Antony Loewenstein is an Australian/German independent, freelance, investigative journalist, best-selling author and film-maker. He’s the co-founder of Declassified Australia.
He’s worked in dozens of countries around the world and was based in South Sudan in 2015 and East Jerusalem between 2016 and 2020. He’s written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera English, The New York Review of Books and many others.
His latest book is The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports The Technology Of Occupation Around The World, released in 2023. The book is a global investigation into Israel’s endless occupation which gives the Jewish state invaluable experience in controlling an ‘enemy’ population, the Palestinians. It’s here that they have perfected the architecture of control, using the occupied, Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology they export around the world."
This interview was conducted in the early days of november with Thomas Le Bonniec, PhD researcher and freelance journalist. The interview was originally published in French for the french outlet Élucid. Several quotes of his book are included throughout the interview to add elements of context.
In solidarity with Palestinians, Antony's editors, Verso books have decided to make digital copies available for free on their website.
« Israel has developed a world-class weapons industry with equipment conveniently tested on occupied Palestinians, then marketed as “battle- tested.” Cashing in on the IDF brand has successfully led to Israeli security companies being some of the most successful in the world. The Palestine laboratory is a signature Israeli selling point. »
P.13
Thomas Le Bonniec : About the october 7th attacks by Hamas, one of the elements that were highlighted by commentators what the ease with which attackers evaded the Israeli surveillance network. They also seem to have breached the very sophisticated, High-tech wall that surrounds Gaza quite easily. Does it mean these surveillance systems are ineffective ?
One of the things that is very clear since october 7th – and of course about anything I say, the caveat is that there is still a lot we don't know yet, and I guess we'll find out more in the months and years ahead.
For my understanding, speaking to various sources there and reading various interesting reports, it seems various things happened. But the main one I think is arrogance, and hubris. I think that's been incredibly intoxicating for many in the israeli military and political establishment.
There was a sense that the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza living in the world's biggest open-air prison would stay put, and Hamas was essentially content enough to maintain their power and influence there, and would not even consider something so huge. Because if they did they would face overwhelming bombardment from Israel.
A few other details : I've read that in the last year or so, for example, Israel stopped listening to Hamas' radios and walkie-talkies in the belief there was nothing interesting Hamas members were saying and there was no point listening in anymore. That goes down to arrogance.
Secondly, there's the NSA, which, as you know, is the world's largest intelligence- gathering network. They are listening to Israel every day. They have three or four hundred hebrew speakers whose primary job is to spy on Israel. That's their job, which is different from assisting Israel in thwarting terror attacks, say from Hamas or Hezbollah. And it seems the US was also asleep at the wheel. They weren't listening to Hamas at all, from my understanding. They presumed that Israel had that in hand.
And my understanding is there was also a number of Hamas members who Israel thought were working for them, essentially as spies, but in fact had double crossed them. They seem to have told Israel lies about how Hamas was content to maintain a degree of, I guess you'd say 'Uneasy peace', a 'Cold War', and that they would never dream of escalating with Israel.
And the final thing I'd have to say, and again, it's hard to know, but my sense is certainly some of the Hamas leadership that were involved in this attack did not necessarily expect it to be so overwhelming. What I mean by that is some Hamas leaders have said since october 7th "well our plan was to go into Israel, take back some soldiers into Gaza and trade them for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails".
I'm not sure I entirely believe that, because of the level of brutality of – at least some – Hamas fighters in the south of Israel. The organization, the planning, the knowledge, they don't suggest a small mission to grab some soldiers and leave.
And now probably what Hamas is finding is what was always going to happen, which is this overwhelming Israeli response. I would argue that Hamas made a catastrophic strategic mistake. By launching this attack, they will no longer rule Gaza after the end of the Israeli operation. And secondly, there will be in the coming months and years a global assassination campaign to target every major Hamas leader. And the western world will support that without reservation.
So it's hard to see how Hamas gains from this in the end. I just don't see any strategic benefit for them at all. Which makes me think they either profoundly miscalculated or they presumed they would enter a guerilla war with Israel they could potentially win. But I don't think that's really true, so it's a miss all around.
One often gets the impression that surveillance systems, in particular when they're as militarized as the Israeli one, are ubiquitous. Is this perhaps a false impression ?
Israel like the US and I suspect all western powers are doing this, have spent the last 20 years essentially relying on digital surveillance and technology, much less on human intelligence. I think Israel fell into the trap of believing the video intelligence, the massive wall between Israel and Gaza, the various spies that Israel has – they clearly have a large network, both civilians and Hamas officials – were enough.
In the end I think it shows that however sophisticated a surveillance system appears to be, it actually still is incredibly flawed. In other words, what Israel promotes all around the world, whether it's spyware or other means of control and surveillance, is remarkably invasive technology and it does work to get information that foreign intelligence services want. Whether it is a dissident or a human rights activist in Saudi Arabia or India or somewhere else.
It also seems clear, because this government is the most far-right in Israel's history and so many members of the cabinet are so focused on annexing the West Bank, and giving so much more support to Israeli fundamentalist settlers, that to some extent they took their eye off the ball around Gaza.
But it is a much bigger issue than an intelligence failure. Obviously, it is an intelligence failure, that's true, it's just a statement of fact. It's actually more than that, it's a profound political failure. Because Israel operated on the deluded belief that you can cage a population for years, indefinitely, arguably forever, and nobody will ever resist. It's just lunacy. There's no historical parallel for that working : Irak and Afghanistan in the modern era, Vietnam in the 1960s... People will resist. And it will be ugly, and violent.
I don't for a second support what Hamas did. I think it was a catastrophe. So although the scale was incredibly surprising to me, the fact that there was a massive resistance to Israeli occupation is not surprising.
Because I know the reality of what is happening in Gaza. I don't live there, I've spent time there, I'm not Palestinian of course. But the amount of frustration and anger after being locked in for years without end, at some point it's going to erupt.
What do you make of the israeli military response post-october 7th ?
It is sadly unbelievably predictable. For the last fifteen years, Israel made a decision, mostly with Netanyahu – he was prime minister most of that time – to leave Hamas in power. There was a war every two or three years, it made lots of damage on both sides, huge amounts of Palestinians were killed, a handful of Israelis were killed, and they they went back to that kind of uneasy peace.
After october 7th, that was never going to happen. Israel was going to unleash hell on Gaza. We have now at least 10 000 civilians killed and that number is surely an underestimate. Utter devastation, neighborhoods destroyed, Gaza now cut in two between the north and the south, about one third of homes in Gaza now destroyed...
I'm trying to keep in touch with my friends in Gaza and as you can imagine the communication is very poor. As far as I know they are alive, and they are sending me messages of just heartacke. Their home is being destroyed, they don't have enough food, can't find clean water, they are forced to drink dirty water...
And the international community, namely the EU and the US, is giving its full support to Israel. So European leaders or Joe Biden say "yes, we very much want them to observe the rules of war". But then the US is sending hundreds of millions of dollars worth of american weapons to help Israel.
That's what matters. Not words. Actions.
So I think the Israeli response is massively disproportionate, brutal and illegal with a litany of war crimes being commited. And I think a lot of people who may have supported Israel – at least briefly after October 7th – are increasingly disillusioned with what the country is doing because they are correctly perceiving it to be a war on Palestinian civilians.
As if somehow this could lead to anything other than more war and more conflict for the coming generations of Palestinians who will unsurprisingly want to resist Israeli actions.
At some point when the war ends, there will need to be some governing authority in Gaza, looking out for the schools, the hospitals and other infrastructure. And Israel is already testing the waters about the idea of doing something akin to the West Bank. Whether it's run by the Palestinian Authority, or some other international coalition of other countries or peacekeepers, I don't know, it's a work in progress. The idea that the corrupt, complicit Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank is a model – because it does the bidding of Israel – is a recipe for disaster.
«The need for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace has long been obvious, but mostly dismissed as unrealistic by opponents. The Palestinian intellectual Edward Said told a journalist from Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper in 1986, “Every Israeli realizes that they have no military option against us. What are they going to do? Kill everybody? So some of us say, we fight on. And we keep saying, we’re going to live together with you. That no matter what they do, we’re a shadow.” Yet extreme incitement and visions of mass expulsions of Arabs are an increasingly popular stance. »
P.390
There is some indication that the Israeli government is also floating the idea that they might want to govern the Gaza strip themselves, and organize a new massive exodus. This is something foreshadowed in your book's conclusion"
«The worst-case scenario, long feared but never realized, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security. [...] An Israeli military operation might then be undertaken to ensure a mass exodus, with the prospect of Palestinians returning to their homes a remote possibility.»
P. 392
As I say in the book, there's been a long-held desire by many in the Israeli political system, in the media, and in the Israeli public to look for the right moment to expel as many Palestinians as possible, ideally from Gaza, but also the West Bank and Jerusalem as well.
And now we have seen a number of high-level reports leaking, which is probably what you were referring to. They're not necessarily official documents, but they have been released by groups that are close to the government, advocating that this is the right opportunity to kick out Palestinians into Egypt and the Sinai desert.
I read reports and heard that there's been huge amounts of pressure from Israel on Egypt to take those people in. Egypt has so far refused. I read recently that Egypt is one of the most debt-ridden countries in the planet at the moment, they're in a deep economic crisis, and Israel has offered to pay off Egyptian debt entirely if they take in all these Palestinians.
Thus far Egypt has refused, arguing correctly it would be a disaster. The suggestion is to put people in tent cities in the Sinai desert. It's just a ridiculous idea, because there is simply no infrastructure, it would be a disaster.
It's unclear at this stage whether that is going to happen, I certainly hope it does not. But there has already been a massive movement of people from the north to the south of Gaza which is a form of ethnic cleansing. I have friends now who say "we are refugees in our own territory, our homes are being destroyed and we can't go back to the areas we live in because Israel cut the Gaza strip in half and there's no home to go back to anyway".
I think we are in a very precarious, scary moment. International lawyers say that the intent for genocide is generally hard to prove. Whereas in this case you have countless Israeli ministers openly calling for ethnic cleansing, or just a few days ago, for Gaza to be nuked by Israel.
The concept of that is just absurd, apart from the fact that Israel is litterally next to Gaza. On a logistical level, it's just complete and utter madness.
So I don't think there is enough international awareness about how desperate the Israeli political and media elites are to use this opportunity to kick out as many Palestinians as they can. And I'm not sure at this stage how strongly Egypt will continue to refuse to take the deal. Of course, Egypt is a brutal dictartoship of its own, with its own problems, that oppresses its own people. Thus far, it is holding firm. But how long that will last, I don't know.
Here is another quote from your book :
«The May 2021 conflict between Hamas and Israel, Operation Guardian of the Walls, felt like history repeating yet again.[...] The gap in military power between the two sides, while still clear, was shrinking. Although the civilian death toll was disproportionally on the Palestinian side, Israel’s battle-tested weaponry could not deliver anything resembling victory»
P.148
Do you believe there is no way for Israel to simply use brute force in order to achieve its objectives?
I would argue that the US and Israel are almost incapable of winning modern wars. If you look at the last fifty years for the major wars they have fought : Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan for the US, Lebanon for Israel, they have lost every single one. Now, they have caused absolute carnage in those countries. But when there is an effective guerilla campaign run by the Taliban, or the Vietcong, insurgents in Irak, or elements of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US and Israel are absolutely ill equipped to fight it.
I think what you will find in Gaza in the coming months is a guerilla war. On conventional weaponry, Israel would win easily. The US overthrew the taliban in three weeks in 2001. They overthrew Saddam Hussein in three weeks as well. That was the easy part. No one can beat the american military initially, they go for the "shock and awe" doctrine. Israel does exactly the same; that's what they're going for at the moment, "shock and awe": uttterly devastating Gaza, trying to obliterate the entire landscape.
But that's not the challenge : the challenge is the next day, the guerilla war. Israeli forces are ill-equipped to fight it. Like the US was in Irak in Afghanistan. I think there is a very good chance this will be a long, drawn-out, guerilla war. And over time it will drain Israeli public support for the war.
I guess my point in saying that about the war in 2021 is that it was asymetric warfare, and again, far more Palestinians than Israelis were killed, but then Israel made the decision to leave Hamas in power. Because Netanyahu thought it suited his agenda to keep Hamas in control of Gaza, that it would benefit Israel to have them as a reliable bogeyman. For over fifteen years, they made the conscious decision to keep Hamas in control; and of course that calculation changed on october 7th.
In your book, you make the case that NSO, the company that sells Pegasus spyware, is not only a state-sponsored company, it is under its direct control. It goes to such an extent that when a legal challenge was presented to revoke its exporting licence,
«Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut was honest about what was at stake: “Our economy, as it happens, rests not a little on that export.” The Israeli Ministry of Defense admitted selling weapons to about 130 countries in 2021.»
P.270
What is the weight of the surveillance industry in the Israeli economy and diplomacy?
So the latest figure we have for the Israeli arms industry was 12,5 million dollars for 2022, the highest ever, it doubled in just a few years.The arms industry in general is soaring. So-called cybersecurity and spyware is not the largest part of those sales, despite Israel selling huge amounts of spyware to many countries.
Pegasus got the most attention, but in reality there are many other companies that do the exact same thing. They don't have the same notoriety, which benefits them. NSO group still exists despite all the bad press. It's had a lot of financial trouble over the past year. If it collapsed tomorrow, nothing would change.
What it is for Israel, is a huge aspect of its diplomacy as well. Netanyahu and the Mossad in the last ten years have gone to country after country, dangling Pegasus as a carrot to try to get nations to become more friendly to Israel. They say, we will sell you this incredibly powerful spyware, if for example you vote for us in a certain way at the United Nations, or give us other benefits.
«Israel’s largely unregulated surveillance industry is leading the world. The 2022 Israeli Defense Exposition in Tel Aviv, the country’s largest arms trade fair, brought twelve thousand people in police forces and militaries from ninety nations, including human rights–abusing states Bahrain, Belarus, the Philippines, Uganda, Morocco, and Nigeria, and intelligence–led surveillance tools were prominently on show. 37 Senior members of Israel’s defense establishment attended. Many of the products were advertised as increasing convenience for the user, for example, being able to pass a checkpoint in a faster manner, but their true aim was to improve their ability to monitor and target unwanted populations.»
p.119
It's a transactional relationship. Spyware is now what Israel is known for in many parts of the world. A huge amount of nations, dozens and dozens are using Israeli spyware, including today. I think the arms industry is the ultimate insurance policy. Israel believes, I think correctly, that because they sell so many weapons and so much spyware to so many nations, that they are going to be unlikely to put any serious pressure on Israel.
Much of the global left is increasingly critical of Israel, whereas parts of the rightwing movements in the global south are increasingly supporting Israel.
And the israel arms industry is obviously a part of that, it's a really effective way of making transactional friendships. A lot of nations are now so reliant on Israeli repressive technology that they're not likely to criticize Israel where that matters. And so far, history suggests Israel is right.
« Netanyahu visited Hungary in July 2016 and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán then visited Israel in July 2018. Orbán’s use of NSO tech started in February 2018, with many of his critics targeted. [...]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Israel in July 2017, and Netanyahu returned the favor in India in January 2018. India started using Pegasus in July 2017. Netanyahu visited Rwanda in July 2016 and leader Paul Kagame began using NSO in 2017. Netanyahu visited Azerbaijan in December 2016 and President Ilham Aliyev began use of Pegasus in 2018. Poland’s anticorruption body bought Pegasus after Prime Minister Beata Szydlo met with Netanyahu in 2017. » p.308
You refer several times to Shoshanna Zuboff's concept, «surveillance capitalism». This is one of the quotes of her that can be found in your book: «The focus has shifted from machines that overcome the limits of bodies to machines that modify the behavior of individuals, groups and populations in the service of market objectives.» How does that apply to Palestine being a laboratory for experimentation in those technologies?
One of the things Israel discovered very quickly after 1967 – of course that is before the digital era, but even more so after 9/11 – is that you need to build a massive infrastructure of opression to control millions of Palestinians. And very soon after 1967, large numbers of nations were coming to Israel wanting to learn from their experience of occupying them, and wanting to be taught how to repress their own targets.
Israel was thus able to promote its own interest, but also make a huge amount of money: it is regarded, and markets itself as the greatest fighter of terrorism. I would seriously question that assessment, not just because of october 7th, but because the indefinite occupation of Palestine makes Israeli less safe, not more safe.
It's a transactional relationship. Spyware is now what Israel is known for in many parts of the world. A huge amount of nations, dozens and dozens are using Israeli spyware, including today. I think the arms industry is the ultimate insurance policy. Israel believes, I think correctly, that because they sell so many weapons and so much spyware to so many nations, that they are going to be unlikely to put any serious pressure on Israel.
Much of the global left is increasingly critical of Israel, whereas parts of the rightwing movements in the global south are increasingly supporting Israel.
And the israel arms industry is obviously a part of that, it's a really effective way of making transactional friendships. A lot of nations are now so reliant on Israeli repressive technology that they're not likely to criticize Israel where that matters. And so far, history suggests Israel is right.
«Netanyahu visited Hungary in July 2016 and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán then visited Israel in July 2018. Orbán’s use of NSO tech started in February 2018, with many of his critics targeted. [...] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Israel in July 2017, and Netanyahu returned the favor in India in January 2018. India started using Pegasus in July 2017. Netanyahu visited Rwanda in July 2016 and leader Paul Kagame began using NSO in 2017. Netanyahu visited Azerbaijan in December 2016 and President Ilham Aliyev began use of Pegasus in 2018. Poland’s anticorruption body bought Pegasus after Prime Minister Beata Szydlo met with Netanyahu in 2017. » p.308
You refer several times to Shoshanna Zuboff's concept, « surveillance capitalism ». This is one of the quotes of her that can be found in your book : «The focus has shifted from machines that overcome the limits of bodies to machines that modify the behavior of individuals, groups and populations in the service of market objectives.» How does that apply to Palestine being a laboratory for experimentation in those technologies?
One of the things Israel discovered very quickly after 1967 – of course that is before the digital era, but even more so after 9/11 – is that you need to build a massive infrastructure of opression to control millions of Palestinians. And very soon after 1967, large numbers of nations were coming to Israel wanting to learn from their experience of occupying them, and wanting to be taught how to repress their own targets.
Israel was thus able to promote its own interest, but also make a huge amount of money: it is regarded, and markets itself as the greatest fighter of terrorism. I would seriously question that assessment, not just because of october 7th, but because the indefinite occupation of Palestine makes Israeli less safe, not more safe.
I also mention the equivalent of the NSA in Israel in my book, which is unit 8200. Its members are encouraged to consider developing tools of surveillance while still in the military that they can market once they've left. There is a pipeline of sorts : those individuals create companies after leaving the army, they remain very close to the military and the government. They are often used to promote Israel's interest. As I detail in the book, NSO group is a private company in name only. But essentially it's an arm of the israeli state.
«Killing or injuring Palestinians should be as easy as ordering pizza. That was the logic behind an Israeli military–designed app in 2020 that allowed a commander in the field to send details about a target on an electronic device to troops who would then quickly neutralize that Palestinian. The colonel working on the project, Oren Matzliach, told the Israel Defense website that the strike would be “like ordering a book on Amazon or a pizza in a pizzeria using your smartphone.”»
P.130
It's similar I believe to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in the United States. They're private companies in a way but they're also a key element of US foreing policy, whether it's Irak, Afghanistan, Irak, or elsewhere.
So I see surveillance capitalism to have been unbelievably beneficial to the Israeli military and political elite. It employs huge numbers of people, and Israel has been able to sell itself in the so-called start up nation ideology. Which is in my view perpetuating the myth that "strong" Israel is a normal and natural way to organize society, while occupying people for decades. That's the marketing that Israel has promoted for many years now.
And I fear, after october 7, despite a catastrophic intelligence blunder, that this hardline militarism will in fact get worse, that it will be embraced instead of questioned. That's what worries me moving forward.
« Israeli equipment is a central, though far from the only, part of how Europe views its defense and security future. It was announced in 2021 that the Jewish state would be allowed to join the EU’s primary program for backing innovation and research, Horizon Europe, for seven years, with a value of €95.5 billion. Israel has also been strongly backed in the past. Funded work as part of Horizon 2020, the EU’s innovation and research program between 2014 and 2020, included Israeli high-tech border control systems and surveillance. »
Naftali Bennet, Israel former primer minister from the very conservative party « new right » stated on his twitter account on nov. 4th : « Tonight I am embarking on a political-PR tour in New York and Washington[...]World public opinion is not tilted in our favor now. For example, there are 15 (!) times more views of pro-Palestinian/ Hamas content than pro-Israel content on TikTok. [...] ». But then you also show there is this bias against Palestinian points of view embedded in the biggest social networks content moderation policies, which is also explicitly in favor of Israeli views. So why would Naftali Bennet still need to go on a PR tour ?
Bennet may be thinking of his own future. Perhaps he wants to be Prime Minister again. I think there is an awareness in the Israeli political elite, a lot of people think that Netanyahu will not have a long political life anymore. This may be the end of his political carreer. Not today or tomorrow, but at some point relatively soon.
I think there is no doubt that in the last month you have seen countless examples of Meta – Facebook – censoring, deprioritizing, shadowbanning a lot of pro-Palestine content. I'm not even talking about pro-Hamas, I'm simply talking about Palestinian content. They claim it's a glitch, it's accidental and they don't know how all these Palestinian voices suddenly disappeared. As I show in the book this is the excuse they use every single time, so its pretty hard to believe.
And then there is TikTok which is I think the biggest social media network in the world now. It is used by a lot of young people, and from what I understand there is a huge amount of content much more sympathetic to Palestinians. So my sense is Bennet, and people like him, are doing a propaganda trip to try to reach out to younger people. And I suspect what Israel would be doing behind the scenes is putting pressure on TikTok to curtail Palestinian voices or people who support them. I don't know successfull that's going to be.
It seems to me that on Instagram and Facebook, Meta has admitted there were constant mistakes, oversights, removals, etc. I'm skeptical of those explanations but as I said, Israel is probably putting pressure on these companies to be far more aggressive in taking down pro-Palestine content.
You also show in your book that these surveillance tools are sometimes turned against Israeli citizens, but that civil society doesn't accept that. How likely is it that these tools may be used right now to target dissenters and critics of the Netanyahu government ? Do they also take aim at jewish critics abroad? Is it likely that you're also a blip on their radar, and if so, what would you expect in terms of means of surveillance?
It s been very clear that since oct 7th there has been a massive crackdown on both Israeli Jewish and Palestinian critics of Netanyahu and the war. Public protests have been broken down, the Israeli government has also attempted to censor or kick out Al-Jazeera, the Qatari news network. I don't have evidence for this yet, but I'm almost certain there has been a great use of Israeli surveillance technology on internal critics. You can take that as a given, both for Jewish and Palestinian dissenters.
« The occupation of Palestine inevitably came home and was used against the Jewish population under the guise of managing the pandemic. [...]In April 2020, Bnei Brek was sealed off and only rare exceptions were granted for entry or departure. The Israeli tech company Octopus Services was contracted to provide command-and-control systems, drones, five hundred cameras, and observation balloons to assist in the mission." p.180
In terms of surveilling critics around the world, I operate on the presumption there is a decent chance I'm on their radar, I've thought that for a long time; long before october 7th. It hasn't stopped me from doing my work, and it won't, I just live with that.
How about the families of the hostages held in Gaza ? Some of them have been very vocal and critical of the military operation. They say it puts their relatives in even more danger, and want a deal to be made in order to get their close ones back alive.
Well I don't know if they are being targeted with surveillance tools. But certainly the view of the families of the hostages is sadly that of a tiny minority. They said they had a very upsetting meeting
with Netanyahu a few weeks ago, where they suggested a prisoner swap, if Hamas gave all the hostages back, Israel should send over all the Palestinian prisoners in jail.
And of course, Israel would not do that. But this is a minority. They are very vocal, but their proposal has very little support. And although we don't have a lot of information about it, as time goes on, as there are more casualties of Israeli soldiers in Gaza, the public opinion in Israel may start to shift.
Overall Israel is increasingly becoming a society that is intolerant of dissent. There is a growing mood in Israel amongst the political elite, Netanyahu's government, his allies, but also members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, that critics can't be tolerated.
Israel claims to be a democracy, but there is a shrinking public space for serious criticism of the occupation or even frankly the war in Gaza. We in the western media see reporting of, as mention, the families of the hostages and their understandable cries to get their loved ones out. But sadly the general view in Israel is "bomb Gaza back to the stone age". That, sadly, is the most common view. Which is a very scary moment to be in.