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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Don’t believe Haaretz and the NYT. Israeli society fully supports the Gaza genocide.</h1>
<span class="gmail-post-author"><span class="gmail-by">By</span> <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/author/jonathan-ofir/" title="Posts by Jonathan Ofir" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Jonathan Ofir</a></span>
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<a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/dont-believe-haaretz-and-the-nyt-israeli-society-fully-supports-the-gaza-genocide/" class="gmail-date-link">January 9, 2024</a>
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<img src="cid:ii_lr81rjt11" alt="Prime-Minister-Benjamin-Netanyahu-is-now-convening-the-War-Cabinet-at-IDF-Central-Command-Headquarters-October-11-2023-768x576.jpg" width="391" height="293"><br><p>An <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-01-03/ty-article-opinion/genocide-charge-against-israel-must-serve-as-a-wake-up-call/0000018c-d113-daf6-a5df-d77f2f370000">editorial</a> in <em>Haaretz</em> last week, as well as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/opinion/israel-gaza-displacement.html">piece</a> by the <em>New York</em> <em>Times’</em>s
Michelle Goldberg a few days later, told a similar story. Both articles
portrayed genocidal statements by Israeli leaders, and both articles
explained them as an expression of far-right extremism. <em>Haaretz</em>
seems to suggest that the solution (which would protect Israel at the
International Court of Justice) would be for Netanyahu to fire his
extremist ministers. Goldberg’s article takes it even further,
suggesting that Netanyahu is also part of the problem. </p>
<p>However, there’s a story that is not being fully told in these two
main liberal outlets. Both ignore the evidence and the polling that show
near universal Israeli support for the unfolding genocide in Gaza —
both from the Israeli political class and the vast majority of the
Israeli population. </p>
<h2><strong><em>Haaretz</em></strong><strong> in denial</strong></h2>
<p>On January 3, <em>Haaretz </em>published an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-01-03/ty-article-opinion/genocide-charge-against-israel-must-serve-as-a-wake-up-call/0000018c-d113-daf6-a5df-d77f2f370000">editorial</a> titled “Genocide Charge Against Israel Must Serve as a Wake-up Call,” referring to South Africa’s recent <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/south-africa-appeals-to-the-international-court-of-justice-stop-israels-genocide-in-gaza/">appeal</a>
(dated December 28) to the International Court of Justice to stop
Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The editors mentioned a gathering held that
day at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, “that specified the goal:
Palestinian emigration from the Gaza Strip and the settlement of Jews in
the territory.” They highlighted extremist statements like that of
lawmaker <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/02/meet-zvi-sukkot-israels-newest-fascist-lawmaker/">Zvi Sukkot</a>
of the Religious Zionism party, who said: “At least the northern Strip
we must first of all conquer, annex, raze all the buildings and build
neighborhoods”; Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich’s comment that “if
there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million, the
entire discussion on ‘the day after’ will be different”; National
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s calls for “a project to encourage
the emigration of residents from Gaza,” and more. The editors’
conclusion: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“But the most effective way to undermine the filing is to remove from
the government those who incite war crimes. This is the only way to
persuade the world that the deranged ideas they are spreading do not
reflect reality. This must be done urgently, before they cause Israel’s
standing to deteriorate to that of a war criminal.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Muhammad Shehada was brilliant in <a href="https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1743281107984883971?s=20">mocking</a> this portrayal on X.</p>
<p>As they say, it’s the whole damn system. </p>
<p>Who is supposed to “remove from the government” those who incite war
crimes when all of those who would have the power to remove them are
engaging in the same incitement? <em>Haaretz </em>seems to be suggesting
that it’s just a few bad apples, but these bad apples are not only in
the government, but well beyond it. For instance, as Shehada mentioned,
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said that there is no such thing as
“uninvolved” civilians in Gaza. </p>
<p>And then there’s the so-called “opposition.” Center-left lawmaker Ram Ben-Barak of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, who <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-israeli-lawmakers-call-on-european-countries-to-take-in-gaza-refugees/">co-authored</a>
with Likud’s Danny Danon an Op-Ed advocating for the “relocation” of
Gaza’s residents in mid-November. In early November, Ben-Barak pushed it
more forcefully in an <a href="https://twitter.com/MiddleEastMnt/status/1720913228916576460">interview</a>
on Israeli television, making clear he meant the entire Gaza
population: “Let’s spread them across the globe. There are 2.5 million
people there. If each country takes in 20,000 individuals, that would
involve 100 countries…it is better to be a refugee in Canada than in
Gaza.” In late December, Danon boasted that according to new <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/gaza/poll-83-of-israelis-support-voluntary-emigration-from-gaza/2023/12/24/">polls</a>,
83% of the Israeli population supports the “voluntary emigration” idea.
And we know it’s not “voluntary” when you first flatten Gaza and make
it uninhabitable. </p>
<p>Let us be clear: 83% of the Israeli population is not an extremist
fringe. The vast majority of Israelis support the genocide — they just
call it other things, like self-defense. Did we already forget
Ben-Barak’s party ally Meirav Ben-Ari’s <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-politician-the-children-of-gaza-have-brought-this-upon-themselves/">claim</a> that “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves” from mid-October? Have we failed to notice that <em>only 1.8% of Israeli Jews think that Israel is using too much firepower in Gaza</em>? This was on a poll of the Israel Democracy Institute <a href="https://time.com/6333781/israel-hamas-poll-palestine/">cited in <em>Time</em></a> in mid-November. </p>
<p>Think about it — only 1.8%! And 57.5% believed the army was using <em>too little</em>
firepower in Gaza, which is to say that the combined firepower of two
nuclear bombs akin to the ones used on Japan in WWII was not enough for
over half of the Israeli public. An additional 36.6% thought it was an
appropriate level of firepower, and 4.2% weren’t sure.</p>
<p>To say that <em>Haaretz</em> is not giving us the full picture would be to let it off too easily. <em>Haaretz</em>
seems to be most concerned with the supposed extremists “over there,”
maintaining denial regarding the prevalence of the genocidal zeitgeist
and the nexus between the Zionist right and left. </p>
<p>On Sunday, Jewish Power’s Heritage minister, Amichai Eliahu, used Ram
Ben-Barak as his centrist alibi for ethnic cleansing in an <a href="https://twitter.com/TalulaSha/status/1744345703038566772">interview</a> on the centrist <em>Ynet</em>.
This bit was amazing. The host asks Eliahu, “Do you [Jewish Power]
support the transfer of the Gazan population and Jewish settlement in
the Gaza Strip?” </p>
<p>Amichai answered:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Noa, you know very well that what we are speaking about in Jewish
Power is really not transfer. We are speaking about the willingness to
improve housing, for the Gazans who seek to improve their housing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At this point, the whole studio cracked up with laughter, unable to
stop themselves. The other host says, “So you’re saying if only they had
a parking and an elevator…” </p>
<p>Eliahu laughs, too. He continues: “This is the parallel of the word
transfer… what we suggest is voluntary emigration.” Here, he mentions
Ben-Barak: “It’s not only us who are saying it, people from the left
spoke about this, Ram Ben-Barak.”</p>
<p>But we all know what transfer really means. Israeli historian Benny Morris <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/cleansing-becomes-israeli/">wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Transfer was inevitable and inbuilt in Zionism — because it sought
to transform a land which was ‘Arab’ into a Jewish state and a Jewish
state could not have arisen without a major displacement of Arab
population.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A euphemism for ethnic cleansing that has now become a ridiculous
caricature of itself when the Jewish Power Minister tried to portray it
as an “improvement of housing.” It would be hilarious if the results
weren’t an actual genocide. Yet when people like Ben-Barak seriously
promote this, people don’t seem to register that it is not a fringe
suggestion. </p>
<h2><strong><em>Times’</em> ‘good old Israel’</strong></h2>
<p>Over to Michelle Goldberg at the <em>Times</em>, who wrote on January 5<sup> </sup>a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/opinion/israel-gaza-displacement.html">piece</a> titled “America Must Face Up to Israel’s Extremism.” Much in line with <em>Haaretz</em>, Goldberg opens by citing Smotrich and Ben-Gvir on their calls to depopulate Gaza.</p>
<p>Goldberg seems somewhat more specific and inclusive than <em>Haaretz</em>.
She notes that while the Biden administration “has joined countries all
over the world condemning these naked endorsements of ethnic
cleansing,” it still “acted as if Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s provocations
are fundamentally at odds with the worldview of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.” </p>
<p>So far, so good. At least she includes Netanyahu, since it’s about his whole government, not just a few rogue ministers. </p>
<p>Goldberg even mentions Danny Danon as an example of a Likud minister
“pushing emigration as a humanitarian solution,” but fails to mention
his co-author, Ben-Barak. </p>
<p>Goldberg says that “U.S. policymakers are fostering denial about the
character of Netanyahu’s rule,” and mentions Biden’s oft-cited stories
about meeting Golda Meir in 1973 as representing a view of Israel that
“sometimes seems stuck in that era,” as with “many American Zionists.” </p>
<p>Goldberg finds space to cite a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2015-06-16/ty-article/golda-meirs-gems-did-she-really-say-that/0000017f-dee0-d856-a37f-ffe02e3a0000">Golda Meir quote</a>
(the one about being able to “forgive the Arabs for killing our sons,”
but not being able to “forgive them for having forced us to kill their
sons”), which Goldberg admits is probably unauthentic, but she still
doesn’t find space to talk about the prevalence of these views and
advocacies among the Israeli public. She cites Daniel Levy for pointing
out the “willful refusal to take seriously just how extreme this
government is — whether before Oct. 7 or subsequently” — which is true
in and of itself, but again, what about the rest of Israeli society? </p>
<p>After October 7, Netanyahu took in two centrist generals and made
them Ministers in his war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot. Gantz <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/another-terrorist-minister/">boasted</a> of returning Gaza to the “stone age.” Eisenkot coined the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/israels-gaza-onslaught-is-the-next-stage-of-the-dahiya-doctrine/">Dahiya doctrine</a>,
advocating indiscriminate, “disproportionate force” against any area
from which rockets are fired — a doctrine now at the heart of the
current genocide. These two ministers demonstrate precisely how genocide
is a centrist issue in Israel today. Even “leftist” general Yair Golan,
who used to be in what is considered a far-left party, Meretz, <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/in-israel-politicians-like-yair-golan-gain-popularity-when-they-call-for-genocide/">said</a> that the Gazans can just “die from starvation, it’s totally legitimate.” </p>
<p>Goldberg ends her piece by saying, “I’m tempted to say that Ben-Gvir
and Smotrich said the quiet part out loud, but in truth they just said
the loud part louder.” </p>
<p>Goldberg already goes further than <em>Haaretz</em>, but her framing
still seems to imply that a liberal Israel still exists on the other
side — and who knows, maybe if they just fight more for “democracy” and
get a more moderate centrist government, things will be better. <em>Haaretz </em>says that these “deranged ideas they are spreading do not reflect reality” — but the scary thing is that they do.</p>
<p>Since Goldberg brought up Golda Meir and the romanticism she invokes
about the “good old Israel,” it would be irresponsible not to remind
readers that Golda Meir <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/06/new-report-outlines-how-golda-meirs-israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-in-ethnic-cleansing-operation/">poisoned a Palestinian village</a>
as part of an ethnic cleansing operation and then scolded ministers for
being too outspoken about the settlement enterprise, telling them to
“simply do and do not talk [about it]… talk less, and do as much as
possible.”</p>
<p>It’s chilling to think that so many people for so many decades have
been more worried about how Israelis talk than about what they do. </p>
<p>What Israelis say is important, of course, but actions count more —
and more often than not, ethnic cleansing and genocide are carried out
in silence. </p>
<p>Israel is committing genocide, and almost all Israelis are on board.
We need to face that Israel is beyond saving. We need the international
community. We need boycott, divestment, and sanctions, but even more
than that, we need international intervention in the whole damn system. </p>
<p><em>H/t Ofer Neiman</em>, <em>Tali Shapiro</em></p>
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