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Appetite for war strong as Israel’s growing right wing dominates

Almost a year since the deadliest attack in its history, and an unprecedented military onslaught on Gaza, an ugly truth has reared its head in Israel, according to Gideon Levy.

The prominent Israeli journalist and author based in Tel Aviv described Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October as “a kind of earthquake” that shook off the mask that concealed long-held hardline attitudes towards Palestinians.

“All those who believed in coexistence [with Palestinians] and peace, one day in October was enough to lose all of their beliefs,” Mr Levy told i.

“It enabled Israelis to tear off their masks, and what was maybe not legitimate before 7 October is now legitimate… To starve Gaza or not to starve Gaza, that’s a legitimated debate in Israel.”

Public opinion trends show the Israeli right wing is growing in numbers and becoming even more radical, particularly among the younger generation. The swing to the right is now “much worse” compared with a year ago, said Mr Levy, adding that public shock at the brutality of the 7 October attack, which killed 1,200 people, played into the hands of the most radical fringe of the Israeli Government.

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian students sit on the rubble after attending a class in a tent set up on the ruins of the house of teacher Israa Abu Mustafa, as war disrupts a new school year, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
Palestinian children sit in the rubble to do their school work in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip (Photo: Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and the possibility of another major war breaking out on the northern front have elicited feelings of despair and resignation from ordinary Israelis. Yet despite the increasing death toll on both sides in the Gaza conflict and the prospect of Israeli hostages returning alive rapidly vanishing, Israeli society appears to support the Government’s conduct of the war in overwhelming numbers.

That came as no surprise to Mr Levy. “There have been heavy clouds over our heads for one year now, with a lot of fears and concerns and worries. But it’s not enough to create any kind of meaningful resistance,” he said.

“To open a new front now and to go to another war [with Hezbollah]? People accept it. People think it’s inevitable.

“There’s full support. There’s an understanding that Israel does not have any other choice.”

Various polls in recent months point to that effect. A Pew Research Centre survey in May found that 19 per cent of Israelis felt that the military’s response against Hamas in Gaza had gone too far, compared with 39 per cent believing it had been “about right” and 34 per cent saying it had not gone far enough. More than 40,000 people have been reported killed in Gaza, most of them women and children.

In its own analysis of public opinion polls last month, the Israeli +972 Magazine found “very high and sweeping support” for the war in Gaza. The magazine’s founder, Dahlia Scheindlin, described the phenomenon as the “rally around the flag” effect, whereby support for the government or its leaders increases during times of crisis.

It could explain why Israeli support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who faced widespread near-weekly protests last year before the war – appears to be growing. A weekly opinion poll in August by Dr Menachem Lazar for the Israeli newspaper Maariv found, for the first time since 7 October, Israelis favouring Mr Netanyahu as the best candidate to lead the Government. A poll last week by the newspaper shows support for Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party is only strengthening.

Mr Netanyahu leads a coalition government propped up by far-right factions who are not only committed to destroying Hamas and continuing the war in Gaza, but are also working against any notion of a two-state solution.

The political leanings of the Israeli public also seem to have largely swung in that direction. The 2022 Israeli Democracy Index survey found that a higher percentage of young Israelis (73 per cent aged 18-24) identified as right wing compared with older respondents (46 per cent aged 65 and older). In a society that has made joining the army the symbol of belonging to Israel, some have argued that mandatory military service for every Israeli citizen over the age of 18 has reinforced the younger generation’s right-wing views.

It has created an atmosphere of fear for Palestinian citizens in Israel, who make up about a fifth of the country’s near-10 million population. i previously reported on a counterterror crackdown in Israel that saw scores of Arabs being arrested for speech-related offences, mostly over social media posts, leading to them being suspended or dismissed from jobs and universities.

Mr Levy despaired at the loss of humanity, coupled with the dehumanisation of Gazans in Israeli media and the rise in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. His new book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe, sheds light on what has become the most difficult period in Gaza’s history since the Nakba –  the “Catastrophe”,  as Palestinians call their expulsion – in 1948.

While Israelis came out in numbers last year against Mr Netanyahu’s controversial plans for judicial reform, it was “only about democracy for the Jews, [and] totally ignored the brutal occupation [of Palestinian territory]”, Mr Levy argued. Similarly, the demonstrations taking place now in Israel for the release of hostages “lacks any acknowledgement of the suffering of Gazans”.

“You cannot express any empathy with Gaza in Israel… you might be reported to the police if you’re an Israeli-Arab. And this has happened by the dozens,” Mr Levy added.

“It is very, very worrying, especially when you don’t see any counterforce, anything that can stop it.”

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