I Was Born Into “Peace”, and I Didn’t Like It

The war in Iran makes me think a lot about the upcoming future; about the new era awaiting us in the history of the State of Israel. An era that most of us have never experienced, but our children will grow up in – the era of victory.

My Childhood in the Era of Peace
I was born in 1990, the beginning of the “peace” era. The first decade of my life was led by people who pursued peace but brought only destruction, violence and conflict. Behind the backs of left-wing voters, and even left-wing elected officials, political operatives wove a “peace deal”. As part of it, they held talks with contacts of the PLO terrorist organisation who were abroad at the time, and with the help of a media monopoly, they sold their “peace” to politicians and the leftist public, who up to that point had never even considered the idea of negotiating with an Arab terror organisation.

My childhood was filled with cultural and media propaganda in favour of that peace with murderers of Jews, from songs with infantile lines like “You promised to keep your promises” (from the song: Winter 73), or “Here the joy of victory and songs of praise will not help” (from: Song for Peace), to ensuring that every Israeli film about war portrayed the IDF as the villains or at least as something morally ambiguous with no clear justification. The way people spoke about the agreements and the future was completely utopian and fictional. Today we’re used to the term “messianic” being a derogatory term for religious right-wingers, but the “wolf shall dwell with the lamb” rhetoric of the left in the 90s was so messianic that it makes religious Zionists, or evangelical Christians, look like a bunch of atheist physicists. “The end of wars, the era of peace, Gaza Strip will compete with Singapore” (headline in Yedioth) – all this utopia while Israelis were being murdered in the streets by our “partners” in the upcoming deal. Parents told their children that they probably wouldn’t be drafted into the army, because by the time they grew up there would be no more wars. It was a bizarre time to be a child, or even an adult.

This propaganda wasn’t limited to civilian life, as it was mainly retained in the army and security apparatus. In order to legitimise the abomination called the PLO, “ethics experts” from academia were brought into the IDF to build a programme to steer soldiers, who until then were used to shooting at the PLO, into working with them. This was the birth of what is now called the “Conception”. This isn’t referring to a specific decision by elected officials about how many workers to let in from Gaza or the West Bank, but rather the IDF mindset I served in and that remained intact until the seventh of October: that the worst thing a soldier can do is shoot at an Arab criminal unless we can prove 100% that he’s a terrorist.

All this information about the weaving of the Oslo Accords and its consequences comes from a 3-part series by journalist Akiva Bigman available on the YouTube channel “Useful Idiots”. I highly recommend watching it, especially for people like me who were kids then or not yet born and want to understand the sequence of events that worsened Israel’s security over the past three decades.

It’s important to say about Oslo and the “era of peace” that certain leaders attempted to force on Israel, which the people resisted with all their might. However, against the media monopoly it was an uphill battle. Later came other major milestones that set up the 7.10 attack, including the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon that brought Hezbollah to the northern border (2000), and the disengagement that brought Hamas to the southern border (2005). The indoctrination that was installed at the top of the IDF in the 90s tightened its grip on Israel’s security, and led Israeli commanders to fear the Supreme Court’s rulings more than the potential murder of Jews.

That was my childhood, an Israel retreating into itself, a hegemony of experts and their spokespeople handing over more and more land of ours with the absolute belief that just a few more square metres transferred to the other side would make the Arab world and Palestinians into our best friends, sing Hatikvah, and wave Israeli flags.

My Son’s Childhood, in War
My eldest son was not born into peace, he was born six months into the Iron Swords War. A war that started with a catastrophe similar to the start of the Yom Kippur War, and is now approaching a victory similar to the Six-Day War. For the first time since the First Lebanon War in 1982, the State of Israel captured territory instead of retreating from it. The State of Israel is destroying its enemies instead of pushing them away from the border, the State of Israel is winning again, big time. We uprooted Hezbollah from the north, we are uprooting Hamas from the south, we destroyed the Syrian army, and now we are destroying the strike capability of the regional power Iran, in a joint attack with world forces which we initiated, are leading, and setting the pace of.

My son was born into a more serious Israel, connected to reality, an Israel that believes it can – and must – win. I have never lived in such a time, the only period similar to what awaits us after the war is the one that came after the Six-Day War. National pride. Faith. Flourishing of settlements. Flourishing of industry, especially the blue-and-white weapons industry, and security, real security. Not the security of “we’ll sing a song for peace” and it’ll be fine, but the kind of security where if you mess with us, your country’s gone.

And if I said that the bloody period of my childhood was brought by the messianic peace-seekers of Oslo, this era of victory was brought by someone else, someone who was there and fought in an impossible battle that lasted over 30 years, and it’s time to talk about that man.

The Man Who Turned Yom Kippur into the Six-Day War
How did Netanyahu emerge from the tragedy of the seventh of October and turn it into a victory reminiscent of the Six-Day War? I’m sure historians and publicists will provide endless technical and logistical explanations for Netanyahu’s and Israel’s moves in this war and the decades leading up to it, but no one will be able to properly explain the greatness of the man – the man who fought all his life against persecution and slander from both the left and the right.

He outlined his vision for Israel 30 years ago in his book A Place Among the Nations, where he argued that the source of peace agreements with Arab states was Israeli expansion and the demonstration of undeniable power, not withdrawals and concessions. He realised that vision in the Abraham Accords during the first term of US President Donald Trump from 2016 to 2020. That same vision, with the addition of a free-market outlook and a return to national pride at the expense of the left’s “global humanism”, he has promoted all his life. And he and his family have been persecuted for that work in an unprecedented manner. Not just with blood libels from the media, but also in violent mass demonstrations the left carries out in the streets near his home. They have also participated since 2019 in baseless indictments leading to a still ongoing trial, against all common sense. 

The hostility and scepticism towards Netanyahu doesn’t only come from the left, but also comes from the right. Not violently or through legal persecution, but I’ve spent plenty of time in right-wing circles with influential people, and there’s no shortage of dislike for this man. A man whose every brilliant and visionary move is taken for granted, and whose every neglect of a topic no one had addressed until it exploded is seen as ignorance and personal failure. Every one of his promises is met with extreme distrust, and anyone who does believe them is immediately labelled a sucker or a “Bibist” (a pejorative for supporters of Netanyahu). This remains the case on the right, even after the first hostage deal, when they didn’t believe Netanyahu’s promise we’d return to fighting. It continued through the second deal, before Trump entered the White House this past January, and continued right up to our current strike on Iran. There has never been a person who fulfilled such grand promises and received so little benefit of the doubt.

This turnaround in the war, reliant on the actions he carried out, could not have been achieved by any other leader, not even David Ben-Gurion. It’s true that Ben-Gurion fought his wars without the technology and without the strong economy of modern Israel (which Netanyahu is also responsible for), but Ben-Gurion didn’t have to face so many internal enemies. Ben-Gurion didn’t suffer protesters storming his residence, or flares shot at his house, or his wife being besieged in a Tel Aviv salon. Ben-Gurion wasn’t the defendant in a trial that dragged him away during planning of strikes in Lebanon, Syria, and probably Iran too, and while still recovering from surgery. Ben-Gurion didn’t face a media pushing him to surrender to Arab states. Ben-Gurion didn’t have to fight a Chief of Staff and Shin Bet head who tried to shut him out of field developments. And Ben-Gurion didn’t have to work around a Defence Minister and senior officials who leaked his plans to a hostile American administration (the Biden administration).

We Need a New Holiday
The complete victory that is still on its way is so unprecedented that we need a new holiday to mark it. We need a holiday that combines Purim, because of the renewed victory over the Persian Empire, and Hanukkah, because of the victory over the Hellenists Jews who still try to obstruct us. A new holiday raises many questions, firstly, in true Jewish fashion, what will the food be? Maybe baklava (to celebrate the elimination of the leaders of our enemies)? Maybe canned tuna or another element from army rations (like matzah and the food the Israelites took on their journey)? What customs will we have? Will there be a scroll, like on Purim? Or maybe a whole book recounting Netanyahu’s tribulations, from which we’ll read excerpts – like the Book of Maccabees on Hanukkah.

Many decisions lie ahead, and I’m sure we’ll choose the right way to celebrate the entrance into this new era of Israeli history.

One Last Personal Thing
I’ve always supported Netanyahu. That’s made me seem less educated, or naïve, or a sucker, and not just in leftist circles. Even intellectuals on the right hesitate to support Netanyahu, and when they do, they often pin it on complex justifications linked to his desire to maintain public favour and avoid risk in order to stay in power. That’s never been my reason, I’ve always believed he means what he says and does what he can pragmatically for the good of the country.

And this direct war with Iran is the greatest vindication of the trust I’ve placed in him. My trust in Netanyahu has never been blind. I’ve always judged his actions, and I believe that if you’re willing to wait a bit and not get swept up in the emotional storm of the moment, then you will not once be disappointed in him or his intentions. Yes, after many years of justified actions, I’ve always been willing to accept the “compromises” he made along the way with patience, faith, and support, because his history justifies that more than any other leader or politician. And that patience and support have always paid off, in both hostage deals, in the strike on Lebanon, and now in the massive attack on Iran.

I’m glad for every time I chose to back this great man in conversations and at the ballot box, glad especially that we were fortunate enough to have such a leader and to be part of the change in direction he brought about, and happiest that soon my son and I will live in the era of victory he’s been planning since 1995.