‘Flatten Gaza’

“Flatten Gaza.”

I’ve heard this phrase too many times in the past year, beginning in the overwhelming pain and grief Israelis felt in the wake of October 7. I think many people who used those words meant them as a sort of hyperbole for inflicting a crushing defeat.

It turns out that we are literally flattening northern Gaza. House by house. School by school. Hospital by hospital.

I remain convinced that most Israeli soldiers, including people that I know or whose families I know, are good people trying to defend themselves and their communities and their country from real and dangerous enemies. My heart breaks at reading the tributes to those who have fallen, precious and unique individuals, fathers and husbands, teachers and rabbis, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. I know that women are struggling to keep their households and families together with a husband in reserves for month after month, and that the north continues to absorb heavy rocket fire, with casualties.

We, like any country, need to defend ourselves. But do we need to flatten Gaza? Could it be that some of our actions are indeed outside the bounds of the laws of war?

Our government includes Kahanists in powerful positions. Their clear and long-standing objective is “transfer” – the removal of the Palestinian population from all territory controlled by Israel. Has our country, our army, been coopted into pursuing that goal, rather than simply the legitimate goal of self-defense?

Are we trying to empty northern Gaza only of terrorists? Or are we trying to permanently depopulate it, in preparation for renewed Jewish settlement?

Let’s go back to the question of flattening Gaza. Gaza, Jabalia, Beit Lahiya – these are real places, not abstractions. They are populated by real people – men, women, children, and babies. And we have literally “flattened” thousands of these people under the rubble of their homes, and of the schools and hospitals where they were seeking refuge and treatment.

Israel expects inconceivable sacrifices of its citizens – first and foremost, the hostages and their families, the soldiers and their families, those who are evacuated, and those living under fire – in pursuit of “victory.”

We need to ask ourselves: What does our government want to achieve through our sacrifices? What do Smotrich and Ben Gvir want to achieve?

And will we, as a people, ever be able to live with ourselves when the smoke has cleared over the crushed bodies of entire families that we have “flattened”?