Israelis are abandoning their political security concerns after October 7

Maya Mizrachi this month grimaced at the group of eight Israelis calling for peace with the Palestinians in front of Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

A year ago, Ms. Mizrachi, 25, had protested alongside them, carrying a sign calling on Israel to end its military occupation of the West Bank. Now she had run into them by accident, on her way home from a nearby rally calling for the return of Israeli citizens held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

“I don’t think there are more than eight people in all of Israel right now who would protest against the army,” said Ms. Mizrachi, a student. “I can’t even bring myself to do it.”

She is one of a growing number of Israeli citizens who are shunning the left’s politics — ideas such as advancing peace talks with the Palestinians, ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and supporting a two-state solution — since October 7, when Hamas gunmen invaded Israel in a surprise attack and killed about 1,200 people.

In the well of grief, anger and fear that has gripped Israel since that day, a consensus has emerged that Israel must take a tougher stance toward the Palestinians and embrace an even more militarized state. And while public opinion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wavering, Support for the policies of his right-wing government is growing.

While the left has lost mainstream support, Israel’s peace camp has been virtually driven underground. Activist groups say many members have given up on the cause, and those who remain committed are struggling to find public places willing to host anti-war protests.

The few calls for a ceasefire that have gained popularity among the public have been prompted by the families of Israeli hostages abducted to Gaza on October 7. These families have asked the government to pause the fighting to negotiate the return of their weapons. loved ones. While these calls intensified this week after the Israeli military announced it had accidentally killed three hostages, most families have emphasized that they broadly support the war effort and believe it is necessary.

According to polls In the two months since October 7, Israelis have moved decisively to the right on a number of political issues, including support for settlers in the West Bank, expressions of support for far-right politicians and even the restoration of a military occupation of Gaza.

“The trauma of what happened on October 7 has changed Israeli society. It made them question the most basic principles of whether they were safe in their homes,” said Tal Schneider, a political columnist for The Times of Israel. “They are now calling for more – more soldiers, more protection, more tough policies.”

Left-wing parties in Israel have seen a steady decline over the past two decades. During Israel’s last election cycle, the center-left Labor Party won just four seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, a significant drop from the 19 seats it held in 2015. The Meretz Party, one of the few left-wing Israeli parties that had held a seat for the past decade but failed to gain enough votes to qualify for the last election.

Last week the head of the Labor Party, Merav Michaeli, said announced that she resigned amid criticism that she was responsible for the party’s poor polls.

“No one in this country wants to talk about peace right now,” Ms. Schneider said. “Left-wing has become a dirty word,” she said, adding that while socially progressive causes such as government-backed social services remain popular in Israel, they are becoming increasingly divorced from Israel’s left-wing movements. “Many Israelis want more government welfare programs, but conservative political leadership.”

Opinion polls conducted in Israel since October 7 show the extent of the political shift. A survey by Israel’s Channel 12, one of the country’s most popular broadcasters, found that about a third of Israelis described themselves as “moving to the right” in the month after the October 7 attacks, while far fewer reported that their politics had changed. more to the left.

In another poll The Israeli University of Tel Aviv has found this by November, the share of Israelis who favored a two-state solution had fallen from just a month earlier, to below a third of respondents.

While the war has accelerated the left’s decline, it has also damaged Netanyahu’s popularity.

Months before the war, the prime minister held together a fractious coalition of far-right parties that controlled 64 seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset. Recently, vigils for slain Israelis have turned into protests against Netanyahu’s leadership and calls for his resignation.

“The country has moved to the right, but they no longer want Netanyahu as the leader of the right,” Ms. Schneider said. “The question is who can represent the new right-wing views of so many Israelis today.”

Longtime Israeli peace activists said Israel’s leap to the right is tangible. In the offices of Standing Together, an organization jointly founded by Israelis and Palestinians, the mood has been somber since October 7.

Membership is down, said Alon-Lee Green, the organization’s founder. When the group tried to hold solidarity meetings between Israelis and Palestinians in public places, they were turned away by local municipalities and police.

“We are being banned from public places,” Mr Green said. “We are being told that there is no audience for our message today,” he added. “There has never been a more difficult time to call for peace.”

The group has resorted to renting private venues, such as restaurants and wedding halls, to hold their meetings, Mr Green said.

He said he understood the urge of many Israelis to call for greater security and a greater military presence since October 7.

“I remember constantly looking over my shoulder in the days after the attacks,” Mr Green said. “You can’t underestimate what those kinds of things do to your psyche, to be so deeply afraid.” But ultimately, he said, he feels more certain than ever that fighting for a peaceful future is the only viable path forward.

“I came out of my fear and realized that this was the most important moment in my life to fight for peace, even though it feels more out of reach than ever before,” Mr Green said.

But many other longtime Israeli peace activists said they could no longer support the movement.

The towns and agricultural communities along Israel’s border with Gaza were once bastions of the left. Many villages there were founded as kibbutzim, socialist agricultural communities. Over the years, many residents have used their proximity to Palestinians in Gaza to provide aid and conduct solidarity campaigns.

On October 7, the proximity of these communities to the border made them vulnerable to attacks by Hamas terrorists. Well-known peace activists, including Vivian Silver, a founder of Women Wage Peace, were among the dead. The attack caused survivors to reconsider the policies they previously championed.

Before Oct. 7, Nir Oz resident Larry Butler, 73, considered himself left-wing. As a member of Peace Now, he took part in rallies calling for the evacuation of Israeli settlements in Gaza, which were dismantled in 2005.

Now displaced in a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Eilat, Mr Butler has had his religious beliefs questioned. “I think I’m somewhere in the middle,” he said, “but I’m certainly not left-wing and I’m certainly not right.”

In Tel Aviv, Ms. Mizrachi’s turn against the left came shortly after Oct. 7, when she discovered that a high school friend was among those killed at the Tribe of Nova music festival.

“The irony is that she was the greatest peace activist I knew,” Ms. Mizrachi said. “She was the one who got me involved in the movement in the beginning,” she added. “I always joked that she made me left-handed. Now I can’t say I am.”

Adam Sella reporting contributed.