Tel Aviv
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Almost two years after the war in Gaza, Israeli security ministers voted for yet another military expansion, namely the proposal to buy Gaza city. The plan was launched and promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, but it almost certainly reveals his domestic political manipulation than evidence of well-thought-out military strategy.
The plan was adopted despite the intense objections and serious warnings from Israeli military leaders, which could deepen the humanitarian crisis and put the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza in danger., The major expansion of the war is also opposed to the underlying underlying erosion of support for Israel around the world and the decline of internal public support for the continued war.
Still, Netanyahu moved forward with his plan as there is at least one unstatemented benefit. And, along with his current partners in the far-right coalition, it means extending the war. Once again, Netanyahu’s allies Itamar Ben Gwil and Bezalel Smotrich halted progress in ceasefire negotiations by threatening to collapse the government if the war ended.
Netanyahu’s plan to siege Gaza city is in fact not what his coalition partners demand: Ben Gwyr and Smotrich are pushing for the full occupation of the flying enclave as a first step towards rebuilding the Jewish settlements in Gaza and ultimately annexing the territory. Also, there is less than Netanyahu himself sold before the meeting.
In an interview Thursday, Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel intends to control everything in Gaza.
Instead, Israeli leaders chose to promote a phased plan that focuses solely on Gaza City for the time being, without taking over other nearby camps. Netanyahu also intentionally set a relatively loose deadline at the start of the surgery two months later.
Now his right-wing partner has spoken out on the decision, accusing that the plan is not sufficient and that it is enough to escalate the war.
A source close to Smotrich said, “The proposal led by Netanyahu and approved by the Cabinet may sound good, but it is actually the same. This decision is neither moral nor ethical nor Zionist.”
Netanyahu’s latest plan is pleased that he is neither his coalition partner nor Israel’s military leader. At the 10-hour cabinet meeting of the marathon, Israeli military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, presented the Army’s harsh opposition to the government’s reoccupying plans. The top Israeli general warned that a new military expedition would put both the remaining hostages and Israeli soldiers at risk, and that Gaza would already wear off by almost two years of continuous fighting and would become a trap that would eject more of the IDF’s power by deepening the humanitarian crisis in Palestinians.
Military concerns reflect a wide range of Israeli sentiments. Repeated opinion polls show that the majority of Israelis support a ceasefire agreement that will reclaim hostages and end the war. However, Netanyahu’s current decisions are decoupled by the narrow orders of political survival, instead of analysts and political opponents say, both military advice and popular will.
The Gaza acquisition plan places Netanyahu and Israel in unprecedented international segregation. Despite the unwavering free hand that President Trump’s White House gave him in the Gaza War, the growing hunger and starvation crisis has already reduced global legitimacy for Israel’s war, and additional fallout from the latest cabinet decisions were quick, prompt and unclear: Germany – Israel’s second most important strategic allies after the US – has announced that it is setting the stage for halting some military exports to Israel and other EU countries to further downgrade relations.
Netanyahu is moving forward with a plan that no one is satisfied with. Israeli allies overseas, their own military leaders, on the one hand, the masses hoping to end the war, on the other hand, his hard-line partner who is unhappy and thinks it won’t go far enough.
The constituency that it serves is primarily Netanyahu himself. Buy more time to avoid the inevitable choice between a real ceasefire that can save the hostages and a complete military escalation that meets his alliance. More than a strategic move, it represents yet another classic Netanyahu manipulation to extend the war, perpetuating the harm and suffering of the Gaza residents and the Israelite hostages. All for his own political survival.
