'The Last Phase before Genocide … The Jewish state is erecting a ghetto. What a horrifying sentence'

Conflicts Forum’s compilation tracking strategic developments in Israel, 27 July 2025. (Pieces are drawn from analysis & commentary by leading Israeli commentators, predominantly published in Hebrew)

“The war in Gaza stains us morally forever. A return to liberal Israel is a fantasy that cannot be realized” /

“How did this happen to us? It happened because we let it happen” /

“The danger of losing our semblance of humanity now looms over us … The day is not far off when we will no longer be able to recognize ourselves” /

Guernica in Gaza: Israel bombs mothers & infants queuing for baby formula at a baby clinic /

Ehud Barak: ‘Israel is crumbling; After the summer, we will find ourselves with the corpse of our democracy’

“We are in the midst of a planned, deep and dangerous theocratic process leading to a Halachic state”

[These compilations are drawn from analysis & commentary by leading Israeli political and security commentators, predominantly published in Hebrew — as reports published in Hebrew often provide a different window on Israeli internal discourse].

“The Last Phase before Genocide” (Gideon Levy):

The Jewish state is erecting a ghetto. What a horrifying sentence. It's bad enough the plan was presented as if it could be in any way legitimate – who is for a concentration camp and who is against it? – but from there the path may be shortened to an even more horrific idea: someone might suggest next an extermination camp for those who do not get through the screening process at the ghetto's entrance. Israel is killing Gaza's residents en masse anyway, so why not streamline the process … Someone might also suggest a compact crematorium on the ruins of Khan Yunis, to which admittance, like the nearby ghetto in Rafah, will be purely voluntary. Of course, voluntary, like in the "humanitarian city." Only leaving the two camps will no longer be voluntary. That is what the Minister proposed …

The nature of genocide is that they are not born overnight. One does not wake up one morning and go from democracy to Auschwitz, from civil administration to the Gestapo. The process is gradual. After the dehumanization phase, they move on to demonization … Then comes the fear phase – there are no innocents in the Gaza Strip, October 7 as an existential threat to Israel that could occur again at any moment. After which come the calls to evacuate the population before anyone raises the idea of extermination. We are now in that latter phase, the last phase before genocide. Germany transferred its Jews to the east; the Armenian genocide also began with deportation, which back then was called an "evacuation." Today, we are talking about an evacuation to the south of Gaza …

For years, I have avoided making comparisons to the Holocaust … But nothing prepared us for the idea of the "humanitarian city". Israel no longer has any moral right to use the word "humanitarian." Whoever turned the Gaza Strip into what it is and treats it with equanimity has lost all connection to humanity. Whoever sees only the suffering of the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip and fails to see that every six hours the IDF kills as many Palestinians as there are living hostages has lost all of their humanity. If 21 months of seeing the death of babies, women, children, journalists, doctors and other innocents was not enough, the ghetto plan should be turning on all the warning lights. Israel is behaving as if it is planning genocide and expulsion.

The war in Gaza changed Israel forever; It stains us morally forever (Uri Arad, retired IDF colonel, former Yom Kippur War prisoner and member of the pilots' forum 555 Patriots):

I read the reports about the horror taking place in Gaza and I see the pictures. My heart breaks. For almost two years now, I have been speaking from every possible platform about how abandoning the kidnapped will change Israel and murder its soul. Today I tell you, with great pain, that what is happening in Gaza is murdering the soul of Israel no less than abandoning the kidnapped. Beyond the political tsunami that is increasingly affecting us, this horrific disaster, which it is doubtful can be stopped as long as the bloody government rules here, is one that stains us morally forever …

No legal or arithmetic discussion of whether these are war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide will change the essence. Israel has deteriorated into a moral abyss. Most Israelis, including many who consider themselves liberals, have adopted a strategy of denial and rapprochement with regard to what is happening in Gaza. It is doubtful whether, given Israel's demographic makeup and the increasing influence of religion and messianism that is settling in the mainstream and flooding all systems, including the army, a consciousness other than the false consciousness in which most Israelis live can grow. It is doubtful whether we can expect soul-searching that will lead to correction in the future.

The Gaza war changed Israel forever. It is difficult, it is very sad, it is terrible. But that is the reality. And no amount of talk about solidarity, and about the fact that there are many good people here (there are!) will cover this up … I have great respect for people of faith, [however], when a messianic sect takes over the country and manages to instil its people in all possible positions of influence, when there are no constitutional and structural tools (separation of religion from the state) to deal with this and the demographics are as they are, a return to liberal Israel seems, to those who are willing to step out of the realm of denial, a fantasy that cannot be realized. When the hope of the liberal camp is a government led by Bennett and Lieberman …

I am sorry if this depresses you. None of this is to say that I have given up and will stop fighting and making my voice heard. But I have no intention of cooperating any longer with the denial of reality. And the source of all this, for those who are not yet aware, is the occupation. Israel is today paying the price of enslaving another people for so many years, and of our failure to stand up to the messianic forces, who even murdered a prime minister here, provided that we do not give up the complete Land of Israel.