The battle for the soul of Israel

Here is a truth that must be faced: neither Israelis nor Palestinians are going away anytime soon. No one can destroy their mutual rights to a sovereign state in the land of their ancestors, which, by chance, is located in the same area. Barring some cataclysmic event, there will be no Palestine from the river to the sea, nor a Greater Israel. This is a conflict that can only be resolved through territorial and political compromise.

Such hard realism is often rejected in the global debate. Much of the human empathy for the innocent victims in Gaza – and it is a perfectly legitimate empathy – is expressed under the banner of the slogan “Free Palestine.” This catchy and moving slogan has one major problem: whenever it appears on its own, it means “Eradicate Israel.” This is precisely why ordinary Israelis, often misinformed by their government and media, mistakenly assume that any protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is really just a matter of anti-Semitism.

Which brings me to another brutal truth: people who attack Jews on the streets or online simply because they are Jews are anti-Semites. Those who praise Hamas as freedom fighters clearly share its anti-Semitic and genocidal ideology. But people who accuse Israel of war crimes against innocent Gazans are not anti-Semites, they are simply people. Both groups exist, and in between there is a huge spectrum of passionate ignoramuses, led by lazy and egotistical intellectuals who want to “liberate Palestine” and for the Jews to somehow disappear or be subjugated.

The current conflict in Gaza has its roots in a centuries-old dispute. However, as a historian, I feel strongly that now is not the time for history. We must prioritize saving lives. You don't argue about the past while you're facing deadly fire. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is too bloody right now for that.

I am not a neutral observer (no one is), but a deeply engaged Israeli Jew, raised on a kibbutz, from a Zionist family of secular Jews. On one side liberal-nationalist, on the other kibbutz-socialist, but all my grandparents were peaceful and believed that humanism was the best part of our Jewish heritage. I am glad that they do not have to witness what is happening today, and I still try to carry their torch.

My kibbutz origins have taken on a new meaning since October 7, 2023. People I know, friends and colleagues, are barbarically shrouded in black on that day. Sometimes, when I write about it, certain “pro-Palestinians” attack me on social media for going back to October 7, as if I were a cunning demagogue, as if only one side deserves to acknowledge the collective trauma. Dear Palestinians, beware of such friends.

I am part of the majority of Israelis who believed that Hamas must be defeated, and of the majority who currently (in my case, for over a year) believe that Israel's war against Hamas has gone horribly wrong, morally and practically. I also express the majority's opinion when I take to the streets to demonstrate for a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to release the remaining 50 Israeli hostages, about 20 of whom may still be alive.

The current conflict in Gaza has its roots in a centuries-old dispute. However, as a historian, I feel strongly that now is not the time for history. We must prioritize saving lives.

My other beliefs place me in a minority, but the very fact that this minority exists is significant. I have supported the two-state solution since I was a child. The massacre perpetrated by Hamas has not changed my views, only my sense of acute urgency. Israel and Palestine need to divide the land, either by demarcation or by a creative confederal structure that would allow sovereignty and self-government for both nations. Israel must be democratic, peaceful, and secure; Palestine at least stable and free from support for terror.

Compromise is the only bloodless choice. Compromise or eternal war.

Please do not underestimate the appeal of eternal war. Powerful fanatics on both sides insist that they are prepared to fight forever—until the Messiah comes, until the enemy is gone, or, as Andrew Marvell put it, “until the Jews are converted.” At both extremes of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there is neither humanism nor rationality; they are ruled by the worst and most aggressive versions of the Jewish god and Allah.

We, moderates, seculars, and liberals, are currently torn between these extremes. Many of us are intimidated or traumatized, perhaps for life. Others, hundreds of thousands of Israelis, are struggling to push back the fanatics. It doesn't help that Gaza is still ruled by Hamas, nor that the Israeli cabinet has gotten out of control, serving religious extremists. But we are still fighting for a peaceful compromise in the shared homeland of Israel/Palestine. The world needs to know this, and moderate Palestinians, who are either very quiet or very brave, need to know that Israeli peace seekers are still reaching out.

Let me focus on Israel, my country, and clear up a few common misconceptions. First and foremost, Zionism. Many people see that word as something inherently deadly. There are too many who smile cynically on camera and say, “I don’t hate Jews, I just hate Zionists.”

Well, I'm glad to meet you too. I'm a Zionist, after all. And that simply means what it originally meant to Theodor Herzl and his movement: Zionism is the right of the Jews to a national home in the land of their ancestors.

Within it. No claim to exclusive ownership. A national home and sovereign state for the Jewish people (in accordance with UN Resolution 181), not at the expense of a Palestinian state, but alongside it. That is the only basic definition of Zionism, and it is fully consistent with the two-state solution and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Herzl also demanded that the Jewish state be a liberal democracy that would provide full civil equality for men and women, Jews and Arabs. This Zionist ideal was forcefully reiterated in David Ben-Gurion's 1948 Declaration of Independence, and embraced by every Israeli leader up to Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course, they did not always play by their own rules; but a peaceful democracy, fair to its Arab citizens and friendly to its Arab neighbors, was Israel's declared goal until two decades ago.

That is why the vast majority of the Israeli left, which is pro-peace, has always identified itself as Zionist, and continues to do so today. In this light, foreign demonization of Zionists is irrelevant. The only person who can destroy our basic Zionism, moderate, pragmatic, and peace-making Zionism, is Netanyahu.

When I am asked about the struggle for the soul of Israel, I can give only one answer, drawing on the ancient Jewish habit of answering a question with a question: which Israel?

If by “Israel” we mean Netanyahu's near-autocracy, then “Israel” is doing everything in its power to keep Netanyahu in the prime minister's chair and to quash the ongoing corruption trial. Everything else is subordinate to that goal.

Years before Donald Trump, Netanyahu had amassed a cult-like following, filling every corner of the Likud party with his admirers. Some of his Knesset members currently portray him as a king or a messenger from God. The hard core of “bibists” would follow the leader anywhere, into all-out war or a peace deal with the Palestinians, as long as the policy suited their boss’s personal interests.

This should explain Netanyahu’s completely irrational decisions on the Gaza war and on Israel’s international relations. At home, he faces one of the strongest and most principled civil societies in the world, made up of moderate center and left. Abroad, he shocks and betrays Israel’s best and oldest friends. Worse, Netanyahu systematically exploits the complexities of Jewish identity, in Israel and around the world, shouting about anti-Semitism in the same way that the legendary shepherd cried wolf. At the same time, he allows the most fanatical Jews on the planet, his far-right coalition partners, to decide what Judaism means.

The “Bibists” now make up between 25 and 30 percent of Israeli voters. They will vote for him again despite his abysmal failure on October 7. The “poison machine” conveniently blames the Hamas massacre on the left and the pro-democracy protest movement. But it should be noted that Netanyahu’s base, along with his current coalition partners, have been behind the main opposition bloc in most election polls over the past two years. Their war crimes in Gaza, their crimes against their own citizens, and their assault on democracy are the brazen acts of a government that has gotten out of control.

Perhaps “Israel” means the far-right parties of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir? The former is a rabid fanatic, in the service of leaders and rabbis who are carrying out a hostile takeover of Judaism and pushing it to its ultimate, atavistic edges of biblical warmongering. Although unpopular in the polls, Smotrich has a hugely disproportionate influence on the current government. Ben-Gvir, a criminal thug with at least eight previous convictions, including for supporting terrorism, was Netanyahu’s choice to serve as national security minister. These men seem to want Israel to sacrifice all the remaining hostages and hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers in order to conquer all of Gaza, ethnically cleanse it of Palestinians, and settle it with Jews.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, along with dangerous fanatics like Orit Struk, are our greatest curse. Other Western countries have similar problems with far-right parties, but it can be said that they can afford it. Israel cannot. We are facing real, deadly enemies, Iran and its proxies. We are teetering on the edge of the abyss, being pushed into the abyss by the worst government we have ever had.

Do not at all confuse these far-right fanatics with the older right, whose hawkish views were secular and rational, based on their idea of ​​how best to preserve Israel's security. That is not what drives the Messianic Right. It is as if they do not care at all about "Western values," the great tradition of Jewish humanism, or Israel's moral standing in the world. Their goal - and please take them very seriously - is the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, and eternal power and glory for the Children of Israel, Smotrich-style.

Then there is the third partner holding Netanyahu's government together - the ultra-Orthodox parties. If this group had complete freedom, Israel would become a theocracy based on halakhah, religious law, a kind of equivalent to Muslim Sharia. This part of society, about 13 percent, is maintained thanks to the privileges granted to them by Ben-Gurion back in the 18s: they are provided with their own educational system, hermetically sealed to any secular curriculum, and financed by the state; in addition, they are almost completely exempt from military service, which is mandatory for most Jewish Israeli citizens over the age of XNUMX.

Since November 2022, these three groups - Netanyahu's supporters, the nationalist-messianic right, and the self-serving ultra-Orthodox parties - have formed our government, the first exclusively far-right government in Israeli history. All of Netanyahu's previous coalitions have included at least one centrist party. This is the first time anyone has allowed the openly racist and legally convicted Ben-Gvir to enter a government. Never before have so many ultra-Orthodox demands been accepted in a coalition agreement. In return, the ultra-Orthodox parties give Netanyahu a free hand in every decision, except on issues concerning the financing of their constituents.

The time has come to begin the legislative assault on the judiciary. By January 2023, Netanyahu and his Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, had prepared a series of bills aimed at weakening, neutralizing, and then politicizing the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office, and all other institutions of legal oversight. Unlike the ultra-Orthodox issue, this was part of a global trend. Netanyahu was following the playbooks of Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. He is currently trying to remove the Attorney General, and he has already removed the head of the Shin Bet, the organization legally authorized to defend Israel from internal threats, including those to democracy. By the time most Israelis realize that Netanyahu is squelching Israeli democracy, its defenders will have been replaced by his loyalists, and no legal institution will be able to stop him.

In the terrible aftermath of October 7th, we thought that at least the government's coup against the judiciary would be over. But it wasn't, and as the war in Gaza turned from a righteous counterattack on Hamas to a massacre of Palestinian civilians, it became clear that Netanyahu had to destroy democracy to stay in power. He was willing to destroy it to stop his corruption trial; even more so now, when he is also a war criminal.

The next step could be political interference in the next elections, scheduled for October 27, 2026, as well as manipulation of both the process and the results. The coalition also wants to limit or revoke the right to vote for certain Arab citizens and to ban certain Arab parties from participating in the elections.

Jewish liberals and the left won’t fare any better: we are already being brutally beaten by Ben-Gvir police during legal demonstrations. We are already being arrested for no reason and threatened daily by Netanyahu’s mob. The upcoming elections will be a huge test for any moderate Israeli. In my wide social circle, many academics and professionals are talking about emigration. Others are determined to stay, even as dissidents. Despite the fake news about secret stockpiles of foreign passports, most of us Israeli Jews have nowhere to go.

The Israeli center, including the moderate left and right, has one priority: freeing the hostages, at the cost of a ceasefire and a withdrawal from Gaza. The hostages must come first, not only because the survivors among them are apparently dying, but also because the Netanyahu government has played with their fates and treated their family members with shameless arrogance and inhumanity.

Prominent among the demonstrators are Israeli academics and artists, the very people who are under boycott in the West.

As big as Netanyahu and his government may seem, the center, the left, and the moderate right still make up the Israeli mainstream. At the heart of that mainstream is our civil society - the organizations and individuals who rushed to defend democracy, rallied after the Hamas massacre, and who are now fighting for democracy again, while seeking to end the war.

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the largest demonstrations on the streets of Tel Aviv, a huge number for a country of 10 million. Notable among them were Israeli academics and artists, the very people that self-proclaimed Western progressives are now so eager to expel and boycott. It is true that many Jewish Israelis found it emotionally difficult to sympathize with the innocent people of Gaza in the immediate aftermath of October 7. But a growing number are beginning to wake up to the horrors inflicted on civilians trapped between Israel and Hamas. As the numerous protest banners and speeches show, we increasingly look back on this war with sadness and shame.

We are stronger and more deeply rooted than the Polish liberals, but we watch with admiration their restoration of democracy. After we win the next elections - assuming they are not rigged - there will be much work to be done in reconstruction. Gaza needs physical reconstruction, a task for the entire international community. Israel needs moral and political reconstruction, for which we, the Israelis, must take full responsibility.

No power in the world can destroy Israel except its own government, and no power can rebuild it except its civil society. My late father, Amos Oz, wrote back in August 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War: “The shorter the occupation, the better for us. For even an imposed occupation is destructive. Even an enlightened, humane, and liberal occupation remains an occupation. I fear for the quality of the seeds that we are sowing in the hearts of the occupied in the near future. Even more than that, I fear for the seeds that are being sown in the hearts of the occupiers. And the first signs can already be recognized now, on the margins of society.”

Consider this also a warning to other democracies. The current conflict between fanatical Jerusalem and liberal Tel Aviv could foreshadow the future of other Western democracies. At the same time, what is happening to the Palestinians will shake the entire North-South axis.

The remaining true friends of Israel, as well as the true friends of Palestine, are called upon to support our pro-democratic civil society, especially that part of it that strives for peace. Sensible governments should impose sanctions or punishments on Netanyahu, but be careful not to reward Hamas. Israel, the true Israel, is no longer its government but its civil society, including much of the academic and artistic scene. Please think carefully about whom you support and whom you punish.

The author is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Haifa's Faculty of Law and at the Haifa Center for German and European Studies

The essay is taken from the Financial Times.

Translated and edited by: A. Šofranac