🇮🇱 Gist Of My Conversation With Swarajya Columnist In Israel

🔥 Israel-Hamas War

Dear Reader, 

Today I had a conversation with Jaideep Prabhu, who is in southern Israel. Some of you would remember him as amongst the earliest columnists associated with Swarajya. 

We spoke of the war in Israel, the Hamas attack that led to the war, sentiments on the ground, and the future of Gaza. You can listen to the part one of the conversation on the Swarajya app. 

Here is a gist of our interaction: 

On the Hamas attack of 7 October

While Israelis are accustomed to living next in an area vulnerable to violent conflict, Saturday’s attack had shocked even them. Its scale, its brutality was unprecedented and has led to ubiquitous and bipartisan calls for strong action on Hamas. 

On Netanyahu

The political costs of Israel not responding with unusual and unprecedented force would be too high for Netanyahu. Once things settle down, an enquiry commission seems a given. This might well be the last days of Netanyahu’s political career. 

At the moment though, Israeli political parties have rallied behind Netanyahu, no questions asked. While there was a demonstration every weekend against him for the last few weeks, as of day Netanyahu has bipartisan support. Even his political opponents have kept aside their differences and proposed a war-time, Unity government. 

On Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza

A ground assault is imminent. It is a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’. Ground assaults are by nature dirty. But it is unlikely Israel will stop before finishing Hamas in the Gaza strip. 

On Hezbollah

While Hezbollah would cause some trouble in northern Israel, including firing a few hundred rockets, it will not enter the war. It has far too much at stake in Lebanon to do that. 

On Arab population within Israel

In the last few years there have been instances of Arab Israelis holding pro-Palestine demonstrations but on the whole, on the current issue, the Arab population of Israel is not posing a concern for the Israeli side. That doesn’t mean that it’s not a front to be cautious about. 

Responses to pro-Palestine demonstrations around the globe

Israelis understand one thing: a repeated call for genocide of their community is not a rhetorical outburst but a mortal threat. 

The Jews are used to being blamed for atrocities committed on them but even so the world shouldn’t forget that you can be pro-Palestine without being pro-Hamas. 

Political unity on fundamental issues in Israel vs disunity in India

The collective experience of the last 100-150 years of the Jewish community drives that experience. This is the part where I chimed in more than usual.

My point was that even the Hindus have faced the mammoth tragedy of Partition in the last century but that seems to have no bearing on the current political divides in India. 

You can listen to the conversation here - Israel-Hamas Conflict. To listen to more such interactions, you can download the Swarajya app.

Until next time,

Arush Tandon

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