Yoav Peled\u00a0says\u00a0he has started wondering if the world has gone mad. <\/p>\n
Sitting outside the Kirya, Israel\u2019s equivalent of the Pentagon in Tel Aviv, Peled was cutting pieces of yellow ribbon off a large wheel last Thursday, handing them out to strangers passing by. The bands symbolize solidarity with the roughly 240 <\/strong>hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. <\/p>\n It is this solidarity \u2013 and specifically whether it still extends beyond Israel\u2019s borders\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 that Peled was questioning. <\/p>\n As global leaders continue to pile pressure on Israel over the mounting civilian death toll from its bombardment of Gaza and\u00a0huge crowds\u00a0gather for pro-Palestinian protests in cities like London, Washington DC, Berlin, Paris, <\/strong>Amman and Cairo \u2013 almost all in support of civilians in Gaza, rather than Hamas \u2013 many Israelis are getting frustrated with what they see as unequal treatment. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a feeling that cuts across the deep divisions within Israeli society: the world does not understand us. <\/p>\n A teacher at a religious school for girls, Itzahak brought some of her students to the little plaza outside the Kirya where Peled was handing out the ribbons. The spot has become a gathering place for the victims\u2019 families, their supporters, and well-wishers after the October 7 terror attacks. <\/p>\n Missing people posters and photographs of the victims are displayed on the wall of the government complex, a seemingly never-ending row of smiling faces of men, women, children, babies, soldiers, and,\u00a0at times, entire\u00a0families. <\/p>\n The Israel Defense Forces (IDF)\u00a0said more than 1,400 people were murdered in the attacks. About 240\u00a0people were kidnapped and are believed to be held by Hamas and others in Gaza. Four women \u2013 two Americans and two Israelis \u2013 have been released, while one soldier has been rescued by the IDF. <\/p>\n \u201cI think any country in the world that would find itself in our situation would probably do much, much more and no one would say anything. It\u2019s just the Jews. Because the Jews are not entitled to live in a country in peace. That\u2019s what we want. And I\u2019m sorry, but no one understands it,\u201d Itzahak said. <\/p>\n There is a lot of love outside the Kirya complex. Some people come here to pray, hug each other, and spend time together. The group of students brought by Itzahak came with dozens of freshly baked\u00a0loaves of\u00a0bread, a powerful and deeply meaningful gesture in Judaism. <\/p>\n But there\u2019s also a lot of\u00a0anger and frustration. Most of it is aimed squarely at Israel\u2019s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. <\/p>\n \u201cTwo shifts a day. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.,\u201d he said, holding a sign depicting Netanyahu and other members of his government in jail. <\/p>\n Like many in Israel, Zweig is placing some of the blame for the brutal October 7 Hamas attack on Netanyahu. \u201cWe should have taken down Hamas a long time ago, but instead Netanyahu started allowing Qatari money in,\u201d he said\u00a0referencing Netanyahu\u2019s decision to allow Qatar to transfer millions of dollars to Hamas-run Gaza\u00a0in 2018. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to change a terror organization\u2019s agenda with money. Now, the price of taking them down will be much higher,\u201d Zweig said. <\/p>\n It\u2019s been\u00a0a month since the attack and Ruby Chen still has had no news about his son, Itay. The second\u00a0of three sons, a former Boy Scout, and a fierce basketball player, Itay was kidnapped on October 7. <\/p>\n On Saturday night, Chen and hundreds of other family members of the hostages gathered outside the Kirya to demand \u201cgreater actions by the government.\u201d <\/p>\n They pitched up tents in the plaza, vowing to stay until their children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and other loved ones were released. <\/p>\n The organizers of the event said\u00a0it was not \u201can anti-government protest,\u201d but their frustration was clear. <\/p>\n In the early days after the Hamas terror attack, many of the hostages\u2019 families were reluctant to criticize the government of Netanyahu. That has now changed. <\/p>\n A strongly worded statement issued by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum last week spoke of the \u201cenormous anger\u201d\u00a0that the\u00a0government was not speaking to them about the operation in Gaza. <\/p>\n A tense meeting between Netanyahu and some of the families, led to further heated exchanges,\u00a0including a demand that the government should consider an\u00a0\u201ceveryone for every one deal\u201d floated by Hamas in a statement the terror group issued last week. <\/p>\n Such\u00a0a\u00a0deal would involve exchanging the hostages for Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons \u2013\u00a0some 6,630 people, according to estimates by the Palestinian Prisoner\u2019s Society. <\/p>\n It would\u00a0be highly controversial because many of the prisoners have been either convicted or held on charges or suspicions related to acts of terrorism. <\/p>\n The IDF dismissed the Hamas offer as a tool of\u00a0\u201cpsychological terror aimed to manipulate Israeli civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n In October 2011, Israel agreed to exchange\u00a0Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier kidnapped by Hamas in 2006, for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including convicted terrorists who went on to carry\u00a0out\u00a0further attacks. Yahya Sinwar, who heads Hamas in Gaza and was identified by the IDF as one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attacks, was one of those released in the deal. <\/p>\n Chen said he still believes the government should do everything it can to secure the release of the hostages. \u201cI\u2019m not in a position to understand the dynamics. At the end of the day, we look at the end results \u2026 I still don\u2019t know if my kid is dead or alive. That\u2019s the bottom line,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n The families have said that no ceasefire should be agreed until all the hostages are released. <\/p>\n And the country\u00a0is\u00a0<\/strong>behind them. Anger about the government\u2019s response to the crisis is mounting even among some of the people who have previously supported Netanyahu and his government. <\/p>\n \u201cI voted for someone else, but I think he has done wonderful things for Israel, he was a soldier, he was a courageous soldier, but he has been the prime minister for 15 years, so he is to blame. And he has to go. I think everybody knows this and he knows it as well,\u201d Itzahak said. <\/p>\n Support for Netanyahu and his government has collapsed, with the latest polling conducted by Tel Aviv University for Israeli media showing the vast majority of Israelis want Netanyahu to quit.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/p>\n But while the government\u2019s approval\u00a0ratings\u00a0are nose-diving, the decision to launch a war on Hamas has firm backing from most Jewish Israelis \u2013 despite the strong international criticism. <\/p>\n And while most of Israel\u2019s Arab and Palestinian citizens, and a small minority of Jews, don\u2019t approve of the war, a wide-ranging crackdown on freedom of speech means that any form of dissent against the war is risky. <\/p>\n Dozens\u00a0of Palestinian residents\u00a0and citizens of Israel have been arrested in Israel for expressing solidarity with Gaza\u00a0and its civilian population. Israel Police said that as of October 25, it had arrested 110 people since the start of the war for allegedly inciting violence and terrorism, mostly on social media. Of these arrests,\u00a017 resulted\u00a0in\u00a0indictments. <\/p>\n Public displays of solidarity with Gaza\u00a0or criticism of Israel\u2019s military response\u00a0are few\u00a0and far between. Demonstrations against the war have been banned and more than 100 people have been arrested for posting messages of solidarity with Gaza on social media. <\/p>\n A musician who recently finished his compulsory military service with the Israeli Navy \u2013 including stints patrolling around the Gaza Strip \u2013\u00a0Rapaport\u00a0said he, too,\u00a0was\u00a0getting frustrated with the world\u2019<\/strong>s\u00a0reaction to the events in Gaza. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen people ask, \u2018why are you taking Gaza?\u2019 what I don\u2019t understand is \u2013 do we not have the right to protect our civilians and soldiers?\u00a0What is a proportionate response? We try not to kill civilians,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThis conflict (between Israel and the Palestinians) isn\u2019t black and white, but this war (with Hamas) is,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s very valid criticism of the Israeli government and Israel, but there\u2019s a very fine line that has been crossed in a lot of these conversations between criticizing Israel and hating Jews. You can criticize Israel occupying the West Bank or Gaza, but you can\u2019t say oh, so because of that it\u2019s okay to kill 1,400 civilians.\u201d <\/p>\n Rapaport said he had criticized\u00a0Netanyahu\u2019s\u00a0government before the war, opposing his plans to reform the judicial system \u2013 a major fault line that has split the country. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter the war,\u00a0I think the whole government should go. But now\u2026 we are at war. I don\u2019t trust Netanyahu as a person, but I have to trust him as a leader,\u201d he\u00a0said. <\/p>\n Later that night, Rapaport joined a large circle of musicians and mostly young people sitting at Zion Square. They were playing guitars and singing classic Israeli hits. <\/p>\n The songs ranged from sad to hopeful. Among them, \u201cLu Yehi,\u201d a song inspired by the Beatles\u2019 song \u201cLet It Be.\u201d The ballad was written by Naomi Shemer in 1973, during the first days of the Yom Kippur War, and has since become\u00a0synonymous with that war and hope for Israel\u2019s victory. <\/p>\n On Thursday night, the song\u2019s\u00a0words rang out in Zion Square, almost exactly 50 years since its debut and with Israel once more at war. <\/p>\n\n Yoav Peled\u00a0says\u00a0he has started wondering if the world has gone mad. Sitting outside the Kirya, Israel\u2019s equivalent of the Pentagon in Tel Aviv, Peled was cutting pieces of yellow ribbon off a large wheel last Thursday, handing them out to strangers passing by. The bands symbolize solidarity with the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Anger against Netanyahu<\/h2>\n
\u2018Very fine line\u2019 in criticizing Israel<\/h2>\n