A Reckoning in Israel Amid US Repression: The Global Discourse on Gaza Shifts
Introduction
While the Trump administration escalates a retroactive campaign of punishment against those who protested Israel’s war in Gaza during 2023–2024—deporting students like Mahmoud Khalil and dismantling programs like Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)—an extraordinary reckoning unfolds inside Israel. A Haaretz poll revealing 82% of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza underscores this shift, yet its truths are suppressed by pro-Israeli gate-keeping and hasbara, as will be explored in this post. Outside the US, Western governments, media, and even prominent Israeli figures are openly condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as war crimes, prompted by mounting evidence of systematic atrocities, using language that was rare until recently. The contrast between the US’s repressive actions and the global tide of accountability could not be starker.
Elite Dissenters: Whistleblowers and the Breaking of Silence in Israel
Olmert’s Bombshell: “We Are Committing War Crimes”
On May 22, 2025, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert published a searing op-ed in Haaretz’s Hebrew edition only, first revealed to English speakers in partial translated excerpts with commentary in a thread by NYU Professor Monica Marks on X. It appeared in Haaretz’s English edition four days later, behind a paywall. Olmert charged that Israel is “intentionally waging a war of annihilation: indiscriminate, unrestrained, brutal, and criminal killing of civilians,” driven by a “policy dictated by the government, knowingly, intentionally, and viciously, maliciously, recklessly.” “Yes, we are committing war crimes,” he wrote, implicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the head of the gang.”
Olmert detailed deliberate starvation: “We aimed at depriving Gaza’s residents of food, medicine, and minimal means of subsistence as part of a declared policy.” He condemned exterminationist rhetoric, noting Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan’s call to annihilate villages as a “declaration of genocide,” widespread and not isolated. He warned that these policies could lead Israel to be “rejected by the family of Western nations” and found guilty by the ICC, a stark contrast to Netanyahu’s dismissal of international accountability. Olmert’s remarks, rejecting the “gang of thugs” and far-right politicians, underscore the risk of Israel becoming a pariah state.
Yair Golan: “A Sane Country Does Not Make a Hobby of Killing Babies”
Days before Olmert’s op-ed, Yair Golan, former IDF general and leader of The Democrats party, broke political taboos with a scathing critique of Israel’s Gaza policies. In a May 20, 2025, interview with Kan public radio, Golan declared: “A rational nation does not engage in combat against civilians, does not kill infants as a pastime, nor aim to expel an entire population.” His provocative phrase—“killing babies as a hobby”—condemned the government’s extremist drift, drawing fierce backlash from the Israeli right, with Netanyahu labeling it “antisemitic blood libel” and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar calling it “unforgivable.” Golan initially stood firm, targeting policies driven by far-right ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, warning that Israel risks becoming a “pariah state” if it succumbs to this “vengeful, immoral” mindset, echoing Gideon Levy’s call to “sober up” from hatred.
Facing relentless criticism, Golan partially walked back his statement. In a May 24, 2025, Channel 12 Meet the Press interview, he clarified: “Of course Israel does not kill babies for a hobby. Israel has not commited war crimes in Gaza,” stating he meant to warn against extremist policies. He added, “I was speaking about the government, not the military,” citing Smotrich’s and Ben-Gvir’s rhetoric. On May 26, 2025, after a “constructive conversation” with Yair Lapid, Golan told reporters he won’t accept Netanyahu’s “poison machine”—the premier’s network of supporters attacking critics. This retreat, driven by hasbara’s pressure, underscores the Hebrew gate’s role in moderating dissent. Yet, Golan’s initial critique reflects a bold condemnation of the post-October 7 normalization of anti-Palestinian extremism.
Israeli Genocide Scholars Break Ranks
The reckoning extends to Israel’s intellectual class. Shael Ben-Ephraim, a genocide scholar and host of Israeli podcast, Israel Explained, publicly reversed his earlier skepticism in a May 1, 2025, Substack article and an interview with Owen Jones on his youtube channel "Owen Jones Talks." “I was wrong and Israel IS committing genocide,” he stated, citing whistleblower accounts from IDF insiders confirming deliberate policies of starvation, hospital bombings, and civilian targeting. Ben-Ephraim joins a growing list of Israeli and Jewish genocide scholars—such as Raz Segal, Omer Bartov, Samuel Lederman, and William Schabas, among others—whose expertise in international law and genocide studies leads them to conclude that Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide, as charged by South Africa in its ongoing ICJ case. Citing systematic atrocities, including starvation and civilian targeting, they can no longer defend Israel’s conduct.
The Hebrew Gate: Selective Transparency and Narrative Control
A key mechanism of Israeli gatekeeping is language. A Haaretz poll, conducted by an unnamed Penn State researcher in March 2025 and published in Hebrew (May 22, 2025), revealed 82% of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, with 47% backing their annihilation. Historians Shay Hazkani and Tamir Sorek, analyzing it in Haaretz (Hebrew), argued it reflects decades of systemic radicalization. English coverage was limited to Middle East Eye. Similarly, Israeli human rights group, Breaking the Silence’s April 2025 report on IDF atrocities—based on soldiers’ testimonies—was largely confined to Hebrew media and advocacy circles, covered in the US only by Common Dreams, to my knowledge.
This “Hebrew gate” is selective. Olmert’s op-ed, blaming Netanyahu’s “gang of thugs” and a few “bad apples,” was delayed in English,and published with a Netanyahu-as-Pinocchio caricature reinforcing the “blame Bibi” narrative. The delay suggests hasbara found Olmert’s “bad government/good society” framing less threatening than the poll’s societal complicity.
Continuity, Post-Trauma, and Amplification: Understanding Radicalization
The debate over Israeli attitudes toward Palestinians is central:
- Continuity Thesis: Advanced by such figures as Shay Hazkani, Norman Finkelstein, Illan Pappe, and Noam Chomsky, this view holds that anti-Palestinian attitudes are deeply rooted in decades of systemic factors—media, law, education, IDF culture—not merely recent trauma.
- Post-Trauma Thesis: Attributes radicalization to October 7, 2023. A 2016 Pew survey showing 45% supported Gaza expulsion disproves this, affirming continuity.
- Amplification Thesis: Recognizes that October 7 intensified anti-Palestinian attitudes, especially among moderates. Gideon Levy’s March 2024 Haaretz article urges the left to “reclaim its moral compass” post-October.
I reject the idea of a binary distinction between Continuity and Amplification perspectives. Anti-Palestinian sentiment is systemic and historically entrenched as continuity theorists state.It is also the case that October 7 normalized its intensity and public expression across political lines, as Levi, perhaps hyperbolically suggests.
The International Dimension: Lobbying, Hasbara, and the New Gatekeeping Machine
In the US and Europe, AIPAC, the ADL—under Jonathan Greenblatt, equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism—and Christians United for Israel shape discourse through lobbying and media pressure. Since 2023, AIPAC spent over $100 million on US elections, while Trump’s 2025 orders deported activists like Mahmoud Khalil and Rasha Alawieh.
Project Esther, exposed by The New York Times, escalates this. Launched by the Heritage Foundation, it unites Christian Zionists like the Joshua Network, Kushner’s Abraham Accords networks, and advocacy groups to crush pro-Palestinian activism. Branding critics, including Jewish Voice for Peace, as a “Hamas Support Network,” Esther uses surveillance and mass reporting to silence universities and activists, targeting Jewish and academic dissent. These tactics mirror Trump-era deportations of uncharged student and faculty protesters (e.g., Mahmoud Khalil and Brown University professor Rasha Alawieh).
This selective translation strategy illustrates how modern hasbara operates: voices advancing the continuity thesis (Hazkani, Finkelstein, Illan Pappe et al.) face greater suppression, while post-trauma or “bad government” narratives (Olmert) are eventually allowed. The dual system of domestic censorship and global hasbara suppresses critical voices, stifling truth as accountability grows.
The US Erosion: Repression Amid Accountability
The US under Trump doubles down on dissent. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia negotiator, and Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown professor and medical doctor, were deported despite legal challenges. Columbia lost $400 million in federal funds, and Harvard’s SEVP program was ruled illegal. The administration’s anti-“DEI” agenda entrenches this repression, despite global shifts.
Conclusion: The Walls of Denial Are Crumbling
As Israeli leaders, scholars, and whistleblowers speak out, and Western allies begin to wax more critical of the ongoing War in Gaza, Israel and the US find themselves increasingly isolated in their categorical rejection of allegations of war crimes. The US’s crackdown—deportations, arrests, defunding—contrasts with global accountability, eroding hasbara’s narrative control. As the Haaretz poll’s truths emerge, this reckoning demands accountability, judged in public conscience and courts.
Endnotes
- Olmert, Ehud. “Opinion: We Are Committing War Crimes,” Haaretz (Hebrew), May 22, 2025; Haaretz (English), May 26, 2025,
- Ben-Ephraim, Shael. Interview on The Owen Jones Podcast, Owen Jones Talks, YouTube, May 2025, https://www.youtube.com/@OwenJonesTalks.
- Ben-Ephraim, Shael. “I Used To Say Israel Was Not Committing A Genocide In Gaza. I Was Wrong. This Is Why,” The Grand Scheme, Substack, May 1, 2025.
- Asem, Sondos. “Top genocide scholars unanimous that Israel is committing genocide,” Middle East Eye, May 17, 2025,
- Rapaport, Nadav. “Nearly half of Israelis support army killing,” Middle East Eye, May 24, 2025, .
- Breaking the Silence. “The Perimeter: IDF Atrocities,” April 2025, https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/perimeter-2025; covered by Common Dreams, April 2025, https://www.commondreams.org/BTS-2025.
- Kulwin, Noah. “The Unbearable Ignorance of the ADL,” Jewish Currents, Dec. 2, 2022,
- Brownfeld, Allan C. “The ADL’s War on Free Speech,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Nov./Dec. 2023,.
- OpenSecrets. “AIPAC Spending,” 2024,
- Reuters. “US Deports Pro-Palestinian Activists,” Mar. 16, 2025,
- The Guardian. “Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Harvard’s International Students,” May 23, 2025,
- Baker, Katie J.M. “The Group Behind Project 2025,” The New York Times, May 18, 2025,
- Haaretz. “Penn State Poll: Jewish Israeli Attitudes,” May 22, 2025 (Hebrew),
- Pew Research Center. “Israeli Attitudes Toward Palestinians,” 2016,
- Levy, Gideon. “Israeli Leftists: Shake Off the Shock,” Haaretz, Mar. 12, 2024,
- Sokol, Sam. “Golan, Lapid have ‘constructive conversation,’” The Times of Israel, May 26, 2025,
- Jerusalem Post Staff. “‘Israel doesn’t kill babies for fun,’” The Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2025,
- “Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status,” Haaretz, May 20, 2025,
Note: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is cited in academic circles (e.g., Gordon, 2024), despite controversy.