think that Israel perpetuates these Arab authoritarian regimes because it feels threatened with popular representative governments in the Middle East?”
Antony Loewenstein:
“Israel obviously has so-called peace deals with Jordan and Egypt. They are very close. Egypt, as you’ve seen, and Jordan too, in the last 20 months, are regularly shutting down and harassing people who support Palestine within their own borders. These are supposed to be their Arab brothers and sisters dying in huge numbers in Gaza.
There is a great desire for Israel to normalise ties with Saudi Arabia too. But Israel today is, undeniably, the most powerful military force in the Middle East. With that power comes arrogance.
You would think that gives Israel ‘security’ and ‘safety’. But what it doesn’t give—and what Israel craves—is legitimacy. They want love and public support. It’s almost like a three-year-old wanting a hug.
They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year trying to gain this legitimacy. Just last week, Israel invited over 30 pro-Trump influencers to show them a tightly curated version of the country—a so-called democracy.
But among younger generations globally, especially those aged 18 to 35, support is shrinking. They get their news from social media, where they see children being bombed and civilians killed every day.
This erosion of support also feeds a worrying rise in anti-Semitism, with people conflating Jewish identity with Israeli atrocities. That’s not just offensive—it’s dangerous. As a Jew, I reject that conflation.
Israel is committing genocide, and it is being done by a state that claims to represent Jews. This has long-term consequences, including a surge in antisemitic attitudes. And let’s be clear: this is all rooted in Israel’s thirst for dominance, not democracy.”
2. An unholy global alliance of supremacists
Zia Ahmad:
“How is the unholy alliance between Zionists, Hindu nationalists and white supremacists justified by the Jewish religious establishment espousing Judaism’s higher values?”
Antony Loewenstein:
“Zionism and Hindu nationalism are increasingly close. If you ask ultra-Orthodox Jews about this alliance, many wouldn’t even blink. Some of them are Jewish supremacists—they don’t respect anyone who isn’t Jewish.
Israel is deeply ideological, yes, but also ruthlessly pragmatic. India is now the world’s most populous nation and a key weapons partner.
Since October 7, some of the ammunition and drones used by Israel in Gaza have been produced in India. Delhi knows exactly what it’s doing—and has no issue with it.
Netanyahu and Modi are very close, and both are openly racist against Muslims. But even if they fall from power, I don’t expect their countries’ ties to change. It’s a marriage of convenience, and it works.
The narrative both countries sell is dangerous: ‘We’re on the frontline of a global battle for civilisation.’ The enemy? Muslims.
Netanyahu tells the West: We kill them here, so you don’t have to kill them in London or New York or Sydney. Modi uses similar rhetoric.
This is not just a geopolitical alignment. It’s an ideological front that undermines human rights, erodes democracy, and normalises authoritarianism.”
Conclusion: A genocidal state masked as a democracy
I was struck with the honesty, brilliance and clarity of Loewenstein’s thoughts where his answers paint a bleak picture of the Israeli state—not as a beacon of democracy, but as a militarised power broker invested in preserving regional autocracy and legitimising itself through global propaganda and alliances with other ethno-nationalist regimes.
Rather than opposing dictatorship, Israel has, by design or convenience, aligned itself with some of the most repressive states and ideologies in the world. Its cooperation with Hindu nationalism and white supremacy reveals not a defence of Jewish values, but an abandonment of them in favour of strategic self-interest.
This pursuit of legitimacy, through suppression, censorship, and manufactured alliances, reveals an uncomfortable truth: Israel is not simply defending itself—it is manufacturing a world order that mirrors its own militarised, exclusionary vision of Islamophobia by destabilising the Muslim world.
The consequences are not limited to Gaza or the West Bank. They are global. And the world must decide whether to continue enabling a state that commits genocide while posing as a democracy—or to finally, and firmly, hold it accountable.
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