MK Moshe Saada, earlier this year. Proclaimed on Channel 14 TV that he was “interested” in starving an entire nation. “Yes, I’ll starve Gazans, yes, this is our obligation.”Credit: Sraya Diamant

It was only to be expected: The discourse has taken on neo-Nazi attributes. Boundaries have fallen and bloodletting has been legitimized.

Likud lawmaker Moshe Saada proclaimed on Channel 14 TV that he was “interested” in starving an entire nation. “Yes, I’ll starve Gazans, yes, this is our obligation;” a relatively popular singer, Kobi Peretz, is convinced that we are “commanded” to annihilate [the Biblical arch-enemy] Amalek. “I don’t pity any civilian in Gaza, young or old…I have not a shred of pity,” he was quoted as saying on the cover of the daily Yedioth Ahronoth’s weekend magazine.

The two of them, Saada and Peretz, are but minnows, but the pond is replete with such statements, with some people interested in highlighting them in order to pander to the opinion of the masses. A public figure in Europe, whether legislator or singer who uttered such statements would be labeled a neo-Nazi. His career would grind to a halt and from that day on he would be forever ostracized. In Israel, such statements sell newspapers.

One should call this phenomenon by name: This is incitement to genocide. To the credit of Saada and Peretz, one could say that they have taken off all masks and removed all filters. What used to be trash talk often found on social media has become standard media talk, raising questions such as who is for and who is still against genocide.

Saada and Peretz favor mass murder, while others only support the “prevention of humanitarian aid,” which is the same thing, only in more refined wording. It’s the same cruelty, only in polite form; the same monstrosity, only adhering to a supposedly more correct form.

Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2025.Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

It’s true that it’s important to expose the neo-fascist tendencies spreading throughout society and to tear away the masks, but this exposure affords this patently illegitimate talk the legitimacy and normalcy it lacked until recently. From here on, one should say: thou shalt murder. Saada and Peretz say that it’s even a commandment. All that remains is to debate who should be murdered and who should be spared.

Slowly but surely, the long-term damage wrought by the October 7 assault is coming to light. Beyond the horrific personal and national tragedies, that attack totally upended Israeli society. It destroyed, perhaps forever, any vestiges of the camp of peace and humaneness, legitimizing barbarism as a lofty commandment.

There is no more “permitted” and “forbidden” with regard to Israel’s evilness toward the Palestinians. It is permitted to kill dozens of captive detainees and to starve to death an entire people. We used to be ashamed of such actions; the loss of shame is now dismantling any remaining barriers.

Perhaps the worst of all is the thought that it pays a cynical and populist media outlet such as Yedioth Ahronoth, dubbed “the newspaper of the country,” which was always attuned to its readers, to give this genocidal talk prominence. Genocide on the cover page not only legitimizes it, know the editors, it also pleases the readers.

Singer Eyal Golan might be ostracized due to his sexual misconduct, but who will ostracize Kobi Peretz the jihadist? After all, he’s right. “They mutilated our brothers and children,” he said. Now it’s our turn to mutilate.

It’s not only Yedioth Ahronoth and Channel 14 TV. Genocide talk has spread into all TV studios as legitimate talk. Former colonels, past members of the defense establishment, sit on panels and call for genocide without batting an eye. They aren’t important or interesting, but they are shapers of the conversation.

When future historians try one day to understand what happened in Israel during those years, they will find these voices as the voice of the people. This will contribute to their insight: This was what Israel was like then.

This legitimization will end in tears, the tears of the media outlets now promoting this monstrous discourse. Ask anyone wishing to starve two million people, anyone who thinks that a four-year-old toddler deserves to die and that a disabled person in a wheelchair is fair game for being starved, what they think about free press and the freedom of expression, and you’ll find that they are in favor of closing down most outlets and muzzling the media.

The culmination of this pandering to the extremist right will be that things will boomerang and hit back at the media that promoted such conduct. Peretz, Saada and their ilk don’t just hanker after Arab blood. They want us to shut up as well.

Gideon Levy