The last plan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not please his coalition partners or the military leadership of Israel
Tel Aviv – Almost two years after the War in Gaza, the Israeli security office voted in favor of another military expansion: the proposal to take the city of Gaza. The plan, which was initiated and promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reveals more about his internal political maneuvers than proof of a well-thought out military strategy.
The plan was adopted despite the fierce objection of Israeli military leadership and the serious warnings that it could deepen the humanitarian crisis and endanger the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza. The great expansion of war also has as its backdrop a fundamental erosion of Israel support worldwide and a decline in public public support for the continuation of war.
However, Netanyahu has advanced with the plan, because he has at least one unlavoded advantage: he gives him time to fight for his political survival. And with their current far-right coalition partners, that means prolonging the war. Once over and over, Netanyahu’s allies, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, prevented and aborted progress in ceasefire negotiations, threatening to make the government fall if the war ended.
Netanyahu’s plan to surround the city of Gaza is, in fact, short of the demands of its coalition partners: Ben Gvir and Smotrich defend the total occupation of the enclave in trouble as the first step for the reconstruction of Jewish colonates in Gaza and, ultimately, for the annexation of the territory. It is also inferior to what Netanyahu himself was selling before the meeting.
In an interview on Thursday, Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel intended to take control of the entire Gaza Strip, as if he had decided to fully occupy the territory.
Instead, the Israeli leader chose to promote a phased plan, focusing only on the city of Gaza, for now, without taking control of other fields nearby, where many of the remaining Israeli hostages are believed to be held in captivity. Netanyahu also intentionally established a relatively short deadline for the beginning of the operation -within two months -, leaving the door open so that a new diplomatic impetus towards a ceasefire agreement on hostages could reappear and cancel everything.
Now, right -wing partners are furious with the decision, claiming that the plan is not enough and that only the escalation of the war will be sufficient
A source close to Smotrich said: “The proposal led by Netanyahu and approved by the office may seem good, but it is actually just more. This decision is not moral, ethical or Zionist.”
Netanyahu’s last plan does not please its coalition partners or the military leadership of Israel. During the 10-hour marathon of the Council of Ministers, Israeli General Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir presented the army’s opposition to government reoccupation plans. Israel’s top general warned that a new military tour would endanger both the remaining hostages and the Israelite soldiers, warning that Gaza would become a trap that would further exhaust the forces of IDF, already worn out for almost two years of continuous combat, and deepen the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.
The last plan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not please his coalition partners or the military leadership of Israel. Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images
The concerns of the military reflect the general feeling of Israeli public opinion: according to repeated opinion polls, most Israelites support a ceasefire agreement that brings back the hostages and end the war. But Netanyahu’s current decision making is disconnected from both military councils and popular will, being previously conducted, analysts and political opponents say, for the narrow imperative of their political survival.
The Gaza Control Plan also puts Netanyahu and Israel in unprecedented international isolation. Despite the unshakable freedom of action that President Trump’s White House has given him in the Gaza War, the growing crisis of hunger and inanition has already diminished the global legitimacy of the Israeli war, and the additional consequences of the last government’s decision were rapid and unmistakable: Germany – the second most important strategic ally in Israel after the United States – announced that it was suspending some of its military exports to exports to Israel, preparing the land for other EU countries to further reduce relationships.
Netanyahu is moving forward with a plan that does not satisfy anyone: Israel’s allies abroad, their own military leadership, an audience who wants the war to end, on the one hand, and, on the other, their partner of the so -called hard line, who are unhappy and think that the plan is not far enough.
The electorate that serves is, first of all, Netanyahu himself: to earn more time to avoid inevitable choice between a true ceasefire that could save the hostages or a total military climb that satisfies its coalition. More than a strategic move, it represents another classic Netanyahu maneuver to prolong the war, perpetuating damage and suffering for both Gaza residents and Israelite hostages. All for your own political survival.
