I want to emphasize that although this article is written in a manner that shows sympathy to the perpetrators of a genocide, I thought it was a valuable look into the ways that the genocide in Gaza is completely tearing apart the social fabric of Israeli society.
“Some people go into this with a deep sense of mission — of serving their team, their country, of doing something bigger than themselves,” she said. “But over time, that can blur into something else. It can make it easier to dehumanize the other side. I believe there has to be a space between committing war crimes and being killed. I pray we’re still in that space.”
[Ron Howard voice:] They were not.
One piece of context that really needs emphasized to anyone who doesn’t already know: about a fifth of Israeli Jews are ultra orthodox, and they have long refused to participate in the compulsory military service that everyone – men and women – must perform. They’re also the foundation of the political base of far-right zealots that have decided to forgo recovering the Israeli hostages/prisoners held in Gaza in favor of embarking on a final solution to the Palestine question. So they’re quite unpopular and also highly privileged politically.
That’s not completely true. The ultra orthodox are not a homogenous block, and some of the most vocal opponents of Zionism and its genocide also come from that camp. The most bloodthirsty people are the ideological, secular Zionists.
It feels like Netanyahu is throwing a dart at the middle East to pick what country he’s going to invade next.
450k sounds like too much of a number for the genocide they are conducting. It feels like they are preparing for something else entirely
This article just oozes “let me play a sad note on the world’s smallest violin” energy, so it’s worth it for that alone.
But chief among Israelis’ concerns, along with the suffering of the hostages held by Hamas, are the welfare of their husbands, fathers and sons off fighting, and sometimes dying, at the front.
Israelis realizing they can’t have their genocide and eat it too:
especially as officials have said returning the remaining 58 hostages is not the war’s top goal.
Welcome to what everyone with half a brain has been saying for the past 19 months, assholes.
“One step would be to stop funding haredi institutions altogether. To cut 100 million [shekels], or even 400 million. That’s not ethical? Or it’s undemocratic? Maybe. But so is tearing people from their lives for 100 days.”
He’s so fucking close to getting it.
In the Facebook group, wives share stories of domestic violence, traumatized children, depressed husbands and financial crises.
Last fall, a different survey by the organization, which now advocates for the conscription of haredi Israelis, found that virtually all reservists’ wives said their husbands’ service had induced emotional harm — 37% to “a very great degree.”
This unironically makes me happy. Genocide supporters shouldn’t get to live happy lives.
In an interview in November 2023, Halperin recalled that during the early days of his service, Yoni didn’t want to see his family — even when it was permitted — because, despite missing them deeply, he feared it would weaken his resolve.
Man how dedicated can you be to genocide?
“He said he was working on hardening his heart,” she said at the time. “I told him, ‘This war is for peace. You have to remember that.’”
Not that I had any sympathy for these assholes, but just in case: Eat shit, woman.
I’m not sure what we’re doing there, except for dragging our feet. We destroy some houses, we’re killing terrorists, it’s not clear to me at all.”
Wow. Just… wow.
The haredi Jews consistently get 20+ seats in the parliament. Forcing them into the military would remove Bibi’s majority in parliament.
This war is for peace
That’s what they tell the population, but in the end it’s just a land grab, a war for real estate, a gift for project developers.
this war is for peace
Actually, literally, 1984
Israel is like that guy that’s super afraid of being seen as weak, so they pretend with all their might to be seen as an “alpha” just for it to be paper thin and for everyone to think they’re a weak person.
“alpha”? Is that a furry thing? /s
🐺
While it’s easy to simply revel in the fact that the genociders are now feeling the consequences of their actions, I want to try to channel that energy into something productive: as you said, this is tearing at the seams of Israeli society. This is the time to support groups like New Profile or Mesarvot who are trying to rip it wide open, by supporting deserters and conscientious objectors to the Israeli death machine. It’s hard to understand just how far the fascist militarization of Israeli society has progressed, and that needs to get torn down.
450.000 in a population of around 7 million “real Iseaelis” according to their ethnonationalist understanding. 7 million of which an unknown but significant number that has left this genocidial country need to be substracted too.
That is about 7% of the population. In Germany that would be an active duty army of about 6 million people. In the US that would be about 25 million people.
It also shows two things: The IDF is terrible at what they are doing. Having one soldier to terrorize 5 Palestinians is laughable. Israel will be calling up the West, especially the US to give them dozens if not hundreds of billions to safe their economy. Those 7% of the population make up more than 10% of the workforce.
It is good to see that Israel will destroy itself, consumed by its genocidial hatred and delusions of supremacy. It is terrible that they will murder many more people in the process.
Hope they hannibal each other, the racist scumbags
More not less is how Israel likes its death.
