A Prediction is Realized—An Analysis (6 June 2025) by Lawrence Davidson
Part One: Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994) was an “Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath.” He had a particular interest in the subjects of ethics, religion and politics. The evolution of Israeli society in these three areas disturbed him because he had observed that Zionism was taking on a “sacred” status—so much so as to override the humanist values he believed were fundamental to Judaism. He denied that there was anything sacred about the land of Israel, and further that the Jews had a God-given right to it. Such beliefs were profane in his view.
Lebowitz found proof of pervasive Israeli moral corruption in the country’s decades-long treatment of the Palestinians, particularly in the Occupied Territories (OT). Recognizing the oppressive nature of occupation, Leibowitz declared that “Whoever condemns the terrorism of the Palestinian organizations must at the same time condemn the terrorism of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.” Finally, he called on Israeli Jews to refuse to serve in the OT or risk becoming “Judeo-Nazis.” During an interview, and when speaking of Israeli soldiers oppressing the Palestinians, he declared: “Those people find great pleasure in breaking and entering a house in an Arab village and kicking a pregnant Arab woman … and you still ask me what a Judeo-Nazi is?”
Leibowitz’s outlook was not restricted to Israel. Indeed, he felt that modern nationalism per se was damaging to a humanitarian model of behavior. He saw a transformative movement that went from “humanity to nationality to bestiality.” Thus, “the corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the State of Israel.”
How bad could this get? “bestiality is when a man receives the order to break the arms and legs of another man and obeys it! Without hesitation! … exactly like the German soldiers who obeyed their orders.”
Part II – A Socratic Catalyst
Israeli leaders often scorned Leibowitz. After all, they argued, Israel had the right to defend itself against attacks by terrorist Palestinians. That the Israeli Jews, as Leibowitz pointed out, acting like all invading colonists, had created the conditions under which Palestinian resistance was all but inevitable, was simply not recognized. Then there was the claim to a biblical deed to the land. Leibowitz denied this and called it an idolatrous rationale for occupation and conquest.
The result was, and still is, the so-called “Leibowitzening controversy,” wherein, in typical fashion, the main arguments are ignored and an ad hominem series of attacks is substituted. Leibowitz has been called an “intellectually lazy” man spouting “banal libelous hateful critiques.” He is said to be one of the intellectuals who have “betrayed” the nation. Or someone who “dismissed fundamental Jewish traditions and called for discord within the Jewish people.”
A more sympathetic picture was painted bythe Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2004: “Leibowitz was … in the eyes of others, a Socratic catalyst in Israeli society. He induced his listeners to reexamine their ideas, sharpen their thoughts and choose their path. [And yet] most of his students and those who heard his lectures did not choose to follow his path.” Why not? All citizens are taught, in school and in the media, a narrative that justifies the existence and actions of their society. Historically, a large majority of the citizenry have always stayed loyal to that narrative. Leibowitz was preaching a stark counter narrative that most of his audience, even if they saw the logic of his position, could not bring themselves to embrace.
Part III – The Corruption of the Citizenry
Nonetheless, Leibowitz’s prediction stands: the exclusionist narrative of the Israeli state has laid the basis for the corruption of the citizenry. And, when the narrative was transformed into policies that led to the oppression of non-Jews, the nearly inevitable end was apartheid, pogroms and finally genocide.
Consider the following:
— In a recent poll published (May 2025) in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “A total of “82% of those surveyed expressed support for the forced expulsion of residents of the Gaza Strip, and 56% supported the forced expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel.” Then “47 percent of Israeli Jews answered yes to the following question: “Do you support the claim that the [Israeli army] in conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites did when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, and to kill all its inhabitants? The reference is to the biblical account of the conquest of Jericho.”
— (A) “From November 9, 1938, onwards, Germans could no longer be in any doubt as to the intentions of the national socialists: robberies … arson, plunder and murder were all openly perpetrated and no one in the country could from then on claim not to understand what was happening.”
— (B) “From [Israel’s policy] collective punishment – by depriving innocent [Palestinian] people of water, food, energy and medicine – to indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, there are no excuses. The UN … has denounced ‘crimes against humanity’ with the Palestinians being the victims. What will happen next is clear. There are no grounds for ignorance.”
Part IV – Conclusion
One can not dismiss the prescience of Yeshayahu Leibowitz. He predicted that the Zionist colonial project would lead to national moral collapse. That prediction has now come true in a way reminiscent of the behavior of the Jews’ own past persecutors: racial discrimination, pogroms and finally genocide.
But ultimately what does this prescience count for? Of course, it bears witness to the nature of political Zionism and its catastrophic impact on, first and foremost, Palestinian life but Jewish life as well. However, if history tells us anything it is that national groups do not suddenly realize the ruinous nature of their behavior and change course. Leibowitz’s insight will not translate into a lesson learned for those who are now carrying out genocide and those who directly or indirectly support it.
The religious, messianic, settler coalition led by Prime Minister Netanyahu is driven to fulfill the Zionist vision of removing the indigenous population of historic Palestine so as to allow its settlement by Jews. Seizing on a particularly striking act of Palestinian resistance as a excuse to commence this process, the Israeli state has been led to commit the genocide we now all witness. The great majority of the Israeli Jewish population backs their government’s policy of ethnic cleansing as does a number of Zionists abroad. Thus the slogan “never again” is now revealed as a lie by the very people who have shouted it over the last 80 years.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz understood that he was not going to prevent the tragedy he foresaw. Just as such seers are driven to “speak truth to power,” power is inclined to ignore their warnings. And so the prophets bear witness to tragedy repeated time and again.
