Factions divided by Netanyahu’s judicial coup have made an uneasy truce to wage war on Hamas. The ugly choices they must make will change this country forever
Shortly after the Hamas massacre on Israel’s southern border, I was driving on the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In place of civilian traffic, flatbed trucks transported tanks and carloads of reservists headed to their units. I spotted a banner hanging across an overpass, imprinted with a slogan denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his assault on the judicial system. It felt like the remains of a long-forgotten election campaign.
At funerals for the massacre’s victims, some demanded the resignation of Mr. Netanyahu. “I didn’t want to speak about politics here today,” said Ofir Shai, a young man eulogizing his brother, “but this is not politics.” He proceeded to demand that the entire cabinet resign, and many in the crowd vigorously nodded. When cabinet minister Idit Silman tried to visit the wounded in a hospital, she was driven out by furious family members.
Members of the Israeli Defense Forces carry the coffin of a fallen comrade, Noam Elimeleh Rothenberg, at a Jerusalem cemetery on Oct. 10, the fourth day of the fight against Hamas.We know there are no good options for us in this war. Invade Gaza City and the crowded refugee camps and we risk the lives of hundreds of Israeli soldiers and those of our fellow citizens captured by Hamas, along with the lives of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians who are in effect Hamas’s human shields.
Hamas calls the area it attacked “occupied Palestine,” though it is within Israel’s internationally recognized borders. For Hamas and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies, Tel Aviv is no different from a West Bank settlement. Whatever one’s politics, we know that it wasn’t Israel’s policies that provoked the massacre but its existence.Women in Santiago, capital of Chile, carry pictures of abducted women in Israel before releasing blue and white balloons in tribute.The Saturday massacre was not an expression of desperation but of genocidal intent. The tactics exposed the goal.
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