I have been thinking a lot about this war as we enter its third week. Below are some of the questions and issues on my mind.
The current USA-Israel war against Iran will most likely not achieve its over-ambitious goals of “regime change” or “destruction (“obliteration”) of Iran‘s nuclear capability or” eliminating” all their ballistic missiles. It will diminish these threats but will probably not eliminate them. Therefore, none of the so-called “goals” of this war are likely to be achieved. This will leave Israelis and Americans disillusioned with their leaders once again!
Israel’s citizens cannot live with continual war and no diplomacy. 220,000 Israelis have left the country during the last 3 years! The best and the brightest! More will leave if these wars never end. They will not want to bring up their children under conditions of forever war! Diplomacy is what is need right now, especially between Israel and Lebanon, to prevent a useless escalation of the war there.
Is Iran really an “existential threat” to Israel? Or was Hamas? Or is Hezbollah? What does “existential threat” mean? Is North Korea an existential threat to Europe and America? Maybe they should do a preemptive strike against them? Same with India and Pakistan! Etc., etc. If Israel is always under this kind of threat, should we be attacking all our enemies until we have wiped them all out?!? This is a tall order!
Wars contain many risks. For example, Hezbollah has already been drawn into this war, and the IDF is already talking about wildly unrealistic ideas for “total victory” there, the establishment of another “security zone” and the “Gazafication” (total destruction) of Lebanon! Are we going to reduce Lebanon to rubble too? Are we going to create millions more refugees there? (We have already created more than a million refugees there in the last 2 weeks!) Are we going to do “regime change” there too? After all, our Offense Minister Yisrael Katz (the guy with the smirk even worse than Bibi’s) has already expressed his dissatisfaction with the Lebanese government since they didn’t disarm Hezbollah enough and therefore, we can do it for them as well as attacking infrastructure of the government of Lebanon! In addition to all this, Hezbollah appears to be surprising us with many drone attacks in the north which our air defenses are not catching in time! Hezbollah appears to be much stronger than we imagined and the war against them will take a very long time, we are told! And the Iranians are not giving in so quickly either!
Most important, the home front has not been adequately prepared. Millions of Israelis (especially Arab citizens of Israel) don’t have safe rooms or adequate shelters at their disposal. The home front is living in fear and trauma once again. This is not a normal way to live, over and over again.
Can we really trust Bibi and his buddies regarding their motives for launching this war? And for their guiding the war towards reasonable outcomes? Do they have a plan for the “day after”? (like they didn’t in Gaza!). We know that in the past, Bibi has wanted to attack Iran (for decades) but the IDF rejected his wild ideas over and over again. Why did they give in now? Because he has Trump and the American military to help out? Because he has appointed his own people to run the IDF? Or because Bibi has become an autocratic leader, who faces almost no opposition about anything (like his friend in Washington)!?
Can we really trust Trump in handling this war (or anything else)?? What are his motivations? Money? Power? Glory? America’s best interests (unlikely!)? Israel‘s best interests? Only if you think that the interests of the Bibi/Ben Gvir/Smotrich government are in Israel’s best interests( which they certainly are not!)
Will this war help resolve the core issues facing Israel? The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the decline of democracy, the rise in ultra-religious and ultra-nationalist fascism, the unfettered and blasphemous rise in settler violence in the West Bank? Unlikely. Rather, it will probably fan the flames if fascism and militarism exponentially!
By the way, Bibi and Trumpy have been lying to us! I know that you are shocked to hear this. They told us last June that they had “obliterated” the nuclear capability of Iran and that Hezbollah has been so totally destroyed that they were no longer a serious factor. Do they really think that they will achieve “total victory” on both fronts?? Or might they be lying and spinning again??
What about the rest of the world? The cost of oil, which is perhaps the major factor that might catalyze the American president to end this war!? The world economy? The international order? Apparently, any country should now feel free to pre-emptively attack their enemies, and let world order be damned! Does Israel (and America) care at all about the rest of the world?
Are we killing too many people? Creating too many refugees? Destroying too many homes?? Is there any moral reckoning? Or is this war above such minor considerations? Perhaps only self-interest matters or perceived “existential threats” (do you feel threatened in California, New York, Massachusetts, California?) by the Iranians? Or by the American president and the forces of ICE?
These are just some of the questions in my mind as we are in the middle of the second or third war of a renewed war on two fronts. It seems that this may go on for a long time!! The cost to the physical and mental well being and to the economy of the citizens of Israel is growing from day to day, as is the disillusionment with our government. But does the government even care? I doubt it.
OK, I have to get ready for another siren and another visit to my safe room in my home.
Rabbi Dr Ron Kronish is the Founding Director the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI), which he directed for 25 years. Now retired, he is an independent educator, author, lecturer, writer, speaker, blogger and consultant. He is the editor of 5 books, including Coexistence and Reconciliation in Israel–Voices for Interreligious Dialogue (Paulist Press, 2015). His new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem, was published by Hamilton Books, an imprint of Rowman and LIttelfield, in September 2017. He recently (September 2022) published a new book about peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine entitled Profiles in Peace: Voices of Peacebuilders in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which is available on Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble and the Book Depository websites,