Don Trueten :antifa:<p>Netanyahu Bears Responsibility for This Israel-Gaza War</p><p>The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Netanyahu" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Netanyahu</span></a>. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Israel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Israel</span></a> into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Palestinians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Palestinians</span></a>.</p><p>Netanyahu will certainly try to evade his responsibility and cast the blame on the heads of the army, Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security service who, like their predecessors on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, saw a low probability of war with their preparations for a <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Hamas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hamas</span></a> attack proving flawed. </p><p>They scorned the enemy and its offensive <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/military" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>military</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/capabilities" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>capabilities</span></a>. Over the next days and weeks, when the depth of Israel Defense Forces and intelligence failures come to light, a justified demand to replace them and take stock will surely arise.</p><p>- Netanyahu's government is responsible for the ’23 Israel-Gaza debacle<br>- October 7, 2023: A date that will live in infamy in Israel<br>- Netanyahu: First goal is to purge Israel from enemies, then exact huge price</p><p>However, the military and intelligence failure does not absolve Netanyahu of his overall responsibility for the crisis, as he is the ultimate arbiter of Israeli foreign and security affairs. Netanyahu is no novice in this role, like Ehud Olmert was in the Second Lebanon War. Nor is he ignorant in military matters, as Golda Meir in 1973 and Menachem Begin in 1982 claimed to be. </p><p>Netanyahu also shaped the policy embraced by the short-lived “government of change” led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid: a multidimensional effort to crush the Palestinian national movement in both its wings, in Gaza and the <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/WestBank" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WestBank</span></a>, at a price that would seem acceptable to the Israeli public. </p><p>In the past, Netanyahu marketed himself as a cautious leader who eschewed wars and multiple casualties on Israel’s side. After his victory in the last <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/election" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>election</span></a>, he replaced this caution with the policy of a “fully-right government,” with overt steps taken to annex the West Bank, to carry out ethnic cleansing in parts of the Oslo-defined Area C, including the <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Hebron" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hebron</span></a> Hills and the <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Jordan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jordan</span></a> Valley.</p><p>This also included a massive expansion of <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/settlements" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>settlements</span></a> and bolstering of the Jewish presence on Temple Mount, near the Al-Aqsa <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Mosque" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mosque</span></a>, as well as boasts of an impending peace deal with the <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Saudis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Saudis</span></a> in which the Palestinians would get nothing, with open talk of a “second <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Nakba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nakba</span></a>” in his governing coalition. As expected, signs of an outbreak of hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier. <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Hamas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hamas</span></a> exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack on Saturday.</p><p>Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/corruption" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>corruption</span></a> cases cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible conviction and jail time.</p><p>This was the reason for establishing this horrific coalition and the judicial coup advanced by Netanyahu, and for the enfeeblement of top army and intelligence officers, who were perceived as political opponents. The price was paid by the victims of the invasion in the Western Negev.</p><p>The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.</p><p>Source: <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2023-10-08/ty-article-opinion/netanyahu-bears-responsibility/0000018b-0b9d-d8fc-adff-6bfd1c880000" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/</span><span class="invisible">2023-10-08/ty-article-opinion/netanyahu-bears-responsibility/0000018b-0b9d-d8fc-adff-6bfd1c880000</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Gaza" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaza</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Haaretz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Haaretz</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.trueten.de/tags/Editorial" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Editorial</span></a></p>