New York Times: Netanyahu’s war on Gaza is leading Israel toward suicide

In one of his most incisive articles since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, prominent US writer Thomas Friedman painted a bleak picture of Israel’s future in The New York Times under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

In his view, the ongoing war is no longer a defense of Israel against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), but rather a means for Netanyahu to remain in power, at the expense of the lives of Palestinian civilians, Israel’s international image, and the unity of the Jewish community itself.

Friedman argues that what Netanyahu describes as a tragic mistake — such as the bombing of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, which killed at least 20 people, including five journalists working for international media outlets and doctors—aren’t mere accidents, but rather the inevitable result of the Israeli prime minister’s policies of prolonging the war to avoid criminal prosecution and cement his alliance with far-right ministers.

He said that these ministers, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, seek to fill the West Bank with settlements to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.

He added that Smotrich is simultaneously encouraging the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza to pave the way for their annexation to Israel.

But the problem, he claimed, was that Israel had already destroyed Hamas’s military power and killed most of its leaders who planned the October 7, 2023, attack, and therefore had to pursue lower-ranking field commanders “hiding among civilians”.

Friedman emphasized that there is a significant difference between justifying collateral damage by targeting the movement’s top leaders and killing dozens of civilians in an attempt to assassinate a secondary deputy commander.

According to Friedman, Israel’s use of its military to transfer hundreds of thousands of Gazan civilians from one area to another under the pretext of removing them from combat zones, then bulldozing their homes, in addition to deliberately controlling the entry of food aid, are nothing more than malicious and shameful policies aimed at forcibly displacing people.

Friedman’s article warns that this approach is pushing Israel into an international pariah state.

Friedman cites isolated incidents, such as Israeli children being barred from a park in France, a public diplomatic dispute with Australia, and an Israeli cruise ship being prevented from docking on a Greek island due to popular protests.

All of these indicators reflect, according to Friedman, the extent of the deterioration in Israel’s image in global public opinion, to the point that Israelis may think twice before speaking Hebrew while traveling abroad.

Although Israel is trying to remind the world that Hamas has killed approximately 1,200 people, kidnapped 250 others, and is still holding some of them captive, the world, Friedman says, has begun to distinguish between a war for the survival of the state and a war waged by the Netanyahu government to defend its political survival.

According to Friedman, that’s not the only reason… The world can no longer turn a blind eye—as it has for months—to the massive Palestinian civilian casualties, considering them the inevitable price of a war whose supposed goal was to expel Hamas from Gaza and replace it with an Arab force, with the participation of the Palestinian Authority.

But after Netanyahu declared his refusal to allow Gaza to be governed by either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, Friedman asserts, the war clearly appeared to be an attempt to extend the occupation from the West Bank to Gaza, leaving Israel without a Palestinian partner at all.

Friedman goes on to say that Israel isn’t only losing its moral credentials, but also its regional and international allies.

On the domestic front, the author notes that the war threatens to tear apart the unity of Jewish communities in the diaspora during the coming holidays, between those who see standing with Israel as an eternal duty and those who are no longer able to justify its actions in Gaza.

He adds that the US Democratic Party itself faces a dangerous split between a wing that fears challenging the pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), for fear of losing financial support, and another wing that can no longer tolerate Israeli policies that drag Washington into embarrassing situations before world public opinion.

Friedman concludes his article by asserting that what is happening is geopolitical suicide that can only be stopped by the intervention of US President Donald Trump.

However, Friedman fears that Trump, in turn, has fallen into Netanyahu’s trap and abandoned any realistic settlement, seduced by the illusion of “total victory” promoted by Netanyahu, just as he was previously swayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s promises regarding Ukraine.