They are the destroyers, we are the restorers
In an extraordinary and unprecedented public plea, a majority of Israel’s living former security chiefs – from the IDF, through the Shin Bet, to the Mossad – came together to demand an end to Netanyahu’s war in Gaza.
These are not fringe voices. They dedicated their lives to fighting adversaries like Hamas. They are the people who once commanded Israel’s armed forces, intelligence services, and counterterrorism operations, and they state that the war has long ago crossed the line from self-defense to self-destruction.
Netanyahu’s propagandists may rage at the fact this message is being heard – in the West, across the Arab world, and here at home. From the propagandists’ perspective, any deviation from the norm, from “ideological uniformity” in service of the leader, is a blow to Israel’s standing, while reality proves time and again that the opposite is true.
The one harming Israel’s international standing is the government of destruction whose ministers no longer hide their plans for ethnic cleansing. “We are erasing Gaza,” “it will be Jewish,” boasted ‘Heritage Minister’ Amichai Eliyahu in a revealing quote from a government that glorifies killing and war and has become indifferent to human life, not just of Palestinians.
What began as a just war has been hijacked, seized by a government that is half-run like a criminal organization and half-driven by a messianic cult. Together, they are steering us toward the same end: the collapse of our values and, ultimately, of our very existence.
It is hard to understand what is going on inside Netanyahu’s head, but the feeling is that the further he is preserving and fortifying his rule, the darker his soul becomes to anything that isn’t his immediate personal interest, and there is no sacrifice he will not demand of us in order to maintain his power, even if it means the lives of soldiers, even if it means the lives of the hostages, and also the lives of civilians in Gaza, which unfortunately interest too few Israelis.
Amid leadership that has abandoned moral and ethical boundaries, the voices shining through are those of citizens willing to resist, willing to take a principled stand, even at personal cost. They include citizens like the former heads of the security establishment who criticized the purposeless war, the forum of former senior diplomats (which I am proudly part of), and the artists who, despite the price they will pay, have spoken out against the unbearable reality of children starving and being killed.
For the sake of the State of Israel, first and foremost for its soul and second for its standing in the world, and more than anything for our sake and for the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must not bow our heads in fear before those who seek to silence criticism. It is not criticism that harms the country and its standing, but rather the silence and the turning away from the terrible reality that everyone knows exists but prefers not to talk about.
It will take a long time to remove the stain that has marked and continues to mark us. But our duty is to ensure we are doing everything possible to begin the long journey toward restoration, a journey that cannot begin as long as the government of destruction, led by Netanyahu, remains in power.
The ongoing discussion about the public relations problem misses the point. This is not a marketing issue but a policy issue. Highlighting the fact that most of the Israeli public opposes this government and wants the war to end helps Israel’s image and helps many around the world to understand that Israel is more than just its government. This is not about “airing dirty laundry” outside – as the horrors are visible to the world from every television screen and from every mobile phone. It is precisely the protest that highlights that there is also light in the midst of the darkness.
The challenge facing us is to use our abilities, our reputations, and our willingness to take to the streets and demonstrate in order to create another small crack in this government’s wall until it is finally forced to do what is expected of it: go home.
Along the way, they will tell us that we are “fifth columnists” and that we “stab the nation in the back.” But we know the truth: They are the destroyers; we are the restorers.
