The voice of reason from mainstream Israeli press.
Opinion | It's Okay for Israelis to Start Protesting Again
By Zvi Bare'el, Haaretz Media
Jan 17, 2024
We have 136 hostages buried alive, or in some cases already dead, in Hamas' tunnels in the Gaza Strip. We have 522 dead soldiers, of whom 188 have been killed since the start of the ground maneuvers. We have 2,541 soldiers wounded, 388 of them seriously and 675 moderately. Many will be disabled for life, and many more will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
But what's most important is that on the balance sheet of bloodshed, we're in excellent shape compared to the enemy, which has suffered more than 24,000 dead and tens of thousands of wounded.
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A conservative accountant would suggest that we stop here, while we're still showing a profit. At this point, a banker would demand a business plan with a forecast for additional profits, the feasibility of achieving them and a realistic timetable for doing so.
The Israeli public, which is neither an accountant nor a banker, has given the government a blank check based on promises, hopes, illusions, a little bluffing and a lot of deception. The problem is that this client is known to be a habitual liar. None of his commitments have been fulfilled to date, and it's already clear that he's deep in bankruptcy.
Hamas hasn't been destroyed. The hostages haven't come home. The systematic pounding of Gaza hasn't yet produced a new hostage deal. There is no plan for the day after the war. The evacuees don't know when or even if they'll be able to return home. The threat of the war spreading to the north hasn't been eliminated.
The prime minister's relationship with the U.S. president, the angel of salvation who is still sheltering the country beneath his wings, has reached an unprecedented nadir. Israel has been accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. And in the government, a criminal suspect heads a gang that doesn't care about the hostages, the dead, or the evacuees.
Yet, the client is once again asking for a little more credit. Just another few weeks or months, and then he'll surely pay his debt. But any additional credit the public gives this government is likely to end in resounding heartbreak.
The only plan the government has unveiled is continuing the war and hoping for the best. It's based on a view that in this neighborhood, "what isn't achieved by force will be achieved by more force," and on the bluff that Israel "won't rule Gaza," but will remain there "as long as necessary."
This isn't a plan, but an idée fixe. Yet it has managed to snare many good people in its net, because most of the public still believes that in the end, there will be some kind of profit. After all, it's inconceivable that after paying such a heavy price, we shouldn't get something in return, some small consolation.
The only sober Israelis seem to be the broken-hearted victims of the disaster, who gather in what has become known as Hostages Square. They have already realized that this government won't do everything in its power to bring their loved ones home.
Their heart-wrenching demonstrations and their desperate efforts to persuade the government to truly do everything possible to bring them home, even at the price of a cease-fire, are the only protests the public is willing to tolerate right now, when everyone is committed to "togetherness." And that's because they are viewed as bereaved families, whom one doesn't call to account.
But this "togetherness" is the fortified wall that protects this unjust government, because it rests on the false, warped rule that you don't replace the prime minister or demonstrate against the government during wartime – with the exception of the hostages' families.
What's absurd is that even people who do call for ousting Benjamin Netanyahu now, during the war, hope someone else will pull their chestnuts off the fire. Maybe Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot will quit the government; maybe someone will defect from Netanyahu's party. Just as long as we don't have to take to the streets and crack that "togetherness" at a time when our soldiers are being killed in Gaza.
But ousting this government isn't a synonym for ending the war, and large-scale public protests against it wouldn't be a victory for Hamas or undermine the chances of bringing the hostages home. The past 103 days, in which the government has enjoyed sweeping support, have already shown the hollowness of those arguments.
Israelis must now chart a course for their future. And since there's no other route, it leads through the streets.
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