Since its establishment 73 years ago this spring, Israel has been at war, or in a state of war, most of the time. The peace accords with Egypt and Jordan have improved the security status of Israel significantly but the Northern border has been a continued source of tension, in particular with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while in the south the Gaza strip has become a hotbed of Hamas terrorism since the area was vacated by Israel in 2005. At greater distance, while the Abraham accords have resulted in normalization with at least some of the Arab states, the big worry for Israel has been Iran, which has been developing nuclear weapons for quite some time now and has threatened to destroy Israel.
Israelis have come to rely on their armed forces, the IDF and all its branches, for their safety and security and they have been able to sleep in peace knowing the Army is out there.
No doubt, the Israeli army is continuously on some level of alert and protects Israel’s borders to the best of their ability. And, in order to be able to do this, undoubtedly, the army is continuously reviewing their contingency plans, their options for effective defense, the resources required etc., etc. But this is, naturally, being done outside of the public eye, defense strategies are not shared with the public on a regular basis, nor is personnel deployment.
During the past few years, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has always believed that keeping Israelis afraid is an excellent political strategy, has extensively discussed the situation with Iran, and has often described in detail the dangers coming from Teheran as well as the solutions Israel has to counter the Iran threat. After a while, most people realized that, while the dangers arising from Iranian nuclear development are real and need to be dealt with, the intense media coverage, the public declarations of Netanyahu and his cronies, were mostly intended to show the Israeli public what they need to be scared off and who their savior will be.
With the Corona crisis taking center stage, Netanyahu realized that this threat is much more real, and thus a much more effective tool to keep Israelis scared and with that under his control, and he abandoned the public descriptions of the Iranian threat almost completely and focused on scaring us with the virus, while at the same time of course making sure everybody knows who is the savior, the Santa Claus, that brought the vaccines to Israel and saved the Jewish people.
So why, in the past weeks, the Israeli press is given all kinds of updates regarding the readiness of the Israeli army on all fronts, the possible responses to Iranian aggression, and the actions Israel will be “forced” to take if Iran reaches nuclear status. And this time it is not only Netanyahu who plays the military card. The IDF itself has published details of troop deployments, exercises done, and alertness levels being raised, both on the Lebanese border as well as in the south at the Gaza strip. Detailed descriptions of extensive exercises performed by the air force in the north and descriptions of maneuvers in the south to prepare the army for Hamas aggression. And naturally, these reports would never have come out without the explicit approval of the Defense minister, Benny Gantz
The most vividdescriptions of what Israel will do to Iran, were given by Benny Gantz himself, who talked about the list of Iran-backed targets in Gaza that the Air Force will strike, and about the updated plans of the IDF to strike Iran itself. He stopped short of revealing the battle plans in further detail but the warning to Iran was clear Israel is ready and will strike if necessary.
But was that indeed what it was? A warning to Iran? Or should we remember that the Israeli elections are only two weeks away and Defense minister Gantz is also the leader of the Blue and White party, that is teetering on the election threshold and may not return to the Knesset? The success of Netanyahu surely taught Gantz that showing the Israeli public the military prowess of the IDF, while at the same time warning them of the dangers awaiting them, has worked so well in Israeli politics that it seems he has given it a try himself. His problem is that the Israeli public is already so wary of this fearmongering of Netanyahu, that the fact that now Gantz is giving it a try does not leave much of an impression. And Gantz should be aware that Netanyahu is already worried that the effect of him being the Corona savior is already wearing off, and the public is rapidly getting tired of being scared with a disease while at the same time being allowed almost everything that was allowed before the crisis (restaurants, theaters, weddings, parties etc.). So probably soon, and a lot will depend on what the Corona situation will be next week, Netanyahu will remember how well the Iran issue has helped him convincing the Israeli public to support him that he may go back to it in a last minute effort to sway the public opinion his way. And Gantz should know that Netanyahu is a whole lot better at it then he is.
The main question remains of course, when will the Israeli public learn to see through the chicaneries of their politicians and start to think for themselves. Or is that too much to ask?
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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