In Israel, left-wing politician Yair Golan, a retired general, recently stirred controversy when he said in an interview with Israel Radio that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state” and added that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set itself the aim of expelling populations.”
In the face of intense criticism, he has since walked back those comments.
But while Golan’s comments were condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, they “also sparked a discussion about Israel’s conduct and what it is doing and the toll of the war on civilians,” said Tia Goldenberg, a correspondent for the Associated Press in Jerusalem.
In an interview with Vox’s Today, Explained, Goldenberg said Golan’s comments are indicative of the fact that Israelis are increasingly turning against their country’s war in Gaza.
That war began on October 7, 2023, when an attack by Hamas fighters left 1,200 dead and 250 captured. Some of those kidnapped have been returned; others have died. There are 58 hostages remaining in Gaza, of which a third are believed to be alive.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 50,000 people and have devastated Gaza, leaving much of it uninhabitable. In recent weeks, it has expanded its military offensive, with increased air strikes and a goal of capturing the entire Gaza Strip and moving the population of Gaza to the south of the territory.
That escalation comes amid a dire hunger crisis. Israel began a total humanitarian aid blockade on March 2 in order to increase pressure on Hamas to return the remaining hostages, leading one critic to accuse the country of using aid as a “weapon of war” during an April hearing on Israel’s war strategy at the International Court of Justice.
“During these few weeks, or nearly three months actually, no aid was being let into Gaza, no food, no medicine, no fuel, and you had a situation where food experts were warning that nearly 1 million Palestinians barely had enough access to food, and nearly half a million Palestinians were at the risk of possible starvation,” Goldenberg said.
The escalating strikes and threat of mass starvation haven’t just roiled Israeli politics; they’ve also drawn worldwide condemnation of Israel and created an unlikely coalition of critics.
MAGA-friendly podcaster and standup comedian Theo Von recently described the ongoing conflict in Gaza as a “genocide” and “one of the sickest things that’s ever happened.”
Leading children’s entertainer and YouTube star Ms. Rachel has used her platform to talk about how the conflict is affecting children in the region.
“It’s sad that people try to make it controversial when you speak out for children that are facing immeasurable suffering,” she told Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan. “I think it should be controversial to not say anything.”
The new pope, Leo XIV, like his predecessor, has appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza, the freeing of the remaining hostages, and called on Israel and Hamas to respect international humanitarian law.
German leaders have made public comments about changing their country’s long-running special relationship with Israel, while French President Emmanuel Macron has floated acknowledging Palestine as a state.
Even President Donald Trump, a longtime ally of Israel and of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has started to suggest he’s seen enough. “Israel, we’ve been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible,” he said last weekend.
All of this suggests an inflection point in Israel’s long-running war. It has been made possible in part thanks to aid from allies like the US, Germany, and France. If that support were to deteriorate, continuing its operations could become more difficult.
That is not to say the war’s end is necessarily near.
Despite the shift in rhetoric, few of Israel’s allies have made any material changes to their relationship with the country. Israel’s goal of completely destroying Hamas has not changed. It recently killed Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas’s armed wing.
“It’s just been an intense, intense conflict. And yet that hasn’t dislodged Hamas from its position. Netanyahu, meanwhile, is under a lot of political pressure from his governing coalition to continue the war,” Goldenberg said. “It’s hard to see how the sides reconcile and come to an agreement that ends this war.”
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