War Is the Opiate of the Israeli Masses, by Gideon Levy

From news panelists salivating over the possibility of a strike on Iran to the public’s jubilation at the promised ‘total victory’ over Israel’s enemies, the country seems to have a very short memory, stupefied by war after war

 Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 1/3/2026

It’s wartime again, with the war, yet again, coming to solve Israel’s existential problems once and for all.

It will again be declared a stunning victory at first, with everyone applauding, with Yair Lapid writing that we are a strong and united nation and with analysts competing over who can laud Israel’s brave feats more, all of this until the next satisfying venture.

Again, almost all Israelis are convinced that there is no war more justified or successful than this one, and "what choice did we have?" and "what do you propose?" as in all of Israel’s wars. This cheering could already be heard in TV panels on Friday evening, with salivating panelists eagerly waiting for this moment as if they were waiting for the Messiah. The release came Saturday, lasting only until the next round of pleasure, which will arrive earlier than expected.

If Israel once enjoyed a few years of quiet between wars – eight from the 1948 war to the Sinai Campaign, 11 between that one and the Six-Day War, six to the Yom Kippur War, nine to the first Lebanon war and 24 to the second one – now we have only a few months between one war and the next. Once, the promises made after each war reached the sky, the delusional sky of the war’s instigators and supporters, who include almost all Israelis. "No shell, no Katyusha rocket will fall again on our communities," promised Menachem Begin at the end of the first Lebanon war. "The blood was not in vain," promised Ehud Olmert after the second.

Last June, just eight months ago, total victory over Iran was declared. Benjamin Netanyahu said the opening salvo would go down in Israel’s military history and be studied by armies around the world. "At the decisive moment, a nation like a lion [the Hebrew name of the war is ‘Roaring Lion’] rose, and our roar rattled Tehran and resounded around the world." The lion’s roar quickly turned out to be the squeak of a mouse.

The "historic victory" which removed "two existential threats to Israel, the nuclear and the ballistic missile ones," lasted as long as the life of a butterfly. A few months of historic victory and we already need a new one. We haven’t yet recovered from the bombastic name Operation Rising Lion and have been hit by a new one, Operation Roaring Lion – an even more infantile name. It sometimes seems that all we need is these swaggering names given to wars to predict their foreordained failure.

No war in Israel’s history, except for the first, brought it a long-term achievement. None. Zero. Most were wars of choice, and the choice to embark on them was always the worst. On Saturday, the opening of the current war was presented as a "preemptive strike," but a preventive attack is launched against someone who is about to attack you. Iran was not about to do so. It’s true that it has a horrific regime and it’s true that it has posed a danger to Israel’s and the region’s security for years.

But it was never the existential danger as presented in Israel. One should obviously hope that this time will be different, as we believed in all the other wars at their onset, but past experience leaves little room for this to happen. Even if the regime in Tehran is toppled and Iran becomes Switzerland and a peace treaty is signed between it and Israel for eternity, Israel will find another voodoo doll to intimidate us with.

The "once and for all" we are promised will never be attained by sword, nor even with F-35 jets. It may be too late to say this, but as long as the occupation continues, as long as it remains the absolute "once and for all" here, there will be no other "once and for all."

After two and a half years of zero accomplishments in Gaza; after the same amount of time with small and insignificant achievements against Hezbollah in Lebanon; after eight months since the last attack with no achievements against Iran, it’s time to sober up from the intoxication with wars and their futile promises.

Blood will now flow like water, America will never forget that we pushed it into this war, at the end of which we’ll wake up to just another old dawn.