Israeli terrorism does represent Israel
JVL Introduction
Gideon Levy writes in his usual furious style about how ludicrous it is to say that violent settlers do not represent Israel, that Ben Gvir and Smotrich do not and, for example, the Jewish Israeli lawyer and settler who said that ‘one Jewish life is worth 10 million Palestinian lives’ does not represent Israel. He notes that “Israel has become a strange, unique country; none of the evil taking place here represents us. A true wonder. The extremists are not us. The ugliness: not ours. Jewish supremacy: no connection to us. Nothing problematic belongs to us. Even the government doesn’t represent us. So who does? Where are the millions of Israelis for whom nothing Israel does is them?”
He says, especially because of what has been happening in Gaza that the world does not buy this any longer. It may be comforting to label some of the people and groups creating havoc in the West Bank at the moment as “extremists” but they are backed by, indeed it could be argued, part of the Israel State apparatus. Certainly arrests are rare and indictments even rarer. While we respect and acknowledge those Jewish Israelis who do take a stand and try to support Palestinians’ rights and oppose the occupation, they are few in number, are often vilified as traitors and in May 2025 polls showed that 82% of Jewish Israelis supported expelling Gazans. Levy argues that this is the reality of Jewish Israeli society at the moment and all are responsible, including him.
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sun 16 Aug 2026. Read the original here.
The Right Is Correct, There's No Jewish Terror. There's Only Israeli Terror
The terror in Qusra, in Tell, is Israeli. Calling this terror Jewish was meant to erase or dilute Israel’s direct responsibility
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When Israelis finally accept the truth of who they are and what they’ve become then, perhaps, a real peace and rebuilding of the two nations, Palestinian and Jewish, sharing one land can begin.