Netanyahu does not want peace
He has made this clear on many occasions. Benjamin Netanyahu’s main goal is complete victory; Something that, moreover, he claims to have at his fingertips. And it doesn’t matter that to achieve this he would have to break the most basic rules of war and in the process commit genocide against innocent people in violation of international humanitarian law. He has no qualms about lying, forcing Gazans to crowd into Rafah, arguing they will be safe from attack there, then bombing them, starving them to death. Is carried out, and then orders an imminent “large-scale operation” in southern Gaza. Everything is for a victory that he dreams of that will help him recover his much damaged image as a guarantor of the security of his fellow citizens, after the colossal failure of the political assessment he made on 7 October.
Similarly, he also does not want the release of people still in the hands of Hamas; Or, at least, it’s not his priority. On the one hand, he has demonstrated this by once again implementing the Hannibal Directive, even if it means killing his own men when they try to escape their captivity by taking up the white flag or when his tanks destroy a building. Give where some of them were his friends. Hostage takers.
On the other hand, without being able to forcibly free any of them, actions such as the killing of Saleh al-Arouri indicate that he prefers to eliminate his enemies, even if it ruins the possibility of a prisoner exchange. Go. And now, when it is estimated that Hamas still has 136 prisoners (of which fifty are already dead), the US’s rejection of Hamas’ counteroffer agreed to by mediators also makes its indifference clear once again. Is. , Qatar and Egypt, together with the head of the Mossad, will exchange hands in three phases over 135 days.
And the same can be said about the existence of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has been declaring for years that he will not let anything like this happen as long as he has power. And it is not only illegally expanding settlements in the West Bank (currently about 300, with no fewer than 600,000 inhabitants), but also destroying homes, crops, aquifers and all kinds of infrastructure. . Areas that are (theoretically) in the hands of the Palestinian Authority. As a result of a fatalistic strategy that began long before it came to power, the two-state formula has been reduced to a simple slogan empty of content, given that Israel not only directly appropriated more than 75% of the historical territory Is. Palestine, but in the remainder it is creating regional disunity, apartheid and the reality of eliminating any possible physical and economic basis for the establishment of a viable state.
Netanyahu is adamant on his position
But if there is one thing he does not want, above all other considerations, it is to lose his position as Prime Minister. This is not only about the will to power at the head of an extremist cabinet determined to end the act of total domination over historic Palestine, but also about a more personal issue. On the one hand, only by coming to power can he hope to recover from the blow to his image as a strong man, capable of guaranteeing the security of his people. This can be explained by the increasing pressure from citizens and his main political rivals for his political elimination. But, on the other hand, his attachment to power is even more important as a last resort to escape his certain punishment, and therefore, entry into prison for any of the three judicial cases opened by him. And in that effort, in prolonging the conflict and blocking the possibility of early elections, he has demonstrated considerable skill in surviving despite being considered dead several times.
Obviously, he also does not want to lose Washington’s support, knowing that, despite the apparent image of its strength, Tel Aviv needs both economic support and defense material supplies and diplomatic cover so that it can do what it wants. He needs it. .Any other ruler on the planet is forbidden to him. So, while waiting for Trump, Netanyahu hides his poor relations with Joe Biden by pretending to respond to his obvious pressures. Now they have their sights set on eventually securing $14 billion in aid from the US, which will help practically cover the estimated cost of their military operation in Gaza.
The bad thing (for him) is that there is nothing to indicate that he will be able to achieve anything of the victory he dreamed of, if that means the complete elimination of Hamas, nor the radicalization of the Palestinian population. The first is impossible for the simple reason that an entity like the Islamic Resistance Movement cannot be transformed into a simple armed group that can be defeated on the battlefield. Since its creation in late 1987 (condemned and even encouraged by Tel Aviv on several occasions), it has demonstrated its ability to resist punishment, even That it has also gained popular support in the face of the Palestinian Authority was completely discredited. Occupied population. And the second is even more unlikely because, even if approximately 40,000 Hamas soldiers, along with all their equipment, were eliminated by Israeli forces (which is impossible), it is possible to estimate that among the survivors of the massacre Many victims of Gaza would eventually join their ranks.
What it has achieved so far is to remove all doubts about its supremacist profile and for the International Court of Justice to recognize Israel as a potentially genocidal power. Quite a record.