Washington Post: The United States cannot restrain Netanyahu

In the Washington post… Benjamin Netanyahu challenged the US administration and announced that he wouldn’t give up full Israeli security control over the entire region west of Jordan.

Netanyahu’s statement means that Israel desires control indefinitely.

It’s assumed that if Israel doesn’t offer Palestinian autonomy, it must either dominate or eliminate the Palestinians.

If we look at this statement clearly, it means either apartheid or ethnic cleansing.

How can these words be understood in any other way?

There is one thing that many people in Israel and supporters of Palestinian freedom can agree on, it’s time for Netanyahu to go.

Long before October 7, Israelis took to the streets to protest the Netanyahu government.

After pushing legislation that would limit the powers of the Supreme Court, Israelis protested for more than thirty weeks in a row last year.

More than a thousand Israeli Air Force reservists said they would suspend their volunteer service in protest against the blow to judicial independence, leading to fears that disagreements in the military could affect Israel’s security, according to a July 2023 Times of Israel report.

After the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 hostages, commentators in Israel began attacking Netanyahu’s alleged failure to respond quickly to the attack.

“He bears personal responsibility for the abject strategic failure that allowed Hamas to invade Israel, take control of Israeli communities and army positions, kill at least 1,200 civilians and soldiers, kidnap hundreds of hostages, and inflict on the country the largest defeat in the country’s history,” Uri Misgav wrote for Haaretz.

On Friday, more than 40 former Israeli national security officials and other community leaders signed a letter calling for Netanyahu’s ouster, calling him an “existential” threat to Israel.

Netanyahu is still unable to release the hostages, despite the killing of more than 25,000 people in Gaza.

The families of the hostages stormed the Knesset this week and camped outside Netanyahu’s house, demanding an agreement to end the fighting.

Anyone who has studied Netanyahu’s career knows that he will use anything and anyone to survive.

His survival now required war forever; He doesn’t intend to seek peace, but only control.

Others can see the need for negotiation.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former senior minister in the Israeli war cabinet, said, “Whoever talks about the absolute defeat [of Hamas] isn’t telling the truth,” and that “the hostages won’t return alive unless there is an agreement, linked to a major halt in combat”.

This gap between the need for compromise and Netanyahu’s refusal to budge cannot be covered by Biden’s denial.

The rest of the world can see that Netanyahu’s attack on Gaza does not lead to the defeat of Hamas and doesn’t return the hostages.

As Palestinian bodies pile up, Israel finds itself isolated from the international community.

Opinion polls show that global support for Israel has declined since October 7.

So, what is Netanyahu’s plan?

Is it sticking to Gaza by eliminating as many Palestinians as possible?

A country like South Africa had to follow Netanyahu’s bloody logic and accuse his government of committing genocide in The Hague.

But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby described the lawsuit filed by South Africa as “baseless”.

But what did Biden have to show for weeks of diplomatic persuasion for Netanyahu to intensify the ground offensive, halt illegal Jewish settlements and grant the Palestinians a measure of self-determination?

The Israelis failed to restrain Netanyahu.

Clearly, the United States cannot or doesn’t want to.

The rest of the world is obligated to intensify its efforts, especially those that have signed treaties on the prevention of atrocities and genocide.

It’s not only the Palestinians who must be saved from Israel.

Israel must be saved from itself.

Instead of attacking South Africa, the Biden administration should understand that this case at the ICJ is a desperate but much-needed plea from the Global South.

At the very least, Israelis deserve better than a leader who flouts democracy at home, deprioritizes the safety and well-being of Israeli hostages, and refuses to cooperate with demands for a sustainable path toward Palestinian self-determination.

As for Americans, they should not allow their tax money to go to supporting another authoritarian regime in the Middle East.

We’re helping to keep in power a man who is opposed by a majority of Israelis – and whose only clear end is his survival.

It’s time for us to join conscientious Israelis who are determined to remove Netanyahu from power.