Israeli’s Divided House

New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

Leora Hadar and Naty Barak talk about the human impact and implications of all the fighting and destruction of the past 10 months.

Israel is at war, and not just with Hamas, Iran, the Houthis, and their fellow travelers. Israeli’s most dangerous war may be with itself.

That was certainly true before October 7th, and it’s still true. Back then the streets were full of protesters opposing Prime Minister Netanyahu, his government, and their policies; the country seemed split down the middle. That split has not disappeared: today more than three quarters of Israelis reportedly worry about the “strong or very strong" conflicts between the political right and left, while more than half worry about conflict between religious and secular Jews. Shockingly, in the midst of war, extremists recently breached an army base—the Israel Defense Forces are still the most trusted national institution—attempting to free soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners.

Arguably Netanyahu's declaration in June that “There will be no civil war” was an explicit acknowledgment of the deep, dangerous currents coursing through Israeli society.

October 7th and the subsequent war against Hamas have been catastrophic for Israelis and even more for Palestinians. It is not possible to imagine what the morning after might look like for anyone until the war ends. But it is possible to begin to understand how the past year has affected ordinary people: their daily lives, their hopes, and their fears for the future—Israeli as well as Palestinian. Any hope for a different future necessarily must start with such an understanding.

In that spirit, this is the first of what we hope will be a series of conversations with Israelis and with Palestinians, not about big-picture politics or strategy or the war, but about the human impact and implications of all the hatred and fighting and destruction of the past 10 months.

The first two voices are Israelis Leora Hadar and Naty Barak. Liora lives in a West Bank settlement and is a mother, a bibliotherapist, and an activist in the grassroots peace movement, Women Wage Peace. Naty is a retired businessman, sustainability expert farmer, and a longtime resident of Kibbutz Hatzerim in the Negev desert.

Listen as they talk about the tragedy of Israel's wars and tell us what you think.