AS Donald Trump jumps from one gulf capital to another, signs catchy agreements, meets the new Syrian president and even made progress on the Iranian nuclear issue, it seems that the war in Gaza was pushed to the touch of American diplomacy. Although there were negotiations involving the Americans this week in Qatar for the release of hostages, Israel also tried to lead a devastating assassination attempt on the Hamas leader, Mohammed Sinwar, followed by intensive air strikes through the strip. Although Sinwar’s fate has not yet been confirmed, it is indicative that all of this took place while the American president was in the region: this reveals how the Israeli government is not to end the war.
The truth is that if the war is seriously resumed, it will not be surprising because, earlier this month, the Israeli security firm unanimously approved a plan to extend its military offensive in the Gaza Strip (with the warning to wait for the trip of the American president of the Middle East to be finished). The new Israeli military plan, agreed under immense pressure by the most extreme members on the right of the coalition, goes beyond “defeating Hamas” and expresses little interest in the fate of the remaining hostages. Instead, it aims to occupy the whole territory indefinitely.
While Netanyahu is trying to mobilize the real intentions of the next phase of the war with the reasoning of security and the false humanitarian arguments according to which the population of Gaza will be moved “for its protection”, the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, a right-wing colonic, gave the game. Smotrich suggested that in less than half year, the population of Gaza would be limited to another. the rest of the territory “totally destroyed”; Consequently, they will “seek relocating to start a new life in other places”. In other words, the plan is a forced displacement.
In the past, when these political elements were on the sidelines of Israeli society and policy, calls of this nature, which is equivalent to war crimes, could not be rejected as a demagoguery of the far right. This is no longer the case when those who represent these odious ideas occupy key positions in the cabinet. Worse, the Israeli Prime Minister totally depends on them to stay in power until the next elections – and also allow him to make his best to derail his corruption trial, especially since he reaches the extremely unpleasant stadium where he will be counter -examined by the accusation.
Netanyahu gives ultra-right what they want because it cannot afford a new general election (which most Israelis are looking for), not to mention the perspective of an independent commission of inquiry on colossal failure to avoid the massacre of October 7 of Hamas. More than two -thirds of the Israelis favor the conclusion of an agreement with Hamas which would see the return of hostages to the continuation of the war, while opinion polls suggest that if a general election takes place today, the coalition parties would be sent to the opposition benches. Therefore, he feels obliged to stick to the coalition he has, and to engrave in their requests, destructive and criminal that they are.
Netanyahu’s price of despair to maintain power at all costs is paid first and above all by the Palestinians. But he is also paid for by his own people. Israel has already blocked the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza for weeks, and help organizations are constantly putting in famine, lack of medical aid, especially since hospitals are bombed and decrease access to drinking water and sanitation. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the situation this week as “totally intolerable, unacceptable, unbearable and unforgivable. He should be arrested right away. ”
It is up to the international community to take up the challenge of ensuring that Israel does not translate the decision of the recent cabinet to extend the war to a new reality. Israeli defense forces have already mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers ready to enter a devastated Gaza, with its traumatized population. If the international community will not use its levers of influence to prevent the return of a large -scale war – and if Trump decides not to bend his muscles, as he did on the eve of his inauguration – he will be an accomplice in the bloodshed, the displacement and the disposition of the Palestinians in Gaza. Perhaps on an even worse scale than before.
