For a Leading Israeli Anti-Zionist, the Plight of Two Peoples Is Less Important Than Her Moral Preening

Founded in 2004 by IDF veterans, Breaking the Silence aims to expose the supposed wrongdoings of the Israeli military in the West Bank. In her recent Hebrew-language book Who Do You Think You Are?, Yuli Novak, who served as the group’s director until 2017, reflects on the internal turmoil she has experienced in the ensuing years and explains how she came to reject Zionism altogether. Einat Wilf finds the book cliché-ridden and solipsistic, while the author comes across as a “petulant child.” Moreover, writes Wilf, Novak’s argument rests on false premises:

The first is that Jewish citizens of Israel do not know what is involved in exercising military control over Palestinians in the West Bank. . . . If they knew, they would end it. Therefore, there is a need to “break the silence” surrounding the “occupation. This is a tantalizing idea. It appeals to the human desire to uncover dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. . . . It also confers a halo of martyrdom on those willing to break the so-called silence.

If only. The last thing surrounding Israel’s military control of the West Bank since 1967 is silence. From the moment Israel’s military has come to control the West Bank area captured from the kingdom of Jordan, following King Hussein’s ill-fated decision to follow the charismatic Nasser into that disastrous war, there has been nothing but noise about it. Articles, interviews, reports, commentaries, documentaries, photos, video footage, movies, political debates, UN resolutions, international pronouncements, NGOs, movements, posts, tweets, memes. . . . There is no silence to be broken.

Almost all of those who serve or have served in Israel’s military had to contribute to maintaining that military control, from intelligence gathering to incarceration to boots on the ground. Israelis who serve in the military talk. Israeli Jews (and Arabs) are not known for their reticence in the use of words.

Worse, the entire book centers around the author’s feelings about morality. She felt “Breaking the Silence” was the moral thing to do. And then “it didn’t work out anymore,” “it was too difficult,” “it was in my head,” “something was broken inside me and I didn’t know what,” “I couldn’t anymore,” “It was too much responsibility,” “too much fear,” “too much loneliness.” It just didn’t “feel” right.

Read more at Tel Aviv Review of Books

More about: Anti-Zionism, Breaking the Silence, West Bank

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023