Earthquakes are human tragedies and geological surprises. They cause enormous human suffering and massive material losses. They also reveal unprecedented information about the deepest places on Earth. For scientists, an earthquake opens new windows through which they can examine what is happening at the center of the Earth.
On October 7th last year, a major human earthquake occurred in Israel, which not only caused immense pain but also revealed a lot of information about what many think but few say. Today we know, for example, that anti-Semitism is more widespread and international than it seems. They have always existed, but after the Second World War and the widespread international recognition of what the Holocaust meant, anti-Semitic expressions and behavior were often rejected or, as we now know, hidden or obscured. No longer.
Shortly after the October 7 massacre, the streets of many cities around the world were filled with people protesting against Israel and, surprisingly, supporting Hamas.
Instead of receiving global support, Israel's government faces massive opposition from countries, organizations and groups that hate it. Much of this repulsion was already present, but the earthquake made it clearly visible. The earthquake also highlighted failures of the military and intelligence services. Both Israeli soldiers and spies were frequently described by allies and rivals as the best in the world. No longer. They did not expect what happened on October 7, and it took a long time for them to launch a counteroffensive to rescue and protect their citizens and regain control of the territory occupied by Hamas or the hostages kidnapped by the terrorists to free. The bombing of Gaza, with its immense human and material losses, is obviously contributing to the deterioration of the international reputation of the Israeli military and government.
Weaker but also more telling tremors usually occur in the days after an earthquake. The massacre, for example, showed how some of the world's most prestigious universities operate. In questioning before the US Congress, the rectors of Harvard and Pennsylvania universities tried to avoid answering whether their respective institutions could advocate the extermination of a particular people. Both refused to answer the question. And both leaders were forced to resign because of the reactions their statements provoked. It should be noted that Harvard President Claudine Gay's departure was also due to her political enemies decoding academic texts in which she appeared as an author, which contained paragraphs that were copied and used without attribution to the original author.
But the earthquake didn't just spread new information about the mediocre process that elite American universities follow in selecting their leaders. Far more serious than the embarrassment of the university authorities was Bibi Netanyahu's disastrous performance.
The Israeli prime minister had built an entire political image for himself as a champion of Israeli security: the most combative of all hawks. The October 7 earthquake revealed the emptiness of this position. While Hamas was actually intent on stealing every dollar or euro it received from the UN, EU or Qatar and using it to arm and train its terrorists, Bibi Netanyahu was focused on something else: consolidating its power and weakening institutional counterweights that could undermine it. While Hamas built an impressive network of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels under Gaza to house its militants and store its supplies, Bibi Netanyahu devoted his energies to expanding settlements in the West Bank, hand in hand with the most extreme and chauvinistic voices in his coalition . .
The fiercest of all hawks ignored the warnings of his security services. These made him aware that Hamas was actively training its troops in exercises that were not routine. Netanyahu's indifference to this call was fueled by his desire to keep Gaza and the West Bank separate and under different authorities. To achieve this, Gaza had to remain under Hamas rule. His political responsibility for the October 7 attack is beyond doubt.
The old covert anti-Semitism is thus reinforced by the mistakes of an Israeli government that has lost its democratic character. And that, deep down, is the deepest truth that the October 7 earthquake revealed: that Israel is endangering not only its democracy but also its security by submitting to a government that undermines institutions.
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