Orly Noy writes:

“What’s happening to you?” That was the question Yoana Gonen posed, in her recent column for Haaretz, to the so-called “leftists” vowing to vote for Israel’s right-wing former prime minister, Naftali Bennett. The fact that such a trend exists is bewildering, but the answer to Gonen’s question is clear. What is happening to these “leftists” is the same thing that’s happening to all of Israeli society: a profound and accelerating slide toward fascism.

Nine months into a war with no end in sight, the Israeli revenge campaign in the besieged, starved, and devastated Gaza Strip continues apace. This is despite the unprecedented number of casualties, the significant diplomatic cost, and the genocidal war crimes in Gaza, for which arrest warrants hover over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

It’s very difficult for a society stuck in a continuous state of trauma to evaluate or even notice the transformations it is undergoing in real time. The Israeli public is still recovering from the shock of October 7, and while the world keeps its eyes on Gaza — and rightly so — Israelis’ attention remains focused elsewhere: on the hostages still trapped in Gaza and soldiers killed there; those evacuated from their homes in the north and the south; the shattered economy; and a war in the north that could break out at any moment.

But it’s impossible to ignore how Israel has adopted a new national ethos under the auspices of this war — one that completely abandons any lip service to the idea of democracy in favor of fascist values. [Continue reading…]