Before October 7th, the far right-wing government in Israel was bound together by the joint political project of a “legal coup.” Against the Netanyahu government was a slightly more liberal Zionist opposition. The judicial revolution project was halted by the protest movement, but it was not eliminated.
The shock-and-awe massacre by Hamas on October 7th deeply damaged Israelis’ sense of security and touched on the primal annihilation anxiety in the country based on the Shoah (Holocaust)—one of the two Samson-like pillars of its legitimacy. The second pillar of support for the Jewish state in the Israeli ideology is the divine Promised Land. In my opinion, the shock of the massacre and savage destruction in the Israeli villages surrounding the Gaza Strip (known as the Gaza envelope) explains the rapid and extensive mobilization of the protest movement into military reserve service. The total annihilation of the Jewish villages and towns around Gaza abruptly changed the national agenda and undermined the Just-Not-Bibi and Brothers-in-Arms camps (two of the main army reservist organizations that had participated in the protest movement).
After Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia, Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip (Photo: WAFA)
From October 7th, the elimination of Hamas became the national political project of the expanded war coalition that includes Gantz and his party in the war cabinet, as well as Lapid and his party outside the coalition. Had it not been for the massacre in the Gaza envelope, it would have been very difficult to assemble such a broad aggregating project in a divided Israel. The official goals of the war in Gaza (eliminating Hamas in various ways) and the unofficial ones (ethnic cleansing and Jewish settlement) now connect Ganz with the extreme right. The state of war gives the fully right (fascist) government more courage than ever to continue to conquer the state mechanisms from the inside and change them. The government’s new project is different: limiting the war or neglecting it will lead to the collapse of the Gantz-Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir coalition. Gantz insisted that his joining the war cabinet was conditional on not changing key personnel positions and policies in the government. Yet Gantz continues to serve!
Permanent War
From Netanyahu’s point of view, therefore, the continuation of his government depends today on the continuation of the war: in Gaza and/or the West Bank, in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran. The day after must not come; the war simply will not end! The army wants to know what will happen the day after in order to prepare, and the Americans want to understand what Israel wants, and specifically what Israel wants from them. Netanyahu refuses to decide because any definitive decision will bring down his government. It is important to understand, in Israel and abroad, that the continuation of the war stems not only from technical military reasons but, first and foremost, from an internal, intra-Israeli political necessity. What could be achieved militarily in the war in Gaza is already almost exhausted, to “eliminate Hamas” is wishful thinking and it is not clear what it means. There is no “once and for all” and no “final solution.” After the destruction of what existed in Gaza, Israel must begin to establish something else instead. But what is this new order? With whom is Israel willing to build it? What shape will it take? It is not possible to find any shared answers to these questions in this government.
A cruel war of attrition is now taking place in Gaza. The first war of attrition in the Israel-Arab conflict took place after the Six-Day War (Al-Naksha in Arabic) and lasted from the seventh day for more than three years, from June 1967 until August 1970—it was also called the “war of a thousand days.” The first war of attrition began against Egypt. Palestinian organizations in various territories of their diaspora were drawn in as were Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the USA, and the Soviet Union. Finally, the Americans imposed a ceasefire on Israel and resumption of a political process (the second Roger’s plan). Begin’s party (Gahal) then left Golda’s unity government.
We must start thinking about the current war as a long war that will last not months but years. It has been my opinion for many years that Israel is a permanent war society. However, one must distinguish between different levels of intensity of the state of war. The lower the intensity, the more normal life in Israel seems—similar to life in countries that are not at war. All aspects of life in Israel, almost without exception, are decisively affected by the state of permanent war
The Crimes of the Current War
Hamas is fighting in the only way it can, in an asymmetric way. It is fighting a guerilla war since it does not have a state, and it does not have the capabilities that Israel has. (Notably, guerilla in Spanish means “small war”, dating from the time of Napoleon.) The first rule of guerrilla warfare (according to Mao Zedong) is that the relationship between the people’s fighters and the people is like that between the fish and water. The guerrillas hide among their people. Of course, such a situation creates a problem distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants. You may claim this is not right. Maybe, but it is also not right that a guerrilla does not have the same capabilities as his opponent: a state or weapons systems. And that is exactly what the Palestinians are fighting for: a state. War, remember, is not a sport. I’m not defending Hamas’s behavior, only explaining what guerrilla warfare is.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal, a pro-Israel newspaper, reported that 70% of the buildings in Gaza were damaged by the bombings, and that almost all the water, electricity, communication, sewage, health, and education infrastructures were destroyed. Most of the factories, malls, theaters, mosques, churches, schools, hotels, and antiquities have been damaged. About 29,000 bombs, most of them from US emergency stockpiles, have been dropped on the Gaza Strip so far, more than on Dresden in Germany during World War II. American experts claim that what is happening in Gaza is “one of the most intense punitive actions in the world.” South Africa appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of indiscriminate use of force, forcibly removing the residents, and creating conditions of genocide. The investigations will surely last for years. Israel is seen throughout the world as harming the non-involved.
The Gaza Strip is now a dead area with no conditions to accommodate and sustain the deported population. This is collective punishment; horrible and spectacular destruction. The photos turn Israel into a “leper” country in the eyes of the world. About 9,000 children have been killed so far in Gaza. A high percentage of the Gaza population are children and the indiscriminate bombing is termed an “incidental consequence,” a horrible legal term given the photographs we see of children wrapped in shrouds in the arms of their parents, or buried in mass graves. The living children will not forget their brothers and sisters. The future is being created in the present.
Starving the population is also a war crime that borders on genocide. Preventing the supply of food and water, and/or preventing and disrupting their distribution, are intended to break the bond between the Gazan population and its fighters and bring about surrender. The willingness to starve a population is motivated by hatred and revenge but also by the difficult fighting. Even generals who, until recently, were not identified with the fascist right (Giora Eiland and Yair Golan) called for the starvation of Gaza. The world looks at Israel with horror—and rightly so.
The kidnapping and holding of children, women, and the elderly (by Hamas) is a war crime according to international law. The chance that Israel will succeed in freeing its abductees by force is slim to none. If they try, some of them will be killed by their captors and some by their rescuers (as in the case of the three abductees killed by friendly fire). The purpose of their kidnapping was to extort a price. These are, for example, a cessation of hostilities, guarantees for the lives of the kidnappers, or an exchange of prisoners. Those, within the government who object to paying any price to the kidnappers claim that they, too, are in favor of the release of the abductees; but they are lying knowingly. Only those who are truly ready for a cessation of hostilities intend a return of the abductees. Only those who are ready to exchange “all for all” stand together with the families of the hostages. Stop the war now, release all abductees on both sides, bring down the government, and work for a political, non-military solution.
Avishai Ehrlich
This article was published in the Communist weekly Zo Haderech, January 3, 2024.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31468
