After October 7, Israelis get their minds right about Palestinians

We’ve discussed polls regarding the American public’s view of the Israel-Hamas war and regarding the view of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Both sets of polls are important and disturbing. U.S. polling shows that younger Americans are anti-Israel. Palestinian polling shows that residents of the West Bank and Gaza are pro- Hamas.

But, as important as American and Palestinian views are, they aren’t as important as the view of Israelis. After all, it ultimately is up to Israel (and only Israel) to decide how to prosecute the war, and up to Israel, in large measure, to decide what will happen in the region after the war. Joe Biden can talk all he wants about a “two-state solution.” He can’t impose it on Israel.

So how do Israelis view the current situation? About the way one would expect, I think, and certainly the way one would hope.

According to the New York Times, Hamas’ October 7 attack has caused Israelis to abandon the left in droves over the issue of protecting the Jewish state from Palestinians:

In the wellspring of sadness, anger and fear that has gripped Israel since that day, a consensus has emerged that Israel needs to take a harder line with the Palestinians and embrace an even more militarized state. And while public opinion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is faltering, support for the policies upheld by his right-wing government is growing.

If the left has lost mainstream support, Israel’s peace camp has been driven virtually underground. Activist groups say many members have abandoned the cause, and those who remain committed have struggled to find public places willing to accommodate antiwar protests.

It just goes to show: Being wrong about matters of life and death has adverse political consequences — at least in Israel (here, not as much).

The Times’ report cites public opinion polls taken since October 7. Here’s what they show:

Israelis have moved decidedly to the right on a number of political issues, including support for settlers in the West Bank, endorsements for far-right politicians, and even the re-establishment of a military occupation of Gaza. . .

A survey by Israel’s Channel 12, one of the country’s most popular broadcasters, found that roughly one third of Israelis described themselves as “moving to the right” in the month after the Oct. 7 attacks, while far fewer reported that their politics had shifted more to the left.

In another poll, Israel’s Tel Aviv University found in November the share of Israelis in favor of a two-state solution was down from just a month earlier, falling below one third of respondents.

Again, it’s easy to explain these results. October 7 demonstrated that the Israeli right has a much better understanding of the life-and-death issue Israelis face — the extent of the threat posed by Palestinians.

The Israeli left views Palestinians as potential peace partners. This was especially (and tragically) true in the kibbutzim of Southern Israel where Hamas committed the worst of its butchery. The kibbutz movement was fundamentally socialist. It is rooted in socialist and Marxist ideas about collective living.

Although contemporary kibbutz living is usually far less collectivist than socialist and Marxist doctrine might dictate — folks with jobs keep their income and parents raise their own children — residents lean left and tend to support peace and reconciliation with Palestinians. And in many areas near the Gaza border, they welcomed Palestinians as workers and even as friends. For example:

One of the missing residents [after Oct. 7] was Vivian Silver, 74, a woman who had spent her retirement pursuing peace in the region, her son Yonatan Zeigen told NPR.

"She would drive sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals. So apart from being a wonderful mother and grandmother, that was her essence," Zeigen said.

In America, reality sometimes “mugs” liberals. In Israel it has raped, kidnapped, and butchered many of them.

Compare the kibbutzim mindset as I’ve described it to the mindset of aggressively anti-Palestinian settlers on the West Bank. Far from driving Palestinians to Israeli hospitals, some of them want to drive Palestinians out of their homes on the West Bank and relocate them on the opposite bank of the Jordan river.

If the question is whom would I rather have dinner with, the answer is probably the pacific Israelis of Southern Israel. If the question is who has the superior understanding of Palestinians and their intentions, the answer is the hyper-aggressive Israelis in West Bank settlements.

The polls show that a significantly increasing number of Israelis answer the second question the same way I do.

To be clear, I’ve seen no evidence that most Israelis support the most extreme policies and practices of some West Bank settlers — e.g., attacking the homes and farms of Palestinians and trying to expel them from the West Bank. Nor do I support such measures.

But the evidence does show that most Israelis are coming around to the hardline view of Palestinians (though, again, not to the most hardline prescriptions for what actions to take against them). Given the events of October 7 and the reality they made manifest, it’s hard to see how things could be otherwise.