Israeli cabinet renames Iron Swords War to 'War of Redemption'

The Israeli government overwhelmingly approved on Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to rename the Iron Swords War (often called the Gaza War) as the “War of Redemption.” The renaming has received criticism as an attempt by Netanyahu to avoid responsibility for the failure to prevent the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023. Many Israelis still refer to the war as the Oct. 7 war. 

“Today I am bringing to the government for approval the proposal to give the war an official, permanent name: ‘The War of Redemption’” Netanyahu told the government before the vote in a video clip that was released by the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. 

“At the end of two consecutive years of fighting, we remember how we began. We rose from the terrible disaster of October 7,” the prime minister continued. 

“The decorations of the current campaign will bear the official name of the War of Redemption,” Netanyahu stressed. 

However, some ministers objected to the new name of the war. 

Diaspora Affairs Minister Aichai Chickli who abstained from voting, wrote on the social media platform 𝕏 that the concept “redemption” was a term that “belongs to the founding of the state and the founding generation.”

Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock who voted against the proposed name change, argued that it was premature to give the Gaza war an official name. 

“We have to wait and see if we achieve all its goals, or if new dangers enter the picture in Gaza, for example forces from Turkey, Qatar and the like, or if we hand over [responsibility for] dismantling the tunnels to people I wouldn’t trust to fix the plumbing in my house,” Strock said according to the Israeli Channel 12. 

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced after the vote that it seeks to “clarify that, as has been the case until now, any change of inscriptions on gravestones will be carried out in full coordination with the bereaved families.”

“Additionally, the means of implementing the government’s decision will be presented to the Public Council for Commemoration of Fallen Soldiers, which is composed of representatives of bereaved families and their representative organizations,” the defense ministry added. 

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, a vocal critic of Netanyahu, strongly criticized the name change. 

“This is not the ‘War of Redemption’; if anything, it is the ‘War of Blame,’ in the name of all those who tried to escape their blame and failed,” he wrote, insisting that only the “slaves” who work for the pro-government, right-wing Channel 14 would use the new name,” Lapid wrote on social media. 

“It was, and remains, the October 7 war, and the October 7 government, and the disaster of October 7. All the attempts to erase what happened there won’t succeed, because it is a real story inscribed in blood,” Lapid argued. 

The name change is also considered controversial among many ordinary Israelis. Tzur Goldin, the brother of the killed IDF soldier Hadar Goldin whose body Hamas has kept since 2014, stated on 𝕏 that  “it is forbidden to hold discussions about the name of the war, medal ceremonies, or any other event that seeks to wrap up the war until all the hostages are here.”

Goldin argued that “the government is burying the hostages – in two senses. Just like what happened in Operation Protective Edge (2014),” referring to the previous war between Hamas and Israel. 

The Israeli military struck dozens of Hamas targets on Sunday after the terror group violated the ceasefire and killed two Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip.