Israel / Palestine News Thread

[Nivsch]

41 minutes ago, Raze said:

They do jail them if they publicly say they are refusing out of empathy for Palestinians.

Example: https://www.newarab.com/news/idf-jailed-him-refusing-gaza-service-he-says-it-worth-it?amp

He is a teenager. Not reservist. If anyone do whatever they want the army itself would be at risk. Also the vast majority of the army is not combat-oriented but focused on defense, intelligence, logistics, communication, medical services and more.

Edited June 13 by Nivsch

[Nivsch]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DkiVDeiPh/

" Since the ceasefire with Iran and the killing of seven soldiers in Gaza, the public discourse about the war in Gaza has shifted rapidly—a change we haven’t seen since October 7th. The combination of these two events made it powerfully clear to the public that a war can be ended—and showed the horrific cost of not ending it. The fact that these two shocking events occurred within 24 hours seems to have triggered a collective awakening for many.

Over the past two days, calls to end the war have strengthened, intensified, and even reached into coalition ministers.

Gafni and Deri (!!) have called for ending the war. Gafni added that soldiers are dying pointlessly.

All the protest leaders (Shikma Bresler, Redman, Eyal Noh’e, Yaya Pink, Moran Katzenshtein, and others)—who not long ago supported continuing the war or avoided calling for its end—have in recent days expressed a firm stance for ending the war, explicitly referring to the needless deaths of soldiers. Yesterday’s major protest by activist groups was under the banner “Stopping the War in Gaza.”

Senior journalists have also sharpened their tone. Ben Caspit wrote that “the only reason another seven ‘flowers’ fell last night is because of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who are frightening Netanyahu”—not security, not victory over Hamas, not protecting Gaza-area residents. Rather, just threats by Ben Gvir and Smotrich against Netanyahu. That’s what he wrote—and horrifically, he’s right. And there are many more voices like that.

What’s happening among the broader public? Even before the war with Iran, a large majority already supported bringing back the hostages and ending the war. According to our Acord survey (see the slide in the images), conducted in May, 70% of the public support ending the war versus only 15% against. Even among government supporters (!) there were significantly more supporters than opponents of ending the war (47% vs. 30%), and among opposition supporters there was a 91% consensus in favor of ending the war. Other surveys show similar findings. Now we can estimate that public support for ending the war may grow even higher—potentially reaching 80% of the public. That has never happened in Israel during wartime.

With all due caution, we can say that there may be a developing political and public momentum and a social norm against continuing the war—along with other external factors (Trump, etc.)—that could bring about an end to the war in Gaza. But that’s far from being decided by the government, because alongside public pressure there are “Kahanist” ministers threatening to bring down the government if it ceases the war, and a prime minister equipped with a poison machine, eager to spread the lie that Hamas isn’t ready for a deal to release all hostages—a lie that dampens the struggle to end the war.

And as Ben Caspit said, as parents of soldiers shout—soldiers are now dying pointlessly in the strip. And hostages are suffering, and perhaps—even perish—despite the possibility of bringing them back immediately. And Gazan civilians are dying by the dozens every day and suffering from terrible starvation.

Yet in the government, there are ministers who prefer death over life.

It’s a pity that the pressure to end the war is only arising now. In the future we will look back in disbelief. A massive loss of lives and suffering could have been avoided if this had happened a few months—or a year—ago.

But there are still many more lives to save. And that is the most important thing to do now: apply every possible pressure on the government to end the war.

Write, share, protest. Support the activists.

Until we stop the war in Gaza and bring back all the hostages. That day may not be far away. It might depend solely on us. We are on a life-saving mission. "

Edited 3 hours ago by Nivsch