Being in Israel at this Critical Time

By Martin Kessel, 18 June 2024

It is almost two weeks since Gail and I returned from a month in Israel.

Being in Israel at this time is truly an emotional pendulum swinging from many joyous family gatherings, to the realities of the ongoing wars with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border.

The general mood in Israel, from our perspective, was one of sadness and frustration at the apparent foot dragging of the Netanyahu government unable or unwilling to bring the present conflict to an end. We are confronted almost daily with the news of soldiers who have fallen or have been severely injured in the war in the South. Our immediate family currently has one member serving in the IDF reserves, two grandnephews who are on active duty. and two of our younger members who are on standby to be called back to their reserve units should the need arise. Being a small country it is inevitable that almost everyone knows of someone who has died in the fighting or who has been wounded since the war began on Oct. 7 last year.

There is a general sense of widespread public depression at not knowing where all this will lead.

A constant background to the fighting is the knowledge that there are still some 125 hostages, several of whom are suspected of not being alive, being held by Hamas in tunnels in southern Gaza. Despite the extremely brave rescue of four hostages from Rafah on Shabbat just over a week ago, it is clear to everyone that only by negotiation can the remainder of the hostages be freed. Such a negotiation will extract a very heavy price from Israel in terms of security prisoners freed from Israeli detention and a cease fire. The current government of Israel, now without former IDF Chiefs of Staff, Beni Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, is not willing to agree to these terms. This leaves the extreme right wing members of the coalition, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, wielding a disproportionate influence on government and military decisions.

It should be said that there is a strong desire amongst Israelis which appears to be in favor of both stepping back from the stated aim of destroying Hamas and coming to an agreement with the terror organization for the sake of the hostages. If there were elections right now the results would most likely be that the party led by Gantz and Eisenkot together with Yair Lapid and other smaller parties would form a coalition. However, they would still need the support of a weakened Likud, most likely without Netanyahu, in order to form a government and the current political status quo would not change very much.

It is also quite widely believed that if an agreement is reached with Hamas, that would very likely result in a cease fire also in the North allowing some 75,000 displaced residents of that area to return to their homes after close to 8 months. It should be noted that severe property damage has resulted in many northern villages and the towns of Kiryat Shmona and Metula from the constant barrage of rockets and anti-tank shells.

As many of you are aware, every Saturday night major anti-government protests at the government handling of the war are held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa and in many other smaller towns throughout the country. My family regularly attends these protests at Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Square whose numbers can reach 50-60,000 participants.

I felt very privileged to join my daughter and son and their spouses on three recent occasions, where you are overwhelmed by the intensity of the crowd waving Israeli flags and displays of slogans and placards many of which are pictures of hostages. The protests always begin with a very solemn singing of Hatikva. There are usually a few speeches by opposition politicians about the lack of a solution to end the war and the terrible conditions under which the hostages are being held. Following the main protest at a closely adjacent location is a special protest led by the families of the hostages where family members describe their anguish and they are usually joined by one or more of the hostages who were freed in the earlier agreement in November. Very often this protest ends with roads being blocked, which prompts police intervention which can become violent in dispersing the crowds, including the use of high powered water cannons.

My main source of day to day information was and is by listening to the one or more of the constant news TV broadcasts in Hebrew coupled with expert panel commentary. Newspaper articles in Haaretz and Times of Israel in English provide in depth analysis. Both the NY Times and the Washington Post provide independent in-depth anlaysis. In addition, daily discussions with my family members also continue to provide a compelling perspective of the current situation.

Image above left:  Remembering the hostages on the campus at the Weizmann Institute of Science
"BRING US BACK NOW"

Image above right: At Kaplan Square in Tel Aviv with my daughter, Dalit, my son Eran and his wife Orna

Within our own personal microcosm, despite being under the constant shadow of the war in the south and in the north, we would meet several times a week with our three Israeli families living in Jerusalem, Shoham (near Ben Gurion Airport) and in Rehovot, where I was also a Visiting Scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Many joyful opportunities to interact with our seven Israeli grandchildren and our two newest 3 and 4 months old great-granddaughters!!

One my older granddaughters graduated from teacher training college with a Bachelor of Education degree. We attended her graduation ceremony together with many other families, which was subdued with music and readings appropriate for the overall atmosphere in the country. Following the ceremony we celebrated at lively restaurant in in Tel Aviv. The active night life in this city and elsewhere is the collective way the country deals with the sorrow and even trauma stemming from the ongoing war.

Image above left: Gail and Martin with our granddaughter Gal and her brother Itai at Gal's B.Ed graduation

Image above right: With our seven Israeli grandchildren and great-granddaughter Shaked- missing is Tavor - her Mom is on the left...

 Israel clearly has a very difficult time ahead and needs our constant support.