Avida Bachar, a survivor of the Oct. 7 massacre, spoke out Sunday against the emerging ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza framework in an interview with Ido Tauber. “I think we still haven’t understood anything if we’re still trying to make peace with terrorists,” Bachar said. He described the shift in his worldview since the massacre: “I’m still left-wing, but I understand one thing: Arabs cannot be allowed to exist there. I’m basically the old Ben-Gurion.”
2+Trump’s Announcement Last Week
As previously reported, President Donald Trump announced last week that the Board of Peace had reached what he called a historic agreement for the complete dismantling of terror organizations operating in Gaza—including Hamas—calling it “a tremendous step toward peace.” Bachar sharply rejected the American president’s approach, arguing that Gazans are “all terrorists, down to the last one. Anyone who isn’t a terrorist doesn’t exist there. All of Gaza is terrorists: some hold weapons, some control education, some run the economy, but they all work in terror and have only one goal—that we not be on this land. So I’m saying—the problem is far from solved,” he emphasized.
Disappointment with Leadership
The massacre survivor didn’t spare the political leadership, sharing his disappointment: “We’ve had a full right-wing government for 20 years now. Right now, we’re being screwed again for this devil called Gaza, and I have to say this is unacceptable and I can’t contain it.” Bachar also addressed the fact that Israel now controls roughly 70% of the Strip and laid out his fears about reverting to the status quo: “Israel’s fence still hasn’t moved there (deeper into the Strip). The existing yellow line is imaginary. Very quickly it will move back, it won’t stay in the same place, and very quickly Hamas will return and establish itself there.”
2+The Day After
Asked how he thinks Gaza should look the day after, Bachar responded while distancing himself from the approach that sees Jewish resettlement in Gaza as a historical right: “Right now there are no Jews in the Strip and one thing is clear to me: there must not be Arabs there. I have no problem if there are Americans, Singaporeans, or anything else. I don’t trust the Arabs—in the end they’ll stab us in the back. In another three years, another two years, another month, I don’t know when, but if we continue like this it will happen again.”
The Sobered
Bachar was asked about the phenomenon of “the sobered up”—whether his fellow kibbutz residents in the Gaza envelope have undergone a similar shift in thinking about the possibility of peace with Gazans. Bachar replied that “in many cases, this perception hasn’t changed, but not because they haven’t changed—for a completely different reason. In the end we have one Jewish defect in our heads—that says ‘I can’t expel them.’ People today are trying to find the solution, the so-called possible arrangement where the Gazans will live there and we’ll be here and there will be peace—I reject this understanding. I think we have the ability to choose, and we’re currently choosing to be slaughtered rather than to slaughter. Right now I’m telling you we have more compassion for the enemy than for ourselves and I can’t watch this anymore.”
2+His Message to the People of Israel
Toward the end of the interview, Avida Bachar turned to the positive aspects of the Israeli people and pleaded for unity: “I hope we finish the job in Gaza and don’t start fighting among ourselves again. If you ask me one small question, what do we need to do, I think one thing: return a bit to basic decency. If you’re shouting it doesn’t mean you’re right, and if one person has something it doesn’t mean another doesn’t—everyone can have. I hope we’ll finally understand that our strength is in our unity.”