Muktze Statehood: The Foreseen Cost of Israel’s War
Many things can be said about the process of exclusion that Israel is currently experiencing, but one thing cannot be said—that it was not foreseeable. Many experts, including the author of these lines, have warned for months about the expected reactions of the international community to the continuation of the war in Gaza.
The old slogan “Don’t be just, be smart” is especially relevant to our current situation. There is no doubt, and most of the international community did not doubt, that Israel’s immediate response to the despicable attack of October 7 was justified. Israel had broad international legitimacy for its initial reaction, but as time passed, that support and legitimacy eroded and opposing voices grew stronger. As the new images (some real, some fake) made the world forget the horrors of October 7 and 8, calls increased within the international community to act to stop the fighting and “Israeli aggression.”
The campaign, which must be noted as quite successful, calling to “stop the genocide in Gaza,” is causing almost irreversible reputational damage to the state and its citizens. The campaign is accompanied by official reports from “UN experts” and statements by various politicians and public figures, and slowly but surely, it is dragging the entire international community into a situation where there is seemingly no choice but to take measures to “stop the genocide,” without ever addressing the question of whether a genocide is actually occurring there. We are already experiencing these measures in agriculture, academia, and the defense industry, and just in recent days we have learned of efforts to boycott Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest and in sports.
If the situation does not change drastically and quickly, the sanctions will only increase and intensify. Fortunately, at least for now, Israel has the support of the U.S. in the Security Council, so sanctions are not expected to be passed there against the state. However, a continued escalation in the policies of specific countries and the European Union can certainly be expected, which will also affect the State’s security, as well as trade relations and support for private companies registered or operating in Israel.
Dealing with geopolitical complexity is becoming an essential aspect of any organization’s strategic planning—to anticipate external shocks and act accordingly. Companies, especially startups, would be wise to begin intelligently examining these developments to foresee where obstacles might arise that could, at best, delay their growth, and at worst, desperately harm them.
The struggle against the delegitimization Israel is undergoing does not need to be about being just (although at this stage, it’s hard to know what is just), it needs to be about being smart. The first step the government needs to take is to climb down from the tree, stop the war, work for the release of the hostages, and begin to restore the security, economy, and international relations of the state. It is already clear that this war is “wasting” the strongest diplomatic resource Israel had at its disposal—the negotiations for normalizing relations with the Palestinian Authority and the question of a two-state solution. The wave of recognition of a Palestinian state by various countries may not lead to an immediate change in the status of the Palestinian state, but it certainly constitutes an accelerated path to that goal. At this rate, it seems that Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir will be recognized as part of the founding fathers of the Palestinian state.
