Israelis Held Hostage by Their Government

March 16, 2026

This article is translated from the March 13 issue, #3006 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran, which Israel calls “Lion’s Roar.” Since then, the everyday life of the population of Israel has been punctuated by alerts and trips back and forth to bomb shelters to protect themselves from Iranian missiles and drone attacks, which killed 10 people by March 12.

In an effort to win public support, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeats over and over on TV that this is an “existential” war. He promises that Iran’s defeat will guarantee Israel’s security. But this war is merely the latest link in a chain of endless escalations of violence across the Middle East.

Gaza has been dropped from the headlines. But nothing has been resolved there. Palestinians continue to die in the ruins of two years of intensive bombing. In the West Bank, settlers spread more terror now than ever, safeguarded by Israeli soldiers, whose numbers have increased since the start of the war with Iran. For example, about 100 settlers were able to attack the village of Abu Falah northeast of Ramallah with complete impunity on March 8. They killed three Palestinians. “Under the cover of war, the cooperation between the military and Israeli settler militias is deepening the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank,” notes Israeli non-profit B’Tselem, which reported 15 gunshot wounds in one week. At least 1,040 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers or soldiers since the start of the Gaza war.

Distinguishing between settlers and troops is becoming increasingly difficult. Nonprofit Yesh Din reported in late February that “Israel has equipped thousands of settlers with military firearms and uniforms and given them lethal powers without adequate oversight mechanisms.” Using the war with Iran as a pretext, far-right Interior Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a statement on March 9 under the title “Jerusalem Has the Right to Arms” that 300,000 residents of the city are now entitled to carry weapons.

Netanyahu has been escalating his military policy since October 7, 2023. He boasts of being able to wage war on seven fronts simultaneously, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran. He presents each front as a new “existential war,” alleging it guarantees Israel’s security. This narrative is echoed by all Israeli political parties, which have all closed ranks behind Netanyahu and his far-right government. Under the weight of this propaganda, no wonder dissenting voices struggle to be heard in the Israeli population. Only a few dozen people bravely participated in rallies in Tel Aviv and in front of Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem recently to proclaim, “War is not normal; we must refuse to become accustomed to it.”

Beyond these protesters, certainly many Israelis are not enthusiastic about almost constantly having to wear fatigues. There is no count of how many of the 100,000 reservists called up after March 1st actually joined their units. In fact, since the war in Gaza and its proliferation of periods of reservist mobilization, only a minority of reservists have responded to the call, fewer than 40%. So now they are called “permanent reservists.” A significant portion are from far-right circles.

Netanyahu’s policies are dragging the Israeli people into endless war and a spiral of violence against all their neighbors. Peace can never come from this.

For the Israeli people to coexist with neighboring nations and with their own Arab citizens, they will have to oppose their leaders and break with the colonialist and expansionist policies pursued by successive governments of Israel since 1948. Offering the peoples of the Middle East an alternative to perpetual war means fighting warmongers like Trump, Netanyahu, and the leaders of all the imperialist powers.