Israelis feel scared and abandoned — mostly by their own state
With a brutal war ongoing in Gaza, grim news on surviving hostages and increased regional hostilities, Israelis are feeling it from all angles

By David Christopher Kaufman
April 10, 2024

A deep feeling of fear has settled over Israel — not the fear of rockets from Hamas but a profound fear of the unknown. More than six months into its battle with Hamas in Gaza, Israel is facing a profound sense of existential ennui unlike anything it has experienced in its short history.

Families are canceling plans to travel abroad for the upcoming Passover break — worried that war from the north will prevent them from returning home to loved ones. Residents nationwide are stocking safe rooms and bomb shelters as that Hezbollah threat seemingly increases by the hour.

But as I learned during a recent weeklong visit, Israelis of every class and age and location increasingly feel abandoned most by their government. In a sense, how could they not? Just this week — while hostages remain missing and missiles rain down from Lebanon — the Knesset embarks on its annual monthlong vacation, stoking frustration with lawmakers as round after round of negotiations with Hamas lead nowhere.

How should we understand Israel’s progress after 6 months of war?
The weekend protests against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have returned with gusto — albeit dominated by a sense of despair that comes from battling a government most Israelis feel has failed them. The largest demonstration yet took place this past Saturday in Tel Aviv, estimated at 100,000 strong and marred by a speeding driver who plowed into the crowd, injuring five in a sign of unprecedented internal turmoil.

In cities large and small, the reminders of war are inescapable — uniformed soldiers and armed civilians, empty hotels and taxis desperate for tourists who will almost certainly not arrive. Posters hang everywhere of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas both dead and alive, each of whom is someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, in a nation far too tiny to even consider abandoning just one.

However, despite Netanyahu’s insistence on “complete victory” against Hamas, insisting that an iron fist is the only way to get the hostages home, Hamas revealed on Monday that it cannot account for 40 hostages in the first category to be released — women and men who are elderly, sick or injured.