The reason why 100 school children died, is because of a strategy of Netanayhu waiting for Trump, No change in Gaza combat to when Trump loses
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Netanyahu wants to delay. He's waiting for Donald Trump (whose chances of returning to the White House are slimmer than they were a few weeks ago). His government is doing everything it can to make things worse and distance us from the family of enlightened nations. At a time when Israel needs all the support and protection from the United States and friendly European countries, what could be so gratuitously harmful as Bezalel Smotrich fantasizing out loud about starving 2 million Gazans?
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And take this to the bank. Netanyahu knows full well the loathing Leftist Democrats have for him, and his war, and wants, as what happened in Gaza with maximum violence, is in part aimed at a recreation of RIOTS in the Democratic convention , in the matter of 1968 at Chicago, 2024 to derail Harris from becoming POTUS, in 2024, just as the Chicago riots 1968 destroyed Hubert Humphrey
Its calculated as it can be with Netanyahu and if 60,000 people die needlessly in Gaza, so long as Trump were elected November 2024 , Netanyahu does not care
Haaretz editors know full well the game plan. So should you
If or not the school housed terrorists, as alleged by the IDF, is not Netanyahu's concern. Getting Trump back in office, on the back of massive anti Gazan war riots in Chicago is all that Netanyahu cares about
This intentional use of violence to get ones way is in a sense similar to when Richard Nixon got Anna Chennault to talk president Thieu of South Vietnam to sabotage peace talks, leading to the catastrophic millions of deaths in the 1970s. Johnson was briefed by Hoover as to what Nixon did, in 1968/ now we have a re run of the same game, and this involving Gaza
The parallels with 1968 are right up there. in a word people don't fall for Netanyahu and his attempts to provoke giant riots to make Trump appear almost reasonable
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While Netanyahu Waits for Trump, Israel's Demolition Crew Government Undermines Western Support
Israel has three options when it comes to the multifront war being waged, but the prime minister prefers to delay ■ A fashionable 308 days late, Netanyahu remembered to apologize for October 7 – but only in English ■ The badly divided opposition and the vain search for defectors from the coalition
Aug 9, 2024
As of this writing, before the possible turning of the world upside down, Israel faces three options. The first is to reach an agreement to rescue the hostages who remain alive and begin the process of ending the 300-day war in the Gaza Strip, a move that would probably end the fighting in the north or perhaps help reach an agreement through U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein.
The second is to continue with the war of attrition in the north, which is showing no signs of ending and is widening to encompass new and willing players – chaos-seeking "terrorist elements" who are encouraged by Israel's poor strategic situation, according to the intelligence. The parameters will be expanded. The West Bank could catch fire , with some people warning about attacks on settlements, for example. The exhaustion will intensify; Israel's situation will deteriorate further.
The third is to opt for victory with a preemptive strike on Hezbollah, a move whose advocates contend would force the terrorist organization, which has long since become a powerful army, to recalculate its policy. "In the current reality, the other side hardly pays any price," a political source says.
"Israel is experiencing serious harm with the economy and with tourism. Lebanon isn't really suffering. It is already a collapsing, backward country. Hezbollah can absorb the losses that Israel inflicts on it. It has sophisticated, effective arms and won't lack for fighters. The best-paying job in Lebanon these days is serving in the organization. And Iran, what prices is Iran paying? It crossed the Rubicon on April 13, and what did we do? We responded with boutique-style retaliation."
As far as anyone knows, the prime minister and defense minister are opposed to the third option. On this issue (one of the few), they form a common front. Others feel differently. Gideon Sa'ar has recommended attacking Hezbollah. Benny Gantz expressed similar sentiments ("a proactive strike on Lebanese infrastructure "). Against that, media reports say Israel's response will be determined by the extent of the damage from an attack, not by its scope and intensity. There's a certain logic in this, but the upshot could be a never-ending war of attrition in which the enemy sets the height of the flames – until Israel deals a decisive blow and risks the "annihilation" that Sa'ar, Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak have warned about.
Iran didn't pay a price for the massive attack on Israel in April. No one broke diplomatic relations or imposed sanctions. In Israel, at a time when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the rest of the defense establishment seek to strengthen the defensive coalition around Israel , the prime minister and the members of the governing coalition are doing their best to unravel it. Under the leadership of a government that's seen in the sane world as a dangerous demolition crew, Israel will have difficulty coping with a full-fledged regional war. It needs massive political and material backing from the West.
Netanyahu wants to delay. He's waiting for Donald Trump (whose chances of returning to the White House are slimmer than they were a few weeks ago). His government is doing everything it can to make things worse and distance us from the family of enlightened nations. At a time when Israel needs all the support and protection from the United States and friendly European countries, what could be so gratuitously harmful as Bezalel Smotrich fantasizing out loud about starving 2 million Gazans?
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That would be a war crime par excellence , but the law – whether of the international or national kind – has never held an important place in the world of the radical and messianic settlers. Netanyahu didn't disavow Smotrich's remarks – why cause trouble? Ministers May Golan and Itamar Ben-Gvir openly defend soldiers suspected of horrific acts of sexual abuse on a Gazan detainee.
A man who is supposed to be more sane and responsible, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, poses for a picture with the heads of the West Bank settlements, sending the message to his peers around the world, "There's no such thing as settler violence – you are the beautiful Land of Israel." The outpouring of flattery comes because most of the people in the picture are powerful figures in the Likud primaries. What's worse is that some of them are accomplices of the hilltop thugs; others just look the other way.
There's no settler violence ? Is the foreign minister saying that? Tell that to the thousands of Palestinians who have suffered through rioting and pogroms day after day at the hands of settlers. Tell it to the security forces, who have experienced the "nonviolence" of the hilltop horrors.
That lie again
Meanwhile, in the growing noise around us and the nerve-racking wait for Messrs. Nasrallah and Khamenei's decision , the humanitarian issue that most of the public considers the most urgent, namely the fate of the hostages, has been pushed to the margins of the news cycle. This situation mainly serves Netanyahu.
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Never, despite all his promises, has he seen the rescue of these unfortunate people, who were taken captive due to his long-standing failures, as a central goal. Only on Thursday, in an interview with Time magazine , did he remember to apologize. It's easier for him to do it in English with an American interviewer than on prime-time television in Israel, and of course (how could he not?) blame previous governments for the faulty thinking that led to October 7 – including that of Ehud Olmert, who left politics in 2009, and Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who were in power for a mere year and a half. Finally, he remembered to recognize them for something.
In his public addresses, Netanyahu devotes as little time as possible to the hostages – just lip service, for the record. About the "total victory" (which six months ago we were told was just around the corner), he can talk for hours. When Netanyahu promises (for 10 months now) to win the war and destroy Hamas to "bring security to future generations" and all his other hollow words, in his mind's eye he is wearing the uniform of the commander. Churchill and all that .
By contrast, the hostages remind him and everyone else of October 7, the massacre, the collapse of security, the failure and the division, none of which would have been possible without the rise of his extremist government . Worse still is the debate over the release of the hostages and the army's withdrawal from Gaza, a long (maybe permanent) cease-fire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists from prison. That discussion projects weakness and surrender. That's not a place where Netanyahu wants to be. Churchill didn't need to deal with hostages-shmostages. Why was that Netanyahu's fate? Why isn't he allowed to pursue victory in peace and quiet?
Since the end of October, whenever he has addressed the issue, Netanyahu vows to "return all of our hostages." In doing so, he distances himself from a multi-stage agreement. "All of our hostages" will occupy a place of honor in Bibi-ist linguistics, one of the most deceitful and evil phrases uttered by the master of babble. Almost every time he employs the phrase, it's followed by another message about the hostages who were murdered or killed in Hamas captivity. But in the "all our hostages" equation, the list of the dead gets longer month by month. Netanyahu's promises are no longer of any help to Chaim Peri and Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Maya Goren, Alex Danzig and Yagev Buchshtab, and many others.
Thanks to Netanyahu's well-known stubbornness, the debate about the hostages, especially on the center-right, is already less of a burden for him. With great effort and an army of eager mouthpieces, he has managed to turn the country upside down again.
His method has been sophisticated, but there's nothing new. First, he acts based his political needs (in this case, the survival of the coalition and safety of his job). Next, he creates a justification (toughness in negotiations on the way to total victory). Finally, he starts to believe it himself.
The most important decision he has ever had to make as a leader is the one concerning the fate of the hostages. He chose the cowardly, self-interested option . What do you do when you don't have an ounce of courage? You puff out your chest and sell your image.
Netanyahu's briefings on the deal have changed course in the last month. They focus less on blaming the other side (Hamas) and more on a stubborn justification of his own actions. As he explains it, every time he was caught throwing a wrench into an impending deal, he was actually hardening his positions in order to reach a better deal.
How exactly is he going to get a better deal when the assets held by the other side (the hostages) are constantly falling in number? Netanyahu's demands are, seemingly again, legitimate, whether it's about armed men entering northern Gaza or the control of the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah crossing . In reality, they remain a deception. As time goes on, his deception expands as the reality he creates allows him to devise more and more obstacles.
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That take on the hostage talks has been adopted by the right, which talks about Netanyahu as a leader with a long view, someone protecting Israel from weak generals who only want to surrender. They know exactly what the real plan is – Israel's complete control of Gaza, including its economy, society and governance, for an open-ended period.
In every election over the years, Netanyahu engages in the same ritual: He warns the settler and far-right leaders that the left is coming back, and with it in short order a Palestinian state . They must rally around him. Regarding the hostages, the right has been told that the collapse of the coalition would lead to an ideologically "dangerous" outcome with the abandonment of Gaza.
His method in thwarting the hostage deal is reminiscent of an even more familiar ritual, that of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of people wasted tens of thousands of hours on negotiations that turned out to be all for nothing. Netanyahu would send teams out for more meetings and activate back channels so that everyone would see how serious he was. In the annals of the Bibi-ists, this is a glorious chapter. The Olympic champion of pole-vaulting over the truth was competing for the Greater Land of Israel.
Among the coalition, right-wing commentators and the army of mouthpieces, there are those who know the simple truth: Since the end of 2023, Netanyahu has been lying about reaching a hostage deal. Right now, they are ashamed to admit it. But after the last Israeli has died in the depths of Gaza, they will shamelessly come out of this closet as well.
A divided opposition
On Tuesday, Lapid posted a long thread on X. It was an apology of sorts, titled "The opposition is here and fighting and needs your help." Well, if "the opposition is here and fighting," there's no need to announce it.
Lapid then listed the opposition's alleged achievements, like blocking the attempt to weaken the judiciary . He also owned up to its failures (failing to bring down the government), mentioned the tough political background (the opposition isn't homogeneous, to say the least) and offered a prediction ("The day isn't far off when five coalition MKs agree to bring down the government with us").
He also owned up to its failures (failing to bring down the government), mentioned the tough political background (the opposition isn't homogeneous, to say the least) and offered a prediction ("The day isn't far off when five coalition MKs agree to bring down the government with us.")
That last part is the wishful thinking that has accompanied Lapid and other opposition leaders since the start of the government's surprise attack on democracy on January 4, 2023. The hope that a revolt would break out on the right faded pretty quickly. It sprang back to life after October 7 and quickly faded again. Likud simply doesn't have five brave, conscientious people ready to commit political suicide by bringing down the government.
Lapid's statement aims to end all the talk about a "flabby opposition." People who demand that the opposition leader show more determination to end Netanyahu's government of failure and death are being reasonable.
But they're not being realistic. Unlike the opposition, the current government is homogeneous in the sense that it has extremists and ultra-extremists. No starfighters have flown off from the mother ship the way Idit Silman and Amichai Chikli did in the previous government. There's no one to tempt them with jobs. And to tell the truth, Lapid and his people aren't masters at this.
Lapid's noting that his bloc of 56 is far from a bloc was clear before he announced it on X. The Knesset called a special session in the middle of the summer recess to vote on a bill designed to strengthen that spewer of poison known as Channel 14 . Three of the opposition parties – National Unity, New Hope-United Right and Yisrael Beiteinu – failed to show up for the debate, each for its own reasons.
Yair Golan, the chairman of the Democrats – the merger of Meretz and Labor (which voted against the bill) – uploaded a post attacking the opposition for displaying "defeatism and weakness" in the face of the government that sponsored the bill.
Of course, Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu and Ahmad Tibi of Arab party Hadash-Ta'al wouldn't be caught in the same forum. But even inside the opposition mainstream, not everything is smooth sailing.
About two and a half months ago, a "forum to bring down the government" was launched. Lapid, Lieberman and Sa'ar took a picture together, without United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas . This was the first and last time they were seen together in public. Since then, it has been bilateral meetings.
Gantz, the claimant to the opposition throne, hasn't become a violent oppositionist since he quit the emergency government in June. For now, he doesn't plan to cooperate with Lapid and Golan. So before Lapid fishes out five MKs from the coalition pond, he better try to unite the 56 who are theoretically subordinate to him but actually are off wandering in the opposition wilderness.
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Andrew Beckwith, PhD
Multilingual Trainer. Editor. Writer. Public Speaking Coach.
3 个月Thank you for this article, Andrew. A more concise and factual one has yet to be published. Netanyahu is leading us to the point where not one hostage will remain alive. And he is "cool" with that.