We cannot bear the unbearable. The total destruction of Gaza is unbearable. The daily bombardment of Lebanon is unbearable. The permanent extension of settlements in the West Bank is unbearable. The half-hidden, half-public plans for the mass expulsion of Palestinians are unbearable. This is what we are reminded of by the International Criminal Court's November 21 arrest warrant Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. This warrant has nothing "antisemitic" about it, contrary to what the Israeli prime minister claims, and Israel could have avoided it by launching a serious investigation into the crimes committed in Gaza.

We mourned with the Israelis on October 7, 2023, the most abominable pogrom since the Holocaust. We have always believed and said that Hamas was a terrorist organization and that Israel had the right to defend itself, to fight it, and to eliminate its leaders. We are deeply attached to the existence of Israel, and we are well aware of the extent to which Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian theocracy that steers them aim to destroy it.

Yet how can we fail to see that the Israeli response violates the laws of war and tramples on international law? How can we fail to see that Netanyahu has made the unlimited continuation of this war the horizon of his political survival? How can we fail to see the piling up of corpses in Gaza and the methodical annihilation of any possibility of a Palestinian state with the colonization of the West Bank?

Criminals

How can we fail to see that, after years of secret support for Hamas – facilitating its funding by Qatar and encouraging its dominance over Gaza out of hostility to the Palestinian Authority and rejection of any two-state solution – Netanyahu is now espousing the views of the worst extremists in his government, who dream of an Israel stretching from the river to the sea? How can we fail to see that these extremists are fanatical settlers who are in the process of colonizing the Israeli state from within and undermining the very foundations of Israeli democracy?

The trauma of October 7 is deep in Israel. Very deep. Many people in Europe – and within part of the French left – have refused to take stock of this trauma, rejecting any real empathy for the Israeli victims, the murdered civilians, the raped women, the kidnapped hostages still being held... This indifference tinged with antisemitism was and remains repugnant.

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