The Legitimization of Evil Will Remain With Israelis Long After the War in Gaza Ends

NB: Gideon Levy’s voice reassures us that reason and compassion live in all of us, regardless of religion, nationality, time or place. He has always spoken against injustice, and for the rights of suffering humanity, especially those closest to him, in Palestine. Here he talks about the phenomenon of evil, of whose existence, every now and then, we are so painfully reminded. I have also used this theological term, because there was no other way of saying what I wanted to say. Thank you Gideon, God bless you. DS

GAZA casualties live statistics

An Israeli flag flies next to the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday. Credit: Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters

Between the time you started reading this article and reached the end of it, one more child has died in Gaza, with two others wounded. That’s how it is: a child fatality every eight minutes. Israel’s indifference to this fact and its concealment by the press are the most irreversible damage this war has inflicted on Israel...

Gideon Levy

At the end of this war, Israel will find itself in a worse situation than when the war began. Even if Israel is able to realize its goals, which appear to be receding, the country’s situation will be worse than before. Since the moral aspects of this war hardly bother anyone in Israel, particularly not the media, all that remains is to honestly answer the following question: What does Israel stand to gain from this war? What exactly can it hope for?

While the chorus of army spokesmen posing as journalists cheer the army’s achievements, and since almost all Israelis believe that after October 7 Israel can do anything it pleases, one can only ask about the gains. The losses are already piling up. The longer the war continues, the greater the damage to Israel.

One can hardly think of even one advantage Israel might reap from this war, even if we ignore its horrors and the indescribable suffering on the other side and focus only on “what is good for Israel,” as Israelis like to frame it. It’s very bad for Israel. The future of the hostages is becoming increasingly murkier, and Israel’s security is growing shakier.

The facts are glaring. Hamas is growing stronger. The more it is hit in Gaza, the more its political strength grows among Palestinians, at least outside the Gaza Strip. The longer the war goes on, the worse Israel’s international standing becomes. It’s already reached an unprecedented nadir, not yet among governments, but certainly in world public opinion.

Israel has become a pariah state more than ever before. Reports from Gaza present a barbaric reality. The world sees it and feels loathing. How could it not? Polls of young people in the United States, including young Jews, should horrify Israel. Hamas is more popular among them than Israel is. We can thank the war for that.

Thank you, war, for making every Israeli not only a security target everywhere he or she goes, but a target of national shame. Some Israelis don’t mind feeling ashamed, but not all of them.

Thank you, war, for bringing Israel to the brink of an economic abyss. The days of tourists coming here in the numbers we were used to are far off, but the greatest damage done to Israel will be felt in what is happening to it internally. More than the judicial overhaul, this war is shattering the vestiges of Israeli democracy.

During this war, civilians have been fired, interrogated, or imprisoned for expressing solidarity with other human beings and horror at the killing, for simply calling for peace, for protesting about the lack of opposition to this war. Israeli Arabs are afraid to breathe. The conduct of law enforcement agencies during this war is much more dangerous to Israel’s democracy than the suspension of the use of the reasonableness standard by the country’s courts.

Such conduct has elicited very little protest. Not only on battlefields has Israel adopted a policy of indiscriminate killing to an extent not previously seen; it has also become sadistic in an unprecedented manner in its detention facilities.

Anything goes after October 7. It’s not only the extreme right who have tainted the public discourse. The center also wants more blood, destruction, epidemics and hunger, and is unashamed to say so openly.

This legitimization of evil will remain with us long after the war is over. Gaza may be rehabilitated, but not the moral collapse in Israel. The legitimization of war crimes will not let go of us, and from now on, everything will be permitted in the West Bank as well, and subsequently in Israel itself. What begins in a detention center near Be’er Sheva will not stop there. Fewer are the number of those making an effort to stop the sadism. They have “sobered up.”

Source: Haaretz

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