Why Israeli Support for Settling Gaza Is Rising – Foreign Policy

The narration, which is widely shared by the Israeli and Israeli media over the war in Gaza, is that the Israeli public opposes the latest plan for the government to control Gaza City and that it wants to end the conflict. Nearly two years of continuous fighting has exhausted the army, and has been defeated Hamas. The audience does not see any feasibility of the escalation of another attack – it wants the hostages and forces to return home. Even the army wants a deal with Hamas that would end the war.

However, the truth is more complicated and has a long way to explain the reason for the intention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward in the process, not only the challenge of public opinion and the views of the army commander Eyal Zamir but also an unprecedented international condemnation of the war. Although the Israelis want to get out of the war, a minority of the far right pushed the issue of Gaza, expelling its Palestinian residents, and the stability of the Israelis there in the main current of political discourse. Meanwhile, it is the army’s maneuver in giving its bids.

The narration, which is widely shared by the Israeli and Israeli media over the war in Gaza, is that the Israeli public opposes the latest plan for the government to control Gaza City and that it wants to end the conflict. Nearly two years of continuous fighting has exhausted the army, and has been defeated Hamas. The audience does not see any feasibility of the escalation of another attack – it wants the hostages and forces to return home. Even the army wants a deal with Hamas that would end the war.

However, the truth is more complicated and has a long way to explain the reason for the intention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward in the process, not only the challenge of public opinion and the views of the army commander Eyal Zamir but also an unprecedented international condemnation of the war. Although the Israelis want to get out of the war, a minority of the far right pushed the issue of Gaza, expelling its Palestinian residents, and the stability of the Israelis there in the main current of political discourse. Meanwhile, it is the army’s maneuver in giving its bids.

Opinion polls already show that the majority of Israelis prefer to reach a deal with Hamas that would circulate the hostages who are still detained in Gaza for a ceasefire and eventually ending with the withdrawal of Israel from the tape. For example, AGAM LABS polls in August found that 74 percent of the Israeli public prefer a deal (between Israeli Jews, 68 percent). Other opinion polls taken by the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) asks the Israeli Jews about what should happen to Gaza when the ends of the fighting show that half of it should believe that it should be handed over to a kind of Palestinian technocrat or the Palestinian Authority.

But INSS polls also show that there are a large number of Israeli Jews who oppose the transformation of Gaza into Palestinian or Arab rule of any kind. Shortly less than the fifth believes that taking the form of a long Israeli military occupation. But even more support for the idea of ​​building settlements, and it is assumed that it is under Israeli rule. This group is still a minority, but it grows: INSS polls show that in December, when they were asked about its preference between the “Day after” options list of Gaza, 22 percent of Israeli Jews supported built settlements; In May, the last time the question was asked, this number grew to 28.5 percent. Another poll in late August by the Israel democracy Institute, which raised the question in a bilateral form of support or opposition to the settlement of Gaza, found a higher level of support among the Jews by 40 percent.

The number of Israelis follow the Israeli rule in Gaza is little. The gathering of gatherings that occur on the Gaza border calls for settlements (with a few participants sometimes stealing to Gaza itself in a symbolic act) in general in the hundreds. In comparison, the routine protests against the war attracted tens of thousands, and in mid -August, reaching an estimated 500,000. But in the Israeli political constellation, these numbers are not necessarily a real indication of the balance of power.

Among the ordinary Israelis, it may be the majority that expresses its support for the settlement of Gaza to do so because they believe that it will enhance the security of Israel and/or act as action to take revenge on the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023. But this is not how the Christian justifies the Israeli occupation, and a settlement. The extreme right has never managed to beat large numbers of Israelis to its ideology, which bears the settlement and annexation fulfilled the biblical commandments. But she took a big first step in this direction by generalizing her agenda.

He did this by obtaining governmental authority far from its numbers. In the 2022 elections, the two extremist right -wing parties, under one ticket, acquired only 10.8 percent of the vote. If the current opinion polls are correct, they will win less than the votes if the elections are held today. However, with their constant threat of quitting the government, their grip on Netanyahu is strong, and this summer became absolute after he resigned from the outskirts of the extremist alliance. Any of the two parties, the extremist-religious-Zionist, or a Judaet, can drop the government on its own and forced Netanyahu to elections, which opinion polls are scheduled to lose.

This was given my selectivity to the Minister of Finance, Bizalil Sottic, who was in his second role as minister in the Ministry of Defense in charge of civil affairs in the West Bank, which methodically threaten Israel’s grip there. Meanwhile, National Security Minister Etamar bin Ghafir took control of the National Police to give extremist settlers a free hand to engage in anti -Palestinians violence.

Except when speaking to the voter base for real believers, a Christian right hides its true motives behind the national security interface, which other Israelis are acceptable. The narration says that the Palestinians are determined to destroy Israel, and that the Palestinian state is an existential threat, and that the only solution is to build more settlements to ensure that this happens. Since October 7, they have sold this story because Israel should never leave Gaza. The natural result is that Israel must expel the million Palestinians who live there and re -create the tape with the settlers, who were forced to leave when Israel withdrew from Gaza 20 years ago.

This vision of the future of Gaza obtained some support from the White House in the form of a plan to rebuild the tape, and it appears that it was developed by the Israelis and the Americans jointly and leak to Washington Post Last week. A more detailed version of the notorious “Gaza Riviera” plan in which US President Donald Trump was revealed in February, the scheme imagines a high -tech tourist paradise arising from the rubble. On paper, the Palestinians will have the option to keep the rights of property and return to the homeland to “autonomy” in Gaza as soon as the construction is complete, but it seems that “Gaza Rivera” is designed taking into account their needs. There is no mention of the settlers or Israeli rule, but the plan, as shown, will definitely open a door for all who empty Gaza first from many of its Palestinian residents and give Israeli security control.

The “invasion, expulsion and settlement” model is played in the West Bank, albeit in a fairly different arrangement. Israeli settlements there, which dates back to a short time after the 1967 Arab -Israeli War, are firmly expanded and now expanding at an unprecedented rate, while those that are not legalized by the government are seized. Most of the extremist settlers, with the implicit support of the vast majority of the most moderate, regularly collide with violent attacks on the Palestinians with a clear goal of being expelled from their lands. With a long time military rule, the fact and settlements are firmly rooted, all that remains is the expulsion and annexation. According to what was reported, the latter was the subject of the recent Israeli security cabinet deliberations.

Against this background, the planned attack on Gaza City occurs. Last week, the army began calling 60,000 reserve soldiers to help in the operation, and Gaza City is already undergone a limited attack. According to what was reported, Iqbal was a poor percentage, although much should not be read in this. There is no doubt that some reserve soldiers refuse to report the protest, but the main reason is just fatigue – Goud has done hundreds of days of service since October 7 at the expense of their family lives, business, professions, and studies. However, with the exception of a minority on an oath who accepts the argument of security or believes in annexation and settlement, most of them believe that the war is fighting to save the Netanyahu government by reducing the extreme right. Many of them report anyway, if it is no other reason for a reason other than their comrades.

But in approval of the fighting on another day, they do right -right work. Netanyahu refuses to look at the hostage ceasefire deal, which is opposed to the extremist right naturally as an obstacle to its goals in Gaza. Meanwhile, Zamir warns that the Gaza City operation will lead to an open occupation. For a Christian right, this is not dangerous – it’s a chance. As is the case, Gaza is mostly an insecure ruin that will take place for years, leaving many Palestinians an option other than leaving. The invasion and Gaza City in a occupation will convert more tape into a humanitarian catastrophe and keep the army steeped there. Consequently, the road to settlement and annexation is paved by soldiers who do not believe in either of them and Prime Minister designed to stay in power at any cost.