Flashing signals: Anti-war movement stirring in Israel

I just spent a week in Israel and, while it may not look as if much has changed — the grinding war in the Gaza Strip continues to grind — I felt something new there for the first time since Oct. 7, 2023. It is premature to call it a broad-based anti-war movement, which can happen only when all the Israeli hostages are returned. But I did see signals flashing that more Israelis, from the left to the centre and to even parts of the right, are concluding that continuing this war is a disaster for Israel morally, diplomatically or strategically.

From the political centre, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote an essay in the newspaper Haaretz in which he pulled no punches against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition.

“The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success,” Olmert argued. “What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.” His conclusion: “Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.”

From the right, you have the likes of Amit Halevi, a member of Netanyahu’s own right-wing Likud party, who is staunchly pro-war but thinks its execution has been bungled. Halevi had his membership on the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defence committee suspended by Netanyahu’s coalition after he voted against a proposal to extend the government’s ability to issue emergency call-up orders for Israeli reservists. In an interview with Yediot Ahronot following his dismissal, Halevi said, “This war is a deception. They lied to us about its achievements.” Israel has “been fighting a war for 20 months with failed plans,” and it “is not succeeding in destroying Hamas.”

And from the left, Yair Golan, the leader of Israel’s liberal alliance, called the Democrats, stated in an interview with Israel Radio: “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country. A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set itself the aim of expelling populations.”

After the “hobby” comment drew an outcry, Golan, himself a Gaza war hero, clarified that he was not blaming the military but rather the politicians who were extending the war for reasons that no longer have anything to do with Israel’s national security needs.

If many Israelis feel trapped by their own leaders, many people in Gaza clearly feel the same. Polling in Gaza is obviously difficult, but the anti-war movement there seems to be stirring as well — although there you can get killed by Hamas for protesting. A survey by the independent, Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research of people across the Gaza Strip found that 48% supported the anti-Hamas demonstrations that erupted in several places in recent weeks.

Indeed, be assured that it’s not only some Israeli leaders who will face a reckoning when the guns of Gaza finally fall silent. Hamas’ leaders will live in infamy. They attacked Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, 2023, and, when Israel predictably retaliated, they essentially offered up Gaza’s civilians as a collective human sacrifice to win global sympathy for their cause — while Hamas leaders hid in tunnels and abroad. Hamas is still operating, but now Gaza is unlivable. Yet Hamas’ leadership is still stubbornly saying it will not turn over all its remaining live hostages unless Israel agrees to leave Gaza and return to an open-ended ceasefire.

Really? Israel should leave all of Gaza and accept a ceasefire? What a great idea. If Hamas achieved that “victory,” it would mean that Hamas fought this entire war to get back to exactly what Hamas had on Oct. 6, 2023: a ceasefire and Israel out of Gaza.

For this alone, history will remember Hamas leaders as mendacious fools. But here’s the rub. As a result of Netanyahu’s military operations, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah — not to mention Saudi Arabia — are all now much freer to join the Abraham Accords and normalise relations with Israel to a degree they never were when Iran’s regional mercenary network was so powerful.

Yes, Netanyahu made that happen! But he also never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity for peace. Netanyahu today staunchly refuses to harvest what Netanyahu has sown. He will not do the one thing that would unlock the politics of the whole region: Open a road, no matter how long, to a two-state solution with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

No wonder Trump doesn’t want to waste time with Netanyahu — he can’t make any money from him, and Netanyahu won’t allow Trump to make any history with him.

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