Eric Alterman of The New Republic has written an edifying piece titled, “What On Earth Has Happened to the Israeli Peace Movement?” He observes that despite the hostage family protests that occur every Saturday and the frustration of Israeli residents displaced from Northern Israel due to conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is not a widespread public outcry about the staggering death and morbidity tolls of Gazan non-combatants:
“What barely rises above a whisper, however, is the issue that is causing so much anger and anguish in most of the world, in the United States, on college campuses, and among wide swathes of American Jews: the horrific humanitarian costs of the manner in which Israel has chosen to wage this war and the innocent lives that are being destroyed as a result; the very reasons that the International Criminal Court just went ahead with its warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, together with the leaders of Hamas, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the conduct of the current war.” To wit, newrepublic.com/…
Alterman contrasts this silence to the vociferous cries for peace of 400K Israelis that “helped elect left-leaning, pro-peace Knesset members in the 1970s and 1980s especially in response to Begin’s and Defense Minister Sharon’s horrific Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon.” He then provides Dahlia Scheindlin’s data to show the drastic decline of the Israeli left today:
“The number of Israeli Jews who defined themselves as member of the left fell by 50 percent, from 30 percent to just 15 in the early 2000s who immediately shifted to the self-defined center, as the right wing’s popularity began to climb, reaching 60 percent of Jewish Israelis by 2019.”
Although he acknowledges the courageous stance of those pro-peace communities who, at grave risk to themselves, defy the authoritarian trajectory of the Israeli government, he alludes to demographic shifts within Israel, Israeli media indifference to covering human rights abuses, the barrier wall which reduced exposure to Palestinian resistance, and the current trauma of 10/7 for the atrophy of the Israeli left. It is a well-written article and points to some of the changes within Israel that have made the path to realizing a two-state solution an arduous one. Consequently, will merely removing Bibi et al from government result in the sea change that pro-peace advocates the world over want to see?
Read here: newrepublic.com/...