ISRAEL HAS LOST THE WAR
This is the first part of a two-part series.
We will cover how Israel lost on the domestic front, on the Jewish Community front, and on the Global front. And then some ideas of what to do.
Harsh truths coming your way…
Make sure to read Part 2 on how Hamas Has Lost The War — as I have stated before, it is imperative to look at both sides.
Israel Lost the Domestic War
On Oct. 7th Hamas Terrorist instigated a war — killing civilians, including children and babies, and taking hostages — of which over 100 are still in captivity.
Israel responded by launching an assault on the Hamas Terrorists in the Gaza strip, of which thousands of Gazan civilians have also tragically perished.
Israel effectively lost the second they decided to respond because they played directly into Hamas’ well-known trap of forcing a strong response from Israel, which galvanizes Jew Hatred, which forces Israel to back down and let Hamas replenish for the next round. Lather, rinse, repeat.
As Tom Friedman suggested recently in the NYT, maybe it would have been better for Israel to think strategically instead of instinctively and let the atrocities of Hamas resonate across the globe and create an alternative plan with the help of allies (what few remain).
But Israel’s true failure isn’t tactical, it is internal.
Ever since Netanyahu started his 16 year choke-hold on Israel, his government has failed to treat Hamas as the Jihadi terrorist organization it really is, turning a blind eye toward repeated warnings, and all for the sake of narcissism, holding on to power, appealing to far right settler/ultra-orthodox crazies, and actively avoiding any conversation about “Peace.”
In fact, in the weeks before Oct 7, the Netanyahu government moved soldiers from the Gaza border to the West Bank, allegedly to “protect” a bunch of settler crazies who wanted to build a Sukkah in the West Bank to provoke the Palestinian population.
And then everything blew up.
The longer-term result of the October 7th Massacre is the complete destruction of internal trust. Israelis no longer trust the government to protect them. Israelis no longer trust each other — and there is a fear that the already tenuous relationship between Israeli Jews and Muslim will erode into chaos.
And Israelis no longer trust in the future of the country.
There is little doubt that this Netanyahu government will screw it up, and there doesn’t seem to be any plan for the future — whether it is dealing with Hamas, dealing with Hizballah, or anything else. So far Israelis have received no cogent plan for anything; just pomposity and calls from crazy right wingers to create new settlements in Gaza.
Israel Lost the Jewish Front
A little over a month ago Ezra Klein, of the New York Times, hosted Rabbi Sharon Brous on his podcast. Klein begins with an interesting perspective of the American Jewish population, one that I think makes logical sense.
He states that there are three types of Diaspora Jews:
→The older Biden generation, who remember when Israel was weak and vulnerable.
→The “bridge” generation of Gen X and Millennials — who saw Israel’s increasing regional strength, and the subsequent questionable policies in the West Bank and Gaza. But they also remember an Israel that made serious efforts — multiple times — to achieve peace, only to watch the Palestinian Authority say “no” again and again.
→Gen Z — These are the college kids of today. They have only seen Israel’s further slide to the right, where the concept of “Peace” is shrugged off as a quant has-been.
What Klein and Brous get right is that Israel’s actions over the last two decades have turned off young Diaspora Jews. To them, Israel is the aggressor, which fits perfectly into the black-white world of “Oppressed vs. Oppressor”.
What Israel gets wrong, specifically the current Netanyahu government, is understanding the degree to which this relationship has completely eroded.
Klein and Brous use language that would shock Israelis. They refer to Israel as a “bad state actor” and echo a lot of the double standard tropes that make Israelis reel — where Israel is held to impossible norms compared to other countries, and underlying anti-Israel bias contained therein. Klein and Brous also believe that the rise of Antisemitism is a result of Israeli policy.
Israeli politicians do not understand how deeply Israeli policy over the last two decades has alienated Diaspora Jews, specifically left-leaning Jews. Diaspora Jews do not see any moral common denominator between their value structure and perceived value structure of Israel.
Diaspora Jews have remained largely liberal, where Israel has shifted more rightward. Diaspora Jews want peace, but Netanyahu and his right-wing cronies haven’t even tried to make polite lip service to the concept of peace for nearly 20 years.
I disagree with Klein and Brous that Israel is solely culpable for the rise in Antisemitism. Antisemitism has always been percolating in the background, looking for any excuse to rear its ugly racist head. But I do agree that Israeli policy definitely doesn’t help, and in some cases justifies a lot of antisemitic perceptions. Every far-right crazy Israeli politician who says something inane on the news is immediately translated to every language and becomes part of the Antisemitic propaganda machine.
As Prof. Omer Bartov from Brown states — Israel is not actually performing Genocide, but the there are people in the Israeli far right who are displaying “genocidal intent”, which clashes with the value structure of Diaspora Jews.
Yet Israeli politicians, specifically those from the right, prefer to ignore this reality. They refuse to see the degree to which policy drives away younger Diaspora Jews. They refuse to see how much Israeli policy fuels the fire of Antisemitism, and the ramifications this can cause to Jewish communities around the globe.
This is a major failure of Israel and carries with it enormous risk of killing any lingering support that Israel may have from the few friends that still exist on the global stage.
Israel must decide if wants to be the type of country that Diaspora Jews care about and support. And if yes, Israel needs to take concrete actions to prove it.
Let’s be real for a second. Israel, and Jews, have lost credibility. It doesn’t matter how many times Israel (or Jews) call out blatant one-sided hypocrisy, it falls on deaf ears.
Support from the global community is quickly waning, and even Israel’s historic allies like Canada, Australia, and the UK are backpedaling.
And can you blame them? How do Israeli politicians expect anybody in the world to trust Israel? The country has a prime minister who is a criminal, but is un-convicted. It has far right settler crazies who go on violent rampages in the West Bank but are never prosecuted. And very recently, Simcha Rothman, an ultra-conservative member of parliament (Knesset) submitted a proposed bill to the government denying due process to Hamas terrorist.
This creates a moral conundrum: is Israel a country that respects the rule of law for all, or is the rule of law selective only to Jewish Israelis? Keep in mind this is the same Simcha Rothman who was put in charge of ramrodding the preposterous Judicial Reform in Israel — moving the country markedly away from Democracy and toward a theocratic dictatorship.
Long gone is the Israel of the Biden generation — when Israel granted even Eichmann a trial and due process of law, and even paid for Eichmann’s legal fees (!!!). The Israel of today, as seen from the global lens, is one where morality is tossed aside in favor of courting favor with far-right extremists and Ultra-Orthodox religious fanatics, all so Netanyahu can maintain his seat on the throne.
David Ben Gurion spoke passionately of Israel as the “Light Unto the Nations” — a moral and social beacon in the middle of a violent and backwards Middle East. Over the last two decades Israel has had a number of opportunities to rise above and build long term strategic plans to ensure stability and possibly even Peace. Instead, Israel decided to cave to the short-sighted whims of far right extremists and the Ultra-Orthodox.
Turns out that Israel isn’t a “Light Unto the Nations”, but is just as crappy as every other country.
And the whole world has been watching this unfold. “No Jews No News” as they say.
So what to do now?
This part is much easier said than done.
1. Halt all expansion in the West Bank; immediately and permanently.
This is not a PR trick. Continued Israeli expansion in the West Bank is untenable in the long run, politically, morally, and economically. (I wrote that article in 2014! Think how much worse it is now). I don’t know what to do with the settlements going forward, but stopping expansion needs to happen now.
2. Get rid of the crazies
All of the fanatic right wingers need to leave. They are causing material damage to Israel, politically, economically, internationally. Of course, this requires voting them out (yes, Israel is a democracy).
3. Support non-Jewish Israelis
This may come as a shock to many readers, but Israel is not, in fact an Apartheid state. Non-Jewish citizens get full rights as Jewish citizens, as protected by law. But (big but), inequalities are persistent and have been neglected for decades. Israel needs to do more to address inequality for Arab Israelis (Muslims, Christians, Druze, etc…). They are a vital and vibrant part of the country and represent over 20% of the population.
4. End this silly “Judicial Reform”
Obvious.
5. Stop bankrolling Ultra-Orthodox idleness
Israel is global powerhouse of technological innovation in all sectors. Every single country in the world benefits from Israeli innovation, directly or indirectly. I firmly believe that shared economic well-being can be a major impetus toward coexistence (see Israel and the UAE). The Israeli health-tech sector (near and dear to my heart) has the potential to improve lives across the globe, especially across the greater MENA region.
But tech innovation and the shared prosperity and progress that comes with it has one major prerequisite — smart human capital. Every cent that goes toward unproductive aims — like massive subsidies to the Ultra Orthodox — do damage to Israel’s future.
Plus, I don’t want to live in a theocracy.
6. Admit you can’t “Destroy Hamas”
I get the need to rally around the flag, but it is also impossible. You can’t “eliminate Hamas” because Hamas is not a person or a group — it is an ideology. Much like ISIS was never really eliminated.
This means Israel needs to shift focus toward strategic longer term approaches and not pure militant approaches.
Good luck to all of us.
