Summary
Author of Chapter 24 of From the River to the Sea, “Reality denial: the war to resuscitate the myth” (11 December 2023), on the IDF as the institution that made the Israeli nation and on the 2023 Nakba (From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, lines 1861-1929).
Details
- In his account the Israeli rift of 2023 was not left against right — “There is no Socialist left in Israel, and in a deep sense there never has been” — but a struggle between two groups jostling for power (lines 1867-1869).
- The nation Ben-Gurion wanted was a nation at arms: as late as 1954 he wrote, “For thousands of years we were a nation without a state. Now there is a danger that Israel will be a state without a nation.” (line 1885)
- He argues the IDF has not won a clear victory since 1967 and never fought another regular army after 1973, and that the debate over Israeli fire on 7 October 2023 — confusion or the Hannibal Directive — is likely to have been a combination of both factors (lines 1903-1909).
- Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel’s official report, as summarized by Yuval Abraham, “clearly and unmistakably recommends the transfer of Gaza civilians as the preferred outcome of the war” (lines 1917-1919).
Related pages
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, Haganah, Hannibal Directive, One-state solution