Champion of Gaslighting and Champion of Nothing (Seriously)

The way the Netanyahu regime sabotages language itself is always on my mind. I assume this has been written about here once or twice already, because honestly, they are so good at it. And when I say “so good," I mean their relentless efforts to label every act of violent settler aggression as “self-defence," every instance of abandonment and failure as “governance," every act of budgetary theft benefiting the sectors they represent as “strengthening heritage," and people like Daniela Weiss as “human rights activists." The list is endless.

And if there’s one thing that undermines any sense of security and creates the hallucinatory feeling that we’re living in, it’s this: pulling the very logic of language out from under all of us, producing constant confusion and existential chaos. Tom Zandman captures this manoeuvre precisely here, pauses to break it down, and describes it step by step with nerve-fraying meticulousness. Follow it, and then apply it yourselves to every sentence that comes out of their mouths when they speak according to the talking points they’re being fed. It’s an excellent exercise in understanding reality.

Ayala Shalev, Editor, That’s About Us

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Champion of Gaslighting and Champion of Nothing (Seriously)

Tom Zandman

Dear liberals, your attention please. This time it’s important.A clarification: the writer is not an expert on Iran, nuclear weapons, or ballistic missiles. The writer simply knows people, and knows Israel a little.

1. Netanyahu is preparing the ground for another attack on Iran.

2. The ground that needs preparing is not military, it’s psychological. In other words, the ground is us.

3. The Israel–Iran war of June 2025 was marketed to us as a brilliant strategic victory: a decisive blow to the nuclear program and/or the air defences and/or the ballistic missiles and/or regime stability. A transformation of the Middle East.

4. That “strategic victory" cost us the lives of 32 civilians and one soldier who died as a civilian, 11,000 people who lost their homes, and tens of billions of shekels.

5. Before October 7, such a price would have been unthinkable. Today, the Israeli public has developed what we like to call “resilience" – which, translated into plain Hebrew, means the complete normalization of death, destruction, and devastation as an unavoidable fact of life. The “price" of “living" in this place.

6. And what did we get for that “price"? Let’s see, and along the way, we’ll perform some magic.

7. Here is a selection of reports from the Israeli media in recent days about what’s happening on the Iranian side:

‣ “Unusual movements by various Revolutionary Guard units in the fields of drones, missiles, and air-defence systems."

‣ “Iran is working to expand its production of ballistic missiles."

‣ “New satellite imagery shows attempts to assess the damage at the facility attacked during the war."

‣ “Iran’s ballistic missile production could rise to around 3,000 missiles a year – if nothing changes."

‣ “Iran has resumed its threats on Israel and is showcasing its military capabilities, much like in the days before the war."

‣ “In recent months, 10–12 shipments have been sent from Chinese ports to Bandar Abbas in Iran containing sodium perchlorate, totalling around 2,000 tons – a substance used in missile fuel production."

‣ “Iran has begun rebuilding missile production sites damaged in Israeli strikes."

8. Feeling threatened? Good. That’s the goal: to create the sense that they’re about to wipe us out, to undermine our “sense of security," and to manufacture legitimacy for a “preemptive strike" that will “destroy their capabilities." Because what choice do we have? To let them fire at us all those missiles they’re producing day and night?

9. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh right. The price we paid, and what it bought us. Well, according to the narrative we’re being force-fed, that horrific price bought us a strategic threat in the form of thousands of ballistic missiles aimed at us – and a promise of another attack on Iran sometime between now and the elections. Six to sixteen months after the previous war.

10. But did you notice what just happened? A bit of stern, security-obsessed chatter and poof! existential anxiety takes over, context disappears, the focus shifts to the “threat," and who even remembers what we were talking about?

11. Ah yes. Thirty-three dead, 11,000 displaced, tens of billions of shekels, and one strategic victory that mysteriously evaporated and was replaced by a strategic threat. Magic, or not magic?

Tel Aviv, June 2025

12. And what about the nuclear program? Well, at the end of the previous war, Israeli intelligence assessed that it had been set back by two years. U.S. intelligence talked about a few months – months that may already have passed. So what did the “price" buy us? Unclear.

13. Following the earlier reports, see the following remarkable phrasing: “In Israel, it is believed that Iran is trying to rebuild the nuclear enrichment sites bombed during the June war (which name translates to Operation ‘A People with the Strength of a Lion’). However, according to those same sources, Iran’s efforts to rebuild its ballistic missile production facilities and rehabilitate its air-defence systems are more urgent."

14. Meaning: the immediate threat to Israel that must be neutralized isn’t the nuclear program at all, but the ballistic missiles? The threat is that Iran might have air defences? What does that even mean, literally? Since when is a country’s defensive array an urgent threat that needs to be dealt with? And if the nuclear program isn’t the urgent threat, then what the hell were we fighting about six months ago? Well, “a large number of ballistic missiles would help Iran better defend its uranium enrichment sites."

15. Let’s get this straight: we’re heading toward an attack on Iran to damage its air-defence systems and ballistic missiles, which would threaten Israel in the event that we attack them, which is exactly what we did six months ago – only to bring us to the current situation, where we are threatened by Iran’s ballistic missiles, which are meant to defend… wait, what??

16. If something about this logic sounds jarring or circular, you’re not imagining it.

17. Let’s take a step back and distil all the frightening reports about Iran into a single sentence: Iran is rearming after the June 2025 war.

18. But wait – isn’t that what countries do? Arm themselves in the face of threats? Prepare for a war that may or may not come? What exactly is our goal here? That Iran – a sovereign, hostile state – will simply give up and stop building military power? What possible reason would it have to do that?

19. Imagine that, following reports of a new squadron of F-35s Israel purchased from the U.S., Iran began preparing an attack on Israel to remove the threat – a very real threat and not at all defensive – that this squadron poses to it. Would anyone consider that reasonable? And how would Israel respond? By simply stopping its aircraft purchases?

20. “The goal is to destroy the nuclear program!" And why would that work any better than it did six months ago? And how does that attempt help anything if it merely gives rise, in turn, to the “threat of ballistic missiles and air defences"?

21. So why is Netanyahu preparing the ground for another attack on Iran? Well, because a war with Iran – and wars in general – serve him politically. Nothing reestablishes him as the Protector of Israel quite like saving the Jewish people from the latest existential threat.

22. Okay, no one needs me for this analysis. Anyone who lives here, opposes the Netanyahu regime, and watches how he operates – together with the Israeli media that almost entirely serves him – can see this for themselves. But then the next magic trick happens:

23. In a spectacular, combined operation (another one) by the Air Force, cyber units, Military Intelligence, and the Mossad – all sources of pride for the anti-Netanyahu camp – Israel lands a painful and humiliating blow on Iran. Netanyahu takes the credit, but the liberal camp once again proves that it is only thanks to them that the IDF is the strongest and most sophisticated army in the world.

24. In response, Iran rains down wave after wave of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones on Israel. The IDF’s air defences intercept the overwhelming majority – no civics classes, no Arrow, no Iron Dome! – but the few that get through cause enormous damage to Israel’s home front. Dead people, displaced people, massive infrastructure damage.

25. Israel and Iran exchange a series of painful blows. The Israeli home front absorbs hit after hit, but the Iranians take ten times more. Nuclear sites, energy infrastructure, missile launchers – all suffer severe damage.

26. The war comes to an abrupt halt at what seems like an arbitrary point, with a ceasefire imposed on Netanyahu by Trump. Opposition leaders attack Netanyahu for acting without a clear strategy for victory, praise the IDF for demonstrating total battlefield superiority, and celebrate the courage and resilience of the civilian home front.

27. The war ends in an unequivocal strategic victory for Israel, purchased at a heavy cost in civilian lives, destruction of buildings and infrastructure, thousands displaced, and tens of billions of shekels. The sense of security is restored – thanks to the liberal camp that held the home front, produced the pilots and intelligence and cyber personnel, and would have achieved even more impressive results if not for Netanyahu.

28. Wait... what were we talking about? Oh right. The complete lack of logic in yet another war against Iran, beyond the fact that it serves Netanyahu politically. But hey, we chalked up a strategic victory. At a heavy price, sure, but still.

29. Did you notice what happened again? A few F-35 fireworks, a few “well done, IDF," a bit of aligning together against a common enemy, and poof! context disappears once more, and who even remembers what we were talking about?

30. Ah yes. Thirty-three dead, 11,000 displaced, tens of billions of shekels, and one strategic victory – whose fate we’ll see in another six to sixteen months, when Netanyahu once again needs to divert attention from Gaza, the budget, ultra-Orthodox conscription, the regime overhaul, Qatargate, a commission of inquiry, and his own trial. Magic, or not magic?

Soroka Medical Center, Be'er Sheva, June 2025

31. And above all, as elections approach and Netanyahu wants to prove that the entire Jewish opposition, from Bennett to Eisenkot and from Lieberman to Golan, is willing to quibble with him over nuances of war management but will march obediently behind him straight onto the battlefield – along with all the media outlets, protest organizations, and essentially the entire Israeli public. Keeping Netanyahu united.

32. The attack on Iran will come. And if not Iran, then Syria or Lebanon, or an Intifada in the West Bank, or “Gideon’s Chariots XVI" in Gaza – but Iran is best. And in one instant, as we marvel at the pilots’ and Mossad’s performance and huddle in fear in shelters and reinforced rooms shaking from the explosions, all our critical thinking will evaporate.

33. We will cry out and warn that we’re being led straight into a politically motivated war – right up until the moment we’re dragged into it, at which point we’ll forget how we got there and support it with all our might.

34. So I’m telling you now: that moment will come. I know it will, because it already came in June 2025, and now it’s coming again. And when it does, ask yourselves just one small, stupid question: “Wait, what were we talking about?"

35. And then you’ll say, “Oh, right." And you’ll tell your elected officials, protest leaders, journalists, and uncles at the dinner table: No. We oppose this war. We oppose the unnecessary killing of civilians, the destruction of cities, the turning of thousands into homeless people, and the insane cost that will devour our education, health, and welfare budgets.

36. We don’t care how dazzling the operation is. We don’t care how much air superiority we achieve. We don’t care how many nuclear scientists or senior Revolutionary Guard officials we eliminate, or how many centrifuges we destroy. We don’t want it. It’s not worth it, and it won’t give us any safety, if, in another six to sixteen months, we’re back for yet another round.

37. Stop demanding a “sense of security." Start demanding actual, fucking security.

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Tom Zandman is a Jaffa-based activist, a campaigner with the "MeHazkim" organization, and one of the founders of the Democrats' Peace Headquarters.