(Cover Photo: © UNICEF/Mohammad Ajjour, Children walk in the wreckage of homes destroyed by airstrikes in Al Shati refugee camp in the Gaza.)
Before analyzing the war in Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe now afflicting its people, it is essential to set out a number of indisputable premises. The failures of the current Israeli government and the shocking images of Gaza’s destruction and famine must not obscure certain fundamental realities — realities whose neglect could once again plunge us into the horrors of anti-Semitism and the trivialization of the Holocaust.
1. There are legitimate criticisms of the policies of Israel’s government, its leaders, or its prime minister when he places his personal and political interests above those of the State. In the case of Israel, this is particularly serious.
2. There are also criticisms rooted in anti-Semitism, lying in wait among the most extreme sectors of our societies — the far right, the radical left, and what was once a moderate left now radicalized — ready to seize any opportunity to reveal their ugliest face under the cover of the Middle East conflict.
3. The analysis must be balanced, prudent, and, as far as humanly possible, dispassionate.
4. The State of Israel cannot be placed on the same moral level as a barbaric terrorist organization, however grave the mistakes of the current government or dramatic the consequences of its decisions. Hamas must be required to surrender and disarm immediately — as the Arab League has, in fact, unanimously demanded. Israel must halt the war and end Gaza’s humanitarian tragedy, but the moral demands on the two sides are of a very different nature. To confuse them would be a grave error.
5. The State of Israel came into being legitimately and is fully legal under international law. Its legitimacy must not be questioned under the pretext of Gaza’s humanitarian tragedy; that is precisely what Israel’s enemies have been working to achieve with Machiavellian precision and effectiveness. The security of Israel’s seven million Jews — and of the entire global Jewish community, much smaller and therefore more vulnerable than many imagine, numbering fewer than 16 million worldwide — is a moral imperative for the international community.
6. Since its founding, Israel has lived in a state of war and under the constant threat of annihilation — a reality that Europe and much of the rest of the world fail to grasp. Israel exists in a state of permanent existential risk.
The Terrorist Barbarity of October 7
The war in Gaza began with the brutal and merciless assault by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which left nearly 1,300 dead and 250 people kidnapped. Hamas wants this situation to drag on indefinitely. The fate of the people of Gaza — or of Palestinians as a whole — is of no concern to it. For such a bloody and sophisticated terrorist organization, civilians are cannon fodder, human shields, bargaining chips, and hostages to murderous power. Gaza has lived under Hamas’s terror since 2007; Gazans are its first and foremost victims, not its accomplices.
Legal and Political Stakes
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political and judicial future is extraordinarily complicated. The end of the war would almost certainly mean the fall of his coalition government, new elections, and a change of leadership — precisely what Netanyahu wishes to avoid or delay at any cost, even if that means immorally prolonging a war that began with full justification and legitimacy.
There have been open fractures. Benny Gantz’s resignation from the war cabinet in June 2024, citing the absence of a plan for “the day after,” marked a turning point. The government’s dependence on its ultranationalist core has only further blocked any chance of a way out of the crisis.
Social Protest in Israel
Citizen mobilization has been sustained and massive: weekly demonstrations, strikes, and blockades, with the Hostages’ Families Forum as the moral epicenter. Placards reading “Deal Now” and “Bring Them Home” express a cross-cutting demand: an agreement that saves the lives of the abducted and tortured and brings the war to a responsible end.
The humanitarian plight of Gaza’s civilian population deeply shocks the conscience of most Israelis and of the global Jewish community — a concern voiced passionately in public statements and media appearances by figures such as Homeland actor Mandy Patinkin and British Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter). Both have called the prolongation of the war immoral, denouncing the deaths of civilians, the humanitarian disaster, and the famine as unacceptable. Patinkin has urged the Israeli government to halt the war immediately, warning that it is endangering Jews worldwide.
The Devastation of Gaza
The level of material destruction and humanitarian collapse in Gaza is without recent precedent in the region — perhaps without precedent in conflicts since the end of the Second World War. Ninety-five percent of buildings in the Strip have been destroyed. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated in April 2025 that about 70 percent of structures were damaged or destroyed, and by May the World Health Organization reported that 94 percent of hospitals had been damaged or destroyed. A thematic report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented attacks on at least 27 of Gaza’s 38 hospitals between October 2023 and June 2024. The NGO Physicians for Human Rights–Israel has described this pattern as an annihilation of the health system, leaving 2.2 million Gazans without adequate medical care.
The Letter from 550 Israeli Security Leaders
In August 2025, more than 550 former senior Israeli security officials — including former heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet — signed a public letter urging Washington to force an end to the war and secure the release of hostages. They warned of the continuing strategic harm to Israel’s future and reputation. Their message was unequivocal: criticizing the current government is not anti-Israel — quite the opposite. Persisting in a strategy with no political horizon erodes Israel’s security, worsens the vulnerability of Jewish communities worldwide, and fuels new waves of anti-Semitism.
The “Day After” That Never Comes
It is tragic that the current Israeli government entirely lacks a postwar strategy. Urgent questions remain unanswered:
– Duration of the occupation: In August 2025, the security cabinet approved taking control of Gaza City, and the prime minister spoke of “total military control” over the territory — with no plan for stable governance. Temporary — but until when? With what exit strategy?
– Security guarantees after withdrawal: Who will secure the borders, tunnels, weapons, and public order? Israeli and international debates have floated multinational forces or Arab or international stabilization mechanisms, but there is no agreement or mandate.
– Civil authority: Washington has proposed reviving a reformed Palestinian Authority; Netanyahu rejects this. Arab states discuss transitional arrangements and a reconstruction fund of up to $20 billion, conditioned on a credible political path.
– Reconstruction: World Bank and UN estimates put recovery needs at around $53 billion over ten years, with $20 billion in the first three. The total destruction of roughly 80 percent of the built environment and the collapse of productive infrastructure demand a realistic Marshall Plan with strict controls to prevent corruption or misappropriation.
– Preventing the rearmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad: Without border control and a legitimate monopoly on force, Gaza will once again be swallowed by Hamas’s war and terrorism. Without a two-state solution, there will be no sustainable peace.
Conclusions
1. Dual moral and legal responsibility: The starting point is the terror of October 7 — a war crime and a crime against humanity committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with the support of Iran and Hezbollah.
2. The war’s objective cannot be Gaza’s functional annihilation or the collective punishment of 2.2 million people.
3. Israel needs a political strategy, not just tactical superiority: occupying more territory without an exit plan erodes deterrence, drains legitimacy, divides allies, and deepens the trauma within its own society.
Criticizing the current Israeli government (the Government of Israel or its prime minister is not Israel) for its conduct of the war, the humanitarian disaster, the deaths of innocent civilians, the famine — as former President Trump noted, “you can’t fake famine” and what is seen in Gaza is a tragedy — is not anti-Israel. If human rights violations have occurred, they must be investigated, and those responsible brought before Israel’s courts.
Condemning Gaza’s horror and the suffering of its civilians is not anti-Israel, and certainly not anti-Semitic. To think otherwise is to do the State of Israel a grave disservice. Israel is a democracy with separation of powers, even if some reforms promoted by Netanyahu seek to weaken judicial independence. The only path that does not lead to another war is one that combines justice, security, and politics — in that order.
Gustavo de Arístegui is a Spanish Diplomat, Author and was Spain’s ambassador to India (2012-2016).
(Cover Photo: © UNICEF/Mohammad Ajjour, Children walk in the wreckage of homes destroyed by airstrikes in Al Shati refugee camp in the Gaza.)
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