A girl sits by water containers while displaced Palestinians wait to collect water in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, last week.Credit: AFP

One should thank former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva, for the “Haliva Document” report, broadcast the other day on Channel 12 TV. Everyone is now busy analyzing the story and responding through the gossip that came up, but the main issue was blurred by the pathetic know-it-alls who presented this story. Maj. Gen. Haliva revealed the truth about the mainstream, not only in the army, but within Israeli society in general.

It is precisely Haliva, who is somewhat of a hero of the center-left camp, who forms a portrait of a genocidal general. He dissociates himself from Bezalel Smotrich, mocks Itamar Ben-Gvir and savages Netanyahu unreservedly, enlightened and progressive general that he is. But he thinks and speaks exactly as they do.

Ultimately, they are all advocates of genocide. The difference is only between the ones who admit it and the ones who deny it. In the camp of the enlightened and self-adulating ones he belongs to, Haliva was revealed as one of the only ones to admit: We need a genocide every few years; murdering the Palestinian people is legitimate, even essential.

That is how a “moderate” IDF general talks. He’s not like the extremists Maj. Gen. David Zini or Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram. He is neither religious nor messianic, just a nice kid from Haifa and the upscale Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tzahala.

For 40 minutes, Haliva spouted words relating to the faulty organizational and political culture here, before reaching the crux of the matter: the killing of 50,000 human beings was “necessary.” Genocide as a legacy for future generations.

“For every victim of October 7, 50 Palestinians had to die. No matter if they are children. I’m not speaking out of a sense of vengeance but delivering a message for future generations. There is nothing we can do; they need a Nakba from time to time, in order to feel the price.” Boom.

Moderator Danny Kushmaro and correspondents Yaron Avraham and Nir Dvori ignored these trivial comments; for them, they are self-evident. When a liberal director of the Military Intelligence Directorate talks like that, it signifies the end of the argument over whether there is or isn’t a genocide in Gaza, as well as the argument over the aims of this war. It was from its inception and until its distant end a war of annihilation.

This goes for “no matter if they are children” as well. Someone who once talked with sensitivity about mothers who sleep well on their pillows because their sons are not in the war, as opposed to mothers who can’t sleep because their sons are in Gaza, is now nonchalantly advocating the murder of children.

Palestinian mothers have no pillows left; a great portion of them have no children left, either. But for Haliva, children don’t matter now. That is how a general who was previously praised by Raya Yaron-Carmeli, the spokesperson of the anti-war movement Machsom Watch, speaks.

She related that while he was a brigade commander in the West Bank, good boy Haliva once came to a roadblock called “the children’s roadblock” and told soldiers there to behave respectfully (Haaretz Hebrew, May 1, 2024). Only candy from his pocket was missing. And now, “no matter the children.”

If the general’s words weren’t enough, one can find other supportive evidence, no less convincing, in the words of the wife of the October 7 chief of staff. Sharon Halevi said in a podcast that her husband left their house on that morning with his tefillin and a promise to his wife: “Gaza will be decimated.” This was on the morning of October 7, 2023.

What does one do with an army whose commanders admit that they embarked on a war of annihilation? How does one live with the thought that genocide was the original true and main aim of this war? Not just any genocide, but one committed every few years?

No, Haliva, your guilt on October 7 is dwarfed by another issue. Yes, you did warn, no you didn’t; But you devoted all your years to the idea of brutally ruling over another people, and now you say that we need a genocide every few years.

For that you should be sent to The Hague.

Gideon Levy