In July 2014, shortly after the launch of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip – a 51-day operation that left 2,251 Palestinians dead, including 551 children – Danish journalist Nikolaj Krak wrote a dispatch from Israel for the Copenhagen-based newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad.
Describing the scene on a hillside on the outskirts of the Israeli town of Sderot, near the Gaza border, Krak noted that the area had been “transformed into something that most closely resembles the front row of a real war theater.” The Israelis had “dragged camping chairs and couches” to the top of the hill, where some spectators sat “with bags of crackling popcorn,” while others took part in hookahs and lighthearted banter. The fiery, earth-shaking airstrikes on Gaza across the road were greeted with cheers and “loud applause.”
True, Israelis have always been treated to a quality murderous spectacle, which is hardly surprising for a nation whose very existence depends on mass slaughter. But it turns out that the applause is not as hearty when Israeli lives are caught up in this explosive apocalyptic spectacle.
For 11 months, Israel’s “reality war theater” has offered us a vision of widespread genocide in the Gaza Strip, where the official death toll stands at nearly 41,000. A Lancet study published in July found that the real death toll could well exceed 186,000 – and that’s only if the killing stops soon.
Massive protests have erupted across Israel demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agree to a ceasefire and a deal to release the hostages of the 100 or so Israeli prisoners still held in Gaza. On Sunday, when the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six prisoners, CNN reported that some 700,000 protesters took to the streets across the country. And on Monday, a general strike led by Israel’s main labor union managed to shut down much of the economy for several hours.
Although some pacifists among international commentators have blindly attributed the protests to a desire to end the bloodshed, the fact is that Palestinian blood is not a major concern. In fact, the only lives that matter in the besieged, pulverized and genocidally ravaged Gaza Strip are those of the captives – whose captivity, it should be emphasized, is entirely the result of Israeli policies and its relentless sadistic treatment of the Palestinians.
As Israeli analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg recently told Tel Aviv Tribune about the goals of the current protests, “the issue of the return of the hostages is at the heart of the news.” Acknowledging that “the agreement that a deal would also mean an end to the conflict exists, but is rarely expressed,” Flaschenberg stressed that “as far as the protest leaders are concerned, no, it’s all about the hostages.”
The captives are thus at the heart of Israel’s latest round of bloody war scenes, while for some Israelis, the current genocide is clearly not genocidal enough. In a recent episode of the Israeli English-language podcast “Two Nice Jewish Boys,” the podcasting duo in question suggested that it would be interesting to press a button and eliminate “every living being in Gaza” as well as the West Bank.
It’s time to break out the popcorn and hookahs.
Ultimately, the disproportionate value placed on the lives of Israeli prisoners in Gaza compared to those of the Palestinians who are being annihilated is consistent with Israel’s characteristic chauvinism. This view casts Israelis as the eternal victims of Palestinian “terrorism,” even as Palestinians are routinely slaughtered at an astronomically higher rate by the Israeli military.
During the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, for example, no more than six Israeli civilians were killed. And yet Israel has maintained its monopoly on victimization.
In June this year, the Israeli military launched a rescue operation in Gaza that freed four prisoners but reportedly killed 210 Palestinians in the process – perhaps typical of a disproportionate action.
Meanwhile, after the bodies of the six captives were recovered on Sunday, Netanyahu blamed Hamas for their disappearance, saying: “Anyone who murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.” But what about “anyone” who continues to preside over genocide while assassinating Hamas’s chief ceasefire negotiator and sabotaging prospects for a deal at every turn?
As the current protests show, many Israelis are attacking Netanyahu. But the problem with these protests is that this is not genocide.
Even among Netanyahu’s detractors, there remains a general consensus about the one-sided sacrosanctity of Israeli life, which translates into the assumption of an inalienable right to massacre Palestinians.
And as the latest episode of Israel’s “reality war theater” drags on – with the attendant Israeli massacres also visible in the West Bank and Lebanon – the spectacle is really starting to get tiresome. One would hope that the Israeli public would eventually get tired of it and leave, but for now, the bloodbaths are sure to be a success.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
