In 2025, Israeli aviation carried out bombings not only of Gaza and the West Bank, but besides of Yemen, Iran, Syria and Lebanon, but besides of Iraq at the end of the erstwhile year. It was peculiarly hard for Israeli society War on Iran, which highlighted, among others, the shortcomings in civilian defence infrastructure. In July, after leaving a government coalition of 1 of 2 ultraconservative parties, Netanjahu remained with 50 votes in 120-strong Kneset, forming a number government. What does an Israeli society look like today, where it is increasingly hard to stay neutral?
Anti-government protests in Israel and increasing support for Netanjah
In the first half of 2025, especially after Israel broke the ceasefire agreement in March, the country intensified social tensions and protests against the continuation of the Gaza war. Already on 11 January, respective 100 people – mainly relatives of Israeli hostages and peace and human rights activists – gathered for a demonstration in Tel Aviv. "For Gaza, freedom for hostages", they chanted, expressing their opposition to government policy. It ended up clashing with the police, who tried to drive the crowd out during the vote on the state budget.
In April and May thousands of citizens attended cyclical rallies held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa under the slogan “Deal Now!” and “Stop the War!”. At the same time, there were protests caused by the cancellation of Ronen Bar from the position of head of Shin Betu, Israeli military intelligence. any of them were besides anti-war. There were both slogans in defence of the independency of safety services (recognized as 1 of the guarantors of democracy and safety of Israel) and calls for ceasefire, for a hostage agreement and for the end of the massacre in Gaza. Officers, hostage families, pacifists and the left protested in an different alliance. Demonstrators accused the Prime Minister of trying to subject himself to the service and that he was seeking to prolong the war for political reasons and due to the fact that he wanted to avoid individual criminal responsibility.
Another crucial appearance took place on 22 July, besides in the centre of Tel Aviv. This time, demonstrators carried symbolic sacks of flour and photographs of starving Palestinian children, demanding the immediate end of armed action and the release of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Despite the greater presence of opposition on the streets, polls show an increase in support of Netanjah. By the end of 2024 70 percent of Israelis demanded his resignation, In March 2025 it was already 60 percent. June One of the polls showedthat as much as 82% of the population support the attack on Iran, and the position of Prime Minister and Likudu has improved, though not adequate to supply him with another term. It appears that the opposition has radicalized and gained visibility, expanding the engagement of its sympathizers, but has lost any of the "shaky" voters.
Independent media and NGOs versus military censorship
Due to the military censorship introduced – which intensified during the war with Iran – 1 of the main sources of reliable information in Israel has become NGOs and media, who stand in sharp opposition to the government and are willing to break bans. +972, ‘Haaretz’, Gisha, Breaking The Silence, B’tselem and another entities through their websites and profiles on social platforms study criminal activities in Gaza and the West Bank and concerns and irregularities in Israel itself. Most of them have been showing evidence activity for respective months, rewarded by a continuous increase in the number of recipients.
While Israeli mainstream media (e.g. Israel Hayom, Yedioth Ahronoth) are going about on the government line, Haaretz shows the drama of civilians in Gaza by hitting Netanyahu and the far right. Articles by journalists specified as Gideon Levy or Amira Hass, who have been criticizing Israel's policy towards Palestinians for years, have been cited more frequently by abroad media. The number of paid subscriptions, especially abroad subscriptions, would besides increase. Gisha reports, Breaking The Silence or +972, frequently of many years old, are requoted and discussed in the West.
Recently, reports of 2 Israeli organizations, B’Tsel and Doctors for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI), which presented their findings following an investigation into the activities of the Israeli government and troops in the Gaza Strip, have sparked the storm. They call it genocide. This is the word that even the most fierce critics of the government have avoided in the Israeli public debate.
"Alija War". fresh wave of immigration from Russia and Ukraine
On the map of the left-wing opposition to the government, the war in Gaza and apartheid There were besides new, unexpected players. "Alija War" – as people from Russia are frequently referred to (and, little often, Ukraine) who have chosen to exercise the right to return after the outbreak of a full-scale war in the east of Europe – is rather specific. Ton gives her anti-putin opposition, leftist activists, and veterans of protests, who have earned their cut in a brutal Russian regime. any of them do not want to replace 1 fascist state with another, so they supply a number of left-wing NGOs, anti-government demonstrations or anti-racism initiatives. Others – pragmatically – did not leave the war-torn country and avoided conscription to now enthusiastically join the IDF and participate in the demolition of Gaza.
"The Jerusalem Post" He writes about 125,000 fresh Russian-speaking visitors – in a population of 10 million, this is not important. "Haaretz" points out that the "wave of liberal immigration" came to Israel in search of political freedom, and many fresh residents find no reason to support the conservative regulation of Likudu and action in Gaza. This is simply a major change in relation to the "old" Russian-speaking immigration, which usually supported the secular version of conservatism represented by the Yisrael Beitein party.
Crisis in the Israeli army – suicides, desertions and opposition to the IDF
Meanwhile, IDF, a civic army that almost all the adult Israelis and Israelis served, the foundation of the “state on a volcano” and at the same time 1 of the most accused of human rights violations of the world's army, is trembling in jobs. Firstly, he struggles with a wave of suicides, which was the highest in January 2025 for respective years. Soldiers are burned out, and recently introduced intellectual care packages and preparatory programs specified as “Magen”, which IDF has been performing since the early 21st century, neglect to pass the exam.
Last week, an art installation consisting of almost 900 chairs was shown on 1 of the boulevards in Tel Aviv, commemorating soldiers who died in the war in Gaza and in the West Bank. Social platforms commented that the government was reducing its own losses and that there was no place in Tel Aviv that would hold 60,000 chairs, referring to the authoritative number of victims on the Palestinian side.
In mid-July, I spoke to Eitan Rom, 1 of the directors of the Breaking The Silence organization, collecting and transmitting to media and abroad NGOs evidence to Israeli war crimes, human rights violations and another scandalous practices within the army. The main sources of information are erstwhile IDF soldiers, oppressed by remorse and resigning from the service. Rom admitted that since the start of the war in Gaza they have had a evidence number of reports in their over twenty-year history. BtS has provided evidence, among others, of the Israeli army's usage of Palestinians as surviving shields and "human mine detectors" in a systemic way.
There is besides a increasing number of people who refuse military service – in fresh months, records have been set here. Young people protest and publically burn their calls, risking the failure of freedom. This besides applies to reservists – as early as April written over 100,000 Israelis and Israelis who did not appear at the call of the army.
Raising Racism and Radicalisation of the Israeli Right
All this shows the fatigue of wars and the strengthening of opposition to the government. However, it concerns the number of society. Most of the genocide in Gaza, global criticism, and further Israeli attacks respond with the syndrome of a besieged fortress, walking to the right. Anti-Arabic sentiments have taken on an unprecedented scale: further attacks on Israeli Arabs are reported, and during the war with Iran a number of cases have been reported not allowing arabian citizens of judaic origin to enter state shelters.
In July 2025, the right-wing made another effort to impeachment and remove Ayman Odeh, an MP of Communist Hadesh (the only organization in the country connecting Jews and Arabs) for the expression “Gaza will prevail”, the joy of releasing Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the request for the end of the occupation. The required 90 votes were unsuccessful (73 out of 120 Kneset members voted in favour of removal), including the absence of any Members. Odeh is 1 of 12 (including Druzes) representatives of the arabian community in the Israeli parliament. According to a popular opinion, expressed by both journalists “Haaretz” and +972, as well as traditionally favored Israel by Constant Gebert – attempts to appeal Odeha were an attack on the political rights of the Arabs in Israel to intimidate them.
This will seem even more appropriate if we callback the statements of any of the right-wing Kneset members. The Finance Minister Bezael Smotrich openly proclaimed that the starvation of 2 million people in Gaza "can be justified, but the planet will not let it." Mr Likudu Nissim Vaturi stated that "The gas should be burned" due to the fact that its inhabitants support Hamas. "I have no pity for specified people," he explained. Michal Waldiger said that “there are no innocents in Gaza”. Another right-wing MP, Meiraw Ben-Ari, argued that “the children of Gaza themselves had brought a massacre.”
Israel has the face of Smotrich and Ben Gvir?
In May 2025 a survey described by Reuters and ‘Haaretz“ he revealed that as many as 82% of Israelis advocate the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and 56% from arabian citizens from Israel. In addition, almost half of the respondents agreed with the idea, expressed in ellipse, that civilian population massacres should be carried out in conquered areas (i.e. Gaza) in the same way as these described in the Old Testament.
In the same month, Netanjahu's cabinet approved the expansion of the land offensive in Gaza despite increasing criticism from the global community. Although war fatigue was felt in society, more than half of the respondents felt it essential to keep the "military force on Hamas" until release. All hostageswhich translated into support to prolong the war.
Gideon Levy, a author and 1 of the most popular leftist journalists in Israel, has been saying for years that western audiences may have the incorrect impression that in his country, liberal "good guys" and racist "bad guys" are arguing with each other, while in reality Israeli society has the face of Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir – an utmost right-wing, fascist judaic Power organization MP. As early as November 2022, Levy utilized this metaphor in relation to IDF force in the West Bank. In his final texts, he noted that what was happening in Gaza was not the work of 2 ministers, but the consequence of the decision of the full government and society that supports it.
According to Levy, the West, threatening with sanctions, tries to separate between government and citizens, as if saying, “all that is happening is the responsibility of Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, not yours, dear Israelis.” The author criticised this position, claiming that sanctions should cover the full government – starting with the Prime Minister, who is being prosecuted by the global Criminal Court, to the least crucial minister – as well as all officers, soldiers and officials active in the massacres in Gaza. He added that according to the polls they were supported by most Israeli society. Therefore, global force and sanctions should be directed against all Israel. "Do you realize now, diplomats and decision-makers? In Israel we are all Ben Gvir and Smotrich” – completed 1 of Levy's texts.
