Oaklandsocialist sent a series of questions to Ofer Neiman, an Israeli activist in Israelis Against Apartheid. Those questions were sent, and answered, before the bodies of the six hostages were discovered. In his final reply, Ofer discusses what has happened since.

Palestinian prisoners at Israel’s Sde Tieman torture center.

Question:
Recently Haaretz posted an extended interview with some Israeli soldiers who had served at Sde Teiman. (Non subscribers to Haaretz can read the full interview here.) How widely known is this information and what is the general attitude towards it?

Answer:
The information is known to pretty much every Israeli now. 

And most also know there WAS torture there. There was an attempt by right wing figures, including a senior doctor close to Netanyahu to claim the forensic evidence is false. But the more common view among Israelis is that Palestinians deserve whatever happened there, and that the soldiers shouldn’t be indicted, as this poll shows.

Supporters of the war criminal Israeli soldiers who sodomized a Palestinian prisoner. Here, they entered Sde Tieman to express support for those Israeli soldiers.

Question:
Regarding the soldiers who were arrested for sodomizing a prisoner at Sde Teiman: As we know, there was a march of supporters of those soldiers and subsequent speeches in the Knesset defending them. How widely shared is the support for these soldiers? What are the varying views (if any) and how widespread are different views?

Answer:
So the poll answers this question:

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/

Question:
What is the general attitude inside Israel regarding the situation in the West Bank?

Answer:
Most Israelis don’t care, with a baseline of racism and hostility towards Palestinians. It’s just lumped up as “fighting terror”. 

A small minority of Israelis is vocal about ongoing settler pogroms against Palestinians and settlement expansion, and there seems to be a bit more presence of Israeli activists on the ground, but this is not where the mainstream is. 

Question:
What is the general attitude towards a possible open war with Hezbollah?

Answer:
Centrists seem to be less enthusiastic about it now, in comparison to October 2023, probably knowing that the Israeli military is in bad shape, and fearing that this is an unwinnable war. 

The right wing supports more war, and the religious right is even promoting the idea of occupying and settling Southern Lebanon, which means ethnic cleansing of current inhabitants. 

Benjamin Netanyahu. Until just a day or so ago, his support seemed to be increasing.

Question:
One article I read said that Netanyahu’s support has increased recently. Is that true? If so, on what basis?

Answer:
It seems to be true, based on the polls. Surely this has a lot to do with the weak opposition that also supports the genocide in Gaza and offers no alternative. And the prospects of broader war with Iran and its allies may instill more passivity in Israelis (who are passive to begin with) and curb any motivation for political change here. 

In the long run, Israel’s economic indicators look grim, and an emigration wave of upper middle class Israelis is accekers

Question:
How are Trump and Harris seen in Israel?

Answer:
Trump is the great white hope of Netanyahu and the right. The centrists seem to prefer Harris. There was a lot of racism and hate for Obama among right wingers here. Harris may face the same, though there’s no indication she’ll do anything to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza (which the centrists support).

Question:
The way I see it, Netanyahu is similar to Trump in that he has no real convictions; he simply rests on those who do. On the other hand, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are the ideologically committed fascist right, similar to the Christian nationalists here in the US. Do you agree with those comparisons?

Answer:
Not at all. Netanyahu is a Greater Israel bigot, as was his father, a towering figure and a far right historian who shaped his son’s views. Netanyahu is Israel’s most ideological prime minister. 

Question:
It seems from what you’re saying that the right wing – Smotrich, Ben Gvir, etc. – is in the ascendancy and that they want a war with Hezbollah and settling of Southern Lebanon. That makes it sound like that is the most likely perspective, or that at least they will try that. Do you agree, and how do you think such a war would develop?

Answer:
Smotrich’s party is not doing well in the polls. It’s not even certain they will pass the 4 seat threshold. And Netanyahu’s bloc does not seem to have a 61 mandate majority according to the polls, even if Likud is doing better in the polls. 

The powerful centrist military establishment is wary of major war in Lebanon, and so is the US. 

Question:
It also sounds to me that overt, mass scale ethnic cleansing could develop in the West Bank, possibly including outright annexation. Do you agree?

Answer:
Israel doesn’t have US support for annexation, certainly not under Democrats. 

Ethnic cleansing in the West Bank is an ongoing phenomenon. It has accelerated since October 2023, with settlers committing pogroms in small Palestinian hamlets, forcing the population to flee to nearby towns. 

Israel’s capacity to carry out a larger scale act of ethnic cleansing, into Jordan, is heavily constrained by Western prsssure. The smaller scale internal policy of ethnic cleansing may continue. 

Question:
It seems to me that such developments would have to include very severe repression within Israel, both of Israeli Palestinians and of the left, far stronger repression than we’ve seen so far. Do you agree?

Answer:
As noted, this is not the likelier scenario. But in that case, the rift between Israeli liberals and the government will grow. Liberals who support the war on Gaza are unlikely to let Netanyahu and Ben Gvir impose draconian repression measures on Jewish Israeli citizens. Zionist supporters of Israel in the US too are likely to be embarrassed and to protest in such case. 

Question:
If the US were to cut off arms to Israel, or place some serious conditions/limitations on them, what effect do you think that would have on Israeli politics? Also, to what extent does Israel depend solely on US arms? Do they have any other potential sources?

Answer:
The impact would be huge. We know that a phone call from President Reagan to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1982 led to Israel stopping its horrific aerial bombing of Beirut. Israel depends on the US heavily. While Israel can produce its own drones and tanks, the Israeli air force uses state of the art US weapons. 

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, mainly young people, flooded the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against Netanyahu. Tomorros, the Histadrut is set to go on strike and shut down the airport.

Question:
Since I raised these questions, six dead hostages have been discovered in Gaza. We are seeing news reports here of massive protest marches in Israel against Netanyahu’s refusal to reach a deal with Hamas. This is the response, according to the news here. How widely is this anger at Netanyahu shared in wider Israeli society? Do you have any thoughts about whether it might succeed in pressuring Netanyahu to reach a deal? And where do you expect this protest movement to go?

Answer:
The past 24 hours have been a major shift. The mainstream is now firmly supportive of a deal. The main labour union is about to embark on a major strike, including the airport, and such measures are expected to last, and gain traction, until something changes.

Hundreds of thousands have protested today. The rage and rhetoric (“murderer”) singling out Netanyahu (correctly) for the death and plight of Israeli captives are unprecedented. 

Netanyahu has rejected the calls. His position is much weaker now. Something’s gotta give.

Oaklandsocialist adds: Here in the United States, these protests will be an embarrassment for Harris and even worse for Trump. The former must certainly have had the final word on refusing to allow a Palestinian delegate to speak at the DNC. Since then, as we pointed out, Harris expressed an extremely weak criticism of Israel when she was interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash. As for Biden, he continually claimed that a deal between Hamas and Israel was just around the corner. By making that claim, he relieved any U.S. pressure on Netanyahu. It is now clear that Netanyahu never even wanted a deal. Biden has been deceiving the American public for months now. Israeli daily Haaretz recently placed one major demand on Biden: To “tell the truth”. In other words, he’s been doing the opposite up until now. As for Trump, he attacked Biden and Harris for being too critical of Netanyahu and he urged Israel to get the war over with as quickly as possible, meaning don’t hold back anything. Overall, the massive protests in Israel will strengthen the pro-Palestine protests here in the US.

Netanyahu is unlikely to be smirking right now.