The timing of the raid on Saturday 10 June - which Netanyahu called an operation
by the IDF that was carried out “creatively and bravely” - may have had
more than a little to do with the fact that his political rival Benny
Gantz had called a press conference the same day to announce his
withdrawal from the War Cabinet. In the event, Gantz left
on Sunday saying that “fateful strategic decisions are met with
hesitation and procrastination due to [narrow] political
considerations.”
Netanyahu’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who together
with his extremist colleague Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has
encouraged settler rampages in the West Bank while pushing for the
ultimate destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza was quick to strike:
As a minister in the government, chairman of a party and a senior
partner in the coalition, I hereby demand to join this cabinet, in
order to be a partner in determining Israel's security policy in the
current times. It's time to make brave decisions.
As Ben-Gvir attempted to dance his way into the War Cabinet US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was continuing his own step dance. He
arrived back in Tel Aviv
on Monday with the now well practised mixed messages routine. Blinken
called Hamas’ acceptance of the latest ceasefire deal a “hopeful sign.”
Then be said that the US goal remained to “fully defeat Hamas.” That was
after he had commented on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport:
And of course what separates Israel, the United States and other
democracies when it comes to incredibly difficult situations like this
is our respect for international law and as appropriate the laws
of war. So we know that Israel will take all of the precautions that it
can just as we would and that’s what separates us from Hamas (emphasis
added)
Blinken's comments were in the wake of ICJ and ICC decisions and the determination this week by a UN commission of enquiry
headed by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay that both Hamas and
Israel have committed war crimes. The former for their 7 October attack
and the latter for the subsequent and ongoing war of retribution in the
Strip.
Of Hamas and six other armed groups the committee wrote:
Many abductions were carried out with significant physical,
mental and sexual violence and degrading and humiliating treatment,
including in some cases parading the abductees. Women and women’s bodies
were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.
Hamas, of course, has its own dance macabre, one that is comfortable with the slaughter of civilians as a price worth paying in the pursuit of victory.
Of Israel the report said the IDF was guilty of the indiscriminate
killing of civilians “unparalleled across conflicts in recent decades.”
It went on to state that Israel was:
responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of
warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks
against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual
violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention
and outrages upon personal dignity.
The Israelis were predictably outraged
accusing the UN of bias against them. Hamas has so far remained silent.
Independent observers are asking how a country that prides itself on
being a democracy has behaved in a manner more akin to a terrorist
organisation.
Meanwhile the dance floor is packed, with Blinken spinning and giving
cover to both Biden and Netanyahu while the latter pirouettes in the
space that America has given him. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich attempt to cut
in using the threat of bringing Netanyahu down and Hamas dances with the
death of civilians in Gaza. And the war grinds on with Palestinians
killed approaching 40000 and tens of thousands more wounded. Israel has
lost the 1200 killed in the Hamas attack and 300 soldiers.
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