Gideon Levy: “Israel’s Barbaric Glee over Nasrallah’s Assassination Is a New Low for Israeli Society”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

As Israel strikes central Beirut, Yemen and Gaza after the massive attack Friday in the Beirut suburb that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, one of the most powerful figures in the region, we’re joined by Gideon Levy. He is Israeli journalist, author, columnist for Haaretz, as well as a member of its editorial board. His latest piece, “Israel’s Barbaric Glee Over Nasrallah’s Assassination Is a New Low for Israeli Society.”

Gideon, thanks so much for joining us again. If you can start off by talking about what happened on Friday? You have Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, ascending the podium at the U.N. General Assembly. Apparently right after, he gave the go-ahead for the assassination of Nasrallah. Right before he came up on the podium, dozens of world leaders walked out. If you can talk about the significance of this decision and then the bombing of Yemen and, of course, the continuation of the assault on Gaza?

GIDEON LEVY: You know, Amy, listening to your program is enough. Israel is shooting here, and Israel is assassinating there, and Israel is bombing here, and Israel is bombing there. Where are we aiming to? I mean, all those operations might be [inaudible], to them, are justified. But what comes next?

This thought that Israel can solve everything by force and that war is always the first answer for everything must change, because, otherwise, we will really find ourselves one day totally lonely in the world. Even the United States, which supports Israel still blindly and automatically — and I must emphasize on your show that the United States is a full partner for everything that Israel is doing in the last year, including the massacre in Gaza — even the United States will wake up one day. And then what?

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the assassination of Nasrallah. You’re talking to us from Tel Aviv. And the response in Israel?

GIDEON LEVY: I’ll give you a few examples. In one of the main channels of Israeli TV, a reporter, live, was distributing chocolates. That’s the spirit in Israel. That’s the spirit. Another important columnist wrote, “We smashed him like a lizard.” And if this is the atmosphere, this is the mindset, this is the zeitgeist even, so it will be very hard to change things, because we are getting down and down, lower and lower, believing more and more only in one thing, namely in killing and destructing.

AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about what Netanyahu’s strategy is and if he has one other than a military strategy? You have the tanks, Israeli tanks, amassing on the border. Do you see a ground invasion of Lebanon happening at this point? What does this mean? Does he just want to deplete Hezbollah or completely wipe it out?

GIDEON LEVY: I can’t see a scenario in which Israel is not going for a ground operation. First, it will be, as usual, presented as a very, very limited one, limited in time, limited in territory. We’ve been in those shows many times. And then it will get complicated, and then we’ll have to widen it and expand the time that we stay there. As usual, we are getting into those things without having any clue, any idea how we will get out of it. Look at Israel in Gaza. Nobody has a clue how we are getting out of Gaza. [inaudible] Gaza. Israel is going to repeat the same mistake with Lebanon, using the excuse or the passiveness of the world, which allows Israel to do now whatever it wants.

Netanyahu, I think, is also now in euphoria after what is perceived in Israel as wonderful successes, James Bond successes, first with the pagers and with the walkie-talkies and then with all the assassinations. This is perceived in Israel as an enormous success. So, being riding on this success, I guess nothing will stop Israel to get into a ground operation.

And then, you know there will be a moment that a regional war might become a factor, might become a reality. And then what, when Iran might come in? And with all those risks seem what? Unimportant? Unreal? And if Iran comes into the picture, what’s next? We will bomb Iran?

This whole mindset of bombing and bombing for one year now, and only bombing, and refusing any kind of diplomacy — remember, there were deals to release the hostages. Israel said no. Ceasefire, Israel said no. Lebanon ceasefire, Israel says no. This will not guarantee the security of Israel, not to speak about the price the other side is paying. But even the security of Israel will not get better. We are now in a less good situation than one year ago. I can tell you that in Tel Aviv, we are more scared than we were one year ago.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. military said Sunday it’s increasing its air support capabilities in the Middle East, putting troops on heightened alert. ABC News’s Martha Raddatz interviewed White House national security communications adviser John Kirby on This Week Sunday and asked about the reports.

JOHN KIRBY: There’s a contingency of additional forces in the region right now to help us with any possible contingencies that might come up.

MARTHA RADDATZ: Dozens more?

JOHN KIRBY: Certainly —

MARTHA RADDATZ: I mean, I know we have 40,000 troops in the region already.

JOHN KIRBY: Yeah, I don’t want to get into the exact numbers or who these guys are, but we did — we did deploy some additional forces into the region. I would tell you that there’s other options available, as well, in terms of adding and enhancing that force posture.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you talk, Gideon Levy, about a regional war. Right before Netanyahu spoke at the U.N., as you said, there was this discussion that the U.S. and France was leading with Saudi Arabia and others to have a ceasefire, and then Hassan Nasrallah is assassinated. Is this more than Israel engaging in a regional war, but trying to bring the U.S. into it, as well? Netanyahu is known as a close Trump ally and friend. How that would affect the U.S. elections, as well? And right before Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations, you have Israel saying Thursday it had secured another $8.7 billion in aid from the United States to support its ongoing military efforts. We’re going to end with this question of whether Israel could continue what it does if the U.S. stopped the weapons flow.

GIDEON LEVY: But the U.N. — but the U.S. does not stop —

AMY GOODMAN: If the U.S. stopped.

GIDEON LEVY: — the weapons. That’s the point. The U.S. is saying one thing and acting exactly to the opposite direction. Can you believe that a major superpower is telling Israel to stop the war and in the same time it is supplying it with weapons and bombs and ammunition? What is Israel supposed to do? Why not to shoot and to bomb, to continue to do this, if the Americans are supplying it in an unconditioned way? No conditions.

So, this hypocrisy must come to its end. The United States is supporting the war, is supporting Israel. The bombs that were falling on the bunker of Nasrallah were American bombs. The bombs that fall on Gaza are American bombs. The children who were killed, 17,000 of them, in Gaza were killed by American ammunition. And America, the United States, cannot say that it is against killing children, because it is a partner.

AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, we want to thank you so much for being with us, award-winning Israeli journalist, author, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, also on their editorial board. We’ll link to your latest pieces, including “Israel’s Barbaric Glee Over Nasrallah’s Assassination Is a New Low for Israeli Society.”