War vs. Diplomacy
Since the “ceasefire” began over a month ago, on October 10, 2025, it seems that the extreme right-wing government of Israel has been itching to go back to war. Why? What is it that makes this government so trigger-happy, so much more interested in war than peace or diplomacy that could lead to peace or at least a long-term truce (what we call in Israel “quiet”).
I have been asking lots of people this question lately and have been getting some interesting answers.
One answer came from my friend, Professor Joel Migdal, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Washington in Seattle, who now lives in Jerusalem and Seattle, who offered this reflection:
Israel’s default response to regional challenges has been a military response rather than pursuing diplomatic solutions. That is true of governments over the years. Netanyahu’s government has followed suit.
For many decades, Israel appears to have preferred war over diplomacy. This seems to be the knee-jerk response of Israeli leaders (many of whom came out of the military!) to crises and conflicts in our region. What you can’t achieve with force, you try to achieve with more force! Is this a result of our machismo leadership? or is it a deep distrust of our enemies or our international mediators? Or both?
Israeli leadership has rejected outside help to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a long time. They (mostly Bibi and his advisors, especially Ron Dermer) have not trusted American intervention under Presidents Obama and Biden, and they are still suspicious of American help (and even more so of European diplomacy), even in the new Trump administration. Bibi and his political partners made it very hard for Trump to reach the latest cease-fire several weeks ago, and they continue to do so, since they are obstinate in not being flexible in the negotiations to move the process forward. For example, they refuse to agree to any plan for “the day after” that would include the Palestinian Authority in any way, which is one of the key reasons for the current deadlock in the negotiations to end the war.
Despite the cease-fire, Israel has been bombing Gaza and killing Hamas fighters and many innocent civilians every day. According to Nir Hasson, a journalist with Haaretz:
Since the start of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in early October, an average of two Palestinian children has been killed each day, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry and a report published Friday by UNICEF. The findings also indicate that extreme food shortages persist in Gaza. During this period, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed 318 people, including at least 67 children, and wounded 788 others. (November 22, 2025).
Of course, they say that the other side always violated the “cease-fire” first, but this may not always be the case.
Moreover, it very much looks like that the current Israeli leadership wants to restart the war in Lebanon. Why? Why this incessant need for war, and the radical rejection of serious and sustained diplomacy? Why are we still in a war situation on almost every front after two years of fighting and major attempts to help us end the war via international mediation?
One very candid response to this question came from a friend and long-time peace activist Gila Swirksy, who has directed several peacebuilding organizations in Israel. She now lives in Nahariya in northern Israel, only a few kilometers from the border with Lebanon, where is not excited, to say the least, about another escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah in the north and is very critical of Netanyahu’s war policies:
Bibi Netanyahu needs war. He needs war to evade a reckoning for his trials on corruption charges. He needs war to keep his government in power on the grounds that one doesn’t change governments in wartime. He needs war to claim a legacy as the Israeli politician who beat down the enemy on multiple fronts. He needs war to resolve some unresolved envy of his heroic commando brother who was killed in the Entebbe raid of 1976. He needs war to puff himself up for his children and wife (above all, his domineering and bellicose wife). He needs war.
I think that this psychological analysis is right on the mark. Bibi has become a war-acholic by now. He is completely addicted to it. He, and Ben Gvir and Smotrich and many other outrageous politicians in their political parties, do not see any other solution or way out of Israel’s dire security situation. They continue to push him to “total victory”, which would mean perpetual war here for many years, and they reject all reasonable ideas that might actually bring an end to this war and put us on the path to peace and stability.
They are completely anti-peace people. When it comes to any talk about diplomacy or peace, they are totally in the rejectionist camp, which now runs the country. Instead, they love the Occupation and the settlements, would like to annex the West Bank, if Trump would let them, and they would even like to annex half of Gaza if they could and start rebuilding settlements there tomorrow.
Diplomacy? That is for the weak (the “sissies”) and the left, not for the militaristic and supremacist fully right-wing men who want to still be the bullies of the region.
For the time being, it seems that Trump and his team are hanging in there, still trying to make their 20-point peace “plan” work. But they are finding Israeli leadership extremely difficult and uncooperative, which makes their work not only very hard, but very disappointing and frustrating, since it seems that they want peace more than the “leaders” of the state of Israel do.
Will Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and their teams stay the course? Will they continue to “Bibi-sit” our irresponsible and reckless prime minister who desperately wants to return to war, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the people of Israel would not want this? Or will they lose patience and move on to the next crisis or simply focus on domestic affairs within the USA (like sending his stormtroopers into cities all over American to arrest immigrants or those who look like immigrants and lock them up)?
Even if Trump and his team remain involved in trying to make their peace “plan” work, will they be able to deliver everything they promised, especially since many of their ideas in their “plan” contradict each other or are totally unrealistic, such as disarming Hamas (apparently no one really wants to do it!) or creating a workable peacekeeping force for the Gaza strip (no one seems to be jumping at the invitation to police the Gaza strip for Trump and Bibi)? We can only hope that they will not give up.
In any event, the path of serious, sustained, and sensible diplomacy is preferable to more war!
Not long ago, we marked the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At that time, I was mindful of what he said in his famous speech at the signing ceremony for the agreement of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993:
Let me say to you, the Palestinians: We are destined to live together on the same soil, in the same land. We, the soldiers who have returned from battle stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, we who have attended their funerals and cannot look into the eyes of their parents, we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians –
We say to you today in a loud and a clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough. We have no desire for revenge. We harbor no hatred towards you. We, like you, are people who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, to live side by side with you in dignity, in empathy, as human beings, as free men. We are today giving peace a chance, and saying again to you: Enough. Let us pray that a day will come when we all will say: Farewell to the arms.
This was a speech by a real leader, with a vision of peace and hope for Israel and the Palestinians.
When will another such leader arise in Israel?
