UP to 1,000 Israeli pilots and aircrew published a full-page letter in multiple Israeli newspapers on Thursday directly challenging prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza.
The letter, which has caused a political storm in Israel, said: ‘We, the aircrew in the reserves and retired, demand the immediate return of the hostages even at the cost of an immediate cessation of hostilities.’
In a pointed attack on Netanyahu, the letter stated: ‘The war serves primarily political and personal interests, not security interests.’
They added that the continuation of the Gaza offensive ‘does not contribute to any of its declared goals and will lead to the deaths’ of captives and Israeli occupation forces, and that ‘as has been proven in the past, only a deal can bring back’ the captives safely while military pressure mainly leads to their killing.
The letter further called on all Israelis to mobilise and demand the end of the genocide in Gaza and the return of all captives saying: ‘Every day that passes puts their lives at risk.’
According to accounts in the Israeli press, the letter was due to be published in multiple newspapers on Tuesday.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that after the document was leaked, military officials called on the signatories urging them to retract on orders from Israeli Air Force commander Tomer Bar.
On Wednesday, Bar met personally with the reservists warning that if they signed this letter they would be dismissed from the air force.
Only 25 withdrew their signatures while another eight aircraft personnel, who had not previously signed, added their signature.
In the meeting, the reservist officers criticised Bar’s threat to dismiss all signatories calling it a legal and ethical overreach, that violated their right to express political views, according to Haaretz.
Netanyahu immediately denounced the pilots and aircrew who had signed, and expressed his total support for their dismissal saying ‘statements that weaken the IDF and strengthen our enemies during wartime are unforgivable.’
In fact this open opposition from nearly 1,000 pilots and aircrew, who have been at the sharp end of the genocidal bombing of Gaza from the outset and are now experiencing the resumption, following Netanyahu’s unilateral break of the truce agreement with Hamas, is just the tip of a very large iceberg that is sinking his regime.
Two weeks ago, Israeli media reported that Israeli army leaders had expressed alarm over a ‘crisis’ rapidly unfolding amongst reservists and warned of a 50% drop in reserve soldiers reporting for duty.
According to these reports, scores of Israeli brigade and battalion commanders said they were seeing increasing numbers of reservists saying they would not serve due to the shattering by the Israeli regime of the ceasefire deal with Gaza and the complete failure to secure any of Netanyahu’s objectives.
The genocidal war on Gaza that has killed at least 50,846 Palestinians, mostly women and children, has failed to destroy the Palestinian resistance movement or crush the determination of Palestinians not to be driven from their homes and land.
This failure to achieve any military victory has caused a seismic split within the ranks of the Israeli military which itself is a reflection of the splits in civil society.
The majority of Israelis are now convinced that the sole reason for the continuation of the genocidal war is to protect Netanyahu from having to answer in the courts to corruption charges.
Every Saturday, tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrate in Tel Aviv, fuelled by fear and anger as the country sinks deeper into crisis, demanding a permanent ceasefire.
Despite all the unswerving support given to the Zionist regime by US imperialism and its allies in the UK, it is clear that Israel is splitting apart as a result of its failure to defeat the Palestinian resistance.
The time has come for the working class in the US, UK and Europe which overwhelmingly supports the Palestinians, to take action by calling mass general strikes to bring down their imperialist, genocidal supporting, governments and bring in workers governments.
These will provide all the material aid to secure the complete victory of the Palestinian people, as well as preparing the way to remove the bosses and bankers at home and bring in socialism!
