Photos of the hostages held by Hamas hung on the walls of the Knesset. They seem to be looking at the MPs. The message to the parliamentarians of the region’s only democracy is clear: you have to bring them home. The air is heavy in the Knesset and we find the same situation in the Foreign Ministry and Jerusalem’s political chambers on a day in early December that feels like summer. Unprecedented formulations are used: “What we are waging is an existential war.” Or: “September 7th changed our history, we see things differently.” In short, this is the translation: Nothing will be the same again and in Gaza we will reach the end, whatever the cost. However, the awareness of a very difficult situation does not prevent us from looking for a scenario that can find medium-term strategic solutions to the crises and periodic wars that bloodily plague this part of the world. And a fixed point is the dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Israel wants to conclude negotiations that the war in Gaza has frozen after rapid and surprising progress that led to the signing of the Abraham Accords, with a “turning point in history” that will truly reshape the geopolitical balance in the Middle East and beyond would change. “One of the goals of the Hamas attack was to destroy the agreement with Saudi Arabia.” “We were ready to sign… but we will do it,” says Micki Biton, her voice rising to emphasize the point. The afterthought is revealed immediately and it is the thought that concerns all Israeli leaders and concerns Iran. “For them we are the little Satan and America and the great Satan, but why do they hate us so…?” In Jerusalem they explain in detail how Tehran has armed and trained Hamas, how many flows of money there are and believe that “Iran “We are not far away from having a nuclear weapon.” But there is also a message for Europe. “Many of them think that Europe should be controlled by Islam,” repeats Biton. It’s a concept repeated at the State Department. “We are waging a fight that could also reach Europe and several European countries,” says Ambassador Daniel Meron, who diplomatically prefers to rely on off-the-record sentences when asking for further explanations, i.e. sentences about which the press cannot report, which we of course respect. In addition to concerns about Iran, there is considerable dissatisfaction with Turkey. “We are very angry with them,” says MP Shelly Tal Meron, who then asks us a surprising question. “But why is only Israel asked for explanations about the deaths of civilians during a war?” Of course, we do everything to avoid them, before attacking areas where there are civilians, we warn them, but during war in Iraq and Afghanistan these questions were not asked.” The truth is that “this war is different from the others,” Biton continues, “what attacked us was a real army, an army of terror with great military capabilities “. Micky Rosenfeld of the state police adds: “In the cars that terrorists used on October 7th, we found a lot of weapons and food for weeks.” We suspect that they wanted to go further, perhaps even to Tel Aviv…’. “But it’s not a turf war, they simply want to destroy Israel,” emphasizes Tal Meron. The other major threat is Hezbollah, and Peter Lerner, one of the IDF spokesmen, underlines an aspect that concerns the UN – which has sharply criticized Israel in recent weeks – and to some extent Italy. Unifil currently has an ineffective mandate. “There are weapons in spaces where, according to the agreements, they should not be,” specifies Lerner, adding that UNIFIL can in fact have no influence. After a day in the political halls of Jerusalem, the impression is that Israel wants more explicit support from the international community. “We don’t need you to fight,” we are told, “but we need your full political support.” October 7 may have truly changed the country, and it is a date that weighs heavily on the shoulders of those who would have more should do. Ariel Shalicar – IDF major in the Shura barracks, where, among other things, the onerous process of recognizing the bodies or remains of the dead on October 7th is being carried out – does not mince his words: “We have Hamas, its capabilities and underestimated their capabilities. ‘Brutality, but wherever they are now, we will find them.’ And the other perception that was clearly reinforced in Jerusalem this evening is that this war is not going to end any time soon.
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