Q&A: Existential War?
Existential War?
Question
In Israel there is a complete consensus that this war is an existential war, a war of no choice. But if you analyze it from a rational perspective, was Hamas really an existential threat? It is of course clear that it managed to create an unparalleled national trauma, and it is also clear that there had to be a military response, but from there to this psychosis of an existential war—don’t you think there’s a limit?
Answer
I was asked about this in the past. There is no threat here to the continued existence of the State of Israel, but there is a threat that forces us to evacuate regions of the country and repeatedly endangers civilians' lives on an ongoing daily basis, while disrupting our lives in a dramatic way (even if by now we have mostly gotten used to it, like endless security checks everywhere, endless security expenses, and so on). From my perspective, that is definitely an existential threat. Therefore this really is a war of no choice. That is also true in the north, for the same reasons (Hezbollah too is not an existential threat in the sense of destroying us).
An existential threat is not the same as security expenses and disruption of life. It's strange that this needs to be written דווקא to you, after you complain every day about other people's lack of honesty. It reminds me of the columns you wrote when you were Haredi.