The war in Gaza has left Israel internally polarised and internationally isolated
We woke up on 7 October two years ago to the horrors of Hamas’s attack on Israel. In the days the followed, fear crept in that Israel’s response would be swift, deliberately disproportionate, and laced with tragic consequences – motivated foremost by revenge and not with eliminating Hamas or getting the hostages back.
Still, it defies common sense and morality – and is testament to a collective international failure – that it has taken until now, after more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and many more maimed and left hungry, that serious negotiations are taking place to end the war.
If successful, the negotiations taking place in Egypt will lead to the end of the bloodshed, the hostages’ release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and will allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in adequate quantities. It might also build a better future for both sides through a genuine peace process.
However, for that to happen much will depend on political leaders. And that’s a worrying sign.
What Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing government have inflicted on those in Gaza has been beamed straight to our screens, but they have also brought calamity to their own country that will take years to recover from. Israel is internally polarised and internationally isolated.
Even before the war, it was Netanyahu in his unabated cynicism and opportunism who legitimised prominent ultra-nationalists, as part of an attempt to escape his own corruption trials. For his own sake, he was prepared to polarise Israeli society more than ever by compromising on its democratic foundations.
Under Netanyahu’s watch, the worst killing of Jews since the Holocaust has taken place.
Any decent leader with any modicum of integrity would have, in the immediate aftermath of 7 October, apologised for the colossal failure of his government to protect its people and looked for the earliest opportunity to walk towards a political sunset.
What has followed since the attack represents a total lack of judgement on how to respond to such an event, as traumatic as it was. It also springs from Netanyahu waging a war of revenge and his attempt to maintain his own political survival.
Regardless of what happened before 7 October, 2023, Hamas didn’t have the slightest justifications for what it did that day. But as gruesome as the massacre was, it cannot provide an excuse for the continuous and indiscriminate carnage Israel has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza, and its similar methods on parts of the occupied West Bank.
There has been a complete disregard for civilians’ lives, including children. Consequently, Israel has gone from enjoying the sympathy and empathy of much of the world – with world leaders queuing up to express their support – to being more isolated than ever and accused of committing genocide.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ironically, it is this kind of development that convinced several key international powers to recognise Palestinian statehood, with the UK, France, Spain and Australia notable among them.
This act, long overdue, is precisely what the Israeli right and Netanyahu have been vehemently opposed to. Now, four out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council and six G7 members support Palestinian statehood. Only the US seemingly stands between admission of Palestine to the UN as an independent state.
Two years on from Hamas’s attack, Israel is more divided than ever. Many Israelis accuse their government of breaking the unwritten covenant between the state, its soldiers – the vast majority of them conscripts and reservists – and their families over the supposed abandoning of the hostages. The idea of not sparing any effort in releasing captured soldiers and civilians has always been sacrosanct in Israel.
The prevailing sentiment is that Netanyahu has prolonged the war to please his ultra-right coalition members, to avoid a state inquiry into 7 October, and to save himself from spending time behind bars.
This week’s negotiations in Cairo, between representatives of Israel and Hamas, have led to some cautious optimism that the war is in its final stages. But this doesn’t guarantee that it will lead towards peace negotiations that are capable of bringing about a just and fair end to the conflict.
For that to happen, both Israel and the Palestinians will need new leadership and a recognition that there has to be a political solution, not a military one.
Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and associate fellow of the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa programme.
