The overwhelming majority of Israelis want the war to end now!

Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed. (Leviticus 19:16)

A survey released over the weekend by Channel 12 News in Israel revealed that 82% of Israelis support a hostage deal that would include an end to the war (some reports in the Israeli media said that the number was 74%), while only 12% oppose it! This means that the vast majority of Israeli citizens have had enough of this endless war, and would like it to be over right now.

This was certainly the overwhelming sentiment at the demonstration against this war and for the return of all the hostages that I attended on Saturday night in Jerusalem, along with thousands of other people (and many thousands more in Tel Aviv and other cities across Israel). Speaker after speaker denounced the current government of Israel, and especially its cruel and corrupt leader, for his lack of willingness to end the war and bring all the hostages home now. Let me bring you some quotes from the speakers:

Netanyahu is torpedoing another deal and the hostages are suffering. He is abandoning the hostages again.  The government of Israel is failing to make the only moral decision possible, i.e., to end the war and to bring all the hostages home. Clearly Netanyahu’s political survival is more important than the lives of Israeli citizens.

Another speaker was Ayala Metzger. She is the daughter-in-law of Tami and Yoram Metzger, who were abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Tami was freed in the November 2023 hostage/cease-fire deal. In June 2024, the IDF announced that Yoram had been killed in captivity and in August 2023 his body was retrieved from a tunnel in Khan Yunis. Ayala  has been one of the leading activists in the campaign to redeem the hostages and to end the war. In her comments last night, she raised serious questions that are on the minds of most sane Israelis these days:

What is the IDF doing in Gaza? What’s going on? The people in Gaza are starving. They are being killed every day waiting for food. They are not getting enough humanitarian aid. Many orphans are growing up there. They won’t need Hamas to learn to hate us… Netanyahu is not in a hurry to reach a deal. He fosters a cycle of violence and death. He continues to lie to us. He doesn’t care about us. Only about his political survival. Not only that, but he is using the story of the hostages to  keep the war going. He is very cynical. He wants the war to continue… but I am not quitting. The struggle to bring this war to an end is part of my identity now.

Ayala Metzger spoke very powerfully and very convincingly. She represents the overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens today.

Another speaker was a young woman, either a teenager or a young adult (who didn’t identify herself). She too hit the nail on the head with her very clear and concise statements which captured the feelings of everyone at the demonstration:

All the soldiers and all the hostages, who have died in recent months, were abandoned by this Israeli government. They all could have been with us if this government had reached an agreement four months ago, which is essentially the one on the table now, as was made very clear in an article in the New York Times the previous day.

The final speaker at this demonstration was Amos Guiora, a professor of Law who has served as a legal advisor for the IDF in Gaza in the past.  He does research about people who stand by while terrible things happen in many conflicts. Concerning our current conflict, he said:

Too many people know what is happening and stand by idly and let things happen! Many people in the current government are enablers—they let Netanyahu do whatever he wants. They are guilty of crimes. They should be brough to justice. They allow Netanyahu to commit his crimes. In particular, I call upon Minister Avi Dichter, Nir Barkat, Yuli Edelstein and Gidon Sa’ar to speak up. They all swore allegiance to the state of Israel, not to Netanyahu. They should all raise their voices now and tell Netanyahu to end this war and bring all the hostages home.

Of course, these formerly moderate and supposedly sane Likud ministers aren’t brave enough to do such a courageous and committed act, but Giora is completely correct in calling out these cowards, who are ministers in Netanyahu’s government of death and destruction. His call to all of us to not stand idly by and just let things happen was inspirational.

Perhaps Bibi’s abandonment of Israel’s citizens (not just the hostages and the soldiers) since his great failure in his recent visit to Washington DC, will catalyze more Israeli citizens to demonstrate against a government which has totally lost its moral compass and its raison d’etre. He has let us down, time and time again. Not only is he torturing the families of the hostages and the soldiers who are dying almost every day in vain, but he is holding us all hostage to his disastrous policies, which are not only pointless by now, but are preventing Israeli society to return to any form of sanity and “normal” life.

If  74 or 82% of Israeli citizens oppose the continuation of this war, it is time for millions of Israelis to join the hundreds of thousands who are protesting against the policies of this government.  Everyone who can stand (or sit, there are now chairs available at the demonstrations in Jerusalem) should speak up and let their voices of opposition to this continued madness end. Only when the great masses of the people actually stand up and make their opinions known will this government maybe finally realize that they  are on the wrong path and that they have to cease this insanity. Now is the time to have this happen.

In a free society, only some may be guilty but all are responsible. (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)