Israel, 2026: Not a single voice of reason to be found among the pundits, politicians and general public, who all run to the shelters on an hourly basis but smile when they emerge, praising the Iran war and the blessings it brings. It almost makes you miss 1967
Where was it determined that wartime is also a time for stupidity? Who wrote that when the cannons roar, the muses are not only silent but ought to be ashamed? It’s been a long time coming, but what has happened to the public discourse in Israel this week is shattering all record lows.
It is impossible not to miss the victory albums and the songs of glory of 1967. “Nasser is waiting for Rabin, ay, ay, ay” is subtle compared to the garbage today. And who would have thought that we would miss, “Oh Sharm el-Sheikh, we have returned to you again.” Today, it’s “Finally we’ll be able to live free, finally we’ll be able to breathe, Israel is free, Iran is free, everyone hears the roaring lion, Hallelujah to the air force, Hallelujah to the army … You’re our great pride” (lyrics by Pnina Rosenblum).
Except we are not just talking about songs, but the public and media discourse. Ultanationalist, we’re used to it already; militaristic, that’s normal too. Everything is right-aligned, there is no room for doubt, for opposition, for question marks or anything less than respect and praise for the Israel Defense Forces – that’s also a characteristic of wartime. Silence – we’re shooting. Only patriotism in the TV and radio studios and on social media. What’s different this time is the level of the discourse, or, we should say, its unfathomably low level – never before has it been so hollow, cliched and stupefying.
A former soccer player is considered the voice of wisdom, a military-police officer the voice of morality. Every Persian Jew is a pundit. To the sock puppets otherwise known as military correspondents and their peers covering foreign affairs, who have also joined the chorus, a new cadre of analysts has been added, a type that never before filled the airwaves and social media so densely and with such exclusivity; barrages of brainwashing the likes of which have never been seen here before. That’s how it is after two and a half years without real journalism, without even minimal coverage of the war in Gaza.
Try to find even a single voice of reason, someone with something to say, who actually knows something. Not a one. For Purim, media personality Avri Gilad is an air force pilot, and the children’s entertainer Yuval Shem Tov sings in Farsi. Everyone is so gleeful: Why? Or maybe it will all end in tears. It’s unacceptable even to raise the possibility. The orgy of assassinations is in full swing, every hit a cause for celebration.
In journalist Sharon Gal‘s studio, the party is in full swing: Israeli arms sales will reach new heights, and everyone is buzzing in delight. “Assembly lines all over India. … We took India. … We need 1.4 billion Indians to manufacture for us.” What a promising, new world this war will open for us. Now it isn’t only about the redemption of the land but about money, lots of money.
The incitement knows no bounds. A protester passing a TV broadcaster at breakneck speed is a national scandal that requires severe punishment. A settler who kills two farmers elicits nothing but a yawn. A tiny European donation to a human rights organization is depicted as foreign interference in state affairs. An attempt to overthrow a regime in a foreign country by bombing it is a legitimate democratic move. How far will we go?
Any desperate attempt to hear even one intelligent voice is doomed to failure. While intelligent discussions about the war are taking place on foreign networks, here only stupidity and ignorance speak. While there, they are telling what is really happening in Iran and Lebanon; here, they are reporting from a wedding in a parking lot – unending nonsense is the main point, without substantive discussion. This is how the stupidity of the masses spreads like a radioactive cloud, destroying everything in its path.
It could get worse. Watch U.S. President Donald Trump’s “spiritual adviser,” who was appointed head of his “White House Faith Office.” An evangelist for holy war: “I hear the sound of victory. I hear the sound of shouting and singing. I hear a sound of victory. The Lord says it is done. I hear victory! Victory! Victory!” she screams in ecstasy. Soon it will be here.
Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. Levy joined Haaretz in 1982, and spent four years as the newspaper's deputy editor. He is the author of the weekly Twilight Zone feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 25 years, as well as the writer of political editorials for the newspaper. Levy was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His new book, The Punishment of Gaza, has just been published by Verso Publishing House in London and New York.
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