The New Zionist Ideal: A Generation of Israelis Devoid of Shame Over the Gaza War

by Gideon Levy

Yair Weigler, an educator and CEO of an organization called "Teachers for Change," has just returned from a lengthy stint in the reserves.

"We saw action in various neighborhoods and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, as well as spending some time on its beaches, followed by action in Lebanon … we were settlers, Tel Avivians, people evacuated from the [Gaza Strip's] Katif Bloc in 2005; we were brothers in arms, people in education and in high-tech … one tank company," he said poetically, as if he were a young man returning from a post-army trip overseas, singing the praises of locations he had visited. Oh, Shujaiyeh, oh, what unity. What an army, what a people.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett rushed to share the words of the educator: "A generation of lions has arisen in Israel. I have no doubt that these guys, the combatants and the reservists, will return to civilian life as more idealistic people, people who are more compassionate, and they are the people who will rebuild this country for the next 50 years. There is hope!"

• Netanyahu's ethnic cleansing in Gaza is on display for all to see

• Israel is unleashing an apocalypse in northern Gaza

• When the Gaza war ends, Israel's mainstream media will have a lot to answer for

Even if we ignore the cloying pathos exhibited by the tiny knitted skullcap-wearing politician, one cannot but be appalled by the chaos unfolding before our astounded and helpless eyes. Day is night and night is day. Ethnic cleansing and mass murder are ideals, and war crimes create civilians who are better and more value-driven. That is the meaning of hope in Bennett's scheme of things.

One reads it in disbelief. This is what a teacher in Israel has to say about his very problematic reserve duty, and that is how a leader of the moderate right wing reacts, a person who embodies hope for an alternative. In 2024 Israel, not only is there no hint of stocktaking regarding what its army has done in Gaza and Lebanon – we've grown accustomed to it – now they elevate crimes and brutality to the level of ideals. Civics lessons will now discuss how the massacre of tens of thousands of women and children have become a value. This is how you destroy a strip of land and make Israelis better citizens. Genocide as an educational workshop.

Anyone who expected feelings of guilt, an accounting or ethical question marks is getting the exact opposite. Anyone who expected a generation smitten by trauma over what it has done, with relentless nightmares and crying out in one's sleep over the atrocities, is receiving national pride. The Zionist ideal is now the war raging in Gaza. A terrible crime that remains to be defined in international courts, a war the entire world is horrified by, justifiably so, a crime now being leveraged into a value. A generation of lions has arisen here.

This generation of lions that will not even for a moment look squarely at its handiwork. It is too cowardly. One can understand the repression and denial – without it, a war like this could not be conducted, a war that is pointless and unbridled. But Israel has taken this into an even more inconceivable place.

Never has such pride been expressed here over such horrific war crimes. Officers walk among the ruins in Gaza in front of TV cameras like inflated peacocks. There is not a single correspondent around to save the dignity of his profession by asking what the meaning of all that destruction is. What was its purpose, its legality, its morality? What right allowed us to perpetrate such destruction? Convoys of the most miserable people trundle back and forth over the sand, in crutches, in wheelchairs, in wagons driven by starving donkeys, people ready to recite to TV correspondent Ohad Hamo anything he asks them to in exchange for a drop of water – and this is called a journalistic coup propping up Hamo's professional pride.

It's doubtful that Russian TV would dare broadcast such a shameful sight from Ukraine. Perhaps there, shame would prevent it. Here, there's no sense of shame. None expressed by Hamo, Channel 12, the media, Weigler or Bennett.

It's not just that Israel has lost any sense of shame. It is proud of its exploits. It's not that Israelis view war as a necessary evil, ostensibly condemning us to live with it. Now it is a model for values – war as a pedagogic poem. Transfer in the northern Gaza Strip and the massacre in its south as a national heritage, with the photo albums and museums soon to follow. This will be much harder to recuperate from.

Bennett promises that this generation of lions, devoid of conscience or compass, is the one that will build the country for the next 50 years. Just imagine. There's something to wait for.