Whenever Israel goes to war against those who openly promise to erase it, the international community begins one of its favourite political pantomimes. Iran threatens annihilation. Hezbollah fires rockets. Hamas massacres Jews, and the Houthis launch rockets from so far away they may as well require a connecting flight. And then, with impeccable moral seriousness, the world turns toward Israel and demands to know why it appears so “unwilling to de-escalate.”

One almost has to admire the choreography.

Following the February strikes by Israel and the United States against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic infrastructure, a familiar chorus arose from diplomats, analysts, and the international “strategic community” — which is often just a polite term for people who have never had fifteen seconds to reach a bomb shelter. Pakistan mediated talks. Ceasefires were proposed. Words such as “de-escalation,” “dialogue,” and “regional stability” floated through the air.

And once again, the central complaint emerged: that Israel is the only partner that does not want a ceasefire, that Israel simply does not want peace.

Now, in one sense, this accusation is completely true.

Israel does not want the kind of “peace” currently being offered to it.

What Israel wants is something infinitely more radical: normality.

Not the theatrical ceasefire that lasts precisely long enough for Iran and its proxies to reload. Not another internationally guaranteed arrangement that expires the moment a new administration arrives in Washington. Not another diplomatic masterpiece in which Western officials congratulate themselves while Israelis calculate how many seconds their children have to reach shelter.

No. Israel wants the utterly scandalous privilege enjoyed by virtually every Western country lecturing it: to exist without people nearby chanting for its destruction.

This is apparently too much to ask.

The extraordinary thing about the current debate is how casually the world has........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)