"Bibi and his ministers let all this happen," the girl preparing coffee in the shop at the Ben Gurion arrivals hall tells me. "It is all his fault, the massacre and the war. I hate him."
"Bibi is doing a great job," her equally young colleague says. "We must hit Gaza hard." The two girls look at each other, shrug, and keep working.
I’m visiting Israel for the first time in almost four years, following medical emergencies back home in Paris that grounded me. Including a year-long residency in Tel Aviv, I have come more than 25 times to Israel, the West Bank and even to Gaza three times, to listen, learn and write articles. And now I’m back. Nobody sounds the same as several years ago.
Tel Aviv is not a bastion of faith in this Netanyahu government, neither for its capacity to rescue the hostages, nor for its prosecution of this war that is wasting Gaza. Now that may sound like a serious understatement, as huge as the destruction of the Hamas-held territory, or as the overflow crowds in bars and restaurants here, or the presence of thousands of people Saturday nights at Kikar Hatufim ("Hostage Square"), where some people believe only President Biden can bring home the Israelis held in Gaza.
Feeling betrayed
But nothing is as black and white here as supporters and opponents of this war elsewhere in the world would have it. In fact, daily conversations here have shown me that elsewhere, most people don’t have a clue. Nowhere is the clash between intense emotion and "take a step back" critical thinking more intense, contradictory and sometimes desperate than here and now.
"My best friend was killed at the rave party, and I was so depressed for two weeks that all I could do everyday was smoke weed," says 22-year-old Brenda, as she serves beers and sways to the loud afrobeat music with colleagues and regulars at a popular beachfront restaurant. "We must hit the Hamas hard in Gaza, very hard. What about the Gazans being killed, especially those against the Hamas? The babies? Can I feel badly for them now? No I cannot, not after my friend was killed on October 7, and my soldier friends are coming home now with no legs. Yes, it is awful to see the babies and women killed in Gaza, and I know in the future, I will feel for them. But not now.
"And this government? Netanyahu is an asshole, and his ministers are fanatics. We hated them before this war. He thinks only of himself." When I remark that this sounds like Donald Trump, she smiles and says, "and like Putin." This is not her first war. She has lost close family in Ukraine to Russian bombing and fighting. "We don’t speak with our Russian friends here anymore," she says. But that is another story.
Her colleague Stephanie is convinced that something is wrong with the whole story. "Was the absence of the army on October 7 some kind of an inside job?" she asks. "Many of us are wondering. This does not happen here. Ever. Personally, I feel betrayed. This government is awful. And so many dead in Gaza. Me, I feel for the dead on both sides."
60-something Rachel Wogier is washing clothing at the laundromat on Mendele Street and Ben Yehuda, and helps me to get machines into French and English. She knows IDF commanders ignored the young female spotters on the border sending daily warnings before October 7 about Hamas activity, but she insists that the decision to act or not came from the government.
"In a democracy, the army takes orders from the government," she says. "I am not a leftist, but we need a new government, a centrist government. Netanyahu must go. Did he let this happen on October 7 in order to wipe out Gaza in response? Some are saying this, but I do not want to believe it. That would be betrayal.
"When the Hamas first took over, I used to feel badly for Gazans," Rachel continues, "but not anymore. I saw videos of civilians pillaging the kibbutzim and massacring people. The Hamas teaches them to hate Israelis, and they do, so I cannot feel sorry for them."
She switches rapidly into analysis mode, noting, "Netanyahu does not care for the hostages, and Hamas leader Sinwar doesn’t care about his people dying. They both want only to win the war. But we will never win this war."
And what about a ceasefire? "This is a problem," she says very quickly. "I’m for a temporary ceasefire only if it will bring home the hostages. Without them, it’s not worth it, because the Hamas will use the time to rearm, and to go mix with the refugees. And I think a ceasefire depends more on the Hamas than on Netanyahu, no matter what people are calling for outside Israel.
Two states? An illusion
"Look, I want the Gazans to be able to go home and for our soldiers to leave Gaza, but in real life it doesn’t work that way. And officially Sinwar wants Israel to release 4,000 prisoners, but in fact, I bet he would kill many of the Gazans among them. Why? He would suspect them of collaborating with the security services or they could be Fatah, not Hamas. Of course, nobody will say that publicly."
"There are no winners in this war," 50-something Gadi Deviri comments, as he oversees the preparing of food in a truck kitchen parked in front of the Prima City Hotel. Dishes include a spicy Moroccan-style white bean soup, then sfinge, a fried sugar-coated donut also found in Tunisian boulangeries in Paris, and filo, of Greek origin… small, thin crackling hot pastry leaves stuffed with cooked vegetables and spicy greens. All this for the group from Sderot, next to the Gaza border, living at the hotel.
"Netanyahu is a narcissist, like Trump, Erdogan and Putin," Deviri continues. "Ben Gvir is a spoiled child. Yes, it hurts me to see the death and destruction in Gaza, like the massacre of October 7 by the Hamas and by Gaza civilians. But what should Israel do? War is brutal and ugly. Nothing is black and white, nothing, not like the rest of the world sees this situation."
And should this government go? "On the record? Don’t ask me," he says, at once forcing a laugh, and frowning. "Now is not the time."
How about a ceasefire? "Look, I really don’t have the knowledge to give you an informed opinion about this," he says, sounding a bit uncomfortable. "OK?"
The volunteer cooking project by the Science Kitchen group includes the publication of what amounts to a refugee cookbook called Iron Forks, a take-off on Iron Swords, the name of the military campaign in Gaza, to be launched in March at the annual Jewish book fair in Neuilly, the upscale Paris suburb.
French-born Dr. Marie-Lyne Smadja is the co-founder of Women Wage Peace ( nashim osot shalom in Hebrew), an activist group with more than 55,000 members from the left, center and right… Jews, Arabs and others. She lost good friends in the October 7 Hamas massacre, but has gone past the immediate emotion of anger.
"I feel compassion for the innocent people in Gaza being killed, or losing their homes and everything in the bombings," she tells me. "Many Israelis are for a temporary ceasefire that would bring them relief and humanitarian aid, but especially that would enable the hostages to be brought home. Right now, there are no good solutions on the table, but the hostages are the primary concern."
Marie-Lyne Smadja is certain that this Netanyahu government must go, but not yet. "We cannot wait until the end of this war because that may not happen for a while, but when we reach the next stage, if and when hostages come home and strategy and tactics are different, they must go," she insists. "We need a broad coalition of the right, center and left, without right or left wing extremists, and it should include the moderate Islamic party of Mansour Abbas, because he is a practical, moderate man."
All this from a woman who votes on the right and is focused above all on the security of Israelis. What about US secretary of state Antony Blinken and his insistence on the two-state solution? She laughs. "A Palestinian state is an American and European illusion," she states with certainty. "It is a fantasy. First, this war has nothing to do with a Palestinian state. The Hamas want to liquidate Israelis, and then get rid of Palestinians and other Arabs who do not support radical Islam. They say nothing about a state. And regardless of what they say in public, I think Arab countries understand the impossibility of a Palestinian state better than the Americans and Europeans."
Bibi doing a great job
At his tiny used-book stall that he runs on Dizengoff Street near Ben Gurion Boulevard in central Tel Aviv when not teaching architecture, 60-something Yaacov tells me he thinks Netanyahu is doing a great job. And he reminds me how the prime minister saved the country during the Covid crisis. "His ministers? Let them talk," he says. "The prime minister and the army will get rid of the Hamas, but I don’t know what they can do for the hostages. And by the way, the corruption charges against him are nonsense. There is no proof."
"We must fight this war but I’m not sure this is the right way," says Jonathon Ben Arosh, age 23, doing security at the front desk of i24 News in the Jaffa port. (i24, the television channel most Israelis have never heard of, broadcasts outside the country in English, French and Arabic, and reportedly will begin soon in Hebrew).
Jonathan, ignored by many employees as they enter and leave the building, does something most Israelis do not do. He watches Al Jazeera television in English, with its cameramen and correspondents inside Gaza.
"I see the death and destruction there," he says, "and I feel their pain. I know they are not all Hamas, but in a dictatorship, you keep your mouth shut. But what is Israel to do? And this government? Ben Gvir is an idiot. And Bibi is corrupt. Except for a couple of years, he has been in power since I can remember. It is too long. Power corrupts."
Ben is the quiet one in a small crew of early 20s men and women drinking on the terrace of a crowded, local North Tel Aviv restaurant serving greasy hamburgers. One of his friends tells me Ben is a survivor of the rave party massacre.
The soft-spoken, good-looking young man tells me he saw people get killed at the rave but doesn’t want to talk about it, not right now.
He does say, "I have no answers. The army blew badly. Bibi and his ministers are assholes."
His friends agree. The solution? They offer me a shot of whiskey…that I down quickly.
And what may sound like a conspiracy is not, says Daniel Rouach, my long-time friend and head of the Israel -France Chamber of Commerce in Tel Aviv.. "The government and the army knew something could happen," he tells me. "They had the warnings. But they underestimated the strength and brutality of the attackers, and the reaction was very slow. Ce n’est pas normal."
And now? He is giving a hand with French groups such as Sarel bringing in foreign volunteers in all fields to help maintain the Israeli economy, with so many reservists now serving in the army. And the situation with the Hamas? He looks at me and frowns, as if to say, "I am not a IDF general."
No Arabs like Hamas
"Israel is a strong country and will destroy the Hamas," says Soudani Jabareen, age 56, the kitchen and dining hall director at the Prima City Hotel in central Tel Aviv, its active backbone, so to speak. Employed there for 33 years, he came to work in Tel Aviv at age 18 from the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in the north.
"No Arabs I know in Israel like Hamas," he tells me. "And on October 7, all of us at the hotel here were in shock. I feel badly about the deaths in Israel and also about the people dying in Gaza, yes, but the Hamas must be destroyed."
Looking around the lobby and dining hall, he gives instructions to the mostly Philippine employees, and is looking after the group from Sderot now living in the hotel. "For me personally, nothing has changed here," he tells me. "But we need a new government in Israel. I never liked Netanyahu."
Back on the beach in late afternoon, two couples of Franco Israelis are enjoying the sun going down. The men with kipas are praying. "Bibi is leading us to Messiah and to god," Joseph Atoum, a nine-year resident of the coastal city of Ashdod, near Gaza, tells me. "He is a great man, and doing what must be done." He goes on. "Remember, it was army commanders who ignored warnings from the spotters. This war is a plot against Bibi by the army and people like Ehud Barak."
Nearby, Brenda the waitress rolls her eyes when I tell her what the French men said. "Wow, what planet do they live on?" she asks me. "Do they understand politics at all. Do they see what Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are doing to this country? Forget about all the emotion for a minute, the fear and the anger. This is about critical thinking. We must analyze the situation. And it does not look good."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 11, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.