We're all James Foley
The images that will sear into our memories following this war would not be of the dozens we lost, our the wreckage in Gaza, but of the tunnels, the executions of 'collaborators' by Hamas and the journalist who was slaughtered.
The Israeli public is of one mind on the necessity of delivering a hard blow to Gaza. Fewer and fewer disagree with that. Even those who believe it was possible to spare the blood of Palestinians who are uninvolved in the fighting and whose hearts went out the innocent are now saying that we had no choice, and that the most important thing is to stop the prolonged torture of our people living near the border.
Even the gentlest souls have developed a thick skin of indifference toward the disaster unfolding in Gaza. "They brought this on themselves" is the prevailing sentiment.
The rockets fired at more remote communities and the threat to the complacent Tel Aviv have narrowed the emotional gulf between the residents of the periphery and the Tel Aviv bubble. The feeling of brotherhood for the fighting soldiers and the population living on the Gaza border is expressed in the tone taken by the leading media outlets and in the rush to provide different kinds of voluntary aid.
Cars laden with food are getting all the way to the front line, artists are singing to the troops stationed in the field, and many are opening their homes to the residents of the stricken area. And the leading opposition party is showing more courtesy to the prime minister than some of his most senior ministers.
Those ministers, the opposition within the coalition, are blaming Netanyahu for allowing Hamas to dictate both the sequence and the timing of events. I doubt that this is how the people on the other, pulverized side of the border see things.
But if you turn it back on itself, there is something to the accusations the prime minister has been hit with. We are indeed Hamas' captives, but not because we gave it the ability to control what is happening, but because it is forcing upon us national unity, which itself is a natural response to an attack by a murderous foe. The war nearly managed to silence completely the voices calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Our minds are given over only to pressing matters, not to issues of historic importance and on whose resolution our future depends.
But what will be the mood among the Jewish public after this latest bloody chapter in the century-old conflict is over? I believe the sutures that made us look momentarily like a unified entity will soon split at the seams. We'll go back to our old arguments, the same ones that revolve around the familiar disagreements, and many - in their despair - will probably join the ranks of those certain there is no peaceful resolution.
Iron Dome is sparing us the disasters that rock the foundations of public consciousness, like those that changed the political landscape after the Yom Kippur War, so the political trends that are already crystallizing will just strengthen further. I predict an upsurge to the right.
This trend is aided and abetted by the camera lens. In this age of the photograph, in which single images can shape the collective consciousness more than any verbal argument, several images that serve to strengthen our bipolar worldview will be seared into our collective memories.
The beastly images of Hamas terrorists crawling out of their holes in the dead of night, "collaborators" being executed against the wall of the Great Mosque in Gaza, and James Foley being slaughtered by the blade of an Islamic State terrorist will come together to be etched into our minds. Foley's execution appears to be the decisive image, even though the spectacle took place far away from here and was only loosely tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a nightmare that won't ease its grip on us, we are all dressed in an orange jumpsuit, looking ahead with a vacant gaze, a moment before the man in the black outfit slits our throat. We are all James Foley.
Imagery and symbolism move individuals and nations into action. Our collective memory won't remember the dozens we have lost in the war, nor the image of Gaza in ruins and its miserable residents. We'll remember the tunnels, the executions against the mosque wall and the journalist who was slaughtered. These images will push away the readiness to compromise for peace for a long time to come.
