Etiket arşivi: Netanyahu

The Question of the Endgame in Gaza (2)

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April 7, 2025

On January 18, 2025, following the Israeli government’s approval of the Gaza ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement.  He notably declared that Israel retains the right to return to the war, if necessary, with the backing of the US. And in a broad assessment of the war against Hamas and Iran’s Axis of Resistance, he said:

“We eliminated Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh. We eliminated Nasrallah and the entire Hezbollah leadership. We destroyed most of the weaponry of the Syrian military. We struck the Houthis in Yemen. We acted against Iran. Indeed, we struck all of these very hard, that is to say that we struck the entire Iranian axis very hard – and we are still active.

“Just as I promised you, we have changed the face of the Middle East.”

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A Ceasefire in Gaza but Regional Challenges Remain

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January 20, 2025

The Hamas-Israel ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange agreement went into effect yesterday with the release of three Israeli woman hostages and ninety Palestinian prisoners, mostly women.

During the past fifteen months, nearly 47,000 Gazans were killed and more than 110,000 injured. The jubilations in the Strip show how desperate the Gazans are for an end to the war but this may not last as they return to their devastated homes.

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The ICC Deals a Blow to Israel and the West

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November 25, 2024

This is how I started a post a year ago, two months after the Hamas onslaught of October 7:

“Jews are a gifted people. They have made great contributions to science, culture, and the arts. Israel is among the top twenty countries winning the most Nobel prizes. However, the first Nobel prizes were awarded in 1901. Israel was founded in 1948. Had Israel existed in 1901, surely it would have been among the top ten if not the top five today. Unfortunately, Jewish people have experienced endless tragedies, persecution, pogroms, displacements, and annihilation attempts prompted by racism, antisemitism, and jealousy of their achievements.

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Gaza Ceasefire Talks Should No Longer Be a Distraction

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August 19, 2024

Since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, world attention has essentially focused on two aspects of the war in Gaza. First, the ferocity of the IDF operations that have caused immense loss of civilian life and devastation, and second, the ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange talks.

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Gaza Becoming Inhabitable Land

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July 22, 2024

During the past weeks, developments of global public interest somehow diverted attention away from the war in Gaza until the Israeli strikes on Al-Mawasi, an area in southern Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians had fled to after the Israeli military declared it safe for civilians. The attack targeted Mohammed Deif, a Hamas commander, but also left nearly a hundred dead and more than three hundred wounded.

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Lessening the Intensity of the War in Gaza

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July 1, 2024

In recent posts, I said that Prime Minister Netanyahu could be thinking of continuing the war in Gaza in different ways depending on the battlefield requirements, lowering the loss of life among Gazans, keeping the talks over hostage-prisoner exchange and humanitarian aid alive, and thus gaining time until the upcoming US presidential election that might pave the way for another family visit to a Trump White House. But until then, should that prove to be the case, it would be a tough path for Mr. Netanyahu both at home and abroad with only a four-seat majority in the Knesset, an increasingly critical global view of Israel’s operations in Gaza, and now the prospect of a war with Hezbollah.

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The War in Gaza to Continue

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June 17, 2024

On May 31, President Biden announced that Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal. He described the three-phase Israeli plan as a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages. He added that the proposal had been transmitted by Qatar to Hamas.[i]

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Controlled Escalation in the Middle East

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April 15, 2024

Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, I have held the view that Iran will continue to support its Middle East proxies but not to the brink of war with Israel. I still do.

Although Washington and its Western partners remained silent on the attack and ignored its international law dimension, Israel’s bombing of Iran’s diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1 marked an unprecedented escalation by Israel against Iran. Tehran’s response was to fire more than 300 drones and missiles on Israel. Of these, 99%  were intercepted overnight by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. The US, UK, and France also helped to intercept the massive barrage of drones Iran fired. Thus, only several missiles reached Israeli territory, causing minor damage to an air base. There were no casualties.

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Airdrops  and Maritime Corridor to Gaza

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March 11, 2024

Despite optimistic remarks by President Biden, the ceasefire and hostage release talks in Cairo failed to make any progress. The release of all hostages was never in the cards, unfortunately, since they happen to be Hamas’s principal bargaining chip until the end of the war. But even the freeing of some, alongside a temporary ceasefire, would have been an achievement. Washington now says that the ball is now in Hamas’s court.

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US and Israeli Leaders on Different Wavelengths

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January 22, 2024

On January 18, Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed that Israel under his leadership will not compromise on less than total victory over Hamas, and they will win. “In any arrangement in the foreseeable future — with an arrangement or without one — Israel must have security control over all the territory west of the Jordan,” Mr. Netanyahu also said at a news conference, referring to the area that would supposedly belong to an independent Palestinian state. “This clashes with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do? The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he declared.

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