Commentator in the Guardian newspaper, Simon Teasdale, discussed the positions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding calls to reduce the level of tension in Gaza, saying that the Israeli leader loves endless wars, and that is why he continues to talk about an increasing escalation in the current war.

This situation serves his personal agenda in terms of maintaining support for his extremist alliance and strengthening his position.

Tisdale said that warnings about a widespread war sweeping the entire Middle East have been circulating since the first perilous days after October 7. The most important and dangerous hotspot is Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where violent confrontations took place in recent days between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, and were accompanied by sporadic Israeli raids on Syria, strikes on American military bases in Iraq, and a retaliatory response as ordered by President Joe Biden. On Tuesday, all of which are examples that feed the narrative of a large-scale war. The marches and missiles launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea increased the state of panic in the region.

However, predictions of a large-scale war have not yet been fulfilled for two main reasons. The first is that the war government led by Netanyahu, after the October 7 attacks, was thinking of launching two successive attacks against Hamas and Hezbollah, but the United States convinced it not to. The thinking of Israeli officials in October was that destroying Hamas was a priority.

The second reason stems from the calculations of hard-liners in Iran, who believed that their interests required not getting involved in the war. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iraqi and Yemeni groups are all proxy groups that arm, finance, train, and obtain, despite Iranian denials, directives from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. All of them are not Iranian and are the ones doing the fighting. In this way, Iran is waging an indirect war against Israel, with a degree of denial. The immediate problem is that the strength of these two factors, which call for self-control, is weakening.

In clearer terms, as the war enters its fourth month, both sides are taking the gloves off. This explains the intervention of French President Emmanuel Macron, who responded with horror to the calls of the United Nations General Assembly for the necessity of an immediate ceasefire, and explains the increasing British, German and American calls to reduce tension or a short halt and contain the chaos in Gaza. The motivation came from fears stemming from the continuing killing of more than 21,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and the United Nations warning of a humanitarian catastrophe.

But the leaders of the West, who are supposedly powerless to stop the war, know that the relentless killing spree, the criminal indiscriminate killing and the self-defeat of the Israeli army in Gaza, has become an intolerable provocation from Israel's enemies. What motivates them is the specter of a broader regional explosion, not images of Palestinian children mutilated by Israeli bombing.

The writer says that the Israeli assassination this week of one of the prominent Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders, Sayyed Reza Mousavi, with an air strike on Damascus, was a clear violation of all the red lines that Israel and Iran adhered to to avoid a direct clash. Mousavi was a “big fish” whose mission was to coordinate with Hezbollah and the Syrian regime. Iran pledged revenge and made Israel pay a heavy price, but the killing carried another message.

According to Haaretz newspaper commentator Amos Harel, “Moussavi’s death was seen in the region as an Israeli signal to Iran that it cannot continue to enjoy immunity while continuing to promote and finance terrorism against Israel and at the hands of its agents.” “This brings us closer to escalation with Hezbollah and even Iran on the northern border.”

Benny Gantz, a prominent member of the Israeli war cabinet, threatened that Israel was running out of patience with Hezbollah, and hinted that it might invade Lebanon if the situation did not improve.

But restraint and non-interference in proxy wars may not go so far. Iran may face a problem in controlling the proxy groups that it supports. The Houthi group, for example, did not care about America’s announcement of the establishment of an international group for tasks related to its leadership, and naval attacks increased. The Houthis launched 50 marches and missiles towards Israel.

At the same time, Israel is talking about a war on several fronts, a claim that indicates escalation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told the Knesset that Israel faces seven fronts: Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. He said that Israel is responding on all these fronts.

Among these fronts, the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel is the most tense and is approaching the brink of all-out war, according to many in Israel. Haaretz newspaper quoted a minister in Netanyahu’s government as saying: “There is an increasing number of people who have come to accept the idea of war with Hezbollah and that there is no turning away from it.”

There is another reason for concern that escalation has become a real danger. The desperate, distrustful and cornered Prime Minister may welcome a permanent state of war on all fronts. For him, an all-out war would be an existential threat that would silence critics, strengthen the cohesion of his coalition and postpone calls for urgent elections.

More than this, a large-scale war in which Israel confronts Iranian proxies may be an opportunity for Netanyahu to achieve his long-standing dream, which is a direct clash with Tehran, his arch enemy, a fateful ambition he has long sought and almost convinced Donald Trump of.

In short, a war without end means Netanyahu's survival, at a time when the complainants lose, and if he gets what he wants in Gaza, this may be the beginning of a comprehensive war.