Only a couple of days ago, Itamar Ben-Gvir and his fascist faction in the Israeli government, announced that his people would no longer take part in decisions made by the government or vote for government-sponsored bills in the Knesset. Ben-Gvir claims he cannot longer condone the inaction by this “really rightwing” government and demands that military action will be taken against the Palestinians (Including those that are already in Israeli prisons). With his faction consisting of eight people, this decision (or threat?) would seriously affect the government and its activities, since a majority in the Knesset would become dependent on stray votes from the opposition.
For Netanyahu, this caused a serious problem since the fall of his government may result from the actions by his “partners” and he cannot afford this to happen, for multiple reasons, not in the least his on-going corruption trial, or the power hunger of his wife. So Netanyahu choose the obvious solution to the dilemma. He will simply start a military action in the Gaza strip and with that will solve a number of immediate problems he has. It will appease his fascist partners (hopefully, but only if it is violent enough), it will “unite” the population because he will convince them that the terrorists are planning major attack, it will probably stop the demonstrations against the judiciary coup, because in times when the Jewish people are under attack, demonstrations are inappropriate, and it will give him breathing space for his despicable useless group of no-goods he calls a government.
Thus, on Tuesday morning early, Israel attacked and three Palestinian commanders from the Islamic Jihad organization were killed. As an afterthought, it was also mentioned that together with these three terrorists, their wives and for small children were also killed, as well as a physician and his family. A reaction by the Islamic Jihad took its time in coming (putting all of Southern Israel on edge) but in the end they could not control themselves (and apparently neither could Hamas), and a rocket barrage hit Israel.
At the start of the evening news that night, it was announced that the Prime Minister would make an statement to the People of Israel which would most likely give us news on the developments and the next steps Israel would make to protect its people. However, a while later that message was withdrawn and there would not be a statement by Netanyahu. During the time that passed between the announcement and its withdrawal, the rumors that a cease-fire was reached that would start at 9 pm that evening became part of the news and apparently, we would see the end of this round of hostilities. But then, unexpectedly, the Prime Minister’s office came back and declared that soon there would be a statement by Netanyahu after all.
The performance by Netanyahu, seconded by his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as impressive some may have thought it was, reminded mostly of the leader of a youth gang, with such statements as “We will know where to find you”, “he who hits us will be hit back” and “we will protect our people”. But that is more or less what may be expected from Netanyahu. He knows what the people want to hear, and in order to reach his goals he will say anything.
But what really happened in that short timespan between making a statement, not making a statement and making a statement? The cease-fire, which was brokered by Egypt, apparently was accepted by Israel, and thus Netanyahu canceled his statement (he would never publicly admit to such a defeat as a cease-fire). However, upon hearing the news, his coalition partners must have made it very clear that such an early cease-fire is unacceptable and they demanded more blood. Netanyahu had no choice but to give in and thus he made his speech to the People of Israel anyway and made sure that it sounded bloody enough to appease his “partners”.
So where does this leave Israel, besides another couple of days with rocket fire on the South? (And on Thursday a few rockets further north, including Tel Aviv and places like Rehovot, where failure of the defense system did not prevent an impact, which killed one person).
Israel once was forced to go to war to defend itself and the Yom Kippur was and the Six Day war are painful reminders of that, which, luckily, ended up as victories.
But the situation in the Gaza strip is different and the past years have clearly proven that policy of recurring “Defensive Actions” is simply not working. Israel has never bothered to discuss or consider other options to resolve the conflict with Hamas in the Gaza strip and apparently, it is contend with the knowledge that Israeli citizens in the south will have to deal with attacks periodically, which, even if the damages are mostly small, are a psychological burden that no country should expose its citizens to.
However, this time Israel and its government went a step further. They exposed the population in the south to the dangers and the hardships of a new round of rocket attacks, for political purposes only. There is no doubt that the army intelligence is right, the Islamic Jihad was planning attacks, and their leaders are terrorists that deserve to die. However, this is nothing new and the whole discussion about opportunity is shameful. The opportunity exists always but this time the fascist, racist fraction in the Israeli government started a military action for political reasons and that is a new low in Israeli politics.
What will Netanyahu do next to save his own skin and to save his government?
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