What on earth is Israel barreling towards? - opinion

I love this country, have lived here for 41 years, and would not want to live anywhere else, but... I have the uncomfortable feeling that we are barreling full speed towards the edge of a cliff, not knowing how to apply the brakes and, even worse, with no plan as to what we will do after we apply those brakes and come to a stop short of the cliff’s edge.

The war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of many hundreds of our best young people, seems to just continue, although it is difficult to understand for what purpose. Does anyone know? The strip has been virtually denuded, Hamas has been defanged, and its leader was killed. We know there is no way to eliminate Hamas 100% and there are still about 100 of our citizens being held there as hostages whose situation deteriorates by the day. Is there anything we can achieve by continuing the war? If so, have such objectives been shared with us, and are they even achievable? Doubts abound.

Reservists, who a year ago reported to duty at the rate of 130% of those who were called, are now not reporting in numbers large enough to concern the IDF. In the last few weeks, reporting percentages were down 15-25%, according to one source, and it is being felt by the fighting units in both Gaza and Lebanon.

In the midst of it all, Justice Minister Yariv Levin has just cynically issued a call to put the matter of judicial reform back on the table, conveniently forgetting that it was that issue that created the monumental cleavage in our society in the run-up to October 7th. And on the far right, of course, there are new calls for establishing sovereignty over all of biblical Israel and reoccupying Gaza.

Concomitantly, our economy is being degraded not only by the incredibly high financial cost of the multiple wars we are fighting but also by the reluctance of investors to fund smaller start-ups that, traditionally, have been the engine of growth for Israel’s technological development. A number of such companies have already made plans to locate elsewhere.

All of this is worrisome for sure. More and more, it becomes clear that as long as we live here, we will need to be continually vigilant and do everything to protect our borders while understanding that the next war will always be right around the corner.

Given all of this, the most worrisome aspect is that we who live here have no idea if the government has a plan for this country once the current wars end, as they surely will. For example: Is there a government agency charged with the responsibility of how best to bring Israel back to a functioning post-war state?

Does the government have a plan?

Does the government have a planning group in place to envision how we deal with Judea and Samaria after the war? Or Gaza? Or Lebanon?

Are there people at the highest levels of the political echelon thinking about how to reestablish our financial credibility in a world where antisemitism has become rampant and normalized, Israel is spoken about as the oppressor, and Israelis are the bad guys?

It is well past time where our brightest minds need to be corralled into temporary government service to, at a minimum, accomplish the following goals:

Determine how to unilaterally end the war in Gaza (which, hopefully, will also end the other wars we are fighting) and create a multinational governing authority that will work for the good and welfare of the population remaining there. Nobody is going to do this for us, so we better get to it.

Develop an economic recovery plan that will address how best to recapture Israel’s productivity as close as possible to what it was before October 7. People who are suffering financially right now need hope that a better day will come, so someone should start figuring out how to make that happen.

Craft a program to address the war’s emotional toll on families whose functioning has been impaired either by the loss of a loved one or the long-term absence of the head of the household. Relationships are falling apart, children of affected families need the assistance of mental health professionals, and large numbers of adults will need to be in therapy for some time to cope with the effects of a long war. Planning for this should start now. 

We who live here do not need to know all the details of every plan. What we need to know is that there are groups of responsible people working on these plans. Individuals and families who feel that their very lives are barreling toward the edge of a cliff need to know that such plans are in the works. If not, they will have every reason to question why to put on the brakes at all; maybe it would be better, like in the movie Thelma and Louise, to just let the car go over the cliff and end it all.

We dare not let that happen. We are obliged by our faith not to let that happen. We are smart enough not to let that happen. We don’t want that to happen. However, preventing that from happening will take the kind of work and commitment that Israel has drawn on in the past. And we need to plan big.

Former US president Harry Truman, who is credited as being the first head of state to recognize Israel at its creation in 1948, said, “You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.” We need to follow that advice, and the sooner the better.

The writer has lived in Israel for almost 41 years. He is the founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy, and of the American State Offices Association.