BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’S calls for vengeance against the people of Palestine do not represent the views of families of hostages taken by Hamas.
The contrast could hardly have been sharper following the Israeli Prime Minister’s meeting with victims’ families on Saturday night. “We demand that no move be taken that endangers the fate of our family members,” Merav Leshem Gonen, the mother of hostage Rumi, stated.
Addressing a rally in Tel Aviv to chants of “Bring them home,” she announced that families of hostages want Israel to consider an “everyone for everyone” deal — a prisoner exchange that would see Hamas prisoners freed in return for the return of the hostages — and said this would have “wide national support.”
Yet Netanyahu followed the meeting by acknowledging the return of hostages as an “integral” war aim, but subordinate to the “top priority” of destroying Hamas — a line that suggests he anticipates the unfolding ground invasion will cost hostages’ lives, some of which are already likely to have been lost in its bombing onslaught.
His quote from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Do not forget what the Amalekites did to you,” chillingly references a Torah passage advocating the wholesale extermination of an enemy people, blurring further the line between a declared war against Hamas and the reality of an indiscriminate assault on the people of Gaza.
Here is a real divide within Israel, reminding us not to follow Netanyahu in pitching the war as a fight to the death between two nations. Those calling for prisoner swaps and negotiations need their message amplified and used to shame politicians in our own country who side with the most reactionary and bellicose forces in Israeli politics.
That Israel is not a monolith has been clear all year: the enormous protests against Netanyahu’s attacks on the courts demonstrated the strength of feeling against its far-right government.
These rallies were politically mixed, with some demo organisers welcoming anti-occupation campaigners and Palestinian flags, while others tried to exclude them.
The Morning Star received some criticism from certain Palestine campaigners in Britain for welcoming a protest movement they saw as indifferent to Palestinian rights.
Our view was that the campaign against Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners was important in opposing a further descent into authoritarianism that would be disastrous for Palestinians as well as Israelis, but also carried the potential to advance arguments for a true democratic revolution, one that recognised ending the occupation of Palestine as essential to both countries’ security, and the need for equal status for all Israeli citizens whatever their origins.
That might appear a weak current in Israeli politics, but British socialists should not dismiss it on those grounds. Our own labour movement often displays a blind spot on the need to oppose British imperialism, which together with the US has left a trail of death, destruction and failed states across the Middle East in recent decades. We should join forces with those fighting for peace in every country.
The divide today in Israel is between those most immediately affected by Hamas’s October 7 attack who want de-escalation and a deal, and a far right — in government but also violently active in illegal settlements and in attacks on Palestinians within Israel’s borders — which hardly masks its desire for full-scale ethnic cleansing.
The gigantic march for Palestine in London at the weekend helps build pressure on our politicians to hold Israel’s government back — and creates space for voices in Israel and Palestine themselves to have an impact.
That is not to pat ourselves on the back. The crisis is worsening by the hour, Israeli troops are moving in and time is running out. The greatest unity of forces in this country and internationally is required if we are to halt what is shaping up to be an annihilation of Gaza.
