How Hamas radicalised Israel’s liberals

I have visited Israel three times in the past year. The first trip was in the spring, just as the anti-government protests – triggered by Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to control the Supreme Court – were beginning. The day before we travelled, protestors forced Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport to close, and a general strike was announced. Every Saturday night, out went the protestors – mostly liberal and secular, but not entirely, so widespread is frustration with the government. ‘You could not be seen sitting and drinking wine on a Saturday night’, Moran Alon, the owner of the Nilus bar in Tel Aviv told me. ‘People would wonder: why aren’t you at the protest? What’s wrong with you?’

My second trip, in early December, took place in a different Israel, one in which uproar about the status of the Supreme Court looked like lethal, tragic foolery. Israelis were still in the first stages of shock and mourning, two months since Hamas rampaged into southern Israel.