Live updates Israel-Hamas War in Gaza: Attack in Al-Mawasi kills up to 25 people
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had increasingly public spats this week with his military leadership, right-wing coalition partners and his most powerful backer, the White House. The escalating conflicts – all with allies siding with him in the fight against Hamas – have Difficult questions are renewed about the future of the war and about the Israeli leader’s own political survival.
“We are fighting on many fronts,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement this week aimed at his controversial coalition partners — whom he asked to “show restraint” — but he can easily describe yourself.
In the ninth month of the war, Netanyahu finds himself increasingly isolated. His pledge of “complete victory” over Hamas contrasts with his military leadership, which signals that it wants to reduce fighting in Gaza and that only a ceasefire can Bring the remaining Israeli hostages home. He has alternately appeased and ousted his right-wing allies, whose support he needs to stay in office, but his hawkish stance on war and Palestinian rights has drawn international condemnation.
Analysts say the combative strategy reflects Netanyahu’s need to balance competing interests – to show his domestic audience that he is standing up for the country in a global context. Opposition to the war grew, while keeping his right-wing allies close enough that they would not be influenced. don’t abandon him.
Yet he is choosing a high-stakes fight with the Biden administration, which has provided political cover for Israel’s brutal military campaign while supplying it with vital weapons. On Monday, President Biden overcame congressional opposition to complete one of America’s largest-ever arms sales to Israel, an $18 billion deal for F-15 jets.
However, the next day, Netanyahu posted a video criticizing the United States for withholding some heavy ammunition, in an apparent reference to the Biden administration’s decision to withhold a shipment of weapons heavyweight. The bomb weighed 2,000 pounds because of concerns about their use in densely populated areas of Gaza.
That video drew a sharp response Thursday from John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, who said that “no other country has done more or will continue to do more than the United States to help Israel defends itself.” Kirby added that the Israeli leader’s comments “are deeply disappointing and certainly upset us.”
Soon after, Mr. Netanyahu issued a statement saying he was “ready to accept individual attacks if that is what Israel needs to get the weapons and ammunition necessary for the fight for survival.”
Although the Biden administration has expressed increasing frustration with the direction of the war, there is little sign that Biden will significantly reduce US support for Israel in an election year. Netanyahu still enjoys strong support from Republicans in Washington, who have led the effort invited the Israeli leader to speak at a joint session of Congress next monthan apparent attempt to turn the opposition to the war of some progressive Democrats into a campaign issue.
More pressing for Netanyahu at home is the feud with his military leadership, which also escalated this week.
Going public with frustrations that have been simmering for months, the armed forces’ chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, appeared to criticize Netanyahu’s repeated calls for “absolute victory” , said: “The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas disappear – that is throwing sand in the public eye.”
The army has indicated that it wants to reduce fighting in Gaza, saying on Wednesday that it was easing some wartime restrictions on Israeli communities near the border and had come very close to striking. defeated Hamas forces in Rafah, a city they described as the armed group’s last stronghold.
But Mr. Netanyahu showed no signs of wanting to end the war, refusing to endorse it US-backed ceasefire proposal to halt hostilities, release hostages and open negotiations on a permanent ceasefire. On Thursday, after meeting with the hostages’ families at his office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu signaled that he wanted the Israeli army to continue fighting.
“When we were in Gaza, the pressure changed; Our operation provides an opportunity to return the hostages,” he said, according to a statement from his office. “We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all the hostages return and we will not leave until we have eliminated Hamas’s military and administrative capabilities.”
That view is supported by his right-wing cabinet ministers, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister. But both oppose amending Israeli law to allow ultra-Orthodox Jews to be drafted into the army, a change the army says is necessary to reduce losses to its forces. during the war – and another point of disagreement between the military leadership and Netanyahu.
However, the Israeli leader also caused controversy with Mr. Ben-Gvir. After the far-right minister demanded a greater role in wartime decision-making, Mr. Netanyahu disbanded his unofficial war cabinet this week in what analysts say is an effort to oust Mr. Ben-Gvir. A member of Mr. Netanyahu’s party later accused Mr. Ben-Gvir of the crime leaking state secrets.
Amos Harel, columnist for Israel newspaper Haaretz the newspaper often criticizes Netanyahu, writing that the prime minister is “hitting” “all those who stand in his way.”
“In Israel’s security, politics and foreign relations, Netanyahu continues to pursue a brinksmanship policy, and in a manner that has become much more radical,” he wrote in a column published Friday. in war”.
