The normalization of chaos

Normalization. Now, there’s an Orwellian term. We’ve marginalized normalization. Before October 2023, there was talk of Saudi Arabia’s potential to normalize its ties with Israel. Today, it looks like this normalization is a distant desert dream as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) will only normalize if there’s a Palestinian state. It could be argued the Saudis only wanted nuclear technology, not normalization.

And why does Israel need to be normalized anyway? Which other democratic country is considered ‘abnormal’? Is Saudi Arabia, one of the only countries where people are still beheaded by the state, considered normal? Is Qatar, which keeps its women under male guardianship, normal? Are Turkey, Syria, China, Russia, or even the United States, with its gun crime, considered normal? Perhaps the world has a point; Israel is an abnormal place.

Israel is only 77 years old. That’s the same age as Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Iggy Pop. Since its birth, Israel has been forced to fight an almost endless conflict for its existence with its neighbours. But it also made peace with two of them – Egypt in 1979, then Jordan in 1994. Yet, Israel is abnormal or unique for many reasons. Israel is one of the only modern democracies in the Middle East. Yet, it’s this democracy that is being challenged right now from within.

Normalization of warfare
Firstly, we’ve normalized perpetual war. Due to the constant threat from multiple fronts, conscription for 18-year-olds, and the fact that Israel relies so deeply on its civilian reserves, Israel has a military mindset. This militarism spills out into other walks of life. In hi-tech businesses, marketing campaigns run like military ones. People have become accustomed to sending their children to fight for a government they didn’t vote for. School children go to ceremonies for dead soldiers and learn about military heroism.

We’ve normalized the short-term security blanket of using anti-missile defense systems like the Iron Dome or David’s Sling. Yet, we’ve marginalized talk of reaching long-term security via a two-state solution or regional peace alliance.

We’ve normalized fathers dropping their kids off at school with a machine gun over their shoulder or buses and trains full of young soldiers with guns. We’ve normalized kids running to bomb shelters as sirens shriek and rockets are fired above their heads. We’ve normalized seeing huge pieces of bomb shrapnel embedded in the streets of Tel Aviv or into a parked car in Ra’anana. We’ve normalized having hundreds of gigantic ballistic missiles sent in one night by Iran while children tremble with fear as the whole house shakes from sonic booms.

What’s worse, some have normalized the hostage situation. Some MKs in the government think it’s acceptable to leave the remaining hostages in captivity for a while longer. We’ve normalized having the exact same government and leadership in power who governed on October 7, the worst intelligence and defense disaster in Israel’s short history. We’ve normalized having a leader who pivots and lies regularly, once telling us about the importance of controlling the Philadelphi Corridor over a hostage deal.

We’ve normalized having far-right, racist provocateurs like Ben-Gvir in the Knesset. We’ve normalized seeing police violence and unjustified arrests at democratic protests. We’ve normalized having a completely unfair budget that favours the religious sects and not those who defend and work for the country.

Normalization of religious extremism
In the media, we’ve normalized the occupation, having control of nearly three million Palestinians in the West Bank for almost sixty years. We’ve normalized settlers rioting and burning houses in towns like Huwara. We’ve normalized the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. We’ve normalized the news of Arab-on-Arab murders on our doorstep in towns like Tira, Kalkiliya or Tulkarem. We’ve normalized huge IDF operations in Jenin.

We’ve normalized not seeing the destruction of Gaza. We’ve normalized people saying we should flatten Gaza. We’ve normalized people saying that there’s no such thing as an innocent Gazan. We’ve normalized accidentally killing aid workers, school children, and other civilians used as ‘human shields’.

We’ve normalized Hamas, as the world continues to listen to their health ministry numbers, despite the attrocities of October 7. We’ve normalized swapping 90 terrorists for three innocent young women. We’ve normalized seeing hostages being paraded on stage by men in balaclavas with machine guns. We’ve even normalized Qatargate, having the PM’s aides feeding the media with positive stories about the state that hosted and funded Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders.

All over the world, we’ve normalized sportswashing. We’ve normalized kids wearing football shirts that advertize Qatar Airways or Emirates. We’ve normalized US colleges and universities receiving billions of dollars from Qatar.

Normalization of antisemitism
In the diaspora, we’ve normalized Jewish schools and community centres having armed guards on high alert. We’ve normalized synagogues being attacked and Jewish cemetries being vandalized.

The media has normalized rape or sexual assaults, even so-called liberal university professors have chosen to ignore elements of October 7 to justify their hatred of Israel. We’ve normalized far-right nationalist parties rising around Europe. We’ve normalized seeing crazed CEOs doing obvious Nazi salutes to the worldwide media.

Today, as long as something fits your worldview, you can ‘normalize’ anything. We’ve normalized pandemics, lockdowns, 134% trade tariffs, criminals in the White House, climate change denial, Holocaust denial, and misogynist influencers. We’ve normalized misogynistic madmen running the world, from Trump to Putin, from MBS to the Emin of Qatar. We’ve normalized Epstein, Prince Andrew, P Diddy, and other sex traffickers.

We’ve normalized death scrolling on social media. We’ve normalized children being addicted to screens. We’ve normalized the feeling of helplessness. We’ve normalized insanity. All of this is the new norm, they say. But is it? Most ‘normal’ people I speak to feel the same.

In Israel, most people reject this rise in radicalism or moral decay. Most still hold peaceful values and hope for a long-term solution to the current conflict. Most want the hostages back. Most want to replace this current government. Many of us love Israel but are also deeply critical of its government at the same time. Over the past few years, and via some very clever campaigning and social media trolling, they’ve made us ‘normal’, peaceful-loving people feel like a marginalized minority. Yet, we’re not. We are the norm. We don’t need to normalize peace, diplomacy, fairness, and democracy. It is the only true way out.

My poetry book, Rayleigh to Israeli: Seventeen years, Seventy poems is out now.
=

Photo courtesy of Johannes Schenk from Unsplash