Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, famously said: “Our future does not depend on what the gentiles will say, but on what the Jews will do.” His argument was that the Jewish people could no longer be dependent on others as they had been for 2,000 years...Today, faced by mounting diplomatic isolation over its war in
Gaza – to the extent that Israel is now seen by some nations as a pariah state – Ben-Gurion’s maxim has gained renewed traction for many Israelis. These include the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who quoted it when rebutting an international court of justice (ICJ) ruling ordering Israel to cease its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
They conveniently ignore the truth that without American military support, their country would be f.k'd to a fare-thee-well.
And yet many Israelis, including some involved in advocating for the government professionally, admit to a sense of unease. They do not hear from Netanyahu any realistic endgame except more conflict and they admit to being traumatised by the speed with which Israel has forfeited worldwide sympathy, and the implications for the country’s future...the king of Jordan said the bombardment of Gaza had exposed its “decades-long impunity”. He said: “For decades Israel has projected itself as a thriving western-style democracy in the Middle East, but the brutality of the war in Gaza has forced the world to look closer. Now many see Israel through the eyes of its victims, and the contradiction – the paradox – is too jarring. The modern advanced Israel admired from afar and the Israel that Palestinians have experienced at first hand cannot co-exist.”
Some Israelis comfort themselves in thinking that a silent majority still believe Israel remains the victim, but polls suggest otherwise.
A Morning Consult survey of people in 43 countries found an average drop in net favourability towards Israel of 18.5 percentage points between September and December last year. A June poll by Ipsos and the Policy Institute at King’s College London of 23,800 people across 31 countries found that Israel was the country that the most people said “used its influence for bad”. A British Foreign Policy Group survey published this month found 62% of Britons distrust Israel to act responsibly in the world, just nine percentage points lower than the proportion of Britons who distrust China (71%). Pew Research found in May that although most Americans still sympathise with Israel, those under 30 do not, and seven in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (71%) have little or no confidence in Netanyahu.
The antipathy is mutual. The more international organisations criticise Israel, the more Israelis reject their legitimacy. According to Pew, three-quarters of Israelis have an unfavourable view of the UN...It raises the question of what Netanyahu will do with his recovery, and whether he can be constrained. “In some ways he is a one-man show, totally unpredictable and immune to pressure,” said Dr Alon Liel, who served in the Israeli diplomatic service for three decades and worked alongside Netanyahu on a daily basis for many years. “But he cares about the US, the Congress, the Republican party and the evangelicals and he cares about The Hague since it would paralyse him diplomatically.”
Analysis@the Guardian