I'm a Jewish Israeli, AMA

[israelilefty]

Jewish Israeli here. I grew up in a different country but have lived and worked most of my adult life here, living a fairly normal everyday life in northern Israel. When I'm not working, I enjoy cooking and hiking, I'm religiously observant (but also feminist), I'm on the left of the political spectrum, and have everyday contact with people from quite a range of different perspectives - Israeli society is incredibly diverse.

I guess I see us portrayed in a kind of monolithic way in the English-language media, so I'm taking a deep breath and posting here...

Feel free to AMA, just remember you're asking a real person, not a government or military spokesman :) I'll try to answer from my personal standpoint. as long as it's asked in good faith.

@israelilefty thank you for coming back to answer the questions. Eid is round the corner so extremely busy but I hope you will be around in a few days too.
In regards to the troops being removed from Gaza, I have read that Gallant has said that one of the reasons is to prepare them for the Rafah operation. I know people who are currently forcibly displaced in Rafah so it's a very scary time for us all.

Very much appreciate you've come back @israelilefty . I was wondering if you could give a bit of insight on mis- and disinformation in the (social) media space within Israel.

I've noticed in the English speaking side that in the last 6-8 weeks (maybe, I'm not sure on an exact timeline but it was well before the renewed anti government protests really started up again) an increase in what I considered suspect voices, ones that are generally calluos towards the hostages' fate, essentially insinuating they should just accept being sacrificed for the security of the country. Alongside voices that weren't necessarily pro Netanyahu but were defensive of his more questionable actions as well as propogating talking points adjacent to the Great Replacement conspiracy theories and very hostile (and inaccurate) depictions of countries voicing any sort of criticism of Israeli policy.

While I'm sure these are definitely positions that some Israelis hold (and despite pretty much all conspiracy theories being antisemitic I can see the whole Eurabia nonsense holding appeal to some) it feels like these voices are disproportionality amplified. Considering how cosy Russia and Iran are now it's not hard to guess where this is coming from and the aim seems to be to sew further discord, strive and further isolation of Israel on the world stage. I'm wondering if similar is visible within Israel or perhaps it takes a different form there?

For example, I saw that the funeral wreath delivered to one of the (assumed) alive hostages' family was being attributed as a psyop from Iran but not sure what evidence they had for that, I don't think press media reported it as such.

@israelilefty also what is the atmosphere like in Israel right now in regards to the fear of a retaliatory strike from Iran? I have seen that people are preparing/stocking up. Is that in regards to having to potentially spend a longer period of time in safe rooms? It all sounds very frightening and I pray you stay safe

I will try to stick around, though busy here too leading up to Passover.

About the Rafah operation - I absolutely understand the anxiety. I think at this particular moment it's very difficult to look into how this war will progress, which is hugely dependent on the current ceasefire negotiations. I'm sure the army will be training for a possible Rafah operation but I also know that in addition to the negotiations, American pressure will have a significant influence on the scope of such an operation. In addition, I think we need to understand Gallant's words as a response to criticism from the far right who are threatening to quit the government if there isn't a Rafah operation.

I haven't really noticed disinformation on social media, including on the topic you mentioned, but I don't really use it beyond communication with close friends. I suspect that most Israelis would be rather suspicious about such posts.

@israelilefty thank you, I know passover is a busy time for you too.
I know this might sounds like an odd question but I read from various Israeli news sights and they all seem to mostly portray the right-wing aspect of society as the more dominant view. And the left wing seem to be more of a fringe movement. Is this the reality on the ground? And if not what purpose does the media have to portray Israeli society as being more towards the right? I did wonder if its propaganda to support Netanyahu's approach to the war or if the October 7th attacks has shifted those who were once on the left, more towards the right.

I think there is some apprehension because of the direct threats from Iran but I don't know anyone who is stocking up or worrying about spending a long time in a safe room, mainly because we would expect any retaliation to be on a diplomatic or military target, not to be a sudden a widespread attack on a civilian population, because the latter, a bit like Oct 7, would be a full declaration of war and would draw Iran into a depth of warfare (including with the USA) that Iran is not currently looking for.

Should say *sites

Regarding the famine and humanitarian aid: aside from the minority opinion I wrote about earlier of relatively small protests blocking aid, I would say that all Israelis understand the need for effective aid to Gaza, from a moral point of view or at the very least from a strategic point of view. It is also clear, in particular in recent days/weeks, that the major problem is the distribution of aid, not the actual amount getting into Gaza. Most Israelis see this as primarily a failure of agencies inside Gaza (and of Hamas and armed mobs for diverting and stealing aid), not as an Israeli failure, though again on the left there is criticism of insufficient planning to create the conditions for aid to be distributed. This is not a simple issue to solve but I think Israelis know that even aside from the moral imperative, providing aid effectively is a strategic imperative for Israel.

So, are you saying that the majority view in Israel is that children are starving because of these reasons:
a) Aid agencies are not effectively distributing aid
b) Hamas and armed mobs steal the aid
c) Israel may not have planned well enough for how to distribute aid.

You seem to suggest that there's no view that aid might be deliberately obstructed, in your assessment of public opinion. I think, in the UK, various charities and human rights groups have suggested that starvation has been used as a weapon of war. Indeed, the initial siege on the entire population plainly targeted the innocent along with the guilty. It seems to me that, from what you say, popular opinion in Israel does not think there is any intention to create famine in Gaza. But why impose a siege, if not to create conditions of hunger? It also seems that the views of Oxfam and Save the Children are either not heard, or not believed in Israel? Thank you for your answers.

The left is a minority in Israel - we can see that from the election results and predictions. In Israel, left mainly implies the peace camp, and it was already decimated years before the war, since the failure of the Oslo process and the assassination of Rabin. The likely next government will be centre right led by Benny Ganz, though less right wing than the current one. Bear in mind that the nature of the government also depends on which of the smaller parties are in the coalition, not just who the majority vote for. In the last elections Netanyahu had to build a coalition with the far right and religious parties because everyone else refused to go into a coalition with him.

In terms of news sites though, they have a broad range of perspectives. Haaretz is the left wing newspaper - but it is behind a paywall so you might have read it less. Ynet is centrist and critical of Netanyahu. Times of Israel is kind of centrist with bloggers who are all over the place and mainly to the right. Jerusalem post is more to the right. Israel National News is hard right. +972 is far left.

Bear in mind though that the mainstream media (other than Haaretz and 972 who also in peacetime publish critical pieces about the occupation) has generally not been critical of the war. I explored in a post above why most Israelis feel that the war has been one with no good alternative, and the news media reflects the general mood in Israeli society, including the widespread patriotism and emphasis on togetherness after Oct 7. Also because everyone has family members doing army service, and the army is generally a trusted institution (much more so than politicians), there is little appetite for wholesale criticism of it.

Thanks for coming back to this fascinating thread, OP! I have been listening to the Unholy podcast (on your recommendation earlier in the thread - thanks for that, it's such an interesting podcast). They seem to be suggesting that what could end up bringing down Netanyahu is the draft bill on national service for ultra Orthodox Jews. Do you think that's likely?

Thanks for the reply and I'd also like to echo thanks for the Unholy podcast recommendation months back. The 'war therapy' episode was especially good. If anyone is up for other recommendations I've found the new A Muslim & A Jew Go There podcast interesting too.

Since you've brought up the different newspapers. I have wondered before why whenever something goes wrong within the IDF it always seems that the more left wing (+972 and Haaretz) papers have the inside scoop. In most countries it tends to be the newspapers that lean right who have the best inside contacts in the army. Is it down to the IDF being a conscript army and therefore it's just generally a wider pool of people making a career in it or is there more to it?

And in extension of that, I would also be curious to know what you make of the 'Al-Jazeera ban' legislation.

@botemp I love that podcast too!

So glad to hear people have been appreciating Unholy. The most recent episode (4 April I think) is also very good - it’s a long one marking 6 months of the war.

You are right that as the IDF is a conscript army everyone has contacts within the army.

About the Al Jazeera law, it will not surprise readers of this AMA that I am in favour of freedom of the press even though Al Jazeera’s reporting on Israel is often problematic. Luckily it is a temporary law that will expire in July and the use of the law has judicial oversight so there are limitations on the power of the government just to limit Al Jazeera’s activities in Israel as it pleases.

There are several issues that could topple the present government and this is one of them. Another is that Ben Gvir (far right) has threatened to quit the government if there is no Rafah operation. Is it likely? Who can tell. It seems unlikely the current government will survive being so unpopular, but Netanyahu is an expert in finding ways to hang onto power.

Leaving aside the deliberate siege in the very early days of the war, which was intended to put pressure on Hamas (who had been stockpiling resources but not making them available to civilians) and is acknowledged to have been a bad and failed tactic even by those who supported it -- Israelis have understood, particularly recently as famine has become a prominent issue in reporting, the importance of humanitarian aid in Gaza. NB even at the time many Israelis thought the siege was a terrible policy, and it was abandoned fairly quickly.

I don't believe that aid is deliberately obstructed, if nothing else then for the cynical reason that even on the right, those who don't harbour particularly generous feelings towards Gazans know how important the aid issue is for any kind of continued support of Israel by allies, therefore it is in Israel's interest to ensure that food aid enters. And yes, I think that the points you listed sum up why most Israelis think there is a problem with famine in Gaza. Many Israelis also don't really understand that the famine is real, given the statistics about trucks entering Gaza and pictures of markets with plenty of food on sale.

I'll add that the three factors you summarised largely concur with an article published a few days ago in Haaretz by Israeli law professor Aeyal Gross, who has been involved in the petition by Israeli human rights organizations to the Supreme Court for free and unimpeded access to aid, together with Tamar Lester (recommended if you can get beyond the paywall). In brief they say: the facts are in dispute about bottlenecks and excessive delays in food entering Gaza. But the main reason for famines (in general and here) is not lack of food but lack of access to food. In Gaza the breakdown of social order, the ongoing hostilities, poor distribution mechanisms and spiking food prices mean that the food that enters Gaza is physically and/or inaccessible to many. Reliance on humanitarian aid also does not enable food security, and in fact most Gazans faced food insecurity even before Oct 7.

Their conclusions are that while Israel doesn't bear sole responsibility for the situation (so does Hamas prioritising its own interests over those of civilians), the political vacuum Israel has created in Gaza by undermining Hamas rule is integral to the current food crisis and therefore Israel is obliged to ensure Gazan's civilians are free from hunger.

@israelilefty I hear Netanyahu has announced there is a date for a Rafah Invasion. I wonder if this is in response to Hamas saying they don't have as many humanitarian hostages alive as was first thought?

I haven't heard about any announcement by Hamas, and I don't have insights into Netanyahu's plans. But note that his one way of surviving as prime minister is to continue the war, and members of his government have announced they will quit if there is no Rafah operation, so IMHO it's hardly surprising that he's keen not to give the impression it's over.

Thanks for your reply @israelilefty It does look as if efforts are being stepped up to address the issues with food entering, I think I heard more crossings are being opened. Distribution remains problematic, especially during active conflict, and with agencies feeling it's too dangerous for staff at present. I hope there will be better strategies to ensure distribution as soon as possible. I have to say the news images in the UK have been deeply shocking, and perhaps mainstream Israeli media does not use these images, hence many Israelis not understanding the famine is real.

Just discovered your thread a couple of days ago and have just finished reading all your posts OP.

Thanks so much for this thread. Its a really informative and evocative insight into Israeli life in general, the impact of 7/10 on Israelis and the context of the conflict and commentary on it.

You've really helped to expose misconceptions about the conflict and about Israelis and life in Israel.

Thanks again.

Thank you for all your responses so far.
My question is;
Are Israelis asking questions about what appears to be a catastrophic failure of both intelligence and border security services, both of which contributed towards the atrocities of October 7th being as devastating as they were?

Or are they simply saying " There is nothing more we could have done"?
Thank you.

Before replying, I'll note that we have the strangest and most tense night here in Israel since 7 October. First, we got a sudden late evening message that the education system will be closed for the next days. Then strong speculations on the news that an Iranian attack would come tonight. Now it is confirmed that waves of Iranian drones have been launched towards Israel. It takes 9 hours for them to cover the distance, and in the meanwhile, Jordanian airspace is closed , Israeli airspace is about to close, and planes to Israel have turned round. And the whole population is just sitting in front of the news (Yonit Levy from the Unholy podcast is working the night shift in her day job as host on Israel's main news programme) - and we're wondering what is about to happen, and basically waiting to see what sirens will sound tonight. We believe that neither side is interested in a wider war... but it's a concerning situation.

@israelilefty not a question but prayers that you stay safe x

Thinking of you xx