For Israel, a War Unlike Any Other
By: Yossi Klein Halevi
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
T he Israeli psyche resembles an archaeological site of layers of unresolved traumas, ordinary life interrupted by history. Still, none of the previous wars and terror assaults and missile barrages that I’ve lived through in my four decades as an Israeli has quite prepared me for this moment of rage, dread, uncertainty, resolve
The Iranian regime has effectively surrounded Israel with terror proxies pressing on its borders. Hezbollah alone possesses some 150,000 rockets and missiles, capable of striking anywhere in Israel. When the siren sounds, we enter the concrete-reinforced “safe room” that every Israeli apartment built in recent decades is required by law to maintain, reasonably confident that the Iron Dome antimissile system can handle the Hamas barrages. But if Hezbollah enters the war, our defenses will be overwhelmed. What is now a conceptual definition of existential threat would become tangible.
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An excellent article giving the readers an inside look at today's war from the Israeli point of view and expertise.
The more I dig into the history of the region the more I realize that the Israeli point of view is the more truthful point of view by far. The Palestinian narrative is largely a lie from beginning to end. That doesn't mean Israel doesn't have its own faults, such as the settlements in the West Bank and what the far right types are doing to the Bedouins but, for the most part, they get the history and motives about what's happening right.
Agreed. There has never been a Palestine, and that region has had more conquerors than a porn star has had partners. As far as anyone can tell, the Jews have about as good a historical claim to the land as anyone and returned after the holocaust because it seems like nowhere is safe for them. Israel has been attack relentlessly since its inception and the people there are more or less living under a constant siege.
I am definitely on Israel’s side on this.
Yep. Pretty much sums up how i feel about it.
I agree with that, Drakk. In researching I also found out that the Bedouins have been in the ME since 6,000 BCE.
Yeah, the history of the place is pretty complicated. Watched a vid that said Jerusalem is the most besieged city in history. Then went on to show a time scale of who was in control of the Palestine region over time, keeping a running total of the top three in the categories of statehood and religion. Was pretty interesting.
One takeaway is that the Palestinians never governed themselves, you can see the results of that there today.
Good point. I didn't notice that.
Great video/link, Drakk.
The whole reason Israel was created was because Jews were not allowed to immigrate out of danger zones in Europe during WWII. England was one of the few places that allowed Jewish children, but even the US turned Jews away, even when trying to seek help from a boat (the St. Lewis). If today's hate shows Jews one thing, it is that they need Israel for this purpose.
This is all spot on. If we are truly talking about a two state solution, the West Bank needs to be addressed including the behavior of some of the settlers.
Refusing the Jews on the St. Louis safety here in the US is a black mark on our history.
Bibi and his hard right-wing religious followers are attacking, killing, and driving out people that have been there for 40 years. Both Palestinians and Bedouins are victims. The Bedouins number over 200,000 living in Israel and many are citizens and fight in the IDF there is a special unit of Bedouins that guards and tracks in the remotest part of the border. In 1993 Israel built a monument on a hill in Galilee to commemorate the Bedouin who died fighting for Israel and within this is the ''Garden of the Broken Heart'' dedicated to Bedouins who died fighting for Israel who's bodies were never recovered. Most were on highly dangerous missions outside of Israel when they were killed and one was killed in the Israeli war for independence in 1948. The Bedouin support and loyalty go back to Israel's inception. Do not drive the 40,000 that live in the West Banks from their homes by so called ''Settlers''.
https://magazine.esra.org.il/posts/entry/monument-honors-fallen-bedouin-soldiers-of-israel.html#:~:text=Within%20the%20extensive%20grounds%20that,burial%20place%20is%20not%20known.
There are also over 5,000 Palestinians serving in the IDF and the minorities in Israel, the Druze and Circassians are citizens of Israel and fight and die for Israel.
33 year old Druze commander was killed leading his troops into Gaza a few days ago.
The population of Israel is small around 9 million facing tens of millions in arab countries close by, you do not treat your minority soldiers badly nor drive them out of the West Bank, Israel needs every soldier it can get.
oh, did Israel attack on Oct. 7?
Yes and for years before, and it has picked up in intensity since 10/7. You should be aware that the West Bank is separate from Gaza.
Its too late for anyone who is not aware of that by now.
Israel attacked with no provocation???
Same Islamic terrorist scum, just another location.
If you read the links time and dates are explained. The Bedouins don't attack Jews, they are in the IDF as explained in the article along with the Druze and Curcaussians
The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
So in your estimation, the Bedouins, Druze, and Circassians are Islamic terrorist scum.
First off the Cirassians are Christians, and all three groups are citizens of Israel and all serve in the IDF. Currently, all are fighting in Gaza against Hamas. A Druze Colonel in the IDF was killed leading his IDF troops into Gaza a few days ago.
Not only is your comment incorrect it is laced with a lack of knowledge seldom seen on NT.
Siding with Israel does not mean you can’t criticize them as well. I am 100% on Israel’s side in Gaza, but the West Bank is a different animal and Israel would be wise to embrace those who accept and fight for them, not alienate them.
Kavika,
I think that the Guardian misrepresented the Bedouins. They do not consider themselves as Palestinians. They are a people unto themselves. My daughter made that mistake when she and her hubby were camping with them, and they set them straight.
The press likes to group them together, as if it was a singular fight, but it isn't, which makes what is happening to them worse.
I agree they are not Palestinians but are considered Arabs, but separate because of their history. A very interesting people, much like the Druze.
I totally agree, and the Druze are very supportive of Israel as are the Bedouins and even the The Baháʼí .
Thought that Bahai was a religion and not a people.
Baha'i started in the mid 1800ers and came from Persia (Iran) and it is a religion and not a people.
One tiny spec of land, the size of New Jersey holding a little over 7 million Jews. They are surrounded by 49 majority Muslim countries with over to 1.6 billion Muslims. For some here, that one little country is one too many.
Really,? why dont you name names.
I don’t know the names of those demonstrating on campus, except for Patrick Dai at Cornell. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and perhaps some other squad members.
Obviously Israel needs the United States to provide a deterrent against Hezbollah and Iran. In the situation described in the article , I'm sure we would do it.
All Israelis serve a mandatory 2 years in the IDF (with exceptions).
Dated an Israeli Princess once (her term) who was seriously bad.
Even Gal Gadot does many of her own movie stunts as a result.
She walks around proud of her visible movie star stunt bruises.
Personal experience tells me to not piss off Israelis.
Not quite, cj only the Jews/Druze and Circussians are subject to being drafted. Also the Orthodox Jews are exempt from the draft. Palestinian and Bedouin citizens are exempt from the draft but can volunteer which they do in large numbers.
The threat from Hezbollah is the most significant direct threat Israel faces. The harshness of the Israeli response to the Hamas massacre should serve as some deterrent to Hezbollah, although, based on their past experience, Hezbollah already knows full-well about the severe penalty Israel could inflict on them. Undoubtedly, most Lebanese do not want any conflict with Israel.
U.S of A. weapon systems make Israel a hard nut to crack.
That and the determination of the Israelis.
The worry is that Hezbollah will join the fight and with the number of fighters and rockets, close 200,000 from what I read add that to Hamas and other terrorist groups like Ismanic Jihad and Israel has a big problem. The ''Iron Dome'' could not handle the volume of rocket coming at them.
Let's hope that Hezbollah stay out of it and remember how hard they got hit the last time that went nose nose with Israel.
Arvo Kavika...I don't think Hezbollah will be doing to much after watching Gaza..
They may lob over over the odd missile or two, the odd skirmish and sabre rattling..but that old saying springs to mind in the case of Hamas and how...
Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread...
Let's hope that is true, shona.
Agree shona1, I think that Hezbollah will proceed cautiously.
I think you are right. I think Hezbollah knows full well that Israel will not hesitate should they try anything. Should be pretty obvious to everyone that Israel isn’t fucking around, they fully understand the genocidal threat facing them and are prepared to act accordingly.
Israel has nukes. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Hate to see all of the dominoes fall.
I find it relaxing:
I always wondered what some liberals did in the parents basement while the rest of us were working.
That was fun to watch
HELP!!! The seed posted by Kavika here is of great interest to me as the issue is of great concern to me personally, but due to where I live I am unfortunately unable to open it, so I am asking anyone to please open it and copy and paste it here so I can comment intelligently on the topic. When this happened previously, the seeder refused to do so, so I am forced to publicly beg for help here.
OK, I'll copy and paste it now, Buzz.
Thanks Kavika.
The Doomsday clock is edging ever closer to midnight.
Thanks to American far right wing fascism.
Yes, we know...far right fascism, blah, blah, blah
It's not the right calling for the elimination of an entire people.
That would be your friends on the left.
Have you found that fascist under your bed yet?
Jackson Pollock and you have trouble connecting the dots.
If you're concerned about that, you should be a lot more concerned about the Ukraine conflict than the one that is the topic here. Of course, when it comes to Ukraine, it's not the right wing that would deserve the blame.
That was a very artistic comment. It isn't even 7 a.m. here and you made me laugh out loud.
The Israeli psyche resembles an archaeological site of layers of unresolved traumas, ordinary life interrupted by history. Still, none of the previous wars and terror assaults and missile barrages that I’ve lived through in my four decades as an Israeli has quite prepared me for this moment of rage, dread, uncertainty, resolve.
This is the first war I’ve experienced that seems existential. Not in an immediate sense: Israel will not disappear tomorrow if it fails to meet its stated goal of destroying Hamas. But Israelis intuitively understand that if this round of fighting ends with one more stalemate, then our military deterrence—shattered by the mass but intimate butchery of Oct. 7—could be irretrievable. Without credible deterrence, we have “nothing to look for,” as Israeli slang puts it, in the Middle East.
The Iranian regime has effectively surrounded Israel with terror proxies pressing on its borders. Hezbollah alone possesses some 150,000 rockets and missiles, capable of striking anywhere in Israel. When the siren sounds, we enter the concrete-reinforced “safe room” that every Israeli apartment built in recent decades is required by law to maintain, reasonably confident that the Iron Dome antimissile system can handle the Hamas barrages. But if Hezbollah enters the war, our defenses will be overwhelmed. What is now a conceptual definition of existential threat would become tangible.
This is the first war where we know who we are fighting at the onset but not who we may be fighting at the end. A multi-front conflict involving Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen and ultimately Iran itself would recall our 1948 War of Independence, which decimated the first generation of Israelis. Except that this time the weapons won’t be carbines but precision missiles.
The threat of a multi-front war helps explain why Israelis and outsiders often view this conflict in such radically different ways. For much of the international community, “the Middle East conflict” is between mighty Israel and the powerless Palestinians; for Israelis, though, the Middle East conflict is precisely that, a regional war against the lone Jewish state.
Since Oct. 7, I have been haunted by a metaphor evoked more than two decades ago by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who described the Jewish state as a spider web that seems impenetrable but disintegrates when swiped. Israelis mocked him at the time for his bravado. Now, though, we are fighting what may be called the Spider Web War, an attempt to restore deterrence and prove Nasrallah wrong.
It is not only Israeli deterrence that was undermined on Oct. 7. So was the Zionist dream of a “normal” Jewish people, living in safety, freed from the curse of history.
No less than rage, we feel the shame of failure. The Jewish state, which a half-century ago sent commandos across Africa to rescue a hundred Israelis hijacked in the Entebbe airport, couldn’t protect 1,400 Israelis within its own borders. “They promised us ‘never again,’” a young woman posted bitterly on social media. The Israeli promise was not that never again would our enemies try to destroy us but that never again would we lack the power and the will to stop them. Zionism intended to change not the Jew-haters but the Jews.
Yet on Oct. 7, Jews died as grotesquely as they ever did, bound and dismembered and burned alive in helpless multitudes—in the state of Israel, within reach of the most powerful army in the Middle East. Even as we force ourselves to repeatedly listen to the terrible testimonies of the survivors, while seeking comfort in the numerous counter-stories of bravery, we know: A part of us will never recover from this.
The eruption of raw antisemitism around the world, keenly followed by the Israeli media, has reminded a new generation of Israelis of why this country matters. Every day brings reports of some new barbarism—a lively crowd in Sydney chanting “gas the Jews,” a lynch mob in Dagestan roaming the airport tarmac, searching for that rumored flight from Tel Aviv. This is the moment Israeli grandparents warned about, the moment we thought a Jewish state had consigned to history.
Israel is not an innocent victim in the centurylong conflict with the Palestinians. Along with a self-pitying Palestinian leadership that has rejected every peace offer ever proposed by Israel and the international community, we too are implicated in this seemingly insoluble tragedy. We allowed ourselves to be lured by the beloved biblical lands, building settlements across the West Bank.
Yet even left-wing Israelis recognize that Oct. 7 was not an expression of Palestinian frustration over the occupation but opposition to the existence of a Jewish state. Writing in the left wing Haaretz, columnist Ravit Hecht declared that the worldview of the Israeli left had collapsed: “Whoever seeks an end to the bloodshed here…should turn first to Hamas and its patrons, whose actions—and only their actions—are condemning our children and Gaza’s children to death.”
Israelis are incredulous at the rapidity with which sympathy for the Jewish state has evaporated since the massacre. Having just endured a pre-enactment of Hamas’ genocidal vision, they are stunned to be accused of committing genocide themselves. Israelis view the campus protests, in which children of American privilege chant the hateful slogans of radical Islamism, with an almost physical nausea. This is “the enlightened West,” as one TV anchor, unable to maintain his impartial pose, mockingly put it.
Following the Oct. 17 explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, which much of the media blamed falsely on Israel, the popular satirical TV show “A Wonderful Country” lampooned the BBC. Reporting from “the illegal colony of Tel Aviv,” BBC reporter “Harry Whiteguilt” screens a video of a nuclear explosion purporting to be an Israeli attack on a hospital. “We got this video from Hamas,” Whiteguilt says, “the most credible not-terrorist organization in the world.”
Not since the five years of suicide bombings in the early 2000s, which scattered body parts in the streets and turned Israelis into a nation of shut-ins, have we been so determined as we are today to win. Remarkably, we instantly pivoted from the most divisive year in Israel’s history—during which the Netanyahu government’s plan for remaking the judiciary tore us apart—to a restoration of national cohesiveness.
Literally overnight, the “Brothers in Arms” group of army veterans went from organizing antigovernment demonstrations to leading relief efforts for survivors of the massacre, providing food and clothing and evacuating traumatized residents from the Gaza border. On Yom Kippur, a week before the massacre, a violent protest in Tel Aviv against religious incursion into secular space shut down an outdoor Orthodox prayer service; now, dozens of Tel Aviv restaurants have turned their kitchens kosher, to ensure that the food they’re donating to army units can be shared by religious soldiers.
Before the massacre, liberal Israelis were expressing doubt about the country’s future. Though Netanyahu’s governing coalition lost the popular vote, it had attempted, through its assault on the independence of the judiciary, to erase the nation’s identity as a liberal democracy. Growing numbers of secular Israelis were considering leaving the country in despair. Thousands of doctors joined a WhatsApp group to share information on job opportunities abroad.
In reactivating the Jewish survival instinct, Hamas ended the threat of mass emigration. Instead, tens of thousands of Israelis have returned from abroad, many to join reservist units.
An old Israeli resilience has been reawakened. In one televised scene, a survivor of the massacre, Sharon Cohen, who lost four family members, says, “Our country didn’t function over the last year, but our people has proven that it’s made of different stuff.” The interviewer weeps, and Cohen places her arms around him. “We’re still alive,” she says, “we have a responsibility to live.”
In a recent poll, 66% of Israelis said they feel optimistic about the country’s future—a 14% increase from before the massacre. Though that might seem counterintuitive, Israelis are better able to cope with an external threat than with social disintegration.
The anguish of this past year was the loss of our shared sense of purpose, of belonging to a national “family” whose warmth compensates for life in a pressure cooker. No matter how much we argue, Israelis said, we know we can depend on each other in an emergency. But as the government sought to unilaterally impose an agenda that half the country regarded as intolerable, and as thousands of protesting reservists declared they would stop serving in the military, the basic assumptions of Israeli solidarity were coming undone.
Now that we have reclaimed our ability to come together, we believe in our ability to prevail.
Yet that same commitment to the Israeli family threatens our resolve to destroy Hamas. With at least 240 Israelis in Hamas hands, this is the first war where Israel is fighting terrorists using not only their own civilians as human shields but ours too. The requirement of family means placing their well-being before any other consideration. But winning this war requires denying Hamas the power to limit our military operations through blackmail. Israelis understand this contradiction between family and national needs but are too pained and conflicted to express it aloud.
For all our renewed solidarity, the covenant of trust between Israelis and their leadership has been shattered. In previous wars, we’ve questioned the judgment and even competence of our leaders. But never before have we gone to battle doubting the integrity of our commander in chief. In a recent poll, 59% said that Netanyahu places his own political interests ahead of the well-being of the country, while only 28% disagreed.
A media campaign by Netanyahu loyalists is preparing for the inevitable postwar reckoning by blaming the Hamas massacre on military intelligence for failing to predict the attack, on the pro-democracy movement for dividing the country, on former prime minister Ariel Sharon for withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, on former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin for negotiating Palestinian self-rule—on everyone, that is, but the man who was prime minister on Oct. 7.
In a late-night tweet last weekend, Netanyahu joined the campaign, deflecting blame for the massacre onto the security establishment. Outraged Israelis, including many of his supporters, demanded: This is what you’re preoccupied with at 1 a.m., as our children are fighting in Gaza? Netanyahu apologized and deleted the tweet. But that tweet has become the symbol of a leader who doesn’t understand this moment. Throughout the crisis, he has continued to play politics, bringing political advisers into security briefings while loyalists publicly denounce his critics as traitors.
The moral indictment against Netanyahu transcends the technical details of how and when he learned of the Hamas invasion. Over the last year, the prime minister ignored repeated warnings of the security establishment—echoed in banner headlines—that his divisive judicial overhaul, by creating such visible civil unrest, was making Israel look vulnerable to its enemies. Netanyahu accused the generals of playing politics.
The devastation inflicted on Israel by the Netanyahu coalition has affected the whole system of governance. The coalition systematically replaced professional civil servants with political appointees, resulting in the near-total collapse of social services following the massacre. For weeks, families of hostages weren’t contacted by any government officials. Three weeks later, the government still hadn’t transferred funds to assist local authorities in resettling tens of thousands of uprooted residents from the southern and northern borders. “When can we begin paying taxes to Brothers in Arms?” Israelis joked, alluding to the group’s impressive relief efforts.
Unlike previous prime ministers in times of national disaster, Netanyahu didn’t attend any funerals of the victims. He hasn’t made solidarity visits to the survivors and evacuees. He held a five-minute phone conference with mayors of the devastated towns on the Gaza border and refused to take questions. Incapable of expressing empathy, his televised addresses to the nation only remind us how bereft we are of leadership.
For a moment, in his Monday night press conference announcing the IDF’s rescue of a soldier held by Hamas, the old self-confident “Bibi” seemed to be back. Here he was, once again the protector of Israel, just like his brother, Yoni, the fallen hero of the Entebbe rescue of 1976.
But Bibi is not Yoni. He is, instead, the guard who fell asleep on his yearslong watch and allowed the state of Israel to be taken hostage by terrorists.
The Netanyahu government has presented two visions of Israel’s destruction: the first, as it played out over this last year, of a nation devouring itself; the second, as it played out on Oct. 7, of the collapse of Israeli power.
Against these two apocalyptic scenarios, Israelis will need to create a vision of healing. It is no longer good enough that we come together against external threats while treating each other as virtual enemies in the intervals between crises. Something of the spirit of this moment needs to infuse how we manage our conflicting ideas of a Jewish state. One half of the nation has no right to impose its entire worldview on the other half simply because it can form a coalition. Living with insoluble contradictions is the essence of the Israeli experiment. We are fated to be at once a holy land and a secular state, a Middle Eastern and a Western nation, a Jewish state responsible for all Jews, whether or not they are citizens of Israel, and a modern state responsible for all Israeli citizens, whether or not they are Jews.
Clearly, the postwar healing of this wounded, grieving, seething society cannot be overseen by the man who brought us to this state.
On an unusually warm recent evening in Tel Aviv, a middle-aged woman stood alone before the Defense Ministry, holding a sign comparing the Yom Kippur War to today. It read: “In the 1973 fiasco, I lost my father. In the 2023 fiasco, I lost my son. Put Bibi and his government of destruction on trial.”
Everything about this war feels different. Yet nothing has changed.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and co-host of the institute’s podcast, “For Heaven’s Sake.” He is writing a book on the meaning of Jewish survival.
He's absolutely right. IMO Bibi and his ultra-religious ultra-right wing cronies must be thrown out of control as soon as this conflict is over. Throughout my life I have never had any love for the chasidim, the ultra-religious, and whenever I read stories about them, such as their spitting on Christian clerics I wanted to spit in their faces in return. I hope that soon Israel will return to be a safe and moderate nation of at least a vast majority of fair, decent, reasonable people like the author of the seed herein.
I agree and hope that Bibi is out as soon as this is over if not sooner. I find it difficult to wrap my head around the ultra-right driving out the Bedouins who have never done Israel any wrong if fact there are many Bedouins in the IDF and Israel has built a memorial to those Bedouins who died fighting for Israel. It is on a hill in Galilee and it's known as the ''Garden of Broken Hearts'' In fact the Bedouins have fought with the Israelis in their war for independence. Also, the Druze and Circassians have and are now fighting with Israel.
Also, there are 5,000 Palestinians in the IDF...
It is at Israel's own peril that they are forcing both Bedouins and Palestinians out of the West Bank. Israel doesn't have unlimited manpower for extended wars and pissing our the minority peoples that live, are citizens, fight and die for Israel is beyond stupid. I watched a video where settlers and members of the IDF drove out Bedouins from a small village where they are herders and have lived for 40 years. Sickening.
The religious nationalists in Israel are one of the biggest threats to Israel. As you have pointed out, they don’t have unlimited manpower and are heavily reliant on the US for their security, they need to be building as many cultural and religious bridges with the minority groups in the region as possible. Alienating those people is actively working against Israel’s best interests.
It absolutely is and it's shocking that they, Bibi and religious nationals don't see that or choose not to see it.
Totally right!
Bibi Netanyahu is a racist. I doubt if he is any more religious in nature than Donald Trump is.
Fuck all far-right wing religious fascists no matter where they come from.
It's way past time for folk to grow up and put mythology and superstition behind them.
Jews, Muslims and Christians are all suicidally foolish.
And where do you draw the line concerning what constitutes far-right wing?
Pretty much from the word "go", it would seem.
Agreed. I just hope Hamas hasn't pushed a bunch of centrists too far right.
From the article
I think this is worth repeating and bearing in mind on a more global scale.
It most certainly is. I watched a program on the ''Brothers in Arms'' and what they are doing since the attack. If it wasn't for them it seems that Israel would have collapsed. Another group that is doing the same type of work is the Druze community.
The Haredim who are orthodox Jews who are generally exempt from the draft seem to be the ones forcing out the Palestinians and Bedouins from the West Bank. If they want to fight I'm sure that the IDF can put them to work in Gaza.
This is a very sore point in Israel as the non-secular are adamantly against this pass given to the Ultra-Orthodox.
Religious zealots are always a problem. Believe it or not there are Haridei that side with the Palestinians, because they don't believe in the state of Israel because the messiah hasn't come yet. They are called the Neturei Karta.
Notice it says anit-Zionism. Most people don't get that means they think that Israel shouldn't exist.
Strange indeed and yes many people don't understand that anti Zionism means Israel should not exist.
See 8.1.8
Which signifies nothing.
Why leave out the Hindus and Buddhists?
No mention of Jehovah Witnesses either. Seems a little biased.