How Netanyahu Lost The War
Or, How Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Exploited a Major Crisis to Preserve His Own Power (And How We All Have Paid the Price).
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Before beginning this post, let me say this: no one should be using this current war to stain the integrity of the Israeli people and the Jewish people in the United States and abroad. On a similar note, no one should be using this current war to diminish the suffering that the Jewish people have suffered for thousands of years. We must unequivocally condemn Anti-Semitism (and Islamophobia) across the board. Especially when it comes from “pro-Israel” politicians like Donald Trump. In fact, it is more important than ever that Muslims and Jews alike—in America and across the world—facilitate the dialogue needed to heal our nation and globe during these trying times. I know because I have learned a lot in my long-winding journey, not least from plenty of friends in both the Jewish and Muslim communities.
Yet now we must go to the far-right Israeli government, which does not act in or represent the interests of the people of Israel or the people of Gaza. Israel’s Gaza campaign has become not only their Vietnam, but more accurately so, their Iraq. It has been a disastrous and catastrophic failure for Israel’s government.
To be clear, the barbarians represented in the likes of Sinwar and others have no sympathy here and in American political circles. What they did on October 7th is shameful and deserves absolutely no sympathy from the globe. They targeted not only civilians, but the many of the same civilians who have been trying to create peace and understanding among Israelis and Palestinians. These were the majority of the 1,200 Israeli lives that were lost. Sinwar knew exactly what evil he was doing.
Which is why Israel should have been the moral leader when the conflict started. The world was on their side. The stories of Hamas’s barbarism struck across the globe and united Israel’s allies against its adversaries—including Iran and its local proxies in the Middle East. To top it all off, everyone knew that Hamas was and is a self-serving hypocritical organization that cares little about their Gaza residents, and actually prefers to use them as human shields. This was Israel’s moment to show the world and the Gaza people that Hamas’s way was doomed to fail.
Duh, it is in Israel’s history. They are a nation partially founded for and by Holocaust refugees. They are a resilient people, and they are not going anywhere. No Hamas charter was going to change that.
Flash forward to more than 6 months later. Essentially the whole world has turned against Israel with constant calls for a permanent ceasefire, and the United States threatening to stall offensive weapons from going to the Rafah operation. Furthermore, most of the hostages that Netanyahu supposedly made a priority to rescue are dead, along with roughly 35,000 Gazans. Millions in Gaza are on the verge of starvation and malnutrition, including children. Then, of course, there are the inexcusable, troubling incursions into the West Bank.
Again, Hamas is not blameless at all. They started the conflict, and they still need to be held accountable. That said, the scale of the conflict’s devastation was still very preventable. People like Thomas Friedman had been advocating for a targeted approach since right after the October 7 attacks. In fact, President Biden himself advised Netanyahu—right after his post-October 7 visit to Israel—not to make the mistakes we made in past foreign wars. If Israel had focused its energy on patiently targeting and picking off senior Hamas militants one by one (like they have done to some degree in Lebanon), would the international outcry be nearly as bad as it is today?
The war has been incompetently fought, and has led to needless casualties on a scale the world has not seen in a long time. And it is directly the fault of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the Butcher of Gaza.” And it is his fault that, against all odds, he has taken the world’s attention away from the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and accomplished Hamas’s goals of undermining Israel on the global stage.
I only shudder to think about what Israel’s government would look like without the War Cabinet as a check on him. So how did this happen? Well, the years-long enabling of Netanyahu by the AIPAC lobby and the Republican Party (even today) did not help the situation. Conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank especially have predictably increased during the Trump Presidency. Trump enabled Netanyahu’s worst impulses, breeding the discontent that may also plunge Israel into conflict on the West Bank as well.
We also cannot ignore that, leading up to October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were not fully prepared to defend the nation from Hamas’s wrath. Why? Because Netanyahu was too occupied with domestic judicial reforms designed to help him avoid more legal jeopardy in the corruption investigations around him. This attempted erosion of democratic institutions was understandably a red line for many fighting to protect a democratic Jewish state. Netanyahu failed to protect Israel as he had long promised.
What about now? Well, Netanyahu’s government and military has failed across the board in complying with the norms of war, and achieving its own goals. The leaders of Hamas? They are sitting comfortably in Qatar and Egypt, living a life of extravagance and even security. The Israeli hostages have been lost needlessly. Remember all the failed hostage talks over the months? Remember the 3 hostages Israeli soldiers mistakenly killed? Why wasn’t much more done to bring everyone back?
In the meantime, of the Palestinians killed in Gaza, nearly 2/3rds by all reliable accounts are women and children, and not actual Hamas terrorists. The West Bank is a tinderbox. United Nations workers and others, like those in Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen, have been indiscriminately attacked by IDF. Is anyone going to tell me, or anyone, that a competent war effort would not be able to consistently distinguish Hamas or Hezbollah from the World Central Kitchen?
Everything that could have possibly gone wrong has gone wrong. Although Hamas must face its punishment, Netanyahu and his allies must face serious questions for the morning after. For it security failures on October 7. On its indiscriminate bombings that have provided more than reasonable concerns about human rights violations and war crimes. On the obstruction of needed aid for the Gaza Strip. On the outrageously aggressive approach to the West Bank. And, on the tales of inconsistencies and outright deception and dishonesty spun by Netanyahu’s government about the Israeli public’s attitudes towards him and his war.
If Israel had a true leader, it would not be in the position it is in. A leader that would have both comforted a Jewish people traumatized by the Holocaust and would have made bold, courageous decisions to preserve Israeli security and deterrence. Netanyahu’s failure to do so is a total and complete dereliction of duty. We know one of the many reasons why Netanyahu has fallen so far short. When this conflict ends, it will become clearer and clearer that Netanyahu used this conflict to preserve the political power he has left in Jerusalem, and not go to jail. Netanyahu played politics at the cost of everything else.
I close with the feeling many people might have, including many pro-Israel allies. The United States trusted Israel as a friend and partner in the Middle East. We, and many European nations, have acted in good faith to protect Israel and stand with them during their most difficult times. It should have meant that they never “walked alone” in their mission, as Netanyahu has publicly vowed to do. But unfortunately, the leader of Israel does not care one bit for Israel, or for Gaza, or for Europe, or for America.
President Biden warned Netanyahu about doing an Iraq in Gaza very early on. He could not have been more right, even beyond my wildest expectations. Like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in Iraq, Bibi Netanyahu and his right-wing crackpot whack job henchman Itamar Ben-Gvir have deceived the people of Israel and global society as a whole. The public deserves to hear the full story.
If Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition of kooks happens to take the time to read this, I have some advice for you: don’t overplay your hand. Israel will run out of patience with you someday.