Israeli expert: Why is Netanyahu undermining Biden's strategy in Gaza?

A former Israeli political advisor tried to explain how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is undermining US President Joe Biden's "day after" strategy in Gaza and Netanyahu's motives for this undermining.

Nimrod Novik, a member of the "Israeli Policy Forum" and chief foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, focused in an article published by "Time Magazine" on clarifying that Netanyahu, in his quest to undermine Biden's strategy, announced his opposition to the main element of the strategy, and he took The Palestinian Authority administers the Gaza Strip.

The real reason

The writer said that Netanyahu's opposition to Washington's strategy has nothing to do with the future of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority, or the West Bank, but rather with something more important to Netanyahu, which is his "legal dilemma."

After Novick enumerated the elements of Biden's strategy, which he described as "win-win: Palestinians and Israelis" after the Gaza war, he said that Netanyahu dropped a political bomb by declaring his firm objection to the Palestinian Authority's management of Gaza, destroying the cornerstone of the strategy that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was trying to garner regional support for it.

The writer said that Washington's strategy would relieve Israel of the need to rule 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza with no way out in sight, and provide a "reliable" political horizon for the Palestinians, thus preventing the West Bank from sliding into a crisis similar to Gaza, in addition to preparing the Palestinian authority to control Gaza in the future, as well as building and strengthening a strong US-led regional coalition to curb the regional interference of Iran and its proxies, while reviving talk of normalization with Israel.

Frustration and disappointment

Novick added that American efforts to persuade Israel to consider the context, and not just the military dimensions, of the Gaza operation ended in frustration. Likewise, Secretary of State Antony Blinken's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and a meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, with Arab foreign ministers the week before ended in disappointment.

He explained that Netanyahu, using his usual method of diverting attention, had involved Blinken in an endless debate about the number of trucks entering Gaza, what their cargo might contain, and the duration and frequency of humanitarian stops, noting that all of this was aimed at avoiding discussing the situation of Gaza the next day. 

The writer pointed out that Netanyahu repeatedly told a frustrated President Biden, an astonished Defense Secretary, and Secretary Blinken, “Not now... Now we are focusing on destroying Hamas.”

Netanyahu is more convinced than most of them

The writer said that some in Washington justify to Netanyahu that he is not convinced of the necessity of preparing from now for the next day, and others know him better, and they say that he is more convinced than the majority of them, but they justify that he is afraid that the next day’s discussion will reveal the necessity for Israel to change its course regarding the Palestinian issue. Since Netanyahu's partners in the far-right coalition will not allow this, pushing such measures will be a sure cause of crisis for the government coalition.

However, the writer says that what is at stake is not the cohesion of the ruling coalition, because partners can be replaced without the need for new elections, and wartime certainly justifies such emergency measures.

Novick concludes that what is at stake is something more important for Netanyahu: his “legal quandary,” and that unlike these far-right coalition partners, their potential replacements will not give him a way out, legislative or otherwise, before his trial on corruption charges runs its course and a judicial ruling is issued against him.

Source: Times Magazine + Aljazeera