Experts and analysts unanimously agree that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to prolong the war on the Gaza Strip for as long as possible, amid differing opinions regarding the amount of pressure the US administration is exerting on Tel Aviv to stop it.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said – in his interview with the program “Gaza… What Next?” – that prolonging the war depends on Netanyahu’s decisions until the administration of US President Joe Biden restrains the Israeli government, stressing that “Washington can if it wants, but it does not want to.”
He pointed out that Netanyahu is using the blood of the Palestinians in order to remain in power and for electoral goals, indicating that Israel is in a crisis because it has failed to achieve the goals of the war, while contradictions have exploded within the War Council, stressing that the statements of some members of the War Council are the most prominent evidence.
He pointed out that if Washington had wanted to stop the war, it “would have agreed to pass a Security Council resolution,” and even resorted to escalation in the Red Sea to expand the conflict, describing what is happening as hypocrisy to cover up an aggression that has no parallel during the modern century.
Regarding Washington’s vision for the next day’s war, which is based on regional normalization and security for Israel and a state for the Palestinians, Barghouti said that the arrangement shows everything, “as normalization was used by former US President Donald Trump to liquidate the Palestinian issue, and the same applies to Netanyahu and Biden.”
Barghouti asked, “How many thousand new children must die? And how much destruction is required in Gaza for Washington to put pressure on Tel Aviv?”, stressing that Netanyahu wants to kill all Israeli prisoners to get rid of this file.
In the face of all this, Barghouti called for the necessity of agreeing on a unified Palestinian leadership and forming an interim national government that promises to hold elections to end the occupation, which faces great human and economic losses, as well as a global blockade and the escalation of the boycott movement against Israel.
American frustration
In turn, former US State Department diplomat Charles Dunn believes that Netanyahu wants the war to continue for months, even though Israel has no final way out.
The American diplomat disagreed with Barghouti, rejecting the opinion that Washington does not want to end the war, based on the fact that the Biden administration tried hard to prevent the expansion of the war, and sent messages to Iran and warned the Houthis.
Although he acknowledged that Washington had taken a position in favor of Israel, he added that “this does not mean that it does not want to stop the war,” indicating that the United States had adopted a traditional position supportive of Israel, and nevertheless called for a reduction in the intensity of operations in Gaza, but it did not succeed in convincing the Israelis. .
He pointed out that Biden was subjected to a lot of Israeli rejection of his proposals on how to end the war, and that he was “not happy with the responses he received,” before adding that Washington did not impose strong pressure on Israel, suggesting that the American administration’s patience was beginning to run out, and that there was a feeling of helplessness within its ranks. Towards Tel Aviv’s position.
Reasons for prolonging the war
For his part, Israeli affairs expert Dr. Muhannad Mustafa enumerated reasons for Netanyahu’s insistence on prolonging the war, including his desire to remain in the political scene, based on an Israeli popular base that still wants the war to continue. In addition, the right-wing government links prolonging the war to its survival, and stopping it means dismantling it.
In addition, the Israeli military establishment wants to prolong the war, because its prestige is a central issue, and it also wants to restore the state of deterrence against enemies, according to Mustafa.
Regarding the prisoners’ file, the expert on Israeli affairs pointed out that the families of these detainees realize that Netanyahu is not serious about resolving it, “so they turned to the more rational member of the War Council, Benny Gantz,” who previously said that he considered this issue a priority.