The silence settles for a second, then the crowd begins to count. 1, 2, 3 – all the way to 127. A bass guitar somberly keeps the beat. 127 days in captivity. The hostages must go home and they must go home now. There is mourning in the large square in the center of Tel Aviv. Many carry posters with pictures of one of the hostages. “Get her home.” It can be a young girl, a mother or a daughter. “Get him home.” It could be a dad, a grandfather or a soldier. Itay or Karina. Keith Samuel or Gadi. There is sadness in the square, but also anger. Anger at the government, which they think is not doing enough, anger at Hamas, which was behind the attack. The hostages are like an open wound that won’t close, and which has now become politicized. Because what is more important, getting the hostages home or fighting on against Hamas? The question is dividing Israel. A relatively large majority, 47 per cent against 25 per cent, prefer victory in the war to getting the hostages home. The October 7 attack did two things to Israel. It confirmed the underlying fear many share here; yes, they are actually out to kill us. It is not just slogans and religious rhetoric from Hamas. If they get the chance, they do it. At the same time, it reactivated deep-seated traumas from centuries of Jewish persecution and pogroms, the feeling of being in danger. The second thing October 7 did was reveal that the state and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu failed when it mattered most. It failed first by not preventing the attack, and then the authorities were unable to stop it until long after it had begun. GRIEF AND RAGE: Protesters in Tel Aviv demand that Israel’s government do more to free the Israeli hostages. The picture is from 15 February. Photo: Susana Vera / Reuters It was spontaneous reactions and civil organizations that organized much of the aid in the first days, often people who had demonstrated against Netanyahu and the government the week before, while both the police and the army struggled to gain control. Both parts will have consequences. The attack didn’t just happen on Benjamin Netanyahu’s watch, it happened as a result of his years of policy. His entire political project has revolved around pushing the question of the Palestinians away, weakening the Palestinian Authority and giving Hamas the space and opportunity to have control over Gaza, but with regular smaller wars. The result was the worst mass killing of Jews since World War II. I have spoken to many here in Israel who describe a deep and underlying anger towards Netanyahu. The only thing that keeps it from exploding is that the country is at war, and war requires unity. As soon as the war in Gaza is over, a lot could change. We must remember that Israel was close to the brink of collapse before the war. There were street protests because Netanyahu, who rules at the mercy of far-right parties, wanted to push through a reform of the rule of law that the opposition believed would destroy Israeli democracy. The country seemed weak, and Hamas seized the opportunity. But the brutality of the 7 October attack means at the same time that there is broad and deep agreement in Israel about the necessity of fighting in Gaza. This is where the distinction to much of the rest of the world becomes clearest. There was not much interest in the Palestinians’ side of the issue before 7 October in Israel. Afterwards, it almost completely disappeared. There is little coverage of civilian casualties and suffering in Gaza in the Israeli media. Where international news is characterized by mutilated children and the threat of starvation, here it is more about Israeli progress on the battlefield, major political negotiations or what will happen to the hostages. It does not mean that people do not know that thousands of civilians have been killed, but my impression is that many people see no other solution: Hamas is hiding among civilians. Hamas must be defeated. Then civilians will be killed and the Israeli army does what it can to avoid that. Nor does it seem that it is unusual to see the civilian population as complicit. They took part in the ravages and pictures from Gaza showed a lynch mob in the streets against the hostages. Instead, the Israelis feel unfairly treated. They have been accused of genocide in The Hague. But why is no one talking about the war crimes in Sudan and where was the world’s involvement when Bashar al-Assad’s forces bombed Palestinian refugee camps to pieces during the war in Syria? It has not always been this way. In previous wars, there has been more criticism of own soldiers and debate in the media about how the Israeli forces fight and behave. In the 1980s there were gigantic street protests against their own warfare in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Ronen Zvulun / AFP Now it is the New York Times and the BBC that make up cases about how Israeli soldiers upload videos on social media that could be war crimes, not the Israeli press. It is the US and the UN that warn against entering Rafah, rarely loud politicians on the left. The two-state solution, i.e. the establishment of a Palestinian state, is only talked about by international politicians and diplomats. It feels infinitely far away here in Israel, and the resistance is going to be great. It has already begun after leaks in the Wall Street Journal told of a time-bound American plan for the creation of a state. If the massacre on 7 October is to be rewarded with a separate state, the answer is on the Israeli right. All in all, this is a difficult starting point for finding a way forward. An ongoing war with heavy civilian casualties, growing disagreement with the rest of the world and a deep internal political division. Several people I have spoken to believe there will be new elections in 2024. It will push forward even if Netanyahu and the right have nothing to gain from it. Then Israel will have to address the difficult questions that can no longer be postponed. What will actually happen to bombed out and destroyed Gaza? How should they relate to the religious forces on the extreme right and the settler movement that is spreading? What about the occupation? What about our own democracy? Although the polls for Netanyahu and the far right look bad, there is no guarantee that he will not stay in power. In the world of politics, things change quickly, and Netanyahu has survived most of it. But the patience of the outside world, even in the United States, is wearing thin. No matter how unfairly Israelis feel the world treats them, the lack of a political horizon is striking. If they themselves are unable to figure out what the future should look like, someone else can do it for them, as long as action is put behind words.
ttn-69
As Israel sees it – Speech
