Palestine Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Ramzi Baroud wrote that Israeli officials constantly claim that Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, but in reality it chooses to fight on multiple fronts, and the difference between the two statements is clear.

The writer pointed out, at the beginning of his article published on the American website “Counterpunch”, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a speech he gave earlier this month, that these “defensive” wars are also waged in the name of protecting “civilization from those who seek to impose a dark age of fanaticism on us all.”

Baroud stressed that Israel is not fighting a defensive war on multiple fronts, but rather fighting for colonial expansion and regional and military hegemony driven by religious prophecies, because “self-defense in international law refers to the inherent right to use force in response to an armed attack.”

Genocide is not a defense

He stated that there is no need to respond to what Netanyahu says because what his government is doing in terms of genocide cannot be classified as self-defense, and “preserving human civilization” does not include burning people alive.

The writer asked why Israel is fighting on 7 fronts? To confirm that the official Israeli line is keen to exaggerate the number of war fronts in order to continue to benefit from the generous military and political support from the United States and the West. For Israel, more wars also translate into more money.

He said that of course, Israel is also fighting real wars, a war of extermination and genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, and it is fighting them with a specific goal, which is to subjugate all forms of resistance, so that Israel can accelerate its colonial settlement project in the occupied territories.

They do not hide their real project

Baroud continued to say that there are Israeli officials who do not hesitate to reveal their real project. Netanyahu said their goal was security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River. More precisely, he said, “Between the sea and the Jordan River there will be only Israeli sovereignty.” “Security control” is an Israeli euphemism for territorial expansion.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was more explicit, telling the European public service channel RT that Israel would expand “little by little” to eventually include all of the Palestinian territories, as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries. “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said.

Religious sentiment has taken center stage in recent years under a series of far-right governments, mostly formed by Netanyahu, who sees his military as the Israelis fighting the Amalekites, and the Gaza war as an opportunity to realize what Smotrich called “Israel’s decisive plan.”

Religious Wars and International Law

Smotrich’s plan, dubbed “A Single Hope,” focuses primarily on annexing the entire West Bank, which he, like Netanyahu, refers to as “Judea and Samaria,” with “simultaneous settlement activities,” such as the establishment of cities and towns, with the aim of “creating a clear and irreversible reality on the ground,” after its author became one of the kingmakers in Netanyahu’s government.

Baroud explained that Israel may claim that it is waging a war on 7 or 70 fronts and may ascribe to itself the role of the savior of civilizations, but the truth cannot be hidden, especially when it is the Israelis themselves who reveal their evil intentions, as some of their politicians and supporters on the right promote the war in southern Lebanon as a quest for “Greater Israel.”

The writer concluded his article by saying that Netanyahu and Smotrich do not care much about international or humanitarian laws. They are driven by ominous expansionist agendas, and if they succeed, more deadly wars will surely follow, which means that the international community must do everything in its power to ensure their failure. 

Source: American Press+ Al Jazeera.net