3 factors explaining the tolerance of Israeli society towards the long duration of the political war

The various battles and wars that Arabs have fought against Israel have created an equation in which they believe that Israeli society does not have the capacity to withstand serious loss of life or property. Because it is a mixture of a human group whose components are separated by numerous ethnic and cultural walls, Zionism has not succeeded in dissolving it under the slogan: “Let us be a people like all other peoples”, as he promised. the opposite happened. This society has not escaped internal conflicts and has become vulnerable to the effects of seasonal wars.

This has settled into the general perception, among Arabs and others, that Israeli society is made up of segments created by successive waves of immigration, which more closely resemble geological layers, accumulated over decades in -above a base composed of Palestinians who have not been uprooted from their places. during the 1948 war, so that Jews from far away could fill the void. What remained of those who were forced to emigrate then came a large portion represented by Russian Jewish immigrants, and a thin portion represented by the Falashas.

Each of these waves caused a rebound which threw society into the crater of a volcano, then successive wars increased its upheavals, according to what Baruch Kimmerling reports in his important book: “Israeli society… The native-born colonial immigrants.”

Perhaps the mind was not devoid of plans for the “Flood of Al-Aqsa” and launched it from this perception, but here we have entered the second year of the war without hearing loud and widespread boredom and complaints from Israelis, like what happened. in previous wars, they pressured political leaders to abandon the call for negotiation.

This situation raises a fundamental question: has Israeli society broken the old equation? And why?

First of all, the duration of the war, with the threat of its extension beyond the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, indicates that this equation no longer exists in its old form, at least in apparent terms, without the possibility of his return to existence. ended or completely denied, if the resistance remains capable of causing human and material damage not only to the Israeli army, but also to society, in terms of economic losses, psychological terror and undermining of confidence in the future.

There are several factors that have made Israeli society appear different in its response to the events of the war this time, some of which are related to the change in the Israeli political and social structure in recent years, and others of which are related to the nature of this war, in addition to the approaches and treatments that the Tel Aviv government has adopted in conducting its conduct.

Since the beginning of the 1970s, the power of religious people has increased to the detriment of secularists.Colonization movements developed and the political power of the Eastern sects (Sephardim) strengthened, taking advantage of their growing numbers and their greater inclination towards their sub-identity. While the influence of the Likud party, which has moved closer to the extremists, has increased. the crises in the Labor Party, to which the secularists approached, intensified.

In the process, parties expressing the religious right have become more represented in the Knesset and in many educational institutions, and the voice of this trend has been heard in the media and in various organizations that produce political discourse , religious and intellectual. , and this traditional form of the political system in Israel has been broken, and the two main parties have become the Likud and the Labor Party which badly need an alliance with the religious parties to form a government, and this government risks s ‘collapse if the government is put in place. the voice of the right is not listened to, its demands are implemented, its extravagances are tolerated and its violence is not tolerated in discourse and practice.

So far, there is one important factor that has largely contributed to curbing the social forces that seem to complain about the war: at the head of the government is a man in crisis, namely Benjamin Netanyahu. He realizes that ending the war means he will be held responsible, and so he is better off letting it continue, whatever the cost. Rather, he worries that he is showing contempt for the voice that demands he negotiate a return to war. prisoners held by Hamas, and to hide part of the truth about the losses, or to underestimate their value and impact, in order not to arouse the anger of the Jewish people, a situation that Israel has not known since its creation in 1948. .

Netanyahu has succeeded in transforming Israelis into an “oppressed society,” albeit in a relative way. The government has a stronger grip on the military than ever before and imposes control over the media in a way that limits the reach of voices. he vehemently opposes in the ears of the people and is strict in implementing military censorship. He shows great perseverance, even insensitivity, in the face of pressure from the families of prisoners, the dead and the wounded on the battlefields of Gaza. Gaza and southern Lebanon, as well as those who were forced to leave settlements around Gaza and northern Israel.

But the most important factor, in my opinion, is the belief of a large part of Israelis in Netanyahu’s description of the ongoing war as a “battle for existence.”Taking advantage of the state of panic that shook the souls of the Jewish people due to the miserable state in which its army appeared on October 7, 2023, and the fear that Israel would lose the “power of deterrence” that it he has long held time, which would open the door to the greed of his army and an attempt to inflict a terrible defeat, what will follow for the “State of Israel” will in no way resemble what it ‘preceded.

That is why Netanyahu’s speech was appreciated by many people, when he delved into what was temporarily hidden and hidden in the “eighth decade complex”, and retrieved the facts from ancient history and borrowed religious texts, to create any path to prove it. description of him, and prepare society for a long war, which must only end by crushing the enemies of Israel, to completely put an end to any future threat weighing on it, but which rather opens the horizon of ambitions inherent in the dream of “Greater Israel”. “, and if there is someone in Tel Aviv who plans to achieve this goal of Israel being an economic and technological leader for the entire Middle East, like the late Shimon Peres, then there are those who want imposing this perception through brutal armed force, like Netanyahu and some ministers of the religious far right.

Netanyahu took advantage of the fact that a large part of the Jewish people was already prepared for this vision, even three and a half years before the outbreak of war, which is reflected in the words of Health Minister Rabbi Litzman during of the outbreak of Corona. epidemic: “We pray and hope that the Messiah will come before Passover. »

This is what Netanyahu himself repeated when he declared that he was the man whose ancient prophecies indicated that the keys of Jerusalem would be handed over to the Messiah (the Messiah according to the Jewish conception), flirting with this vision which nestles in the heads and souls of Western Christians as well. To push them to strongly support Israel in continuing the war, whatever the cost.

There was a scenario suggested by Arab analyzes immediately after Israel launched Operation Iron Swords, based on the fact that the price of the ground invasion and complete occupation of the Gaza Strip would be high and that the war could drag on to some extent. that Israeli society could not bear.

There are those in Israel itself who shared this view, such as the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Tamir Hayman, who, among his recommendations to “improve Israel’s strategic situation”, called for preventing what he described as the great damage that could occur. be caused to Israel with the prolongation of the war, then presented. A recipe for mitigating this damage includes: continued and close contact with the affected population, including compassion, generosity and attention to their distinct needs, and the establishment of a unified administration for the general return of displaced persons, or at least a separate administration in the north parallel to the Takoma administration linked to the southern communities, provided that obstacles to this are removed. Finally, deploy efforts aimed at strengthening citizens’ feeling of security.

Meir Ben-Shabbat, former head of the Israeli National Security Authority, agreed with this approach, calling for preventing the deterioration of internal power, reducing the sense of anxiety, strengthening the economy so as to reduce the burden of life and postpone any disagreement between political and social movements. In this, he agrees with the vision of researchers from the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University who recommended, after an extensive field investigation, the need to strengthen endurance to face a war to long term. on several fronts simultaneously and prevent the deterioration of confidence in the army and the police.

Until now, the reality contrasts with analyzes based on the collapse of the domestic front in Israel, to the extent that Israeli society seemed coherent about the results of the war and more able to bear the consequences, to a greater extent than ever before. The war and some of the effects of opinion polls taken in May dispelled the past and showed that the “national mood” tends towards society’s inability to bear the continuation of the war.

I believe this is due to the mind manipulation plan followed by the Netanyahu government, which is based in part on covering up losses, and the vigilance of the code related to the conflict in Israel, which is (a permanent war imposed as destiny) , because it continues to this day to unite and conglomerate Jewish citizens, and to create a base. A common identity based on a collective identity and a new Jewish nationalism, based on an inherited and familiar characteristic that resides deep in this society, which is. : the presence of a complex of fear of others, distrust of them, and in return self-confidence to the point of arrogance.

Despite this, nothing prevents the cohesion of Israeli society from being broken in the face of war, if the resistance is capable of resisting and inflicting heavy losses on its enemy, difficult to deny, especially if the missiles and drones of the resistance continues. falling on the military bases and settlements in the heart of Israel, dispelling all the propaganda from Netanyahu and those with him about guaranteed victory.

Ultimately, Israel’s internal cohesion depends on the government’s ability to continue to lead public opinion and make war an existential necessity, in exchange for the resistance’s ability to bring about change in reality. of the conflict, which leads Israeli society to question the feasibility of continuing the conflict. the battle and open the door to new possibilities of settlement or withdrawal.