"You want a short war? You'll have short-lived results."
And how much do Israelis think their country should be concerned about Palestinian suffering? A poll reveals a huge chasm between Israel and the Diaspora.
Now that Greta Thunberg’s flotilla to Gaza (widely dubbed by the Israeli press as “the selfie flotilla,” meaning that it was all about virtue signaling) has been stopped by the Navy’s Flotilla 13 unit, and hostage negotiations are stuck and no one knows what’s going on with the US and Iran, we take a quick look at Israeli attitudes to the war. Two looks follow here, one about how long the war might go on or should go on, and one about how Israel ought to respond to Palestinian suffering.
As I was reading this weekend’s papers, I was struck in several places at the depth and breadth of the chasm between rank and file Israelis and leading Jewish and general voices abroad.
Here are two examples, both from Yedi’ot Ahronot. Keep in mind that Yedi’ot, Israel’s most widely sold newspaper, is center-left. More center than left? Probably. It is most definitely not right-leaning, and for almost the entire war, Yedi’ot has been bitterly critical of the government on numerous issues.
More recently, Yedi’ot has also published numerous pieces that have sought to illustrate to Israelis the degree to which the Jewish state is quickly becoming a pariah nation.
And still … these two brief stories speak volumes. …
Our first story is about Major General Avi Marziano, who has been responsible for the IDF’s northern front (with Lebanon) since a few months before the war began and who is now completing his tenure in that role.
It’s not a very short article, so we’ll focus just on the headline, the sub-headline and the small caption at the very bottom left of the photograph.
HEADLINE IN BLACK IN THE MIDDLE: “Whoever wants a short war is going to get a short-lived outcome.”
SMALLER SUB-HEAD ON THE RIGHT: Major General Avi Marziano began his command of the Hiram Formation [DG—Brigade 769], which is responsible for the border with Lebanon, about a month and a half before the war broke out. ⚫️ This week he concluded that role, in a zone that now has a reality utterly different from what it was when he began, and he leaves with a string of accomplishments and events that will be felt for decades to come. ⚫️ In a far-reaching interview upon his departure, he describes that should have been done, in his view, but was not: “Why did we not destroy all the houses? Because we didn’t have sufficient explosives. We show them too much mercy.” ⚫️ On the end of the war which still lies far over the horizon, “The battle for the Land of Israel is going to take years.” ⚫️ As for his sense of missed opportunities: “We could have accomplished more.”
PHOTO CAPTION AT BOTTOM LEFT: Marziano: “I don’t want fake quiet.”
While Marziano himself is not a household name in Israel, people who fill roles like his are held in high esteem here. They’re the “real” army, the commanders in the field who make things happen and who determine outcomes.
He says we need this war to go on for years. The international community says that it needs to end.
Anyone taking bets on who Israelis respect and listen to more?
And in the same issue of Yedi’ot, in one of the magazine sections, a column by the widely respected Nadav Eyal, without question one of Israel’s most esteemed journalists. It’s a long piece, so we’ll focus just on one small item — the item highlighted in yellow.
“Most of the Jewish public says that Israel ought not take Palestinian suffering into account when it comes to the conduct of the war.”
At the bottom of the page, Eyal provides results of polls on that very issue. The lower of the two lines, from October 2023, indicates that 83.5% of Jewish Israelis felt that Palestinian suffering should not be a factor in our decisions about the conduct of the war.
But that was immediately after the horrors of October 7, and whatever hardship the Palestinians were enduring, it likely paled relative to the situation now.
So now, eighteen months later, with Gaza in ruins and with the international outcry growing ever louder, what do Jewish Israelis think? Three quarters—or 76.5% to be exact—still hold that position.
Palestinian suffering is obviously horrible, most would likely say. But echoing Avi Marziano, they would also say, “We didn’t start this war, yet it’s up to us to make sure that our victory will be decisive so we don’t have to do this again.”
Given that, most Israelis feel (I’m not taking a stand here, but am just sharing what’s in the press), whatever is happening to the Palestinians—no matter what the world and many Diaspora Jews say about it—cannot be our concern right now.
A few years ago, I published a book called We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel, in which I argued that the chasm between Israelis and American Jews was not really about Israel’s policies, but about the utterly different conceptions of the essence of Jewish life that Israelis and Diaspora Jews have.
After October 7, it appeared that the chasm had been bridged a bit. But as this war slogs on, with no end in sight, the chasm, if anything, has only widened.
What we see in the Israeli Hebrew press suggests that we would be wise to expect it go grow even wider in the months, and perhaps years, ahead. The implications of that growing gap, for both Israelis and for Diaspora Jews, are likely to prove profound.
When someone is trying to kill you, his feelings don't enter into your calculations.
Diaspora Jews have different concerns than Israelis - professional and social rather than security. That says everything - different areas in the Maslow hierarchy. Diaspora Jews have to virtue signal to friends, neighbors and colleagues. Israeli Jews have to live next to a terrorist organization more vicious than ISIS. A touch of humility could help progressive blowhards.