Hi there,

Gideon Levy, a columnist for Haaretz and a member of its editorial board, says war fever has taken over Israel and that ‘‘there is no room for any question marks or doubts about this war.’’

“Inside Israel, “there is no room for any question marks or doubts about this war,” says journalist Gideon Levy, a columnist for Haaretz and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board”

Democracy Now!

He cites a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute showing 93% support for the war among Israeli Jews and contrasts that with what he calls the vast irrelevance of Israel’s Arab citizens, noting that 23% of them support the war.

Democracy Now!

Levy describes daily life under threat—regular trips to bomb shelters—and questions the aims and outcomes of continued military campaigns, asking what Israel has achieved after two-and-a-half years of another war that he says produced ‘‘70,000 victims, 1,000 babies killed.’

Levy criticizes Israel’s military censorship system and widespread self-censorship in the press, saying much reporting is ‘‘an agency of the government and of the military establishment.’’

He says censorship strictly limits publishing information about war damage and other material deemed counter to national security and that Israeli TV and mainstream media largely present unanimous support for the war, leaving no room for debate.

Democracy Now!

Levy also notes that Israel does not allow international journalists into Gaza and that mainstream Israeli coverage showed little of Gaza during the earlier campaign, while international audiences sometimes saw more.

Levy faults massive U.S. support for enabling Israel’s actions, saying ‘‘as long as the American support is so massive, so blind and so automatic, this will go on.’’

“Inside Israel, “there is no room for any question marks or doubts about this war,” says journalist Gideon Levy, a columnist for Haaretz and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board”

Democracy Now!

He invokes a remark he attributes to ‘‘your official ambassador, Mike Huckabee,’’ about Israel ruling from the Nile to the rivers of Iraq as an example of a U.S. view he cannot understand.

Levy says Israel is escalating beyond Gaza into Iran, Lebanon and other theatres and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared ‘‘this is not the same Iran, this is not the same Middle East’’ as Israel ‘‘initiates’’ and ‘‘attacks.’’

Levy details violence and repression in the occupied West Bank, recounting his reporting on the Abu Alla family in Qabatiya where two sons were killed ten years apart at age 17 and describing recent incidents in which settlers in uniform shot two brothers on private land, leaving one dead and one severely injured.

He says there is no meaningful investigation or justice for such killings, that villages are increasingly locked behind metal gates and likened the West Bank to ‘‘a collection of concentration camps,’’ and that settlers and the army have taken tens of thousands of acres, driven out communities, and triggered daily pogroms that force many villages to evacuate.

Democracy Now!