After the Hamas attack: Israel, a question mark?

by time news

2024-10-07 04:47:21

Israel believes it is built on strength. This is not only evident these days, when its enemies in the region are suffering devastating blows. The entire security and raison d’être of the Jewish state is based on this. “Never again”, a kind of Israeli motto, referring to the Holocaust, is associated with defensiveness and military rule.

“We fight, therefore we are,” wrote former prime minister Menachem Begin, paraphrasing Descartes. You see it in everyday life, where uniforms and weapons are ubiquitous. You can feel it in the behavior of people who have learned to assert themselves. You can hear it from the official side: Benjamin Netanyahu’s speeches are usually powerful declarations of war. His strategy, which appears to have borne fruit in the “Abraham Accords”, is to find partners in the region from a position of strength.

A giant with feet of clay

A year ago everything collapsed. Around 4,000 armed Palestinians from the Gaza Strip crossed the seemingly completely secure border into Israel at dawn. The atrocities they committed in cold-blooded intoxication disturb every compassionate person to this day. Many Israelis are equally astonished that their military has apparently revealed itself as a behemoth with feet of clay, if only for a day.

It is always clear from conversations that many have lost fundamental faith in the promise of state security. Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote about October 7 that until that day there was an exclamation point after the word Israel. “Suddenly it became a question mark.” This was not just the case in Israel. October 7, 2023 is an event in world history. The shock waves of that day can still be felt today in many countries.

Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip shows what a humiliation like that of October 7 can cause in a society steeped in historical experiences of sacrifice and at the same time focused on strength. The fundamentally justified action against Hamas quickly took on the characteristics of a revenge campaign. The widespread bombings, in which tens of thousands of people have been killed, are accompanied by videos glorifying the violence and cynical statements by soldiers and politicians.

Where is Israel headed?

Criticism from abroad is abruptly rejected – with an exclamation point: we won’t talk about it! However, international jurisdiction is apparently not ineffective, so the government and military continue to make corrections without substantially deviating from course.

Even after a year, it’s unclear where this will lead. While some Western governments saw an unexpected opportunity to advance the two-state solution, Netanyahu has never been a supporter of this model. At the moment it seems rather that the Gaza Strip could become a second West Bank, occupied by Israel, with a weak local Palestinian administration. Meanwhile, parts of the West Bank risk becoming Gaza in miniature: militant enclaves where the Israeli army regularly moves.

However, offering Palestinians a national perspective would involve compromises that would not only be nationally explosive but would also represent a departure from the politics of force. No matter how much US President Joe Biden may advertise a peace deal with Saudi Arabia.

Antisemitism is openly evident

Israel will likely remain a country that will be questioned and contested. Since October 7, anti-Semitism has become more evident around the world and finds new supporters, and more and more Jews feel unsafe. At the same time, criticism and rejection of Israel are more quickly labeled as anti-Semitism. Debates about Israel are both a projection surface and an accelerator for some social conflicts.

It is tragic that Israel increasingly shows a face that matches the distorted images of some critics. After October 7, civil liberties were curtailed. Anyone who publicly shows sympathy for the Palestinians or calls for a ceasefire runs the risk of being insulted and attacked. The police are threatened with a seizure of power by the nationalist-religious agitator Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party is significantly called “Jewish Force”.

It cannot be said with certainty whether these are temporary phenomena in a society shaken by the October 7 coup, or whether Israel is fundamentally headed down a slippery slope. However, it seems clear that there will be further demonstrations of power in the near future. So it’s “Israel” again! With exclamation points.

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