The occupation army continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip for the third month without seeming able to achieve any of its goals, while voices are rising in Israel demanding the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu “now,” so what are they saying?

“Netanyahu must be destroyed politically, otherwise Israel will collapse.” Under this headline, Haaretz newspaper published an analysis that monitors the reasons for this escalating coup against the man who has served the longest in the position of prime minister since the establishment of the occupying state in Palestine 75 years ago.

The most extremist government in the history of Israel, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, had announced since Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7 that eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” in Gaza was the main goal of its aggression against the Gaza Strip, and its army invaded sector by land to achieve this goal.

Netanyahu...the seven sins!

Haaretz's analysis is based on the fact that Netanyahu has not yet submitted his resignation, "which is considered a blatant disregard for the simplest rules of accountability and responsibility." The prime minister is primarily responsible for the instability that Israel, and indeed the entire region, is witnessing and the continuation of the cycle of senseless violence.

“Yes, we realize as Israelis that accountability and bearing responsibility are terms that have not been included in Netanyahu’s dictionary throughout his political career, and therefore there are no surprises in his position on the events of October 7. But now it is necessary to apply that Greek phrase with which he concludes his political speeches.” “Carthage must be destroyed,” he personally said, meaning Netanyahu must be destroyed politically so that Israel does not collapse, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper enumerated 7 reasons for this demand, which has become remarkably escalating, especially since Israel broke the prisoner exchange truce 10 days ago and resumed its barbaric aggression against the Gaza Strip. 

These reasons were as follows:

First, Iran: Netanyahu presented himself to the Israelis and to the world as the only one capable of confronting Iran. He opposed the nuclear agreement that Tehran signed with the administration of former US President Barack Obama in 2015, promising everyone his ability to reach a “better agreement,” and he convinced former President Donald Trump to withdraw from the agreement unilaterally in 2018, the result was that Iran today has much greater nuclear capabilities than it had before and is on the cusp of possessing a nuclear bomb.

Second: The invasion of Iraq: Netanyahu, who was not a member of the Israeli government at the time, was one of the most prominent advocates of the invasion of Iraq, and he appeared before the US House of Representatives in 2002, explaining to the representatives the inevitability of “getting rid of Saddam Hussein” and how that would have a positive impact on the Middle East. It will contribute to stability and the spread of democracy. What was the result? ISIS, as Haaretz says, is shorthand for the chaos and destruction resulting from the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Third: Dealing with the Palestinians: Throughout his political career, Netanyahu bragged that he deliberately ignored any serious talk about establishing a Palestinian state and that he was the only one capable of integrating Israel into the Middle East through the principle of “peace for peace” without offering anything to the Palestinians. Since he formed the current government last December, he has committed himself to officially annexing large parts of the occupied West Bank to Israel. What was the result? The events of October 7, i.e. the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.

“Al-Aqsa Flood” is the name given by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” to its comprehensive military operation against the occupation army, which has imposed a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for 17 years. At exactly six o'clock in the morning local time in Palestine that day, Hamas launched a Palestinian invasion of the cover settlements adjacent to the besieged Gaza Strip, where fighters from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades stormed the towns adjacent to the Strip, after they penetrated the iron wall and crushed the Gaza Division of the occupation army, there was air cover from thousands of rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the cities of the south.

Amid the state of panic and shock that gripped the Israelis, the spread of video clips and pictures of tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the occupation army, either burned or under the control of Palestinian resistance fighters, the capture of dozens of occupation army soldiers and settlers, and complete Palestinian control over settlements, the occupying state declared that it was “in a state of war.” For the first time since the October War of 1973, it is an acknowledgment that the Palestinian resistance attack is a military attack.

Fourth: Saudi Arabia: In the beginning, Netanyahu’s mind produced a flawed theory of forming an Israeli-Sunni axis to confront Shiite Iran, so what happened? Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement to normalize relations with Chinese mediation. Then Netanyahu returned to his favorite theory, which is that the Palestinians are not the focus of the conflict in the region, contrary to what the entire world and not just the region sees, under the illusion that he can sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia while completely ignoring and marginalizing the Palestinians. So what was the result?

The Al-Aqsa flood did not occur in a vacuum, and it is a fact that is not in dispute and is acknowledged by even the Western media that is completely loyal to Israel and adopts its narrative. However, Netanyahu and his government, which the Palestinians describe as fascist and seeking to exterminate them en masse, wanted from the first moment to cover up their abject security and military failure in doing so. Today, by raising the ceiling of their goals in the aggression against Gaza in a way that observers described as “fictional,” and two months after this aggression, that description began to be confirmed on the ground. Neither the prisoners were liberated, nor the resistance raised the white flag.

Relations with America

Fifth: Relations between Israel and America: Relations between America and Israel are strategic, and Washington provides Tel Aviv with annual military aid worth $3.8 billion (a total of more than $150 billion so far), and America also provides Israel with a political umbrella to protect it in international forums.

However, Netanyahu, who never stops interfering in America's internal political affairs, has succeeded in turning Israel into a "wedge" (dividing factor) between Republicans and Democrats, in stark contrast to decades of partnership between the two allies. Netanyahu did this deliberately by joining the Republican camp, especially the evangelical electoral base there, at the expense of the Democrats, which led to repeated clashes and hostility with Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Obama, and Biden.

When Netanyahu insisted on “reforming the judiciary,” the gap between Israel and America increased, as this reform was considered to be the demolition of one of the most important pillars of democracy and the separation between the two allies with regard to “common values.” Netanyahu also angered Biden even more by rapprochement between the Prime Minister of Israel and leaders such as the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, both of whom Biden considers “dictators.” What was the result? More than half of Democrats also criticize Israel and Biden, due to the latter's absolute support and blatant bias towards Tel Aviv since October 7.

Sixth: Russia: Netanyahu established what he described as a “different alliance” with Putin, and this appeared clearly in Netanyahu’s election banners in 2019, and the Israeli Prime Minister bragged about that special relationship with Russia and its leader, but the Russian position on the war on Gaza came as further evidence of Netanyahu's lies and narratives that mislead Israelis all the time. Moscow accuses Tel Aviv of committing war crimes in Gaza and demands, through the UN Security Council, an end to the war. Not only that, but Russia has become a strategic ally of Iran in the Middle East.

Seventh: China: A few months before the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Netanyahu claimed that he had received an invitation to visit Beijing, and this was followed by statements by a senior official in Netanyahu’s office explaining how “this invitation is a message to Biden that Israel has other options,” as a response to Biden avoiding an invitation to Netanyahu to the White House, what was the result? Neither Netanyahu visited China nor did Beijing support Israel in the war on Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza...to save Netanyahu

Based on this scene centered primarily on Netanyahu and his attempts to cling to the position at all costs, another analysis by Haaretz newspaper described the aggression on Gaza as “Operation to Rescue Private Netanyahu,” in use of the title of a famous American movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” which tells a true story during the World War. The second was for a mission to search for and rescue an American conscript named Ryan, who had conscript brothers who were all killed.

Since the Al-Aqsa flood, Netanyahu has focused all his energy and his media machine on two axes: The first relates to his not bearing any responsibility for the defeat that befell Israel on October 7, and blaming it entirely on the leadership of the occupation army and security services. Netanyahu had already posted a tweet on his account on the X platform (formerly Twitter) to this effect, before he later deleted it and apologized for it.

The second axis is related to portraying himself as a leader waging a “holy war” not only in defense of the Israelis, but also of the entire Western civilization in the face of “fascism,” in reference to the Palestinian resistance factions, especially the Hamas movement, which the Haaretz report described as “manipulation of minds” on a national level.”

Netanyahu raises the slogans: “We will continue the war until the end,” “We will not stop,” “We will eliminate Hamas,” and “We will free the prisoners.” These slogans have no benefit other than achieving one goal, which is the continuation of the current situation, “to save Netanyahu’s political future and his personal freedom.” The moment the war on Gaza stops, the moment of difficult reckoning will begin.

But the continuation of the war on Gaza represents an imminent danger to Israel itself and its cohesion on the one hand, and to its image, which has already been tarnished on the world stage due to war crimes committed by the occupation army in Gaza and settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and all of these crimes are now under the watchful eye of the entire world. The longer it went on, the darker the picture became. 

From this standpoint, Netanyahu's continuation at the top of the political scene has become the greatest danger to Israel itself.

Source: Arabic Post