I fully understand that those who are over there have a sharper vision than mine, who live far from the bombs and bombings and who consider me a traitor. BUT, it can also be said that living far away allows you to see things with a bit more reason and long-term goals! A summary as objective as possible.
1) The 1st aim of the war after the 7 October massacre was, according to the Prime Minister, to ‘eradicate Hamas’. FAIL, they are still there and whatever Tsahal does, they will be there, tomorrow and the day after.
2) The 2nd aim was to bring back as many hostages as possible, an aim that is beyond criticism, even if Netanyahu did not consider this to be a priority. Many hostages died because BIBI didn’t hurry (remember, 1500 Palestinians against 1 soldier, a deal done in a few days); many died because of the bombings or because of confusion when soldiers killed what they thought were terrorists. Hamas’s main aim was and still is to exchange hostages for prisoners – there are tens of thousands of them, imprisoned without any supervision, often children as young as 6; tortured – the evidence is irrefutable: objective testimonies from foreign doctors with no links to Muslims attest to torture and humiliation, some of which can be seen on the social networks of soldiers proud of what they are doing, Sde Teiman has become a Guantanamo An achievement of which I, as an Israeli, would not be proud. When extremists do everything to prevent soldiers guilty of torture and judges can do nothing about it, it is no longer a democracy.
3) The 3rd goal, which has been completely achieved, is to turn GAZA into a country that will be uninhabitable for generations. Everything has been destroyed; everything that lives in Gaza with more bombs than Hiroshima and Nagazaki; the destruction of everything from hospitals (babies are left to die in incubators), doctors and nurses and ambulances are killed on purpose, journalists are killed by snipers in order to prevent any testimony, any cultivable land, any source of water and purification (we have films of soldiers putting dynamite in there), cemeteries, universities, schools by bombing schools with children in them, everything that constitutes the soul of a country, all this cannot be justified by the massacre of 7 October – unless you consider all the inhabitants of Gaza to be animals (which is what the former Defense Minister claimed) and bombing a 7-storey building at night with a 2-tonne bomb is closer to the Nazis’ Guernica than to a conventional war! Even Putin isn’t doing any better in Ukraine. You should see the reports from non-Muslim surgeons like this British surgeon or this US vice-president of the World Society of Surgeons, who tell us that they have never seen so many massacres, tortures and amputated babies. including in atrocious wars such as those in Afghanistan, Rwanda and Bosnia. You can hide from the truth, but it will come back and the number of soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the violence that goes with it, will become an acute problem.
4) The 4th goal has also been achieved: transforming a democratic state into a liberal state with ministers who are corrupt to the core, who consider that killing a 2-day-old baby is normal because it will one day be a ‘terrorist’, and a parliament at the beck and call of the fascists in power. Fortunately, I heard only 1 Member of Parliament (a Jew, in this case) remind us of what the great Talmudist and Israeli prizewinner (Y Leibovitz) said in 1968, which remains the heart of the problem: a country that occupies another ‘rots’ and democracy collapses (“The Jewish religion is based on the Torah, on respect for life. Where did you learn that out of 2.3 million Palestinians, not one is innocent? A two-day-old baby is not innocent! Who spoke like that? The Nazis. Whoever spoke like that is not worthy to speak in the name of the Jewish religion, in the name of the creation of man in the image of God. It’s a pity that there is only one who speaks like that.
5) The 5th goal, which is more of a consequence, is that Israel has gone from an admirable country to a country of pariahs because of the genocide committed in Gaza. Netanyahu belongs in The Hague by any moral standard you like. When the borders are opened to journalists and you see what you have not seen because the media are almost all for the war, you will see what has been done in your name and you will not be proud.
So people will say to me, they are terrorists and they deserve it. So be it. But need I remind you that a Palestinian people has been here since time immemorial, long before the rest of us? that denying them any rights, killing women picking olives, burning houses and olive fields, doesn’t give them the right to defend themselves? GAZA has always been a prison for the 2.5 million inhabitants who survived the forcible removal of southern Israel in 1948, contrary to what you are told. This in no way justifies the torture perpetrated by Hamas on 7/10. But, frankly, how can they defend themselves against one of the best armies in the world with only $50 million from the USA? Should they – can they – develop an army with an air force? And if they did, what would your reaction be to 2-tonne bombs falling on Tel Aviv? In France, during the war against the Nazis, the Resistance often had to do horrible things. You defend yourself with the weapons you have. For me, killing hundreds of children by bombing a house to kill – perhaps 1 terrorist – cannot be justified and remains a war crime.
To sum up, I’d say that we – and I include myself in this because I love this country – have 2 choices :
A) A war that will last indefinitely and that will force your children and grandchildren to go to war ad vitam aeternam, because with or without Trump, the war will not stop and emigration will accelerate, leaving only the religiously turbaned in Israel, who will transform Israel into an Iranian-style theocratic state! With the changes to the Supreme Court, the appointments of corrupt cronies and the buying of votes to maintain a majority in the Knesset, Israel is de facto on the way to no longer being a democracy.
B) Accept that this land be shared out as was planned 80 years ago (I wrote a peace proposal 15 years ago), back to the 1967 borders. Never forget that a people that eats and lives by its labor and is free will not wage war for its own pleasure and the Palestinians have learned democracy from us, they have the lowest illiteracy rates of the Arab countries, they are not waging war on us for the pleasure of waging it! Reverse the situation in your head, you’ve been living in a country for ages and a new people comes along claiming that you have nothing to do there and occupying you and forbidding you to live (To believe that all of Israel belongs to the Jews because of Abraham, Moses or Solomon is an insult to historical reality). Read the books by historians and filmmakers like Sand (who was forced to emigrate to Holland) or Eyal Sivan or Amira Hass on GAZA or independent newspapers like Haaretz or better still +972 or the countless YouTube videos showing the atrocities of the army, which in my day was noble and would never have committed these atrocities!
Israel would then truly be a unique country among the nations, as our great prophets were able to confirm ‘לא בכוח אלא ברוחי”. It is because I love this country, which I served loyally, including during the 6-Day War, that I remain convinced that if it continues this path, it will one day be destroyed from within or without.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dirkwolbers_beyond-sickening-activity-7291420282525790208-gklF
https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/watch-the-oscar-shortlisted-film
