Militarised society

Dozens of Israeli army reserve soldiers have publicly rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call up of 60,000 and announced they are prepared to go to jail rather than serve in the assault on Gaza City. As their lives have been disrupted by serial deployments, they have questioned the prosecution of a war which has no credible goal and no prospect of ending. Hamas has accepted Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire, release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, end of the war, and Israeli withdrawal. This has been welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Israelis but not Netanyahu. His aim is to secure peace by waging war.

Refusal of troops is highly serious in Israel where the military is sacrosanct, conscription is for all young men and women, the society is militarised, and careers are made or broken on the basis of military service.

Widespread international and regional protests against Israel’s recent attack on Hamas residences in Qatar and Netanyahu’s threat to eliminate Hamas operatives wherever they are, have conveyed the impression that he is committed to warfare whatever the costs in terms of military casualties and the country’s damaged global standing.

So far, the number of Israeli reservists who have become declared refuseniks is 350, but it is not clear how many reservists have simply not turned up in response to the order. Some Israeli media have suggested that number could be 100,000. This could be why Netanyahu has called for tens of thousands to return to active service.

Some refuseniks accuse Netanyahu of prolonging the unpopular war to prevent his coalition from collapsing since two extreme right-wing parties have vowed to withdraw if he ends the conflict. Out of office and out of power, Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Others argue the Gaza war no longer serves a politico-military purpose as the campaign has killed 64,000 Palestinians, rendered 90 per cent of Gazans homeless, and devastated the strip.

Israel’s current politico-military situation mirrors that in 1982 when then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon. Early that year he presented to Prime Minister Menachem Begin a plan for the Israeli army to enter and take over a 40-kilometre-wide zone in southern Lebanon. Sharon said his aim was to drive out Palestinian fighters who had conducted pinprick raids into northern Israel. Begin approved this plan which was dubbed “Little Pines.” However, Sharon intended to deceive Begin by implementing a larger, “Big Pines,” plan by ordering Israel’s army to reach the southern edge of Beirut, a thrust of 100-120 kilometres.

Sharon’s over-ambitious objectives were to eliminate Palestinian fighters, drive Palestinian refugees from Lebanon’s camps into Syria, force the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) to move its headquarters from Beirut to a location further afield, install its ally, right-wing-Christian Phalangist chief Bashir Gemayel as president, and compel Lebanon to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

Once in southern Beirut, Israeli troops surrounded the camps of Sabra and Chatila to enable right-wing Maronite Phalangist anti-Palestinian militiamen to enter the camps where they massacred hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians. Local and foreign journalists promptly flocked to the camps where their gruesome reports horrified the world public and forced Western governments to halt Israel’s assault on Lebanon and order Israeli withdrawal.

Sharon failed to achieve most of his objectives. While PLO headquarters relocated to Tunis, the UN restored devastated refugee camps, most Palestinians did not permanently flee to Syria, Gemayel was elected president but was assassinated before taking office, and the peace treaty with Israel signed in 1983 by Lebanon collapsed after nine months.

Sharon’s war also promoted mass Israeli anti-war demonstrations in Tel Aviv and elsewhere and gave birth to multiple Israeli peace movements, the most prominent being Peace Now founded by disaffected soldiers. In 1983, Israeli and Palestinian envoys produced the Oslo Accords which were meant to launch a peace process which could have led to the emergence of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but did not as Israel did not carry through with expected withdrawal from Palestinian territory.

However, the two-state solution has not gone away but has gathered strength during Netanyahu’s war on Gaza. On September 11th, the UN General Assembly endorsed a declaration on a peaceful settlement through implementation of the two-state solution. Of the UN’s 193 members, 142 voted in favour while 10 voted against – including the US and Israel – and 12 abstained. Among those voting in favour were Britain, France, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, India, Pakistan, the Arab countries, and most African and Asian countries.

As Britain, France, Canada, and Australia are among the countries have declared their recognition of a Palestinian state, this had added heavy-weight Western states to the 147 UN members which have already done so. Pressure is mounting on Israel to end the occupation and permit the emergence of a Palestinian state.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation is against international law, Israel should halt all settlement activity, evacuate all its 700,000 settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and compensate Palestinian for damage they suffered from the occupation. The ICJ argued Israel’s “policies and practices amount to annexation of large parts of Palestinian Territory” which violates international law. The ICJ said Israel is “not entitled to sovereignty” over the Palestinian territories. The ICJ accused Israel of discriminating against Palestinians based on “race, religion, or ethnic origin,” appropriating Palestinian natural resources and violated Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Ignoring international law for the benefit of Israel, renders the rule of law impotent.

Photo: TNS