Opinion: Western obsession with Netanyahu is misplaced. Most Israelis want war to go on

Israel has a "refugee problem". So wrote the editor-in-chief of Israeli newspaper Haaretz in a recent article.

Aluf Benn explained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on the verge of having to decide how to manage the huge number of Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from northern Gaza after Israel invaded the area after 7 October 2023.

“The issue,” Benn wrote, “is whether Israel will allow Palestinians to return to the northern Gaza Strip, from which they were expelled at the beginning of the war, or whether they will be permanently displaced from there, leaving the area under Israeli control.”

Note the use of language and the passivity of describing ethnic cleansing (though it’s unclear if Benn himself has a strong opinion about the subject).

Haaretz is a prominent and daily opponent of Netanyahu, but seems torn between the mainstream Israeli view of the Gaza onslaught, publishing a slew of nationalistic and militaristic stories in the last six months, and a more humane position that correctly understands Israel is committing horrific abuses in Gaza that will stain the country forever. 

Opinion by Antony Loewenstein

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