BY AVIGAIL ARBANEL
THE damage on the ground in Israel is far more extensive than people realise. The Israeli population is less interested in the success of their military, when they fear for their very survival, and have lost their homes.
A normal flat in Israel — most people live in flats — costs millions of Shekels, and the housing situation there is dire.
In addition to those whose homes have been directly hit, thousands of people, including entire families are evacuated from buildings whose structure is compromised by shockwaves from missiles, and by damage from shrapnel that is falling on the ground from intercepted missiles.
Israelis are not used to war in the streets of their cities, not since Saddam Hussain scud missile attacks in 1991. Areas in Israel’s cities and towns are looking increasingly like Gaza.
Since that 1991 Iraqi scud attack, Israel has introduced building regulations to install something they call ‘protective spaces’.
I didn’t know what they were and then discovered they’re basically concrete boxes that are fitted into flats and buildings for people to hide in.
In the Tel Aviv satellite town of Petach Tikvah a missile hit one of those ‘protective spaces’ directly in a flat on the fourth floor of an apartment building killing the couple sheltering inside. In another attack in the same town, a missile exploded between two of those boxes killing everyone.
The psychology behind these things is more important than their physical function. A civilian population that feels powerless to protect itself is dangerous. Powerlessness generates rage which can translate to anti-government riots.
As the impact of the missiles grows, Israeli society’s faith in those ‘protective spaces’ falters. In response, the media are bringing in experts to do damage control, and convince people that it’s still safer to shelter in one of those boxes than not to.
But missile attacks are messy and random. They cause harm in a number of complex ways, including shock waves caused by kinetic energy, which can flatten entire streets even at a considerable distance from where a missile touches the ground and explodes.
Some of the most deprived areas in greater Tel Aviv are in B’nei Brak, a predominantly religious orthodox area. It is an overcrowded neighbourhood with old infrastructure and residential buildings without shelters.
There was a public outcry after B’nei Brak was hit by missiles, because apparently public shelters were all locked, and people couldn’t get in.
One shelter in a local school that could be used by local residents was inaccessible because the school had been locked. This was mostly because of local authority incompetence.
Local councillors tried to calm the situation, but this is yet another example of Israelis losing faith in their authorities — not to mention how the ‘have-nots’ fare so much worse under Israel’s wild jungle capitalism.
The media in Israel are under orders not to disclose where Iranian missiles hit. However, it is clear enough that the damage is extensive and also widespread far beyond Tel Aviv.
No one knows the real number of casualties in Israel. They’ve stopped reporting it, except mentioning one person here or there. Israel won’t advertise the numbers, because it is bad for the already faltering public morale.
Israel’s gross economic inequalities are widely exposed now. With the poor, and not just in B’nei Brak, hit much harder, and not having anywhere to go once their flats are destroyed.
Poorer people are renting and don’t own the flats they live in.
There have been reports of disabled people unable to get to shelters. Israel is not a lovely fluffy society that takes care of its citizens. It’s harsh, unkind, and ruthless.
It is harder for Israel to maintain a patriotic spirit in a population that is now getting a taste of its own medicine, and is feeling increasingly desperate and disillusioned.
Israel’s economy has come to a complete halt, and the situation is much worse than it was during Covid. Everything is closed, and most people are not working. I can imagine the supply chains to supermarkets are broken, and it’s going to get worse. There has been some talk from the government about ‘re-opening the economy’, but I can’t imagine people leaving their families to go to the office in the morning when missiles can hit anywhere at any time.
Context
The Israeli media report that the US is still not sure whether to become directly involved in this ‘war’. As the Israeli media reported from the start, the US has always been involved and was well aware of Israel’s plans to attack Iran.
Without the US, Israel’s initial attack on Iran would not be possible. The Israeli press is clear that the success of this entire ‘operation’ against Iran depends on the US becoming directly involved.
Israel has been rumoured to have between 200-300 nuclear warheads ready to deploy. Israel has never signed or ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iran has been a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1970, but is now threatening to withdraw because of Israel’s unprovoked attack.
Israel remains the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons—despite never officially acknowledging its arsenal or being a signatory to the NPT.
Iran, on the other hand, maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has been subject to, and complied with international inspections under the NPT framework.
• While all eyes are on the new war front, Israel is tightening its grip on the colonised West Bank, which is under complete lockdown. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied West Bank ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump taking office in January 2025.
Smotrich said he had instructed the Defence Ministry’s Settlement Directorate and Civil Administration to lay the groundwork for annexation.
It will create ‘Metropolitan Jerusalem’, which would incorporate nearby West Bank settlements, fully annexing them to Israel.
While Israel is getting ready to complete its takeover of the colonised West Bank, the attacks on Gaza continue in full force.
Israel’s ultimate goal is to eliminate all Palestinian presence from historic Palestine, not matter the cost.
The rich, capitalist classes in Israel are also looking at how they can profiteer from all of this, how Gaza and the West Bank can be ‘developed’ as they become inseparable parts of Israel. Whether they are Zionists or not these people see dollar signs.
Israel is currently securing territories in Syria and South Lebanon to dump millions of Palestinians it’s hoping to ethnically cleanse from the West Bank and from inside Israel. Missiles may be raining down, but Israel’s settler-colonial project continues in full force.
Israel is a major threat to everyone, but it’s also stretched thin. That’s why the Israeli media openly say that Israel cannot complete this ‘operation’, or campaign without direct US involvement.
A ‘war’ with Iran was necessary to Israel because the world’s opinion was starting to shift because of the obvious genocide in Gaza. Israel is hoping to restore the ‘poor little Israel only defending itself from the terrible Iranians’ story, while distracting from the wider genocide of the Palestinian people.
And this isn’t war. This is wholesale carnage perpetrated by a rogue, settler-colonial state determined to have its exclusively, ‘racially-pure’, Jewish state no matter who gets hurt, including its own (mainly economically deprived) people.