Endless War with Zero Hopes
In “Alone in Berlin” Hans Fallada told the true story of a German couple during the Nazi period who expressed their protest by placing postcards bearing anti-war slogans in staircases of houses in Berlin until the Gestapo came upon them. When you move the story 80 years forward and transfer the plot from Germany to Israel, you get three women from Herzliya who were arrested few weeks ago after placing leaflets with pictures of the hostages and texts supporting a deal with Hamas on the benches of the synagogue where Yuli Edelstein prays. There is something disheartening about a protest that uses primitive technology like A4 sheets or postcards. There is something even more discouraging in discovering that the distance between the Gestapo and the police of Israel’s right-wing government is not so huge.
Nationalist leaders have a talent for convincing that there is no choice. Hitler managed to convince the Germans that they had to start a world war in order to save their compatriots in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Netanyahu convinces us that we must strive for “total victory” over half of the Muslim world, more or less. It’s hard to say no to wars when seemingly we have no choice. Millions of Germans who lived in Poland and Czechoslovakia between the two world wars felt truly discriminated. The fear of Israelis from terrorists crossing the border from Gaza or Lebanon is also real. Does this mean that World War II was inevitable, or that the endless war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and so on is such? Of course, not. The Germans were not at war until Hitler came to power, and we were not at war when previous governments did not pretend to “eliminate threats” but simply to live with them. This sounds defeatist and very unpopular in the current Israeli discourse – but countries learn to live with threats and very rarely (if ever) “eliminate them”. America does not eliminate Russia. Taiwan does not eliminate China. South Korea does not eliminate North Korea.
It’s hard to find a good word to say about our enemies, but this doesn’t mean that the optimal thing to do is to spend our life fighting against them, because fighting is a very exhausting task. According to the Bank of Israel’s estimate, the costs of the war so far reach 250 billion Shekels – more than 40% of the state budget. To this one should add more than 700 dead soldiers (59 were killed in October alone), paralyzed districts north and south, endless reserve duty, declining credit rating, and international isolation. These are the negatives. What about the presumed positives? Not much. The war did not solve “the Palestinian problem”, nor did it put an end to terror: In the entire year of 2022, only 31 Israeli civilians were killed in terror attacks. This year we have counted 37 victims in only ten months.
The bitter truth is that as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved in a way that is acceptable by both parties – we will have accept a certain level of terror simply because it is impossible to force an occupied nation to give up its desire for independence. Countries much larger and stronger than Israel like the USA in Vietnam and France in Algeria tried to do that by force and failed. Their bloody saga ended only when the public was fed up with a futile war. Therefore, unfortunately, as long as Israelis enthusiastically volunteer to serve in combat units – our war will not end, because we provide it with spare parts. In the meantime, democracy will be eroded, as the arrest of the women who dared to leave anti-war leaflets at a synagogue proves. After all, what is the value of free speech compared to “total victory”?
