The only Israelis who want the U.S. to attack Syria are young Jews. They are militant. But their parents say Obama missed his chance and nothing will be gained by attacking Syria. They are angry with Obama for confusing the matter of red lines when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, but they are also upset with the Israel lobby for pushing a war when they are the ones who have to get gasmasks.
I observed these attitudes in interviews with a dozen Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem the day before Yom Kippur.
The young people are frightening. They are far more rightwing and militant than their elders.
“Obama knows what he needs to do. He needs to stop talking and start doing. How he can sleep at night when they are killing kids,” said a 20-year-old soldier wearing a yarmulke and sitting in Zion Square.
The soldier was not concerned about the slippery slope. “If Iran attacks Israel– they can try. And when they try, we will kick their ass. We trust God.”
Nearby, a 19-year-old waitress with thick hair who wore a tank top and described herself as firmly secular, and who said she went to a school with Muslims, was also for action. “I’m not sure about it, but I think he should take Assad out,” she said. “The people I work with agree.”
We often hear about the growing intolerance in Israeli society. These young people’s attitudes are symptomatic. There isn’t a peacenik to be found. Some of their attitudes seem as narrow as North Koreans’.
“All the young people are less afraid of war than the older people,” said Shoham, 17, seated in the pedestrian mall on Ben Yehuda Street.
“The younger people have fire in their eyes and want to do their ideals,” said her friend Matanya, 19, wearing a black tshirt for the unit he wants to join in the army. “There was a guy named Roosevelt who said to walk around with a big stick and not talk loudly. Obama he talks loudly and doesn’t have a stick. It seems like a joke.”
The older people I met showed much more restraint.
“I don’t know any Israelis who are cheering on Obama to strike,” said a 59-year-old mother of three who moved to Israel from the States in 1996. “Especially up north, the feeling is that it’s none of our business. Neither side is wonderful. As Netanyahu says, Iran is the red line. Syria is the mess. If Obama was going to get involved, it would have been best two years ago.”
She said Israelis are mad at the Israel lobby for pushing war. “Everyone’s mad at AIPAC for that. Because we’re the ones who are going to pay.”
Amiel Vardi, a scholar and anti-occupation activist whom I interviewed at the weekly Sheikh Jarrah demonstration Friday, agreed that the mother of three reflected mainstream Israeli Jewish public opinion. The time for an attack has passed. Just two weeks ago Israelis were mostly for an attack on Syria, he says. But they are extremely sensitive to American public opinion, and they have taken the Obama nod to Congress as a signal. In the last week, mass opinion has become: it is easy to start a conflict but hard to end one.
I spoke to two middle-aged people who reflected this shifting pattern. Yeheskel, 45, and Sarah, 37, are rightwingers who wanted Obama to act. But they said that he had missed his chance; and the time for a strike was over. Besides, they said, an attack on Syria would only have symbolic benefits: showing Iran who is boss.
“A token strike– I don’t think it would have done very much at all,” Yeheskel said. “But what happened to Obama? He is weak. He is afraid. And now all the world sees, also Iran– they are not afraid of America.”
Sarah said, “It shows to Israel, we have no one to trust. How are we going to stop Iran? Israel is representing the whole world against Iran.”
Yeheskel said a political resolution of the Syrian conflict would only empower Assad and Hamas and Iran.
And he said that Obama’s failure on Syria was a symptom of the American public’s retreat from Israel. “If you look at Google comments, America says, we’re fighting in Iraq for Israel, and Iran for Israel. If it wasn’t for Israel, there would be peace. You couldn’t say so many things about Israel and Jews ten years ago.”
I also spoke with several Palestinians about Syria. They were all against American intervention. A 65-year-old shopkeeper in the Old City was angry.
“It is a war against Islam. In Yemen, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Chechnya, and in Syria. It is another Crusade. Is that what Obama wants?”
Thank you Phil.
How very dispiriting in general. I hope Aipac is listening. The shopkeeper’s observation about another Crusade is pretty much on the money, imho.
I hear this a lot– “It shows to Israel, we have no one to trust. How are we going to stop Iran? Israel is representing the whole world against Iran.”
I guess Netanyahu’s obsessive paranoia with Iran has managed to infect many folks. A shame.
That’s because each war Israel has engaged with has netted lower and lower casualties.
Also, the involvement of America in Israel’s military affairs have increased(primarily as deterrance but also aid).
In short; they’re chicken hawks. Israel doesn’t commit ground troops unless it’s a soft target like Gaza and they make a ton of bombing rounds first.
This is a process all developed nations go through, as people’s lives become more comfortable.
The political price you pay for casualties gets higher and higher, so when these young people think war, they think Gaza 2009. A mostly one-sided affair. Even Lebanon in 2006 had strong one-sided casualty rates but the fact that that war was seen as a ‘disaster’ was a sign of just how low tolerance the Israeli public was willing to sacrifice its soldiers.
So why the hawkishness? Because it’s America that will stand for the attack, not them. They’re basically overentitled little dipshits.
What can happen in a counter-attack on Israel? Not much.
Iran has defensive capabilities but hardly any offensive capabilites. Israel won’t be caught blindsided by Hezbollah again and IAF smokes anything that the Iranian airforce can throw at them, plus you got the Iron Dome now.
The older generation remembers the days when Israel could actually lose a war, which nearly happened in 1973 if it wasn’t for America stepping in. The young have seen the apartheid wall go up and the might of the IDF/IAF being the region’s dominant power, surpassing that even of Iran if it would be fully mobilized.
But to go back to their entitlement: how do we explain it?
Well, they are so used to America going to war in their own interests they now expect it as default. What would happened if they were cut off from this parasitical ‘relationship’? I’d love to see the sheer panic.
Of course, they’d find that Israel would be fine regardless but they wouldn’t be so sure about invading when it would be their own troops and lives on the line in an attack on Syria.
More than racism/militarism, your findings show shocking amount of entitlement from people being coddled by the work of AIPAC for so long that they now expect America to be Israel’s mercenary, to be called at the behest of AIPAC’s lobbyists, which it to a remarkable extent has been these past 15 years. We’ll see if it’ll continue or if America will break the parasites off its back.
Couldn’t resist:
I wonder how common this sentiment is. I’d wager it’s probably pretty common.
These people actually believe their own lies. The Syria conflict is mostly a proxy battle between Iran and Israel with their patrons(Russia for Iran/Syria and USA for Israel) on either side of the issue.
If America had cared for chemical weapons, where was it on Falluja in 2004? Where was it on Cast Lead in 2009?
Israel: slam America but keep leeching off its back.
If they feel so strongly about doing airstrikes, they have the capability.
But of course the parasite won’t do that.
some advice for the youth;
do your own fighting (and pay for your own weapons)
“‘I don’t know any Israelis who are cheering on Obama to strike,’ said a 59-year-old mother of three who moved to Israel from the States in 1996.”
As frustrated as I am with U.S. leaders and the Israeli Lobby for the “might makes right” path of destruction they both leave in their wakes, I do feel sympathy for the Israeli families who obviously simply desire peace in order to raise their families.