What is (almost) everyone in Israel thinking?
JVL Introduction
Gideon Levy writes despairingly of the Jewish Israeli public who are overwhelmingly backing the USA – Israel war against Iran. And by “overwhelmingly” the poll linked above shows 93% of Jewish respondents expressed support for the “operation”.
What can we conclude from this? That this is the result of decades of indoctrination, of limited information on Israel’s mainstream media, of an education system that at the very least paints Palestinians – and the Arab and Iranian peoples – as “other”. Add to this total dehumanisation of the Palestinian people, not only but especially, since October 7th and we get near total support for even more killing. Meanwhile large numbers of Iranian and Lebanese people are being killed, Israelis are running into shelters and, by the way, the world economy (other than armaments) could be turned into ash and for what? To show the consequence of the pulverisation of Gaza with near impunity now means the end of the “international rules based order” and that might will always be right?
LL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Thu 5 Mar 2026. Read the original here.
Everyone in This Country Has Gone Insane
Not a single voice of reason to be found among the pundits, politicians and general public, who all run to the shelters on an hourly basis but smile when they emerge, praising the Iran war and the blessings it brings. It almost makes you miss 1967
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It will not be Nike, but Nemesis whom the US and Israel will face.
The main sources of social unity for Jewish Israelis seem now to be universal military service and the mega contribution that makes to each conscript’s chances of obtaining higher education and rewarding careers. Most non-Jewish Israelis are excluded from military service, meaning that Israel’s communities are divided – “sheep” and “goats” – from their schooldays onwards.
Militaristic societies reward morale-sustaining groupthink and loyal obedience to the hierarchy. As even Jewish Israeli society is so bitterly divided on most other matters, it doesn’t seem surprising both leaders and led cling to the ONE source of social unity they can all count on.
Militaristic societies often prefer “junior ranks” to restrict their critical thinking to solving purely practical problems. The kind of thinking Levy calls for would be anathema to many Israeli educationalists, senior IDF officers and politicians.
While there’s a tiny percentage of incredibly brave Israelis actively resisting the indoctrination 3 generations have absorbed, it doesn’t seem likely to me there’ll be any change in Israel’s belief systems unless the state suffers sustained, catastrophic military defeats. It’s just possible Netanyahu and Trump’s war on Iran might deliver these.
The problem in Israel is even deeper than Linda suggests. All of the information I am aware of suggests there is massive damage from Iran’s missiles, not least in Tel Aviv.
In Britain that would lead to calls for the resignation of Starmer if not his lynching yet in Israel there is this Spartan mentality. Why?
In a settler colonial society, class politics are relegated if not absent. You have the unity of the ruling class and the wealthy with the working class and lower classes. What provide the basis for that unity? Hatred of the other. The privilege that pertains from being a member of the ubermenschen, however small or illusory.
Israel is not even a normal capitalist state. It is suis generis. It is ironic that what holds Israeli society together is the Palestinians who it wants to ethnically cleanse and now the Iranian enemy.
Israel is a very sick society.