After the destruc­tion of Gaza, Ariel Beery kept encoun­ter­ing the same claim: that Israel’s actions proved the Zion­ist project was fin­ished. He reject­ed it instinc­tive­ly, but strug­gled to explain why. So he did what he does when clar­i­ty eludes him: he lis­tened. Being Israeli After the Destruc­tion of Gaza records his con­ver­sa­tions with Israelis over three months in ear­ly 2026 — with peace­builders, jour­nal­ists, aca­d­e­mics, and civ­il soci­ety lead­ers who had opposed the Netanyahu gov­ern­ment before Octo­ber 7 and con­tin­ued after­ward. He asked each the same ques­tion: How does it feel to be Israeli after the destruc­tion of Gaza? These are not offi­cial voic­es or from ide­o­log­i­cal extremes. They are every­day cit­i­zens grap­pling with a posi­tion the world has strug­gled to name: trou­bled by their government’s actions, accept­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty, yet unwill­ing to aban­don the project. In a dis­course demand­ing alle­giance or rejec­tion, they refuse both. For Jews world­wide seek­ing a way to hold that same ten­sion, this book offers some­thing rare: a shared lan­guage, a path toward engag­ing, reck­on­ing, and rebuilding.