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The horror of Hamas is also a lesson in the price of populism

2023-10-12 12:42:57Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA YUVAL NOAH HARARI
The horror of Hamas is also a lesson in the price of populism
Benjamin Netanyahu

Israelis are trying to make sense of what has just hit us. We first compared the current disaster to the Yom Kippur War of 1973. 50 years ago, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack and inflicted a series of military defeats on Israel before the Israel Defense Forces regrouped, regained the initiative and turn the situation around.

But as more and more horrific stories and images emerge about the slaughter of entire communities, we realize that what happened is nothing like the Yom Kippur War. In newspapers, on social media and at family gatherings, people are drawing comparisons to the Jewish people's darkest hours - like when the Nazi mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen, surrounded and killed Jewish villagers during the Holocaust or when there were "pogroms" ( persecution and mass murder) against Jews in the Russian Empire.

I personally have family and friends in kibbutz Be'eri and Kfar Aza and I have heard many horrible stories. Hamas had full control of these two communities for hours. The terrorists went from house to house, systematically killing families, killing parents in front of their children and taking hostages, even babies and grandmothers. Terrified survivors locked themselves in closets and basements, calling the military and police for help, but it was often too late.

My 99-year-old uncle and his 89-year-old wife are Be'er members. All contact with them was cut off immediately after Hamas took control of the kibbutz. They hid in their home for hours as dozens of terrorists went on a killing spree. I got the news that they survived. I know many people who have just received the worst news of their lives.

My aunt and uncle are two strong Jews – born in Eastern Europe in the years between the two wars, they have already lost a world to the Holocaust. We grew up with stories about defenseless Jews hiding from the Nazis in closets and basements, with no one coming to help them. The State of Israel was founded to ensure that this would not happen again.

So how did it happen? How did the state of Israel disappear?

In a way, Israelis are paying the price for years of arrogance, during which our governments and many ordinary Israelis thought we were so much stronger than the Palestinians that we could simply ignore them. There is much to criticize about the way Israel has abandoned efforts to make peace with the Palestinians and kept millions of Palestinians under occupation for decades.

This does not justify the atrocities committed by Hamas, which has in every case opposed the possibility of a peace treaty with Israel and has done everything in its power to sabotage the Oslo peace process. Anyone who wants peace must condemn and impose sanctions on Hamas and demand the immediate release of all hostages and the complete disarmament of Hamas.

Furthermore, no matter how much blame one places on Israel, it does not explain the dysfunction of the state. The story is not a morality tale.

The real explanation for Israel's dysfunction is populism and not any supposed immorality. For many years, Israel has been governed by a populist strongman, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a public relations genius but an incompetent prime minister. He has consistently preferred his personal interests over national interests and has built his career on dividing the nation against itself. He has appointed people to key positions based on loyalty rather than qualification, has taken credit for every success, never taking responsibility for failures, and seems to place little importance on telling or hearing the truth.

The coalition formed by Netanyahu in December 2022 has been by far the worst. It is an alliance of messianic zealots and shameless opportunists who ignored Israel's many problems – including the deteriorating security situation – and focused on grabbing unlimited power for themselves. In pursuit of this goal, they have adopted extremely divisive policies, spread outrageous conspiracy theories about state institutions that oppose their policies, and labeled elites serving the country as traitors to the "deep state."

The government was repeatedly warned by its own security forces and by numerous experts that its policies were endangering Israel and eroding Israeli deterrence at a time of growing external threats. However, when the IDF chief of staff requested a meeting with Netanyahu to warn him about the security implications of the government's policies, Netanyahu refused to meet him. When Defense Minister Yoav Gallant raised the alarm, Netanyahu dismissed him. He was then forced to reinstate Gallant only because of the outburst of popular anger. Such behavior over many years allowed disaster to strike Israel.

No matter what one thinks of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the way populism eroded the Israeli state should serve as a warning to other democracies around the world.

Israel can still save itself from disaster. It still enjoys a decisive military advantage over Hamas, as well as many of its other enemies. The long memory of Jewish suffering is now stirring the nation. The IDF and other state bodies are recovering from their initial shock. Civil society is mobilizing like never before, filling the many gaps left by government dysfunction. Citizens are standing in long lines to donate blood, welcome refugees from the war zone into their homes and donate food, clothes and other necessities.

In this hour of need, we also call on our friends around the world to stand by us. There is much to criticize about Israel's past behavior. The past cannot be changed, but hopefully once victory over Hamas is secured, Israelis will not only hold our current government to account, but also abandon populist conspiracies and messianic fantasies – and make an honest effort to realize Israel's founding ideals of democracy at home and peace abroad.

* Yuval Noah Harari is the author of "Sapiens", "Homo Deus" and "Unstoppable Us" and professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


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