Netanyahu under pressure while reservists speak against Gaza war

The war of Israel in Gaza grows further, but the opposition is growing.

In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reservists – from all branches of the army – have signed letters that demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will stop fighting and instead concentrate on reaching a deal to bring back the remaining 59 hostages held by Hamas.

Eighteen months ago, few Israelis doubted the logic of the war: to beat Hamas and to return the hostages.

For many, it ceases -the January and the subsequent return of more than 30 hostages, the hope that the war could end soon.

But after Israel had broken the stakes and returned to war in mid-March, that hope was interrupted.

“We came to the conclusion that Israel is going to a very bad place,” said Danny Yatom, a former head of the espionage agency that Mossad told me.

“We understand that what Netanyahu mainly disturbs, his own interests. And in the list of priorities, his interests and the interests of having the government are the first, and not the hostages.”

Many of those who sign recent letters are, such as Yatom, for a long time, critics of the prime minister. Some were involved in the anti-government protests that preceded the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023 after the attack of Hamas on Israel.

But Yatom says that it is not why he decided to speak out.

“I signed my name and I participate in the demonstrations, not for a political reason, but for a national reason,” he said.

“I am very worried that my country will lose its way.”

The first open letter published at the beginning of April was signed by 1,000 Air Force reservists and pensioners.

“The continuation of the war does not contribute to one of her declared goals,” they wrote, “and will lead to the death of the hostages”.

The signatories insisted on their lead at the Israelis before the time was on the estimated 24 hostages, still thought that they live in Gaza.

“Every day that passes, risks their lives further. Every moment of hesitation is a crying shame.”

In the following weeks, similar letters appeared from almost every branch of the army, including Elite Vecht and Intelligence Units, together with a number of decorated commanders.

More than 12,000 signatures all.

After 7 October, hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists answered the call, enthusiastically to serve.

But now more and more are refusing, with reports that suggest that reserve presence has fallen to only 50-60%.

For an army that is highly dependent on reservists to wage its wars, it is a threatening crisis on a scale that is not seen since Israel’s first Lebanon war in 1982.

In a Lommerrijk Jerusalem -Park I met “YOAV” (not his real name), an infantry reserve that asked not to be identified.

Yoav served in Gaza last summer, but said he wouldn’t do it again.

“I felt that I had to go to help my brothers and sisters,” he told me.

“I believed that I was doing something good. Complicated but good. But now I don’t see it in the same way anymore.”

The government’s determination to continue to fight Hamas, while hostages are at risk in the tunnels of Gaza, YOAV said, was out of place.

“We are very strong and we can beat Hamas, but it’s not about beating Hamas,” he said. “It’s about losing our country.”

During his time in Gaza, Yoav told me, he tried to “be the best moral soldier who can be a man”.

But the longer the war progresses, critics say, the harder it is for Israel to claim, as government officials often do that her army is the most moral army in the world.

In a recent column to the left of the center newspaper Haaretz, the retired general Amiram Levin said it was time for soldiers – starting with senior commanders – to think about disobedience assignments.

“The risk of being dragged into war crimes and suffering a fatal blow to the Israeli defense troops and our social ethos,” he wrote, “make it impossible to stand unemployed”.

Some critics of Israel, including those who have established cases for the International Criminal Court and the International Court, claim that such lines have already been crossed.

Netanyahu has taken out the protesters and rejected their worries as “propaganda lies”, spread by “a small handful of edge elements – loud, anarchist and disconnected pensioners, most of whom have not been served for years”.

But polls suggest that the protest letters reflect a growing public conviction: that the release of the remaining hostages should come for everything.

In Tel Aviv, where noisy anti-war demonstrations have been held for more than a year, images of the hostages are held up, while other protesters are on the road, burning photos of Palestinian children killed during the war.

In the midst of the row generated by the letters, such emotional displays seem to have rattled the authorities.

On April 20, the police briefly told protesters that “photos of children or babies from Gaza” would not be allowed, together with posters that show the words “genocide” or “ethnic cleaning”.

After expressions of indignation of the organizers, the police quickly withdrew.

In the meantime, the prime minister continues to speak about his determination to beat Hamas.

Military pressure, Netanyahu remains on it, is the only way to bring the hostages home.