Why Israelis Are OK With Another Iran War
Why do Israelis, who seemed so stricken by last June’s 12-day war with Iran, appear to be eagerly supporting a second round led by the U.S.? There are two possible answers to this question.
The first, which is a common response from members of the liberal, or anti-Netanyahu, camp, is that they are not eager at all. They believe the prime minister is pursuing a war to stay in power by strengthening the far-right elements in his governing coalition. They do not believe that the average citizen has the power to stop Israel’s nefarious leadership. Yet some among the liberals believe that war with Iran is another iteration of the basic Israeli Jewish story — the necessity of fighting off an existential threat. Both place the issue beyond the bounds of rational discussion.
Scratch just a little deeper, and you will find nearly complete national unity among Israeli Jews. This unity is predicated on the failures of the past two and a half years, as well as by the foundational narrative of the Israeli state. Over the course of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and its ethnically cleansing actions in the West Bank, Jewish Israelis have witnessed the country’s failure to achieve its self-defined war goals. Hamas has not been destroyed. Many more hostages could have returned had Israel agreed to a deal that was proposed as early as Oct. 8, 2023. Israel is increasingly shunned the world over by surprising bedfellows, like the American extreme right and the American left. In diverse walks of life, Israelis are beginning to feel rejection and hatred. Whereas once they felt their origin story was one of justice and redemption, Israeli Jews now feel unfairly accused of crimes, while they see themselves solely as victims.
The second answer to our question involves a desperate embrace of Israel’s deepest foundational narrative. This narrative can be summarized as follows: Jews are always hated and someone always wants to destroy them; the establishment of the modern state of Israel was meant as a decisive blow to this opposition; try as Israel might, it will not receive the credit it deserves and will be unjustly accused; the only remedy is destroying those most hell-bent on Israel’s destruction. Note that Israeli and Jewish are used interchangeably.
Israel’s rapid degradation, internationally and domestically, and its failure to provide security, which is indisputably the most important issue for Israeli Jews, inspire the return to this almost mythic narrative. For 20 years, Netanyahu has described the Islamic Republic of Iran as the most ardent advocate of Israel’s destruction. A war against Iran is, therefore, a reaffirmation of Israel’s most basic value — saving Jewish lives, preemptively and usually at the expense of others. Israeli Jews see Oct. 7 as a Palestinian attempt to destroy Israel. They see their military’s response not only as evidence that Israel is stronger than the Palestinians and can therefore protect its citizens, but as having destroyed the Palestinian military threat in Gaza (it didn’t). They see Iran as the source of funding and training for both Hamas and Hezbollah, which attacked Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.
Israelis see war with Iran as helping to liberate Iran’s people from its corrupt regime, which is why they support the protests against its leadership.
By going to war with the Islamic republic, Israel is reasserting its self-declared authority to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants and to whomever it wants for as long as it wants. For Israeli Jews, this is the reason their state exists. A war with Iran is thus always proper and desirable, outcome be damned.