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(The following is an excerpt from Stanly Johny's 'Original Sin: Israel, Palestine and the Revenge of Old West Asia', being published with the permission of HarperCollins India. Based on his multiple reporting visits to the region and dozens of interviews, Johny traces the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict.)
After the Hamas attack, Israel launched a devastating bombing campaign on Gaza. “Israel is at war,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowing to take “mighty vengeance” against Hamas. Israel stated that it had the right to respond to Hamas's terror attack. The world stood by Israel. The United States offered full support. President Joe Biden, who travelled to Israel and met with Netanyahu and his Cabinet members, said, “I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.”
Netanyahu set two goals for the IDF. “Crush Hamas” and release the hostages. The IDF carried out air strikes across Gaza for weeks, before launching a full-scale invasion, first in the north, and then expanding to the whole of the enclave. In the initial stage, more than 1 million people in northern Gaza were ordered by the IDF to leave their homes within 24 hours. Gaza City in northern Gaza, the largest city in the enclave, was turned into a pile of rubble within weeks.
title="Latest and Breaking News on News Agency" />(The cover of Original Sin. Courtesy: HarperCollins India)
The use of disproportionate force against the enemy is a well-known Israeli method (the Dahiya doctrine). Dahiya in Lebanon was a stronghold of Hezbollah, the Shia militia. In the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israel carried out widespread bombing of Dahiya, flattening the town. In October 2008, while warning Hezbollah amid tensions in northern Israel, General Gadi Eisenkot, then head of the Army's Northern Division, said Israel would use “disproportionate force” to destroy Lebanese villages from where Hezbollah was firing rockets. “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on... From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases,” said Gen. Eisenkot, who later became Israel's Chief of General Staff and then a minister in Netanyahu's Cabinet. Post-7 October, the IDF followed the same tactics in Gaza.
In April 2024, I met an Israeli journalist, who calls himself a right-winger, in Jerusalem. We had an open discussion about the war and Israel's objectives at a restaurant in the Old City.
'This War Has A Cost'
The effects of the war were visible everywhere. When I was in Jerusalem the last time, the flea market near Jaffa Street was so crowded that I found it difficult to walk in between traders and shoppers. This time, it looked like a ghost street, with only a few shops being open. Restaurants were mostly empty. A tour guide I had met on my previous trip told me the war took a huge hit on the economy. At the Church of Holy Sepulchre, the fourth-century church that is considered the holiest place of worship in Christianity, there was hardly anyone besides our group when we visited the place in the evening. The journalist told me that like every war, “this one also has a cost. And Israelis are bearing it”.
He said 7 October changed everything. Things can't just go back to the 7 October status quo, he said. I raised the issue of collective punishment of Gazans. The journalist, a kippah-wearing, bearded man in his early forties, said there was a debate on whether the people of Gaza were culpable in the whole disaster or not.
“In what sense?” I asked him. “They voted for Hamas,” he said.
“So are you saying that they should be punished as a whole?”
“No, that's not what I am saying. Hamas is part of Gaza's society. You look at their charter. They are committed to the destruction of Israel. And they were still voted to power.”
“But in that case Likud's founding charter also lays claims to the land between the River and the Sea,” I said. “And Likud has been in power in Israel for how many years!”
“You can't compare a legitimate ruling political party with a terrorist entity,” he said.
He then told me he didn't agree with the military tactics the IDF is using in Gaza. By that time, almost all of Gaza's population had been displaced. People in the north and central Gaza had been pushed to the Rafah border in the south. There was a growing international demand to let Gazans return to their homes in the north. “Everybody says people in Gaza should be allowed to return to Gaza City and Khan Younis. But where will they go? There is not a single building standing in northern Gaza. The whole city has been brought to the ground,” he said.
“Isn't this mindless vengeance? Does this help Israel meet its long-term strategic objectives?” I asked him.
“I don't know. I don't even know if there's a strategy,” he replied.
'The War Will Be Long'
Two days later, at a Committee Room in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, I met Boaz Bismuth, a Member of the Knesset (MK) from Netanyahu's Likud Party. I asked him if he saw an end to the war. Six months into the war, Israel had not met any of its declared objectives. “The war will be long. At least one year. We are making progress. We will meet our objectives,” said the MK.
Bismuth, a bespectacled, clean-shaven, tall man with dark hair, wore a dark blue suit and tie. He seemed to be in a hurry, but was careful with the words he used. “I was also a journalist,” he said, probably recalling his stint as the editor of Israel Hayom, a Hebrew language daily. In 2022, he joined Likud and became an MK. Ever since the 7 October attack happened, Bismuth has taken a hardline position on the war, calling for erasing Hamas. “The cruel and monstrous people from Gaza took an active part in the pogrom in the Israeli settlements, in the systematic murder of Jews and the shedding of their blood, in the kidnapping of children, old people, and mothers, and in tying up babies and burning them alive!” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), on October 16. “One mustn't pity the cruel, there is no place for any humanitarian gesture—the memory of Amalek must be erased!” he added, referring to the biblical enemy nation of the Israelites.
“We have two objectives,” Bismuth told me in the Knesset committee room. “One is to bring back the hostages. And the other is to eliminate Hamas.” While asked about the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, he said, “I am not at war against civilians. I am at war against Hamas. People in Gaza elected Hamas. Still, I am not at war against them.”
For Bismuth, sustainable peace is possible in the region only if Hamas is defeated. “If we lose the war, we lose the idea of peace. If I lose, I lose everything. So, I am not going to lose it,” he said, adding that other countries, including India, should support Israel in this war instead of attacking the way Israel is conducting the war. “Every country that respects itself should call Hamas what it is—a terrorist entity.”
'We Are Aware Of The Dangers'
This was the politician's view of the war. Later in the day, I went to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, where, inside a meeting room, I met Michel Ronen, a senior diplomat who headed the Bureau of Southeast Asia at the ministry. I asked him about the diplomatic fallout of the war. By that time, much of the global opinion had turned against Israel. There were cracks in Israel's relationship with the US, its biggest backer, which was becoming increasingly impatient with the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza. “We are working to make sure that the political and international legitimacy stays for our military operations. We are aware of the dangers. We lost international support for our military operation in 1973. The UN demanded a ceasefire in three weeks. But this time, we see more flexibility,” the ambassador told me.
When I met him, Qatar and Egypt, with the blessings of the United States, were already mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Egypt. Cairo hosted the talks. I asked the ambassador about the military goals Israel had set and the role of diplomacy in the midst of the ongoing war. “We are not looking at a victory formula. We want hostages back. That's what our urgent priority is,” he said.
But will a hostage deal lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza? Hamas, which struck a limited deal with Israel in November and released some 100 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire, later demanded a permanent ceasefire for another hostage deal. “I cannot guarantee what would happen after a deal. There could be a ceasefire or there could be more attacks,” said Ambassador Ronen.
I asked him about the larger Palestine question. He gave the standard reply: Israel will continue working with its partners for peace.
“Ambassador, as a diplomat, do you still believe a two-state solution is possible?” I asked him, before wrapping up our conversation.
“Some here call the two-state solution a two-state illusion,” came his quick reply.