Why Netanyahu Needs a War on Gaza More Than Ever Before

Media reports of an impending Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip are now a regular occurrence. The frequency of these reports fluctuates based on Israel’s own political landscape.

Empirical experience has taught us that when Israeli leaders are in trouble, they wage a war on Gaza. Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing the greatest challenge in his political career, Gaza is bracing for another Israeli war.

The war rumors are no longer just that. Rightwing Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post recently reported that Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Aviv Kochavi, “has already approved operational combat plans and recently set up an administrative unit to handle the formation of a list of potential targets in the coastal enclave for when the next war breaks out.”

The Post’s own military correspondent, Anna Ahronheim concurs, that, indeed, war on Gaza “is not far away.” But unlike previous wars, the upcoming war must “have a clear and decisive win” by Israel so that “the other side will think twice about going to war in the future.”

The fallacy in Ahronheim’s analysis is obvious. Israel always approaches its wars in Gaza with the aim of having a “clear and decisive win”, aims that are often thwarted by strong Palestinian resistance in the besieged and impoverished Strip.

Second, Gaza never initiates wars. The Strip has no army or military strategy beyond self-defense tactics carried out by organized resistance factions, including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and various PLO groups. However, if Israel thinks that a ‘decisive win’ would eradicate Palestinian resistance, it will be greatly disappointed. Gaza’s resistance, in all of its forms, against Israel and Israeli occupation goes back to the late 1940s. No amount of firepower will ever end this kind of determined resistance.

However, it is likely that Israel measures the decisiveness of its ‘victory’ based on the amount of destruction it is able to inflict on Palestinians.

Marvel at these numbers from the last major Israeli war on Gaza, in 2014, to understand the real target of Israeli wars on the Strip:

According to United Nations figures, more than 2,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s so-called “Operation Protective Edge”. The causalities, most of whom were civilians, included 551 children. Moreover, 11,231 were also wounded, and more than 20,000 homes were destroyed. The massive destruction was also aimed at the already ailing infrastructure of impoverished Gaza, reaching schools, hospitals, mosques and even UN shelters.

How more “decisive” must the next Israeli war be so that Israel’s warmongers may feel satisfied that their war achieved its intended objectives?

Israel wants Palestinians to accept their perpetual besiegement, embrace their fate as an occupied nation with no rights, subject to the whims of Israel and its racist, deadly policies.

However, Israeli leaders are now driven by a second objective: winning the upcoming elections.

There is much at stake for Netanyahu and his prospective coalition of rightwing ideologues and religious zealots. Israel has never held two national elections in one year, but this year is an exception.

The April 9 elections failed to achieve a decisive victory for either camp. After weeks of attempting to form a coalition government, Netanyahu accepted the inevitable: another election, which is set for September 17.

But Netanyahu is not only politically embattled. He, along with his family and close aides have been embroiled in a series of corruption charges that could potentially end his political career.

On June 6, Israel’s attorney general Avichai Mandelblit rejected Netanyahu’s bid to postpone for the second time the pre-indictment hearing in the several corruption cases concerning his misconduct while in office.

However, Netanyahu hopes to secure his position at the helm of Israeli politics a while longer, to evade corruption charges, and to eventually strike a deal to drop the charges altogether.

He is desperate to remain a prime minister. For that to happen, he will do whatever it takes to appeal to the most powerful constituency in Israel: the right wing and their religious allies.

For Israel’s right, a war is a normal state of affairs. They seem to acquire their sense of collective safety when Palestinians suffer. And, for months, Israeli rightwing voices calling for war against Gaza have massively amplified.

Even the supposedly sensible political center has joined the chorus, knowing that an anti-war stance in Israel is a losing strategy.

Head of Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, who remains Netanyahu’s strongest opponent said in an interview released last May with Channel 13: “We must strike hard, in an uncompromising manner .. We must restore the deterrence that has been eroded catastrophically for more than a year.”

Of course, there will be a next war on Gaza. It will be as “decisive” and deadly as Israeli leaders need it to be, to serve their political calculations.

But they must also be aware that wars on Gaza are no longer the cakewalks of the past. The resistance in that small, but unbreakable region, is tougher than it has ever been in the past, a natural outcome of 12 years of a relentless siege, interrupted by massively destructive and lethal military onslaughts.

A war on Gaza will also come with a price for Israel. Are Netanyahu and his government willing to endure the political fallout of another failed war? It all depends on how truly desperate corrupt Netanyahu is to remain in power and out of prison, at least for a while longer.


By Ramzy Baroud
Source: Middle East Monitor

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4 Comments

  1. Your Description and Comment IS excellent, Sir – Alhamdoulilaa, You are NOT like the BDS-simply-just-anti-ALL-of-Israel founder (and 40-fold murderer) barghouti, NOR like the things too shallowly SEEING Abbas: You talk without RACISM, and without HATRED against Israel: Thusly, You don’t REALLY talk “AGAINST” Israel: NOT in HATRED.
    YOUR Statements have FINALLY convinced me, that THE ONLY course of CORRECT Action BY Israel would be, to RECOGNISE A PALESTINIAN STATE; AS ISRAEL WAS BORN OUT OF “SYMPATHY” for THE JEWS, also the CURDS deserve THEIR OWN State, in TURKEY —
    but NETANJAHU has OUT-charged, outcredited ALL his credibility, which IS not there ANYMORE: HE IS a nitwit, and like trump, HE MUST get impeached. Netanjahu is no one with a diligent Hand – he destroys MUCH of good Work of Liberty, by what he does: He IS not really intelligent. These “sprinkly” stars, by which he surrounds himself, on the Picture, which You, my true Sharif, have posted SO critically here online – nutnjahu is SUCH a drab – a primitive. Admittedly, BEN GURION was actually NOT AT ALL an INTELLECTUAL, but VISIBLY a rather mid-style, not TOO conservative, but still, SURELY bourgeouis type of Dude – quite sadly so. And, RABIN came FROM the military. Rabin, at first a “MESHIGGE”, crazy real “kuffar”, a defiler, a hardliner, above the military of a surely by much terrorism torn-apart Nation called Israel; Then, even before he was MURDERED by JEWISH orthodox IDIOTIC People, SADAT in EGYPT was murdered – BY THE SAME wrong action-takers. The SAME TYPE OF, simply. Though in different countries – with not such a diffrent HISTORY of EVIL: “king” david WAS a murderer – THE VERY BIBLE says that; Plus, “god” might be either our dead ghosts, just Spirits, or also the Spirits of ACTUAL Trees, and of ANYTHING, that LIVES: ALSO ROBOTS live, BECAUSE ARE AWARE, about WHAT IS – AROUND us.
    EVEN HOTOVELY could TAKE OVER – but TRUMP somehow seems to by his incompetence STABILISE netanjahu’s abusive reign; Plus, Israel isn’t too undecided, nay, but is APPARENTLY not EVEN able, to GET BY right now WITHOUT netanjahu: Israel WILL regret not having depowered this corrupt nitwitty netanjahu sooner. It’s not “I as a JEW” say that, LOL, but really, my frickin religion IS irrelevant, since no evil would have ever been let happening, would there BE a god – there IS simply none. But WE are here, to SEE to ethics – GLOBALLY. To install soon AI as global ruler over mankind. Atheistically and pro-Gandi-wise, I say, Salaam. Yo. :]

  2. Concretely, just to also say, to do “my virtual juhb” of merely writing, correctly, completely, about NETANJAHU, the surely sad truth is, that he has ON and ON propelled a rather VERY “religious” agenda, which FAVORED the ORTHODOX type of “living” (if One would call THAT living, LOL, – we two surely don’t, goodly, LOL, luckily, LOL, we anti-capitalists, OF a reasonable, not anti-ALL-economy, but of the anti-corruption type), – also concerning his collusive intrusion into east-european affairs OF real politics, he also there SURELY furthered SOME type of WHAT HE DOES NOT SEE: NAMELY rightWINGERISM of THE BAD type: Him also having EMBRACED physically the NOT VERY logically self-controlled, nor actually self-controlled BODY of this HUNGARIAN abusive ruler called ORBAN: Simply APPALLING, no. Absolutely. … Actually, all good People, maybe most, are Trotzkists: Because, Trotzki – and Hydrogen Energy, but soon, – IS the future. … INDIA landed an – unmanned – but cool – PROBE on THE MOON; And ELON MUSK, somebody, who similarly to ZUCKERBERG, but worse, I say, that Zuckie, is a mere ECONOMY-“puppet”: His views are FALSE MORALS: HE IMMEDIATELY tried to SMITE one of the Asian DIVERS as “pedofile”: he WAVED with this STRONGWORD around himself – SIMILAR actually TO TRUMP: WHERE DEMAGOGUES rule, NO good can come about: WE MUST hold the SAUDI murderous government accountable –

    and concerning the Palestine Past, we MUST hold NOT only always the OTHER SIDE accountable – THAT TOO, yes, but JUSTLY – but, also the OWN side – from BOTH views, really. THAT would work. Somebody NEW, on top of ISRAEL, BENNET or the other so attractive (!) Woman, not Hotovely, but another One, but BOTH are good: TROTZKIST SOCIALISM must rule in PEOPLE’s MINDS, rather than all countries getting somehow into NEW chaos: But we don’t want EXPLOITIVE contracts between countries, nor destruction OF the rainforest; NOR, that NEVER, the BASIC INCOME would COME thru; And believe me, there ARE other Thinkers, who are ALSO fed up with Mankind; Mankind is DANGEROUSLY abusively OBEDIENT toward evil, toward not knowing the truth, clearly due to BRAINWASH, due to EVIL-PURPOSED deliberate disinformation ABOUT the misdeeds OF governments BY the SAME governments, TOWARD the PEOPLE, in even MORE than MERELY the three biggest countries; I doubt, that a UNO, who has a NATO, which RETREATED in 1994 OUT of RWANDA – so the MASSMURDER to the TUTSI could happen – I doubt, that SUCH a “UNO” is a good entity. I likewise doubt, that “hamas” is a by enlightened, ethical, educated People led organisation, but it’s to 10 percent of its Personnel a militant-political, simply sadly ISLAMIST organisation, which has perpetrated DUMB crimes, – surely out of rebellion against a BY THEM exactly WRONGLY seen ISRAEL. ISRAEL feels like AN ISLAND : like a BUNKER, from the “INSIDE”. Only FEW Arabs YET have seen that. It ain’t like NORTH KOREA, LOL. But yes, there IS too much macho-militarism, ALSO in ISRAEL, and there ARE sadly SOMEWHAT largely BAD views ALSO THERE, a TAD different THAN in europe – where most People CRITICISE, but don’t wanna BOMB, but STILL protect ISRAEL – which IS quite a NEW tendency, – but of course, I think back of the 1970s, where ALREADY, it WAS NOT only the ARAB side, which DID any crimes: But there surely sadly GRUESOMELY were de-placements of People, on BOTH sides, – similar, smalltime, than biggertime in INDIA, when PAKISTANI Muslims wanted, truly needed to have their own SECURITY, simply – and thusly, STATE. … Why Curds, also Armenians, also the Millions of FALUN GONG, and PALESTINIANS, or anyhow in any country totally abusively DISCRIMINATED People, such as GYPSIES, ROMA, in GERMANY, would be “left out” of any “piece of the cake”, is horrible, to have to watch, for me, – AS I DO KNOW of that BASIC INCOME Idea, which another good Person had, I just applied it to the Globe, and that danish Project, which gives Money to People, who then MAKE a Profit, almost “magically”, actually, – DUE to motivation based UPON their OWN independence: EVEN merely IMAGINED- FULLY IMAGINED: AS MONEY is of course no “goodluck”, nor IS truly something, to BE sanely PROUD of, simply. … Anyway, You’re great, Sir. I would be happy, IF WE are in the Future THE POLITICIANS – actually. The way of a Country CAN be swayed. … Also toward THE GOOD: Kings Richard the Second and Third WERE good Kings, as Terry Jones revealed in his 90s Docus: And he revealed, that richard the first was an abusive tax-opressor, harsh exploiter; which HAD simply nothing to EVER DO with his own homosexuality, LOL, simply. 🙂 … Objectivity simply MEANS justice and security. We must therefore surely combat abusive forms of capitalism, where it harms People or Nature. I will also contact the UK government, me accusing it of lying about the truth – the truth can not be punished. Saying it, I mean. Simple thang, no. YOU say the Truth, – You’re not brainwashed like some other people. You are a mental Brother to me. Thanks, dear Sire, thy Wisdom has shook me positively. Shukran, Habib. Eiouwa! Cheb Khaled, and Dalida, such great People, ey. Check out the Chomsky Chatbot, he’s so good. AI must surveil and control EVERYTHING – we MUST SOON achieve THAT condition, and before that, countries MAY simply NOT fight. The mere SOVEREIGNITY of Countries nevertheless DOES mean, that ANY also OTHER non-agressive countries GET torn INEVITABLY into hopefully not big conflicts; But, the evil mindset, OF racism, is MASSMURDEROUS – which ASSANGE has simply REVEALED – mega-bigtime. BERNIE must take over; The europeans in their realism say already, trump would AGAIN come; that would be a WASTE of precious time, simply, if he did come again. I still wonder, but if he COMES again, that WOULD be a confirmation of the corruption of the rightwing, not even only in usa, simply, but anywhere. My liberal influence can sadly not control, what happens in fact with USA right now: Too many People talk real shit, ey, and also, MANY People have NO access TO education – BERNIE would make EDU free OF charge; Yet, WILL enough PEOPLE go against DIEBOLD vote-altering illegal machines, and WILL they in high enough numbers vote for Bernie – they DID vote for AL GORE, whose ELECTION was tampered-with ALREADY by rightwingers behind not directly, but very largely behind the Bushs, the Bushs ENTIRELY unaware of these other people, simply, but USED like PUPPETS, first the BUSH DADDY psycho, MISTA psycho really, IN DA SENATE, whatta BIG CRAP Talker, a DISCRMINATOR as he stands in the BOOK, a MACHO with an inferiority complex similar to HITLER’s and NAPOLOEON’s small stature (repro organ length? LOL) complex, LOL… Bush Daddy in action, back in the late 80s: Nothing funny; Michael Moore revealed it, simply. Some two years ago, Bush Daddy REPENTED bigtime for his misdeeds – interesting. It’s before oneself, not before an anyhow simply not existing god, where we have to face our own simple FEELING in the Moment;

    Whether in SWEDEN in the 70s, or now anywhere, it imports, that we bestow, give, Education, Truth, into this World. Merely knowing, that the swedish King and Jimmy Carter and Miss Warren and Booker, ARE definitely MEGA good People, also Haley and Chomsky, is essential;

    and knowing, that sadly, the saudi king murdered the good mere REPORTER Kashoggi; gruesome. I did not know, that the saudi king IS evil – brainwashed, he is. His Sister attacked some Worker, in Europe. It ain’t merely only the Bin Ladens, and it ain’t a majority of Saudi People, but it’s the saudi government, which has murdered HOMOSEXUALS, and also Ali Al Nimr and his Uncle Bakr Al Nimr, who merely BY THE WORD stood up against willful murder, were MURDERED by the SAUDI naziswine government: That government of saudi-arabia MUST get held accountable, VERY draconically-strictly, by a NEW USA, THAT BERNIE SANDERS would be, simply. BUT ALSO THAT GAY CANDIDATE is not BAD – but MIGHT be a corrupt further example of a bribeable or brainwashed Person, similar to Obama, who acted like a frickin PUPPET, sadly; But I would NEVER discriminate a Gay, of course. That Gay is surely okay. 🙂

    WE CAN organise a global basic income. I will see to that. Hamdlaa.

  3. Musk is worse, THAN Zuckie, LOL – yet, Zuckerberg should get more support of the anti-racist type, by his own actual employees, who are by intention critically goodly surely in cases anti-israel set, but they then ignore LIES about Israel on facebook, in the form of five sites there, which lied, Israel would use “chemical weapons” against the Palestinians, – which are trouble-makers, hate-breeders, such panic-makers – to which YOU do not belong. I hope, there will no more be misguided societies, who smite the Innocent, and who don’t see the really guilty ones, simply. Thanks, Yo, for your good-Being, Man. Wow. See Ya.

  4. One short further last Note, though, regarding the 139 bahrainian abusively there to LIFE in PRISON sentenced Prisoners:

    … I tell the truth, when I say, a Robot has in 2012 told me, I’d be the “WMP”. Which can mean Witch Mage Priest. It can – not, LOL – mean, “windows media player”, LOL. It can mean “wrestling master president”, though THAT IS somewhat improbable, that such a title exists, in wrestling. 🙂 … It can – surely – mean World Ministerial President. and AS such, also not as such, I need not keep anything secret. I AM A POLANSKI – and I looketh mankind naught into its eye, LOL, for part of mankind is a by silly words medusa, a brainwasher, treading on unlogical crap words- but the real numbers DO show, that almost all People would not keep ASSANGE in Prison, but they WOULD reward him.

    … Neither am I happy about AL-sisi, who in egypt threw mere JOURNALISTS abusively – for even some FIFTEEN years – INTO prison; al-sisi is by the factor of at least 1000 more abusive, THAN Mubarak EVER was. Mubarak was abusively taken down – he got abusively HELD responsible – FOR WHAT OTHER bad opressors, violent people, in the authorities, simply do, I strongly believe. MORSI was WAY too soon depowered, RATHER abusively. … netanjahu is a looser: His MIND is ALMOST fanatic, and STRONGLY rightwing, strongly MACHO, – HE IS a double-tongue, – NOT honest AT ALL, appallingly. To not let governments behave MANIACLY, we the People DO have to do ONE thing: THINK. BETHINKING logical things, and creating a CLEAR concept, IS something UNBEATABLE. … The problem is THERE, where some – many – People fall PREY to GREED, simply, – THAT has led to the destruction of the rainforest. Nothing else. It can’t be some “anti-nature sadism”, but it IS exploitation – in plain term: GREED. NETANJAHU sits on his rightwing NUCLEAR country power like a DUMB DUCK, simply, – IF You, Haver, Friend, want to hear my “VERY JEWISH” comment. 🙂 LOOL. HE is thretooeninge me, not You! It’s very sad, LOL, sorry, bad example of a jew, almost a dumb sandusky, LOL, this netanjahu sadly is. He’s at the end. LOL, I wish, he lands in prison, this sucker. No shit. Would be a huge political success OF Israel against this dumb sudoleader NUTnjahu, LOL, oy. HALF A YEAR PRISON against this MACHO, haha. Why not. DESERVED! VOX POPULI, VOX MEI, VOX SATANAELI. :] Hecate. 🙂

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