Einat Wilf, born in Jerusalem 52 years ago, held a seat in the Israeli parliament at the beginning of the last decade with two parties, first the Labor Party and later the Independence Party – the latter led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barack, with a very fleeting journey . The two formations formed a priori around the center-left political scene. This does not mean that the former MP reserves all criticism of the European left for its stance on the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7: “The reason why left-wing parties in Europe continue to be anti-Zionist,” she says in an interview At the Casa Sefarad cultural center in Madrid it is said: “There is still a Soviet legacy.” The USSR, Wilf points out in a structured and by no means random speech, is the origin of an anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism, which still affects the “left Circles in Europe”.
Educated in Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, Wilf is the author of several essays, the most recent with Israeli journalist and academic Adi Schwartz. The title needs no further explanation: The War of Return: How the West gave in to the Palestinian dream and blocked the path to peace.
Questions. Is it time to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
Answer. I have criticized him a lot since the second day, not because of what happened on October 7th. The responsibility of [ataque del] October 7th is Hamas; No one in Israel is responsible for this. There are questions about the failure [información de] Intelligence, military failure… The question is: is the leader up to the task? Neither Netanyahu nor this government were. One of the things that has been most painful in the last month and a half is that the people of Israel, Jews, Arabs and Druze, have risen to this challenge. From day one there were remarkable exploits. Volunteer work, solidarity, mutual help. Israeli society was great and the government was, at best, completely dysfunctional and paralyzed or just plain terrible. I cannot remember a time in my life when the gap between the people and the government was so great. And you see it in the polls where support for this government is falling. When such a gap exists in a democracy, the government cannot last much longer. This cabinet does not want to act alone, but I doubt that the citizens of Israel will allow it to continue.
Q Will Netanyahu be able to overcome this war?
R. Sooner or later the answer is no. Public opinion has already turned against him [de Netanyahu]. His government collapsed in the polls, but not in parliament. Since October 7, he has done nothing to win people's trust. It is important to emphasize that many people make the mistake of thinking that the Israelis want Netanyahu gone because they are against this war.
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Q It is not so?
R. No no. Israelis are determined to ensure that October 7th is not repeated. In many ways, there are people who fear that Netanyahu is not as determined as they are, but is willing to make a deal with Hamas. That's why it's important to separate the fact that people are increasingly critical and disillusioned with Netanyahu and want to get rid of him, and the fact that they believe Israel shouldn't fight this war. The vast majority of Israelis on all political sides are determined to say that we cannot allow October 7 to happen.
Q Is there a consensus in Israeli society about how the government is handling the offensive and the release of hostages?
R. The consensus is that we want her back, that it's terrible, and that there are no good decisions to make. If you look at the history of Israeli hostage operations, which began especially in the 1990s, they have always been terrible; They always caused the next Palestinian attack, the next wave of violence. The world should have basically said that Israel doesn't have to do anything to get its children back. The children should be released, period. Women should be released. They are civilians. They were not involved in any war. But no, no one pushed. People simply expected that it was Israel's responsibility to solve the problem. That's what's so depressing. The Israelis understand that in many ways they have left us alone.
Former Israeli MP Einat Wilf, during the interview at Casa Sefarad in Madrid.Claudio Alvarez
Q Is there room for a progressive political option in wartime?
R. We must remember that before we had another government that had an Arab Islamist party, right-wing and left-wing parties. And all the while, Hamas was planning its attack. It has been underreported that Hamas initially said not only that it had been planning this attack for a few years, but that it had also managed to deceive Israel into believing that they were trying to make Gaza a better place place to make. At that time there was a Netanyahu government, also a progressive one. Has anything changed? Zero. The Israelis understand that. They understand that from a Palestinian perspective they want the river [Jordán] sea [Mediterráneo]. They don't want a Jewish state. The Jewish state can pursue progressive, conservative policies; I could have a good government, a bad one; build, remove settlements; could do a lot for the Palestinians. The problem is not what Israel does, but what Israel is. And as long as Israel is the sovereign state of the Jewish people, that will be the problem. That has to go [según la perspectiva palestina].
Q Is a peace process between Hamas and the current Israeli government possible?
R. Like many Israelis, I believe in the peace process and the two-state solution and have voted for all governments that promoted them. But as Arafat in 2000 and Abu Mazen [Mahmud Abbas] In 2008 they left the negotiations where they could have had everything, the state, the capital of East Jerusalem, without settlements… and then there was this campaign of slaughter, murders and massacres with the suicide bombers [durante la Segunda Intifada], I started asking myself questions. The reason is that every time the Palestinians have the opportunity to create a state, they give it up. They rejected it. So what do they really want? I met with Palestinians and conducted research that ultimately resulted in the book “The War of Return.” And it was incredible; I realized that the Palestinians have been telling us for a century that it's not about having their own state, it's about the Jews not having one.
Q What if the Palestinian Authority took over administration of the Gaza Strip?
R. The Palestinian Authority shares the same ideology as Hamas. They are not Islamists and think that suicide bombings do not help because of the Second Intifada, but they have never questioned the goal of a Jewish state. Even within the Palestinian Authority, there was never a moment when they finally accepted a vision of peace in which there was a Jewish state. The ideology has to change because Hamas is exactly the right thing [grupo] newer. There needs to be something more like denazification in Germany, the American occupation in Japan, the de-radicalization of some Muslims after ISIS. The Palestinians should rule the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But they can only do that if they believe they want to govern themselves rather than wanting territory to free Palestine from the river [Jordán] to the sea [Mediterráneo]. Every dollar that flows into Gaza from 2005 to the present, and even before, will be used to transform Gaza into a highly effective war machine for the liberation of Palestine. That's why we have to stop giving them money without demanding a change in ideology.
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