Why I won’t stop demonstrating in Israel

On June 25, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video statement in which he announced that Israel had achieved a historic victory in the “Rising Lion” war against Iran.

With his chest puffed out and a self-congratulatory smile across his face, Netanyahu declared “Israel had achieved all of the goals of the war” by removing two “existential threats — the threat of destruction via nuclear weapons and the threat of destruction via 20,000 ballistic missiles” that Iran was moving to build.

Like a mantra, he repeated, “Israel achieved all of the war’s goals. We are victorious.”

I feel defeated.

To be sure, the attack on Iran was probably one of the most successful strikes in modern history. Courageous, precise and deadly, some 200 Israeli fighter-jet pilots flew 1500km, spent hours in Iranian airspace and attacked dozens of targets in the capital and throughout the country. 

They assassinated Iran’s top military chiefs and nuclear scientists and destroyed all key facilities Iran had been using to enrich, process and weaponise uranium. Weeks or even months earlier, daring Mossad commando teams had placed offensive strike systems and technologies deep within Iran itself, to protect the Israeli aircraft.  

During the 12 days, overall, Iran launched about 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli and American air defences at an interception rate of approximately 90 percent. Israel’s missile defense systems, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and the Arrow, proved that, while not perfect by any means, they are indeed very effective.

Symbolic Iranian targets such as Revolutionary Guard facilities and propaganda organs were also hit, humiliating the regime, deflating its hubris, and denting Iran’s self-proclaimed invulnerability. Israeli political and military leaders puffed out their chests and, with inflated hubris, declared that Israel had become almost invulnerable.

So why do I feel more vulnerable than before?

Because I, like some 70% of Israelis, don’t trust Netanyahu or the motives for his decisions. Like the vast majority of Israeli citizens, I believe that he cares more about his legal, political and personal issues than he does about national security or the needs of the public.

To stay out of jail, he must stay in power; to stay in power, he will do all and everything that he can to keep his coalition and his power intact. These are the reasons behind his responses to the attack on October 7, the Gaza war and the plight of the hostages.

And this, I fear, is the reason behind the timing of the Rising Lion campaign and its conduct. And it is also, I am convinced, the reason Netanyahu has no real exit plan, no way to turn this astounding military victory into a diplomatic process that will promise us true security.

I feel defeated and vulnerable because Israel has a remarkable air force, astounding security forces and a wonderful civil society, but it has no government or leader worthy of its citizens’ trust.

For a while, this war united much of the Israeli public (especially the Jewish sectors), against a common enemy, drawing attention from the abject failures of October 7 (for which Netanyahu has never taken any responsibility); the Haredi conscription crisis; his deliberate, ongoing attempts to prolong the war in Gaza; his capitulation to the extremists in his government; and his apparent lack of interest in returning the hostages.

Hoping our attention would be jubilantly focused on the east, Netanyahu continued to deepen the violent occupation in the West Bank and foment the judicial coup. Expecting us to look up to the skies and admire the pilots who flew the courageous sorties, he hoped that we could not notice his abject failures on the ground.

And indeed, it is comfortable to be part of the wagons that have circled; it is difficult to protest while the pilots are flying. But then reality hits.

According to numerous sources, a campaign like Rising Lion takes at least a year to plan. If Netanyahu and his government cared about the people they are meant to serve, rather than their political and personal benefits, they would have used the long months of planning for the benefit of the population. 

Nearly half (46%) of Arab citizens in Israel have no access to a protected space, whether it be a reinforced room or a communal shelter. In 60% of Arab municipalities, there are no public shelters whatsoever.

The situation in schools is just as dire: 30% of state-run Arab schools lack adequate protection, compared to just 11% of Hebrew-speaking and religious Jewish state schools.

Many Jewish residents suffer, too. Throughout the country, older buildings have neither safe rooms nor shelters, and even if they did, the elderly and the infirm cannot move fast enough to reach them before the missiles hit. A December 2023 study by the disability non-profit Access Israel found that 42% of people with disabilities in Israel — hundreds of thousands of people — do not have access to bomb shelters or fortified rooms. 

Projections approved by the cabinet took into account the possibility of roughly 4,000 dead civilians in the first Iranian retaliation. Overall, in the final total, 28 civilians and one off-duty soldier were killed; more than 3,000 were wounded. There were 31 impacts in populated areas, leaving nearly 10,000 people homeless.

I guess I should be relieved that the numbers are so much smaller than the projections. I’m not.

Certainly, in some ways, exposing Iran’s weaknesses and neutralising its nuclear ambitions does increase our sense of security. But on a deeply emotional level, the massive missile attacks, the casualties, the destruction of large swaths of cities and towns throughout Israel has left us feeling even more unprotected.

For 12 days, life seemed like a game of Iranian roulette, in which we never knew if or when a missile would hit us. Once again, as on October 7, we feel unsafe in our homes.

But the government has also failed to provide for our emotional needs. Between 8 October 2023 and now, no positions were added to the district and regional health agencies, responsible for both physical and emotional community health, despite increased public demand.

In his address to the public on June 25, Netanyahu, in full bravado mode, took credit for the daring-do campaign. It was only early the next morning, when the radio news began with the dreaded words, “the IDF spokesmen has given permission to inform the public….”, that I realised just how grotesque Netanyahu’s performance was. While he was attempting to make political gains from the war, he knew that seven more soldiers had died in Gaza.

The war in Gaza continues, Palestinians and Israelis die, the humanitarian crisis grows, and the hostages rot in Hamas captivity. The public wants a ceasefire and fair peace agreements that will hold for years. We want leaders who humbly believe in democracy and justice and equality and compassion for all.

I felt exhausted even before the Rising Lion war. Many of us have been demonstrating almost every Saturday night since this government took office over a year and a half ago, against the judicial overhaul, for democracy, against the senseless war in Gaza, for bringing the hostages back, for a society based on compassion and equality that seeks a just and moral balance between its Jewish and democratic character. 

And then, over the 12 days of the Rising Lion war, tensely alert for the missile attacks that came in the night, I could not sleep. I still can’t.

I feel defeated, vulnerable, unprotected and exhausted. But I don’t feel hopeless; I feel determined and still believe that Israel can change its course in history.

And that’s why I, and tens of thousands like me, were once again out on the streets once again last Saturday night.