Israel is witnessing indicators that are increasingly penetrating the popular consensus towards the war on IranAmid criticism began to infiltrate the leftist parties, at a time when the home front is exposed to escalating pressure due to the repeated Iranian attacks, the waves of military spending, and the absence of any time horizon to end the confrontation.
The writer specializing in Israeli affairs, Ihab Jabareen, believes that the scene at the Israeli interior began to disintegrate on two parallel levels: the official media level that continues to cover events with the logic of mobilization, and the societal level that began to highlight questions and criticism, especially from left -wing parties still in the margin of public discourse but they are widely taken.
Speaking to Al -Jazeera, Jabareen explained that the speech of “unity in wartime”, which prevailed during the early days of the confrontation, began to be eroded. With the increasing Iranian strikes and the intensification of losses, some Israelis are asking about the ability of state institutions, especially health and defense, to withstand.
These challenges coincided with the loss of the vision about the results of the attack on Iran, as there is no accurate information about the efficacy of Israeli strikes, which weakens the street’s confidence in the military and political leadership, and enhances the feeling that Israel entered this war without a clear exit plan.
Chronological ceiling
What raises concern among the Israelis – according to Jabareen – avoids the talk of the military establishment about a specific time limit for operations, which brought back to mind the previous scenarios in Gaza and Lebanon, and thus talking about a “without horizon” war drives the community to ask about the high price that will pay it from its security and economy.
He believed that the situation inside the Israeli front was no longer similar to what was going on during the war on Gaza StripAs the losses were limited to the soldiers, but today the strikes affect civilians directly, and damage their homes and properties, and their shoulders are burdened with high economic costs.
The Israeli Prime Minister seeks Benjamin Netanyahu To contain internal anger through a tactical discourse that puts war within the framework of the “crucial battle”, as Jabareen believes that Netanyahu is trying to present himself as a leader of a historic moment, but at the same time he suffers from erosion in his credibility, especially with the continued losses and the aggravation of the crisis.
With his fear of the consequences of the internal rebellion, Netanyahu is counting on the idea of ”writing history” as he is the one who leads the confrontation against Iran, and Jabareen adds that the Israeli media suffers from a “local paralysis” that made it fully recruited for the official account, similar to what happened in the early days of the October 7 attack.
An existential battle
The Netanyahu government promotes war as an existential battle, according to Jabareen, in an attempt to dissolve the differences between emotional and rational dimensions, and convincing the street that any internal accountability is a betrayal of the defense line for Israel.
However, the voices linking the Iranian attack with the palaces in official policies, especially with regard to warning of the outbreak of such a scenario for months without actual move.
It indicates that some of the voices in the opposition are beginning to criticize the continuation of the war without a clear political or military vision, wondering about the feasibility of continuing the open conflict, considering that the absence of prior planning makes the country hostage to external positions, most notably the American position, which has played a direct role in controlling the course of confrontation.
In a related context, Jabareen stated that the Israeli army described the current battle as “the most complex in the history of the state”, while the Israeli Finance Committee announced its intention to raise the defense budget by about 30.6 billion shekels, raising widespread questions about the ability of the state and citizens to bear the escalating burdens.
And it confirms that the cost of daily war is approximately 200 million shekels, which puts huge pressure on the public budget, and threatens the economic welfare of the Israelis. He also pointed out that this war is not the first that Israel lives without clearly or at the end, in similarity with the experience of southern Lebanon between 1983 and 2000.
According to Jabareen, the Israeli citizen evokes the high prices that the state paid at the time, including inflation and radical economic transformations, but so far it does not feel its direct slowdown thanks to government support mechanisms.