Zeruya Shalev on Israel and the war in Iran
“We are playing Russian roulette—against our will”
Written in the early days of Iran's retaliation, this text by Israeli novelist Zeruya Shalev—author of Love Life, Husband and Wife, The Remains of Love, Pain, and Thera—expresses the deep ambivalence felt by some Israelis about the ongoing war. Amidst the explosions and sirens, doubts grow: even if the war is justified, can we trust the government that is committing Israel to it?
The threatening siren sounds once again as I write to you, rising and falling from my cell phone and the horns in the area, growing louder and louder, accompanied by the repeated words: “Red alert! Red alert! Red alert!” I rush down the stairs, descend two floors, and exit onto the balcony, from which I take a few more steps to the shelter beneath the building. As soon as I close the shelter door, loud explosions are heard. Most of the time, these are interceptions in the sky, sometimes missile strikes or fragments of interceptors. On the first day of the war, a 20-story building not far from here was hit, and the walls of the shelter shook.
Last night, Hezbollah also joined in, unfortunately, and fired at Haifa and the north from nearby Lebanon. Hezbollah’s missiles scare me more because of the short warning time. Only one minute to reach the shelter. It’s not easy when you wake up in the middle of the night and your legs get tangled up as you run down the stairs and your consciousness is filled with the red alert. Red like the anemones that are just beginning to bloom in the short Israeli spring. Red like the blood flowing from the bodies of the wounded and dead across the country.
Thousands have lost their homes
In a residential building in Tel Aviv, in a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, on a road in Jerusalem. Twelve people have been killed so far in this war, including a mother and her daughter, a father and his son, three brothers aged 13, 15, and 16, and dozens have been wounded. Thousands have lost their homes while the government has yet to begin repairing the buildings damaged in the previous war with Iran this past June.
If this war helps the citizens of Iran replace the tyrannical leadership in their country, it will be a tremendous relief for the Iranian people and for the entire world.
Yes, all Israeli citizens are once again participating, against their will, in a kind of Russian roulette. Against their will—not because this is not a just war. For many years, the Iranian regime of terror has been threatening to destroy Israel and harm America, operating murderous jihadist terrorist organizations, brutally suppressing human rights in Iran, women’s rights, and slaughtering opponents of the regime. There is no doubt that if it has nuclear weapons, it could threaten the entire world. There is also no doubt that if this war helps the citizens of Iran replace the tyrannical leadership in their country, it will be a tremendous relief for the Iranian people and for the entire world.
Nevertheless, many Israeli citizens, myself included, find it difficult to trust the Israeli prime minister and the sincerity of his motives and goals. For several years now, he has been driven unabashedly by personal political interests, and has proven in countless ways that the last thing he cares about is human life or the good of the country.
The first thing that interests him, on the other hand, is preserving his rule. More than ever, more than many leaders throughout history, Netanyahu desperately needs to win the upcoming elections. If he wins, he will be able to complete the regime change he began two and a half years ago without interference, destroy Israel’s magnificent judicial system, and eliminate the rule of law that threatens him.
A war to mask his own failures
If he wins, he will be able to cancel his increasingly complicated criminal trial and the investigation into his and his close advisors’ ties to Qatar, which threatens to expose him as the greatest traitor to the Jewish people ever. He will, of course, be able to prevent the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, which would find him guilty and responsible in every possible sense. From his personal point of view, he must win, otherwise he is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Many Israeli citizens, myself included, find it difficult to trust the Israeli prime minister and the sincerity of his motives and goals.
But what will he do when, two years after October 7, no poll predicts his victory? There is no doubt that he may compromise the integrity of the elections when the day comes, but in the meantime, nothing like a victory in Iran to erase his failures, to try to gain a few more seats that will allow him to survive in power, and he is already exploiting the war to obtain a pardon in his trial with the help of President Trump.
An Israel à la Iran
Trump also has his own interests, as we know, and who knows what Netanyahu promised him in return for this joint war, which, even if it is justified, is as terrible as any war. And who knows how it will unfold. History shows that attempts to change regimes from afar usually fail and sometimes even lead to worse outcomes.
What a cynical paradox hangs over our heads amid the missile and drone debris. While sending Air Force pilots to fight for a democratic Iran, Netanyahu is doing everything he can, with the help of his extreme right-wing government, to turn democratic Israel into Iran. Everything is already here, and not by chance: religious radicalization, expansion of rabbinical powers, exclusion of women, infringement on the right to protest, political policing, political appointments.
For Netanyahu, the decision between his own survival and the survival of the country has long been made.
The brain drain is already in full swing, as it was in Iran. Doctors and high-tech professionals, scientists and engineers are leaving in droves. But an undemocratic Israel will not last, as author Amos Oz said in a chilling prophetic speech on February 17th, 2015 in front of the Institute for National Security Studies at the Tel-Aviv University, in which he predicted the dark, fanatical dictatorship that could arise here.
More afraid of Netanyahu than Iranian rockets
Netanyahu understands and knows all this, which makes the situation seven times more unbearable. He is fully aware that he is choosing to cooperate with all of Israel’s enemies, to weaken it and undermine its power, solely so that he can maintain his corrupt rule. In a few months, if he wins the election, many of the pilots he is now sending to Iranian skies will leave the country, along with many of the brilliant minds that have brought Israel to extraordinary achievements, but he has long since decided between his own survival and that of the country.
And so, even as I go down to the shelter again and again when I hear the sirens, and even if the explosions start before I manage to get inside, I must admit that Netanyahu scares me much more than the Iranian missiles. We still have the tools to deal with Iran. Against a psychopathic prime minister, devoid of conscience and inhibitions, we do not have enough tools to deal with our great disaster. And so, as much as I fill with hope for the citizens of Iran, I am even more anxious about the future of the citizens of Israel.
« Wir spielen russisches Roulette – gegen unseren Willen » by Zeruya Shalev © All rights reserved. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/03/2026.
Zeruya Shalev
Zeruya Shalev is an Israeli novelist born in 1959 in Kvutzat Kinneret. She studied the Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked as an editor. She was seriously injured in an attack in Jerusalem in 2004, an experience that has left its mark on her work. Her major novels include “Love Life”, “Husband and Wife”, “The Remains of Love”, “Pain” and “Thera”. Translated into many languages, her works have established her as one of the great voices of contemporary Israeli literature.
