I wanted to be wrong, but it turns out I was right.
Since the beginning of October, I have been certain that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always had only one objective: to erase Gaza.
Encouraged by an enraged cabinet that views the Palestinians as worthless “vermin,” Netanyahu did what I suspect he always wanted to do: renounce the gradual destruction of a people and a strip of land and , instead, organize a genocide in Gaza with ruthless and oh-so-satisfying efficiency.
By now this fact should be clear. This is the “victory” Netanyahu has pursued and will continue to pursue until he achieves it: turning Gaza into dust and memory forever.
There will be no “pause in the fighting,” no “lasting” ceasefire, no truce, no end to the genocide because Netanyahu has no reason or incentive to stop.
And Netanyahu knows that no one, inside or outside Israel, is prepared, willing or able to stop him.
Hope was extinguished.
Every day, Palestinians hope in vain that the horrors and outrages will end. Every day we hope, in vain, for some slight sign that the murderous madness will end, that reason and diplomacy will prevail, that the captives – on both sides – will be reunited with their bereaved families.
Hope is a fantasy, snuffed out by men and forces who thrive on sowing chaos and despair in their “murderous rage.”
Netanyahu may be unpopular. Yet what he is doing and how he is doing it, disregarding proportion, decency and international law, enjoys the overwhelming support of Israelis who, apparently, would also be happy to see Gaza reduced to dust. and in memory – forever.
Polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu to use more force, more “firepower” in Gaza and beyond. Cursed decency, international law and increasing number of victims day after day.
The pain and suffering of the Palestinians is of no importance. Israel’s right and duty to defend itself are the only ones that matter.
Not surprisingly, polls also show that despite hunger, disease and desperate need, most Israelis want their fellow Israelis to continue blocking trucks carrying food, water and medicine until the prisoners held by Hamas are released. .
The Palestinians are useless. Israelis are not.
As for the “future” of Gaza, 93% of Israelis would agree with Netanyahu: the two-state “solution” is dead on arrival since all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River belongs to them. The intention is to have Israeli settlers replace Palestinians in Gaza. Another Nakba is already in progress – literally.
I am convinced that most of Israel’s allies abroad – whether they admit it publicly or not – also adhere to these blatant beliefs and wholeheartedly subscribe to Netanyahu’s modus operandi and his definition of “victory.” .
Thus, far from being “damaged” or “weakened,” Netanyahu was emboldened as a “wartime” prime minister and by an “international community” that encouraged him to do without remorse what he did. made in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. or restraint.
Netanyahu will survive as prime minister as long as Israel continues to do what it is doing in Gaza and perhaps longer. Always Machiavellian and calculating, he pushed back against predictions of his imminent political demise or forced departure by pious columnists, “pundits” and former presidential candidates.
Time and again, the “international community” has expressed “concern” about what their man in Tel Aviv is doing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Time and time again, these expressions of “concern” have proven to be hollow bits of performative nonsense.
On a reliable basis, US President Joe Biden has called what Israel is doing in Gaza “exaggerated”.
“I worked very hard, very hard, to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. There are a lot of innocent people starving, a lot of innocent people who are struggling and dying, and this has to stop. Number one,” Biden told reporters earlier this week.
This won’t stop. How can this stop when Biden and his complicit allies in London, Paris, Berlin and Ottawa continue to arm Israel to the brim and refuse – even in the blatant face of Israel’s ‘over-the-top’ attack? Israel and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza – Demand an immediate ceasefire?
The dire path was set when Biden and other presidents, chancellors and prime ministers rushed to Tel Aviv on “solidarity” pilgrimages to “stand firm” with Netanyahu.
It is too late to curb the discussions and ephemera since Netanyahu is not listening.
It does not respect the damning ruling of the International Court of Justice which called on the Israeli government to stop what it is doing in Gaza after South African lawyers and diplomats presented convincing and “plausible” arguments according to that the Palestinians are victims of genocide and Israel is. the author.
Rafah is in Netanyahu’s crosshairs. This so-called “shelter” and the more than a million Palestinians who have taken refuge there in tents and makeshift “houses” will suffer the inevitable deadly consequences of the great Western powers’ unconditional support for Israel.
Exhausted and petrified Palestinians, including mothers, wives and their sons and daughters, will not be spared Israel’s wrath. Their already precarious lives hang on the precipice of Netanyahu’s delayed plans – for now and only for now.
Biden and others could claim, at least publicly, to ask Israel to stop the impending carnage. Netanyahu will not be deterred by their meaningless “warnings” delivered from behind a lectern. He is the one calling the shots geopolitically, not Biden et al.
While America was occupied by a soccer match Sunday night, Netanyahu gave the Palestinians of Rafah a taste of the terror to come – firing a hail of shells that killed and dismembered dozens of children, of sleeping women and men.
Finally, the confident Netanyahu understands the value of patience. Biden looks and talks like an old man who is on the verge of becoming yesterday’s man – gone, unimportant and forgotten.
The November presidential election is fast approaching. Another doddering old man, Donald Trump, has a good chance of returning to the Oval Office.
If that happens, Trump will enshrine Israel’s right to commit genocide without his predecessor’s meaningless rhetorical “reservations.”
Regardless, America has, in effect, become Israel’s proxy. The dynamic has changed.
Israel will decide what happens in Gaza today and tomorrow and America will salute in approval and help pay for the pleasure of carrying out its captain’s orders – with joy, goodwill and enthusiasm.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
