The Monocle Minute

It has been almost a year since Hamas’s 7 October attack, which was followed by Israel’s disproportionate response in Gaza, this week’s escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the overnight missile attacks by Iran. It’s time to reflect on the state of Israeli society. Last year’s protests against the judicial reforms by the sixth Netanyahu government now seem a distant memory. However, the issues that divided the country at the time haven’t gone away – they were only parked for a while after the shock and trauma of the recent hostilities.

Visiting Israel, I found a society that remains supportive of the military but is fatigued by the toll that the war has taken, especially on those who have already served hundreds of days as reservists. The conflict has affected young people’s studies and businesses, many of which have gone under. It has also harmed relationships and mental health, caused by the constant fear of being attacked. Needless to say, the suffering in Gaza – with the exception of the communities attacked on 7 October – has been far greater than that of most Israelis.

At the same time, resentment is growing among the country’s liberals who, in the months leading up to the conflict, were taking to the streets to defend the democratic system. Many of them, who feel that they are the main contributors to the economic success of the country, now form the backbone of the military-reserve service. By contrast, their ultra-Orthodox compatriots haven’t historically had to serve in the army and large numbers of them continue to live on government handouts.

I was concerned to hear that many of the country’s most economically mobile citizens are contemplating moving abroad. If Israel hopes to gain long-term security and prosperity when the fighting ends, its top priority should be to heal its society from within.

Yossi Mekelberg is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House. For all the latest news following Iran’s attack on Israel, tune in to ‘The Globalist’ on Monocle Radio from 07.00 London time.

Thailand’s new prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, is in Qatar today on her first international trip as leader. The politically inexperienced Shinawatra is jumping straight into the diplomatic deep end. Her mission in Doha is to revive the Asia Co-operation Dialogue (ACD), an ambitious intergovernmental organisation founded with great fanfare in 2002 during her father’s first term as prime minister. Thaksin Shinawatra set out to create a continent-wide economic policy forum to bring Asian nations together but his political downfall cost the project support in Bangkok. In more than 20 years, its 35 member countries have only managed 16 ministerial meetings and two summits.

During this time, the multilateral landscape has become far more competitive. The Brics bloc is expanding; Thailand expects to find out later this month whether its application for membership has been successful. The ACD’s status could rise next year when Thailand takes over the rotating chair but its ambitions continue to rely on the political fate of the Shinawatra family.

Swiss architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron has completed work on Kinderspital Zürich. When it opens in November, it will be the nation’s largest children’s hospital. Nestled in an orchard-strewn suburb of Zürich, the three-storey building encompasses several courtyards in its site; the layout follows a grid in which departments are arranged in “neighbourhoods”. The rooms, meanwhile, are designed like small houses offering both privacy and pleasant views.

The Swiss firm won an international competition to design the institution in 2012. “It tried this kind of arrangement in an early project in Basel – a rehabilitation hospital for brain injury,” Tim Abrahams, contributing editor at the Architectural Record, tells The Globalist on Monocle Radio. “It worked well, so it has deployed it across a much larger facility. The project shows how much global attention is now being paid to hospital design.”

To hear more about the new Kinderspital Zürich, tune in to Tuesday’s edition of ‘The Globalist’ on Monocle Radio.

One of the UK’s greatest historians, William Dalrymple is no stranger to researching the treasures of India. Dalrymple sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss his latest work, “The Golden Road”, which outlines ancient Indian cultures, ideas and inventions and how they influenced the western world.