A woman holds up a 'Wanted' poster featuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they take part in a 'Solidarity with Palestine' demonstration in BerlinCredit: AFP / Ralf Hirschberger
The decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "security" cabinet to take control of Gaza, starting with Gaza City, against the explicit advice of the government's most senior military advisors, not only takes the cake, but wins the Great British Bakeoff for most insane – and unpalatable – designs ever.
Following last week's meeting, Netanyahu's office said the security cabinet adopted "principles for concluding the war," which included disarming Hamas, returning the hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, establishing Israeli security control over the enclave and setting up "an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority."
Let's take them in turn. The initial threat from Hamas has largely been mitigated; Hamas no longer has the capacity to attack Israel as it did on October 7. Hamas fighters, like their leadership, care not for their lives, or about devastating the Palestinian people and reducing Gaza to rubble. They care only about achieving the devastation of Israel in the courts of world opinion and loosening perceptions of legitimate sovereignty with which that state is regarded.
Hamas is not a movement that can be eradicated completely by military action, no matter how many years, how many resources and how many Israeli lives, whether IDF or those of the hostages, are sacrificed toward that end.
Bringing back the hostages held in Gaza should be the immediate and primary focus. What they have endured is unimaginable and there is not a moment to spare in exhausting all efforts to bring them home. Israel's most seasoned security officials are sounding all available alarms about the Netanyahu cabinet decision, for the fate of these hostages.
There has been consistent reporting nearly since October 8, 2023, that the two extreme right wingers controlling the Netanyahu coalition, and it seems, Netanyahu himself, have been willing to abandon the hostages as "collateral damage" to their fever dreams of reoccupying Gaza. What is shocking now is the degree of hypocrisy inherent in suggesting that this most recent cabinet decision in any way claims to bring hostages home.
IDF leaders, who would have to implement the decisions to demilitarize Gaza, establish Israeli security control over it and set up an alternative civilian administration, have said these principles are not executable. They know the multiple efforts and many lives expended since the invasion of Gaza post October 7, to take and retake and hold and release various parts of the Strip, including Gaza City. They know the physical and mental state of their forces, the troubles brewing among reservists whose service is foundational for a fully functioning IDF.
These are the same military leaders who made the impossible possible with their strategic brilliance and tactical excellence in operations against the Iranian regime, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. They opened up new political horizons for normalization across the Middle East. When they say that the security cabinet's decision cannot be implemented, that these aims cannot be achieved through these means, the world should listen. Their own political leadership ignores them to the country's extreme peril.
Displaced Palestinians carry food parcels as they raid trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza StripCredit: AFP/-
In part because of Israel's brilliant military strategy in Iran and Lebanon, other countries in the region are poised for new economic, energy and security frameworks in which Israel could be a key player, via the Abraham Accords or other mechanisms.
Arab leaders also have indicated willingness to play a constructive role in Gaza's future, but within the framework of a negotiated cease-fire and broader political solution. For example, last month at a conference organized by France and Saudi Arabia in support of an independent Palestinian state, Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Arab League, backed an initiative which included tough language condemning the Hamas-led attack in 2023 and called on Hamas to demilitarize, give up its rule in Gaza and free the hostages.
On Saturday, these same countries condemned the latest Israeli plans as "a dangerous and unacceptable escalation."
To build a stronger Israel within a stable, secure and prosperous region, these countries, and the rest of the world including the United States and Europe, need to see Israel committed to working on a pathway to a Palestinian state.
This does not mean declaring such a state yesterday by fiat, whether at the UN or any individual country's so called recognition. It does mean allowing Palestinians to govern themselves within a framework of steady support from Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states, in a way that builds Palestinian institutions and leaders capable of running a future state.
This is a necessary component of "a day after" for Gaza. A permanent Israeli military occupation is not. No other country is going to step into what Gaza has become absent a clear horizon to a future state that gives temporary guardians an exit strategy.
Albert Einstein is said to have defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This accurately describes Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision making last week.
Israel is poised on the edge of an abyss. We can only hope that reports of quickened efforts by the U.S. and regional players to reach a permanent cease-fire will save the day, and the region's future. Only a cease-fire deal can deprive this insane Netanyahu decision of the oxygen to proceed. And only such a deal would bring home all remaining hostages and coordinate rapid distribution of massive quantities of food to suffering Palestinians in Gaza.
This is the only way to start the hard but necessary work to prepare Palestinians and Israelis for building a pathway to a Palestinian state that can exist and thrive next to a secure and sustainable state of Israel, able to continue to serve as a homeland for the Jewish people.
Mara Rudman is a former deputy national security advisor to President Clinton, and served in positions for President Obama including deputy Middle East Peace Envoy and USAID assistant administrator for the Middle East.
Meanwhile….
The evil Israeli destroying machine in action in the video above reminded me of this video clip with Dr. Mark Perlmutter.
There is also Dr. Perlmutter’s horrific testimony regarding precision IDF sniper bullet wounds which he observed on the bodies of dead children in Gaza.
BlueCheckSkeptictweeted the image collage below earlier this morning with the #GazaGenocide tag:
We absolutely must do everything we possibly can to stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. It is a Holocaust in action.
" Only a cease-fire deal can deprive this insane Netanyahu decision of the oxygen to proceed."
When has Israel ever abided by a cease fire unless it is to rearm and attack again?
I lost one good friend when he declined to agree to disagree on who - Palestine or Israel - is the worst bunch of murderers. I think I may have lost a long time good Jewish friend who seems to have retired and submerged after he mentioned the increased stress he was feeling.
Things are never stable - either improving or degrading. humans are AC coupled and can only detect changes. All society and politics is personal greed, cowardice, perversion, and narcissism. Nature is a monster and you must adapt. Thank God you eventually get old and lose interest and see this human drama as the sound and fury signifying nothing that it is. The integral at the end of time will be zero.
But - - - Netanyahu never respects ceasefires ("the only solution") So what then?
" Only a cease-fire deal can deprive this insane Netanyahu decision of the oxygen to proceed."
When has Israel ever abided by a cease fire unless it is to rearm and attack again?
I lost one good friend when he declined to agree to disagree on who - Palestine or Israel - is the worst bunch of murderers. I think I may have lost a long time good Jewish friend who seems to have retired and submerged after he mentioned the increased stress he was feeling.
Things are never stable - either improving or degrading. humans are AC coupled and can only detect changes. All society and politics is personal greed, cowardice, perversion, and narcissism. Nature is a monster and you must adapt. Thank God you eventually get old and lose interest and see this human drama as the sound and fury signifying nothing that it is. The integral at the end of time will be zero.