Netanyahu under pressure as reservists spoke against the war in Gaza

Israel’s war in Gaza grinded, but the opposition is growing.

In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reservists – from all branches of the military – have signed letters demanding the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the fight and concentrate instead of reaching a deal to return the other 59 hostages who are held by Hamas.

Eighteen months ago, few Israelis doubted the logic of war: to defeat Hamas and return the hostages.

For many January, the termination of the fire and the subsequent return of over 30 hostages have lifted the hope that the war may soon end.

But after Israel violated the cessation of fire and returned to war in mid -March, these hopes were inflated.

“We have come to the conclusion that Israel is going to a very bad place,” Danny Yatom, a former leader of the spy agency Mossad, told me.

“We understand that what is mainly bothering Netanyahu is his own interests. And in the list of priorities, his interests and the interests of having state stable stable, not hostages.”

Many of those who sign recent letters are like a Yatom, longtime prime minister critics. Some were involved in the anti -government protests preceding the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023 after Hamas’s attack on Israel.

But Yatom says that therefore he did not decide to speak.

“I signed my name and participated in the demonstrations not for any political reason, but for a national reason,” he said.

“I am very concerned that my country will lose its path.”

The first open letter, published in early April, was signed by 1000 reservists and retirees.

“The continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its declared goals,” they wrote, “and will lead to the death of the hostages.”

The signators called on the Israelis to follow their lead before the time of approximately 24 hostages expired, who were still thought to be alive in Gaza.

“Every day when it passes, it risks their lives. Every moment of hesitation is crying shame.”

During the weeks, such letters appeared from almost every branch of the military, including elite combat and intelligence units, along with a number of decorated commanders.

More than 12,000 signed all.

After October 7, hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists responded to the call, eager to serve.

But now more and more are refusing, with reports suggesting that reserve’s attendance has dropped to only 50-60%.

For a military, which depends to a large extent on reservists to wage their wars, this is an occurring crisis on a scale that has not been observed since the First Lebanese War of Israel in 1982.

In Jerusalem Listen Park, I met “Joab” (not his real name), an infantry reservist who wanted not to be identified.

Joab served in Gaza last summer, but said he would not do it again.

“I had the feeling that I had to go to help my brothers and sisters,” he told me.

“I believed I was doing something good. Complex, but well. But now I no longer see it the same way.”

The government’s determination to continue to fight Hamas as the hostages risk death in the tunnel of Gaza, Joab said, was misinterpreted.

“We are very strong and we can beat Hamas, but it’s not about Hamas’s victory,” he said. “It’s about the loss of our country.”

During his time in Gaza, Joab told me, he tried to be “the best moral soldier as a man can be.”

But the longer the war continues, the critics say, the more difficult it is to claim, as government officials often do that its military is the most moral army in the world.

In a recent column to the left of the Haarets Center, the retired General Airaj Levin said it was time for the soldiers – starting with senior commanders – to think about unsuccessful orders.

“The risk of being dragged into war crimes and suffering a fatal blow to the Israeli defense forces and our social ethos,” he writes, “make it impossible to stand idle.”

Some of Israel’s critics, including those who have filed cases before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, claim that such lines have already been crossed.

Netanyahu threw himself at the protesters, rejecting his concerns as “propaganda lies”, distributed by “a small handful of fringes – strong, anarchist and excluded retirees, most of whom have not served in years.”

But polls suggest that protest letters reflect the growing public conviction: the release of other hostages must come first.

In Tel Aviv, where noisy anti -war demonstrations have been held for more than a year, images of the hostages take place at altitudes, while other protesters sit on the road, pressing pictures of Palestinian children killed during the war.

Against the backdrop of the letters generated by the letters, such emotional displays seem to have shaken the authorities.

On April 20, police briefly told protesters that “photos of children or babies from gas” would not be allowed, along with posters showing the words “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing”.

After expression of indignation from the organizers, the police quickly gave way.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister continues to talk about his determination to defeat Hamas.

Military pressure, Netanyahu continues to insist, is the only way to get hostages home.