We need Eisenkot, but we need real policy change
It will be terrific to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk.
It won‘t be enough, though, to just replace Netanyahu by Eisenkot.
We need real policy change.
That is the position of civil society activist and Zionist Ido Dembin from the Two States Coalition. He was invited by Ksenia Svetlova, former MK and left-wing activist with the NGO Ropes, to speak about the Israeli-American relationship after the US midterm and the Knesset elections. Ksenia and Ido have a truly vibrant discussion, it is fascinating listening to them and watching their video or podcast. Ido emphasizes that without a real prospect for Palestinian statehood, Israel will be more and more and even more isolated, not just in the world, but in the US – it’s one and only real ally – in particular.
Most pro-Israel activists in Germany do not understand these developments. They fight antisemitism, which is important, of course, but they do not understand why some people who might have talked to them immediately after 10/7, have become more reluctant after 70,000 deaths in the Gaza War, among them the huge majority civilians – plus over 1200 Palestinians deaths in Gaza since October 2025 when the ceasefire started. Plus the social, mental and medical catastrophe erupting in Gaza after the recent rainfall and the destruction of tens of thousands of tents in recent days – and with Israel preventing essential material to enter the rest of what was the Gaza Strip.
After the unprecedented massacres by Hamas and the Palestinians against Jews on Oct. 7, the world was behind Israel. These days are long over. Now, thanks to Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, but also thanks to the IDF warfare in Gaza (plus Iran), Israel is as isolated as never before since 1948, that is for sure.
Most recently, American intellectual and author Celeste Marcus went to the West Bank to protect Palestinians from Israeli or Jewish settler terrorism. She writes about it in Liberties. It is a hard read.
Benjamin Netanyahu has a co-responsibility for the killing of Yitzhak Rabin due to his agitation against Rabin prior to his murder. Remember: one of the reasons for the murder or Rabin was his collaboration with the Palestinians and Arab Israelis. NOW, Netanyahu, defames most of Arab Israelis and Arab Israeli parties for working towards the end of Israel. Take Bennett, who reminded “Bibi” that it is Netanyahu who has close allies in Qatar! Qatar! The country which was promoted on a world stage by the corrupt and authoritarian FIFA Football organization, with all European supposedly anti-Islamist countries taking part, including Germany.
Netanyahu endangers the life of Arab-Israeli politicians and people, plain and simple, including the life of Mansour Abbas. As the Times of Israel and Haaretz reported, Netanyahu even said to Abbas just five years ago:
In the ROPES discussion between Svetlova and Dembin they emphasize that civil society might be much more able to really bring people together, to talk to people – like Arabs from neighboring countries who seek peace in the Middle East without working toward ending Israel. Politicians represent millions of people and cannot talk free and open, as Dembin says. He is still optimistic.
They also talk about Senator elect Abdul el-Sayed from Michigan, who was supported by his Democratic allies with an ad saying that Jews/Israelis are responsible for high prices in US supermarkets! One needs to see this video to understand this blatant antisemitism.
It is not US aid to all kinds of countries, including in the Middle East, or the almost 200 billion US dollars (!) sent to Ukraine in the last 4 years by the US – it is the 25 billion dollars from 2022 to 2025 the US gave to Israel. Trump, then, said he will end the 3,8 billion annual aid to Israel, which was brokered by President Obama several years ago and should have lasted until 2028.
It is not the unbelievable US military budget of some 900 billion dollars a year, it is not the capitalist system of supermarkets and the entire economy that might be responsible for the prices in supermarkets. No, according to this “Rebellion PAK” ad in Michigan, it is the Jews/Israel who are to blame for high prices in US supermarkets. That is incitement to hatred and it took Abdul el-Sayed many days to at least slightly distance himself from this ad.
In addition he seems to be an Islamist, as his wife wears a hijab, which is quite a different story compared to Egypt or the Arab and Muslim world where this anti-female ideology and clothing is widely common (sadly), but the US is not a Muslim country.
The ROPES podcast deals with the shocking ad in favor of el-Sayed, but also emphasizes the Netanyahu-Qatar connection. Still, the antisemitism of this ad it truly disgusting and shows a dramatic sense of Jew-hatred in the United States of America among liberals and neo-Nazis, who embrace that kind of anti-Jewish activism, of course.
That has nothing to do with criticizing Israeli war crimes during the Gaza War, nothing to do with criticizing Jewish/Israeli terrorists in the West Bank and racism against Arabs in Israel.
Again: Framing Jews as responsible for high prices in the US is plain and simple scapegoating Jews and Israelis and is not dealing with US military aid for other countries in general, not to forget the US budget for the ministry of war as such. And, again, not to forget the capitalist system of our societes in general – they might be responsible for any kind of prices. The Jews are not responsible.
Is there hope anyway? There might be, as Haaretz writes:
In a post-election analysis, Sasson and fellow researcher Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis divided Democrats in Congress into three groups based on their views on Israel. They found that the left-progressive faction, which advocates a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel, grew from 24 to 36 members – still a minority. What the researchers call the “pro-Israel establishment,” which opposes conditioning aid and avoids harsh criticism of Israel, holds 89 seats. The “center of gravity” of the party, as Sasson called it, lies with 113 Democrats, senators and House representatives, identified as mainstream progressives: lawmakers who support conditioning aid and arms sales, harshly criticize the Israeli government while avoiding words like genocide and apartheid, and advocate for sanctions on Israeli individuals and companies operating in the West Bank. At the same time, these lawmakers still believe in the importance of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, that it shares democratic values with the U.S., and that it is a reliable geostrategic partner in the region. Sasson said this group was “not very influential or numerous even a decade ago,” but has grown into the party’s largest faction, supplanting pro-Israel establishment Democrats.
War crimes are still part of a war, which Hamas started. Genocide is something different: extermination of civilians. Those who use the word genocide aimed at Israel want to defame the Judenstaat. They could use the word war crimes, but they know that using “genocide” is much better to discredit and isolate Israel. Scholarly, genocide is the wrong term.
Indeed, war crimes are shocking and Israel needs to deal with them, but Eisenkot will be unwilling to do this. He will face another America after these midterm elections. The German pro-Israel camp is still unable to understand these tectonic shifts in US Jewish communities and the US public in general. ROPES does understand them and we should listen to them and to many other left-wing, progressive and open-minded Zionist critics of the IDF and the racist political culture in Israel.
It would be historic, then, if Eisenkot really shows courage and embraces both the Haredi and Arab parties as these two groups represent vast parts of Israeli society, each almost 25 per cent of the young generation. Treating Arab Israeli as equal members of society would be news – also to America and the Arab world, by the way.