Only war car bring Israel’s warring factions together

There is a sense that on both sides, there are people who are determined to go all the way. The right is determined to implement its overhaul of the legal system in order to weaken the judiciary (which, in their view, has amassed too much power through judicial activism) and consolidate the right’s control over all the centers of power (to break the pattern of “why do you vote right and get left?”). It isn’t necessarily Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; indeed, quite the contrary (not that that matters).

The far right is exploiting Netanyahu’s legal situation and the center-left’s boycott of him, which has restricted his political maneuvering room, to complete the right-wing revolution. Anyone who’s watched Channel 14 understands quite well that these right-wingers don’t intend to let him capitulate to the protests. If Netanyahu folds, they will never forgive him.

The so-called “left” (which isn’t really left, whose positions aren’t leftist, and most of whose most prominent figures are declared right-wingers, but we won’t get into that now), is no less determined than the right. This week, the lawyer David Hodak said that “if we need to fight over this, I will fight. ” In his comments, he used one very important word.

“The government doesn’t understand the level of energy in the Israeli public, the level of opposition to this destructive legislative plan,” he said. “People are willing to fight with guns. ” The important word was energy, not guns.

Hodak is describing a public mood, something you hear , something you feel in the air. And indeed, we heard former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak compare this judicial coup to “a revolution using tanks,” while journalist Raviv Drucker said that “this is going to be a war” and that “blood might be shed here. ” Former deputy chief of staff Yair Golan c alled for “widespread civil disobedience.

” Haaretz columnist Uri Misgav wrote that “no dialogue, no compromises and no agreements can exist with such people – only war, until victory . ” It seems that both sides are waiting for the other side to cross the line into violence and provide the casus belli. We have already heard threats from the governing coalition that, if carried out, could be grounds for war (coalition lawmakers have demanded that Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon and Golan be “arrested and handcuffed” for the crime of “treason against the homeland” ).

But it’s impossible to know who will fire the first shot, or whether it will be deliberate. After all, an accident often suffices for war to break out. The question that must be asked is the following: If there’s a war-like energy on both sides, how can it be dissipated without a war? If both sides are determined to “go all the way,” what, if anything, can make this energy return to its previous state? The more you think about it, the more it seems like only some terrible event could make this energy evaporate or channel it in another direction – an act of God, a global pandemic , a natural disaster.

But in the Middle East, the most likely possibility is war. Given the energy level among parts of the public, some minor military operation of the type that Israel is well-versed in and almost unmoved by won’t suffice. A real war is required for that, with everything that a real war laden with blood, sweat and tears entails.

This includes the changes wars have wrought in the Israeli consciousness – whether euphoria after a glorious victory (which requires overcoming a glorious enemy, in contrast to the war against the Palestinian civilian population) as in 1967, the depression that followed the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the subsequent reevaluation of our military power and social resilience, or the erosion of our moral resilience following the 1982 Lebanon War because of the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps . Unfortunately, it seems that only an external enemy would be capable of slaying the internal one. And tragically, it’s not clear which is more dangerous.

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