Israel is living its worst days. Never has the State of Israel nor its citizens ever imagined a more sorrowful predicament than the one it has faced since October 7th. Severe backlashes to the ongoing war in Gaza may ultimately cost Israel more than it had anticipated says Azza Radwan Sedky.
For years on end, Israel had been the coddled godchild, legendary for being a democratic state harassed by the Arabs, given every right to defend itself, and backed like no other state in the world. This image has been shattered, and internationally and domestically Israel is facing a bumpy, strenuous road.
At first, the world at large wondered why Hamas would conduct such a heinous attack on innocent Israelis on October 7th. But slowly but surely, the occurrences that led to such an attack became evident: 75 years of colonization and apartheid. The 2021 Human rights Watch Report confirms that Israeli authorities “have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity" and that "in certain areas ... these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” The consequences, after 75 years of Palestinians bearing the brunt of occupation, were retaliatory.
Since then, the pristine Israeli image has been tainted. The PBS News Hour says, “Six months later, Israel finds itself in a far different place: bogged down in Gaza, divided domestically, isolated internationally and increasingly at odds with its closest ally. The risk of a broader regional war remains real.” So, what are the entanglements that Israel has put itself in?
The most prominent change is that the Palestinian cause is now more salient in public opinion around the world than it has ever been. Millions affirm solidarity with Palestinians by protesting, voicing their disdain, and calling for a two-state solution.
Pro-Palestian commentators have all been offered time on Western air waves to publicize their views, something unthought of before. Activists and analysts such as Bassem Yousef, the Egyptian satirist; Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador; Chris Hedges, the American journalist and commentator; and Norman Finkelstein, journalist and activist born to Jewish Holocaust survivors have come on the air many a time. American Television hosts such as Christiane Amanpour and Tucker Carlson, despite their original pro-Israeli views have talked openly about the crisis that Israel is creating.
Even IDF soldiers are complicit in tarnishing their own image as their videos are watched on social media. Exhibiting harrowing insensitivity, the IDF soldiers shoot blindfolded unarmed men in the back piling them in a ditch in lieu of a graveyard, toy with Palestinian women’s underwear callously, apologize for being unable to find Palestinian babies to kill then settle to killing a 12-year-old girl, and shoot unarmed fleeing civilians. Viewers around the world are left in utter disbelief.
Israel has a history of lies and fabrications intent on gaining international sympathy and deflecting attention from its atrocities against the Palestinians. However, after October 7th, Israel’s propaganda machine was exposed as one lie after the other was confirmed by legitimate sources. Propaganda can conceal deliberate genocide up to a point, but ultimately the lies are exposed; the world then understands the truth and is repulsed at those behind such atrocities.
Israel has also managed to break international laws of war by going beyond the regular acceptable boundaries: not allowing food, medicine, or water in an occupied area, intentionally going after civilians such as the political leader Ismail Haniyeh’s children and grandchildren, and deliberately bombing the Iranian embassy in Damascus, all construe breaking international law.
The scenes of devastation across Gaza have unnerved even Israel’s most zealous supporters, and Israel’s allies are losing faith and angered by Israel’s intent and refusal to comply with a ceasefire. The New Yorker’s article of March 27 clearly identifies the change in US Israeli relation, “The idea that we’re giving massive amounts in aid to a country that is refusing our request to allow humanitarian assistance through, so we have to airdrop food is embarrassing.
As a result, nation after nation, those who had always been in solidarity with Israel are taking action. Canada halted arms sales to Israel after a vote in the Canadian House of Commons; Spain and Ireland announced their support of the two-state solution; Ireland has rebuked the Israeli ambassador openly, and its Senate has unanimously called for sanctions on Israel and demanded an international arms embargo. South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at The Hague was backed by many countries. The Vatican made it clear that Israel attack on Gaza is a form of terrorism. Even US senators such as Elizabeth Warren have said that Israel’s actions in Gaza are legally ruled as genocide; and Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president compared Israeli military action to the Holocaust, while Turkey restricted exports to Israel on 54 products including cement, steel, and aluminum.
Not only is the international view of Israel hitting rock bottom but also domestically Israel is on the verge of a meltdown. Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets daily to protest the inability of the government and Netanyahu to bring back the hostages or overcome Hamas.
With its intent to level Gaza, Israel has exasperated several fronts across the region, all now willing to hound Israel even further: Hezb Allah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran. As a retaliatory measure, Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel. Although most of the drones were intercepted, Israel closed off its air space, asked citizens to take shelter, and schools and many businesses stayed shuttered the next day; an aura of unusual alarm enveloped Israel. The grim reality is that some Palestinian allies are willing to escalate this war and make it region-wide.
From a different perspective, the Israeli economy is suffering. Withstanding a prolonged war has its drawbacks. And with Israel totally reliant on its reserves, 300,000 of them, and displacement of thousands that is occurring along the Lebanese border, and the tourism sector’s downslide, many businesses have had to pause production. Visitors to Israel numbered above 300,000 each month; that figure stands at 39,000 today while nearly half a million Israelis have left the country.
Furthermore, normalization with Arab nations is at stake here. Chances are the current crisis will cost Israel the normalization plan that was about to start with Saudi Arabia, a breakthrough for Israel. Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan in an interview with CNN said, “The kingdom will not normalize relations with Israel or contribute to Gaza’s re construction without a credible path to a Palestinian state.”
The Times of Israel poignantly describes the current situation. “Israel is in the midst of multiple crises — with a stalled war in the south; a potentially far worse conflict in the north, acute tensions in the West Bank, Iran’s multiple machinations, international hostility, no remotely competent public diplomacy, [and] dysfunctional governance that continues to fail the citizenry at the most basic level.”
The security that Israel enjoyed was shattered on October 7th, and the image it always sought was tarnished. Israel will not be the same.
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