Aletho News

Israel in peace and war: How society rejects peace and endorses genocide

By Dr Mustafa Fetouri | MEMO | November 6, 2025

Israel’s vaunted commitment to justice—and its long-held brag of having “the most ethical army in the world”—collapsed spectacularly this week. The scandal traces back to July 2024, when surveillance footage from the Sde Teiman detention centre captured Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian detainee, who later suffered severe injuries. Earlier this month—more than a year after the incident—the IDF’s top legal officer, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, was arrested after admitting, perhaps in a belated awakening of conscience, that she had authorised the release of the footage

When the criminal soldiers were arrested back in 2024, Israelis took to the streets—not to condemn the crime, but to support the soldiers. Among the demonstrators were politicians, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an illegal settler in the West Bank, who declared that the soldiers should be treated as heroes.

When it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s turn to comment on the scandal, he said that the leaking of the video—not its content—was “perhaps the most serious public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment.” Clearly, the ICC-indicted Netanyahu is more concerned about Israel’s reputation and the army’s legal standing than about the fact that an atrocious crime has taken place. How low can the Prime Minister of “democratic and peaceful” Israel go?

Israel’s response to the Sde Teiman scandal reflects a broader pattern: in both peace and war, it treats compromise, scrutiny, and accountability as threats. Every call or attempt at reconciliation or international oversight is immediately framed as an attack on national security or the army’s reputation. In practice, this mindset turns peace itself into a liability. Even international scrutiny or demands for accountability are routinely branded as anti-Semitism or “Jew-hatred,” rarely acknowledged as genuine concerns about preventing crimes or upholding justice—including those voiced by staunch allies such as Donald Trump.

The Israeli military and political elite operate under a logic in which restraint is suspect and moral exceptionalism is weaponised. Soldiers are celebrated for loyalty, brutality, and toughness, while ethical violations are either minimised or justified. Public and political reactions—cheering arrested soldiers, politicians lauding them as heroes, and leaders prioritizing reputation over accountability—reinforce a culture in which the pursuit of peace, justice, or transparency is regarded as weakness.

On the international stage, when faced with widespread public condemnation, Israel first resorts to its usual defense: anyone criticizing its inhumane treatment of Palestinians is labelled anti-Semitic. As that label loses its force and fails to intimidate critics, Israel reverts to its favourite defence in times of emergency: accusing anyone who dares to oppose its genocide of being pro-Hamas or, at least, supportive of its agenda—from the recently elected Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, to US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. This systemic defence mechanism ensures that atrocities are treated as public relations crises rather than legal or moral failures. It also cements a cycle in which both conflict and the appearance of peace are subordinated to a narrow conception of survival and honour. The lesson is clear: in Israel, war and peace are judged not by justice or reconciliation, but by the army’s image, the state’s narrative, and the perceived threat to its moral and political supremacy.

Many wrongly believe that it is the State of Israel—and, more precisely, its extremist government—that drives Israeli society, which, such pundits argue, is peaceful in nature and humanly accommodating. The reality, however, is the opposite: it is the very nature of Israeli society that underpins these policies by supporting politicians like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Benjamin Netanyahu.

A poll in May this year revealed how rotten Israeli society is. The Penn State / Geocartography survey asked Israelis a blunt question: when the IDF conquers a city, should it kill all its inhabitants? A plurality — 47 per cent — said yes. The same poll reported that 82 percent of Israelis believe Gaza should be ethnically cleansed and all Gazans transferred outside historical Palestine — in other words, expelled to nowhere. And, in case there is any doubt, the same majority agreed that the expulsions should also include Arab citizens of Israel.

Another poll, conducted by Hebrew University in June 2025, asked: are there any innocent people in Gaza? Not surprisingly, the majority — 64 per cent — said there are no innocent people in Gaza. According to this view, everyone in Gaza, including babies, newborns, the elderly, and the disabled, is considered a criminal of some sort. This belief has been further reinforced by the IDF’s propaganda machine, which almost daily claims that every structure it destroys contains a tunnel or a tunnel shaft underneath. The message has been so consistent that it has been applied even to hospitals, schools, and kindergartens. The same narrative was conveyed to BBC World News when reporter Lucy Williamson was given a highly restricted, IDF-controlled access to Gaza. She asked the IDF spokesperson about the level of destruction she observed, and the answer was: “almost every house had a tunnel shaft” — though, of course, the spokesperson failed to show a single one.

Back in 2016, research by Pew Research Center found that six in ten Israeli Jews (61 per cent) believe that the whole of historic Palestine—not just part of it—is land promised to them by God Himself. They also believe that Israel should never give up an inch of Palestine, even if such a concession could bring long-term peace and an end to the century-old conflict.

To further show how deeply rotten Israeli society is, it may be enough to recall that the genocide in Gaza has been repackaged as a tourist attraction. From observation hills overlooking Gaza, visitors pay as little as five shekels to mount binoculars and watch live bombing raids, including flying debris and, in some reports, fragments of human bodies among the victims.

Overall majorities of Israeli Jews also strongly reject the idea of two state solutions which is supported by almost all United Nations member states—with the exception of few like United States and Israel itself of course. In a Gallup poll, published in December 2023, a majority of 65 per cent of Israeli Jews said they are opposed to the idea of two state solution.

Israeli children are taught from an early age to look down on Palestinians and the very idea of Palestinian identity. Studies show that many state school textbooks either omit the Palestinian narrative or present it in marginalised and demeaning terms, while reinforcing Jewish‑Israeli territorial claims. For example, the IMPACT‑SE Special Report 2022‑23 found that the majority of maps in Israeli textbooks did not indicate Palestinian territories or the Green Line, and that Palestinian history and culture are often erased or reduced to stereotypes.

The evidence is clear: from early education to public policy, Israeli society and its institutions treat Palestinians not as a people with rights, but as obstacles to be erased—showing that in Israel, peace is never an option, only control and domination.

November 6, 2025 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | Human rights, Israel, Palestine, Zionism