Israel to rename Gaza conflict ‘War of Revival’

Critics pan the decision as the prime minister’s way to cover up his government’s failure to prevent the Hamas invasion.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel’s Cabinet is voting Sunday to officially change the name of the war that began after Hamas’ brutal invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, from “Swords of Iron” to “War of Revival (Milchemet HaTekuma).”

The resolution regarding the switch, put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, states that the term “Swords of Iron” was considered only a provisional name and that now a permanent name should be chosen.

Tekumah, which means “revival” or “rebirth,” is a worthy name, they wrote, “in light of the manner in which it began, its development into a campaign on seven different fronts, and the fact that this war is a milestone in the rebirth of the State of Israel.”

They named the fronts as the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen and Iraq.

Many consider the public diplomacy arena — especially the massive assaults Israel suffers daily in the online sphere — to be an eighth front that, in contrast to the others, Israel is losing.

There have been other proposals for names that have gained public favor, such as “the Simchat Torah War,” after the holiday on which it began, or “the Gaza War.”

Critics of the government responded quickly to the announced move.

MK Gilad Kariv of the opposition Democrats party posted to X on Saturday, “Tomorrow morning we will place on the Knesset table a bill to rename the longest war in Israeli history the Simchat Torah War. Despite all the attempts and heavy makeup — Netanyahu will not succeed in erasing the mark of Cain from his forehead.”

Writing in Walla, journalist Barak Seri noted that Netanyahu is an avid reader of history and wants at all costs to avoid having it written about him that the greatest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust occurred on his watch.

To “blur this fact,” he wrote, Netanyahu wants to “build a new narrative for the war,” one that says:

“Hamas and the rest of our enemies rose up against us to destroy us, and I led the war of revival that saved Israel. There was no massacre here, but revival. Netanyahu is a trained marketing man. He knows how much semantics changes consciousness. The name will be changed, and maybe in a few months his opponents will also be convinced that he brought us revival.”

Netanyahu had briefly proposed the name change over a year ago but withdrew it after hostages’ families protested that “There is no revival without the return of all the hostages.”

It was clear, however, that the idea had taken root even earlier, as the prime minister established an office named the “Revival Directorate” just four days after the war began to be in charge of rebuilding the Gaza envelope communities destroyed by the thousands of terrorists who crossed into Israel and massacred 1,200 men, women, and children in a horrific rampage.