Netanyahu is destroying his country’s future for the sake of his own political survival. He is not alone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently announced a new stage of the military operation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces are set to enter the town of Rafah, located in the south of the Strip and overflowed with refugees. According to Netanyahu, without taking control of this city there will be no victory.
It seems like a weird decision. Indeed, after almost half a year of hostilities, it is already clear to many that Israel is not going to win at all, whatever happens in Rafah. The military operation is at an impasse. The Israeli leadership has not been able to achieve any of its objectives in Gaza, neither the elimination of Hamas nor the removal of Palestinians from the Strip.
In these strikes, Israeli forces have killed 30,000 Palestinian civilians, of whom more than 9,700 are children and more than 6,800 are women. Another 7,000 people, almost two thirds of them women and children, remain under the rubble.
Not surprisingly, countries of the Global South directly accuse the Israelis, and Prime Minister Netanyahu personally, of genocide. The Middle East nations, even those who have recently tried to restore good relations with Tel Aviv, are once again viewing Israel as an enemy. Either tacitly or openly support they the Houthis, the Yemeni movement that is trying to block trade with Israel across the Red Sea.
Although Arab countries are also suffering from this blockade, for insurance companies and owners are reluctant to let ships into the ports of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, none of the Arab leaders seem to be outraged, since it would look like supporting Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip indirectly.
There is outrage even among some of Israel’s close allies, including the United States. Fully and unconditionally supporting its position in Gaza, turning a blind eye to flagrant and massive violations of human rights and in fact condoning war crimes, Washington expected that the military operation would not last long and that Israel would succeed in achieving its goals.
However, what the US ended up with was not a swift victory over Hamas, but rather ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. This has complicated relations between Washington and its Arab allies and jeopardized military aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, something from where Russia and China stand to gain. In fact, Washington’s support for Israel has allowed both China and Russiato consolidate their position.
No wonder that the top figures in Biden’s administration are urging him to withhold support from Netanyahu. Even likely next U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican and Israeli ally whose son-in-law Jared Kushner is Jewish, has said that Tel Aviv should end the military operation in Gaza as soon as possible because the Israelis are losing support in the world.
Global support, however, is not the biggest challenge for Netanyahu. Mass protests are underway in Israeli cities.
Tens of thousands of people are accusing the prime minister of failing to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas in the October attack and demanding early elections. The opposition, which sees the current situation as a great opportunity to get rid of the leader of Israel’s right-wing camp, is also insisting on the same.
One would think that in such a state of affairs Netanyahu should look for a diplomatic solution to the problem. For instance, reach out to Hamas through Arab countries, try to negotiate a compromise, release the hostages by abandoning the military operation. But instead he wants to send troops to Rafah – for more destruction, more civilians killed, and without any chance of victory. So what is the logic?
There is more than enough logic, but seeing it requires looking at the situation from the perspective of Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal agenda, not Israeli national interests. To put it bluntly, neither negotiation, nor curtailing the military operation, will give Netanyahu the reputation of a winner.
Just the opposite, supporters will accuse him of betrayal, and opponents will rush to oust him. As a result, the current prime minister risks not only losing his post, but also ending his career behind bars. The only chance to keep all this at least for a while is to continue the war, killing people in the hope that the situation will somehow change.
That is why Netanyahu targeted not only Gaza, but also the Iranian consulate in Syria. For the first time ever, Israel bombed not an Iranian convoy, warehouse or base, but a diplomatic facility in Damascus. At least seven Iranian military were killed, among them two generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. If Tehran fails to respond now, it will simply lose all favor in the region. On the other hand, if Tehran responds in a symmetrical manner, it will give the Israeli prime minister the war he desires.
Yet Netanyahu is by no means insane. The Israeli prime minister is simply mimicking the leaders of Europe, who are doing exactly the same in the Ukrainian war.
European leaders also realize that they cannot win against Russia, that additional days and weeks of war will only lead to more civilian suffering and combat casualties, as well as to additional losses for the European economy. By taking a more hawkish position on the Ukrainian crisis than the Americans, European leaders are destroying their chances of determining the future of the European security system, which will be negotiated between Moscow and Washington.
Yet these very same leaders realize that straying from the hard line will lead toward political uproar, their resignations and even jailing. French President Emmanuel Macron’s disapproval rating, according to the Washington Post, is 71%, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s is as high as shocking 72%. With these figures, they can only afford “bicycle politics” – as soon as they stop aid to Ukraine and attempts to put the European economy on a war footing, they will fall and be hollowed out by the voters.
Therefore, they have no choice. All of them, like Netanyahu, are deliberately continuing the war, announcing new supplies of weapons and money to Ukraine, and ignoring even the fact that Zelenskiy has refused to hold elections and effectively ceased to be a legitimate president.
