'Hamas isn’t going anywhere': Amos Harel on the hard realities facing Trump and Netanyahu in postwar Gaza
Who doesn't remember Benny Gantz, while serving as vice premier, admitting that every morning he would tell his wife, "I don't want to go to school"? And she would reply, "Benny, but you're part of the administration."
Who would have believed that this innocent joke would become reality? Not long ago, the principal rebuked the crowd that booed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lest this embarrass the uncles from America.
Who doesn't like Gantz? And yet, it's hard to ignore his – and our own – childish longing to once again be without responsibility.
MK Benny Gantz at a press conference in central Israel, August.Credit: David Bachar
What stood out above all in U.S. President Donald Trump's speech to the Knesset this week were the faces of the people present. The governing coalition, the opposition, ministers and Knesset members – all radiated joy. Not political joy, but the joy of children just stepping off a ride at the amusement park, clutching their cotton candy.
It was the joy of liberation. Blessed be He who has freed us from the burden of sovereignty, from the weight of responsibility, from the need to decide.
Apparently, our representatives' deepest desire is a peaceful takeover of Israel. Their gut was crying out: "Take it from us!"
And Trump came – and took it. Not alone, of course: he brought his daughter and son-in-law, his special envoy, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
What a sigh of relief! Their military chief gets along splendidly with ours.
And Trump has already warned: "If Hamas violates the deal, I'll give the word for the IDF to resume fighting."
He'll give the word.
Like a woman surrendering herself to her lover, Israel shed the corset of sovereignty that had been choking her and yielded, with pleasurable submission, to Trump.
Take it all – Gaza, the conflict, the borders, the accountability to the world.
Liberate us!
And our president, Isaac Herzog, was happy too. How he would love for Trump to take from him the power of pardon, to free him from the nightmare of Netanyahu's trials – to relieve him of the burden of decision.
To let him be everyone's president: to comfort mourners, hand out prizes, light torches, eat jelly doughnuts on Hanukkah – with no dilemmas, no responsibility, no real state.
Who doesn't remember six-year-old Romi, sitting in a car in Sderot on October 7, asking the police officers, "Are you Israel's?"
Yes, they were.
But it turns out that Israel itself belongs to America. The idea that sovereignty entails total responsibility is too lofty for contemporary Israelis. The right to self-determination – realized with the founding of the state – has withered into empty talk of self-definition without any responsibility.
The Nation-State Law has reduced Israel's "self" to Jews only; even the Druze, our blood brothers, were excluded. All the more so the Arab minority. Our inability to be sovereign has proven decisive. The inner urge to be subject to some higher authority has prevailed.
We all belong to Trump now – and what a collective pleasure that is!
- I held up this sign at the Knesset as a mirror of truth – to Trump and the public
- Trump's most important words came before his Knesset speech
- Trump in Jerusalem: When Israel's Knesset went full MAGA
Did we truly want a state, to be a nation like all others? Or only an upgraded ghetto, with a gate that locks from within, a nuclear reactor, a free market, and internet?
No ingratitude could be more shameful than what the Knesset displayed this week toward President Joe Biden. It was he who, the day after October 7, showed up, lifted the government off the floor, strengthened us, comforted us, and provided both security and existential protection.
With a single word – Don't – he made it clear to Iran and Hezbollah not to intervene. But he didn't take the reins from us. He didn't redeem us from responsibility. And for that – precisely for that – we will hate him.
Because what we truly wanted, as it turns out, was for someone bigger and stronger to tell us: "Come on, sweetheart, everything's fine. Let me take care of everything. You just rest."
And now, we've been liberated. We've returned to our natural condition: being dhimmis – protected subjects.
Just like we used to be.