Vincent Lemire: “Israël se vide de ses élites, de ses CSP+, de ses médecins, de ses chercheurs, de ses artistes, de sa gauche aussi”

Published: May 2, 2026 at 8:01 PM

Updated: May 2, 2026 at 8:03 PM

Vincent Lemire, historian, professor of contemporary history at the Gustave Eiffel University, and author of “Jerusalem: History is Never Written” published by Albin Michel, was a guest on Tout est politique on franceinfo on Saturday, May 2.

France Televisions: Where is Israel going? Spiral of war, authoritarian escalation, democracy under threat since the trauma of the October 7 massacres. Israeli society seems to be radicalizing. What do you think the country is plunging into, almost three years after the attacks of October 7?

Vincent Lemire: In a post-traumatic state that never ends. That’s what’s terrible. And why? Because we have a Prime Minister who constantly maintains this trauma, who always goes from one war to another. I have many friends who are leaving Israel at the moment, or preparing to leave, or considering it, or getting passports back. The numbers are incredible. The doctors trained in Israel, when they have to decide whether to work, be affiliated in Israel, or abroad, 40% of a class says: we are leaving abroad. The country is emptying of its elites, its professionals, its doctors, its researchers, its artists, its left as well. Conversely, people who are coming to Israel today cross paths on the plane. For some of them, they come to unravel. So, in the short term, for Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s an electoral windfall. In the long term, for Israel, it’s a disaster.

And the words you would put on Israel’s wars, since Benjamin Netanyahu says he has seven. Israeli leaders speak of an existential war. Are they right?

Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to create this concept of an existential war for wars that are generally preventive wars. We go back a bit to the 1967 schema, the Six-Day War, a preventive attack against Egypt. For the record, there was an imminent attack by Egypt during the Six-Day War. Here, we are a bit like the war against Iraq. We stage a threat, it’s not new, it’s his only ideological backbone. Benjamin Netanyahu has always changed his mind about everything, but on Iran, he has always stood firm, he awaited this war. It does not bring him the expected effects so far in terms of electoral gain, but it keeps the country in a state of extreme tension.

And at the same time, the ceasefire holds, at least in Iran. Is it about to break in Lebanon? We have seen rockets launched by Hezbollah, bombings. However, is it Donald Trump who is holding Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran?

We can hope so. We don’t even know what to hope for anymore, which one is the most warlike. These ceasefires are always a bit asymmetrical because there have still been dozens of Lebanese deaths since the ceasefire. Since the ceasefire, there have been 733 deaths in Gaza, an average of 4 per day. So, it’s always a ceasefire from one side. At some point, it eventually breaks. I’m just waiting for one thing, that in a few days or weeks, the rockets start again.

How do you describe Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy towards Gaza?

It’s eternal war. He only wants one thing, to go back there. Today, the 2 million Gazans are squeezed into 40% of the territory. That famous red line keeps moving westward. Today, it’s 41-42%. There are 2 million inhabitants of Gaza living there.

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