​Much of Israeli society is outraged that instead of addressing serious issues such as security or the economic situation, the government has spent its energy on changes to the judicial system that have put millions of people on the streets. This opinion was expressed by Grieg Davidowitz, a former Haaretz journalist and now a media consultant, in an interview with HotNews.ro.

Grieg Davidowitz was the editor of Haaretz, and now he is a digital journalism consultant and manager of RGB Media. I have also spoken with Grieg Davidowitz on other occasions about problems in Israeli society, such as during the pandemic when Prime Minister (then and now) Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to form a new coalition government.

The former journalist lives with his family in Ramat Gan, in the Tel Aviv district. In an interview with him, which we conducted on WhatsApp, we tried to find out what the atmosphere is in Israeli society after the surprise attack carried out by the group Hamas on Saturday, which led to hundreds of deaths on both sides after and the Israeli military retaliated by shelling positions of Hamas in Gaza.

There are also thousands of wounded, and an unspecified number of people have been kidnapped from Israel and taken to the Hamas-controlled enclave.

What happens in such situations? What does Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement that “Israel is at war” mean to the population?

First, the schools are closed today, the children are at home, and it is not known when they will reopen because the airstrikes continue, the rockets continue to fall on Israel.

Then many shops did not open today. There is a store right next to our house that I know the owner of and he told me that he didn’t have a shelter for customers in case the rockets came and decided not to open. Today, many shops have not opened, but the main ones, for bread and groceries, are working.

What measures are taken regarding reservists? Are they drafted into their unit?

Mobilization has been announced, many reserve soldiers have been called up, the number is not disclosed, but it is large. The reservists received “order number 8” at home, that’s the name of the message you get when you go to war.

They usually received a piece of paper on which they wrote the start and end date of the exercise. In the case of “order number 8” only the start date is omitted. The mobilization ends when the government decides. It is necessary to leave work and go to the part.

At my company, one employee was drafted into the army, we pay him a normal salary and we will return the money from the state.

“This government is the most incompetent in Israel’s history”

what is the mood People are outraged, they blame the Government, the army? In any case, society in Israel during this period was polarized…

First, people are in shock, it is very difficult to understand what happened. We have been through difficult situations in the past, for example during the Yom Kippur War exactly 50 years ago (1973), but then we were attacked by states like Egypt and Syria.

Now we have been attacked by an organization that has neither tanks nor planes, only cars and motorcycles. And he managed to kill hundreds of people so quickly… We had terrible shelling here, 20-30 people died, and now hundreds are dead. And the 3- and 5-year-old children were kidnapped together with their mother, this is something unspeakable. This is a shocking state of society.

I believe that we were in a period, which other countries also went through, of absolute relativism. So, there is no more truth and lies, white can be black and vice versa, and everyone says what they want without any connection with the truth. And the most important thing is to be sure of what you say and say it with confidence.

But at the end of the day, there really is truth and there are lies, and when someone attacks you, they either succeed or fail. It is no longer relative, it is absolute. Because that’s what happened here, with this government, which is the most incompetent in the history of Israel.

The government has done absolutely nothing this year except try to change the rules of justice to give the government more power to do what they want.

What exactly was he supposed to do?

Instead of using their energy where they used it, they should have looked at whether or not the military was willing to train, pretty much anything that a government should do from a security perspective.

Not to mention other problems, the worsening economic situation, all the problems in Israel. They had no time for security, but they were busy establishing colonies in the Palestinian territories….

In Israel, we are currently in a difficult situation. And now Israel’s enemies saw what the internal situation was in Israel, and they took advantage of that situation. And they were incredibly successful.

There has been an internal debate in Israel that has divided society over justice reform, and some have said that we are close to civil war because what the government is trying to do is similar to what was done in Poland, Hungary, autocratic, illiberal states.

The vast majority of people in Israel do not want this, because the democratic identity of the country is crucial for them. But I would like to make it clear that after the attack on Israel, Israeli society has completely united. Everyone who was called appeared. There is zero controversy on this topic.

But many people are angry with the government, especially with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has ruled Israel for the past 16 years with one year off. The quality of the army is his responsibility.

“The situation of the residents of Gaza must change”

There are many kidnapped people from Israel, what do you think Hamas wants with them?

Hamas wants to have important negotiating leverage. We do not yet know how many people have been kidnapped, but it is a large number of people, and they are probably looking to change the situation in Gaza, which is very difficult.

There are many people in Israel who believe that we should find a solution for both Israel and Gaza because the current situation is not good for either side. People live there terribly. In my opinion, the situation there should change.

For you, as a former journalist, as a person who is still connected with information, was this attack a surprise?

No one in Israel was surprised that Hamas wanted to carry out a terrorist attack against Israel, but what was surprising was the sheer scale of the attack: hundreds of people entered Israel from Gaza, a very large number of people who infiltrated what was supposed to be the best guarded border in the world.

The second surprise was that the Israeli secret services, which were supposedly the best in the world, which monitored communications in Gaza very closely, knew nothing about this organization (about the attack – no). The action, in which hundreds of people participate, requires a lot of communication, organization…

The third surprise is the reaction (of the troops): there was no one. A few years ago, Israel built an obstacle that cost about a billion dollars – a wall in the ground – to prevent Hamas from building tunnels to bring people into Israel.

A billion dollars is a huge amount. And they broke the fence. There is an army corps responsible for Gaza, but many soldiers have been in Judea (West Bank) to prevent potential conflicts between settlers and Palestinians. Therefore, the number of soldiers who had to deal with Gaza was small and could withstand the attack.

Even now, fighting continues between the army and Hamas men in some villages near Gaza more than 24 hours after the attack began, which is also difficult to understand. Why do they take so long to expel them, or capture them, or kill them?

“Many people in Israel understand that we need a reboot”

What consequences will this attack have on the population?

It’s hard to say, given that the population is in shock and that everything is now emotionally perceived both by society and individually. I think that this situation, as I said, of relativism, where there is no more truth, cannot continue any longer. We can’t afford to get into this paradigm that we have now because eventually reality will hit you.

Is Israel able to protect its borders? Is the army ready? The answers to these questions should be given in absolute, not relative terms. Many people in Israel understand that we need a reset of the current situation.

We are in a situation where the same group of people have been running the country for too many years and the situation is becoming extremely rotten and we are in desperate need of change which has to start from the top. And then penetrate all levels of Israeli society.

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