When is an occupation not an occupation? When Benjamin Netanyahu orders it.
Netanyahu has agreed with his cabinet to send the Israel Defence Force into a full-scale operation against Hamas in Gaza City that he wants to lead to taking over the whole enclave – but not actually occupying it.
What happens next is an obvious question and it will be a long wait for the answer – Israel doesn’t even admit it’s an occupation force on the West Bank, which it captured in 1967.
The immediate Israeli objection to a new campaign in Gaza is that it will risk the lives of the hostages that remain held there.
While Israel’s prime minister met with his cabinet in Jerusalem, protestors outside condemned his plans to send the Israel Defence Force to take over the whole enclave. They demanded an end to two years of war. They want a deal with Hamas that will see the hostages released.
Ilana Gritzewsky, who was held hostage and later released, accused the government of turning its back on the captives.
“They decided to sacrifice Matan, my friends, all the hostages. They lied to us. In Nir Oz, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to bring everyone home. Now he’s pushing for full occupation, knowing it will lead to their deaths,” Israeli media Ynet reported.
“I’m proof hostages come back through deals. There’s no other way,” she told Ynet.
More than 80 per cent of Gaza has been destroyed, its population is starving, and its former rulers, Hamas, reduced to a subterranean rump of extremists holding about 20 living hostages.
One day Netanyahu has said he hopes that role will fall to an unknown “Arab” administration . His cabinet has ruled out handing it over to the Palestinian Authority, which runs most of the Palestinian cities on the Israeli occupied West Bank.
In the meantime, Netanyahu believes he can keep the region boiling and maintain his awkward governing coalition with Israel’s very extreme right-wing parties, and by staying in power stay out of court, where he’s on trial on corruption allegations, and perhaps out of the clink.
He has been staring at a rising tide of condemnation from around the world for Israel’s conduct in Gaza. The Jewish State now risks losing its association agreement with the European Union – and the trade access that gives to a massive market – in a drive to isolate Israel led by the Netherlands.
Hamas has few friends, if any, left. Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who have maintained communications with the extremist movement, signed a UN declaration demanding that Hamas disarm and relinquish power in Gaza.
The 22-member Arab League, the entire European Union and another 17 countries backed the declaration.
Israel might have paused at this moment. Considered whether it was wise, or ethical, to continue to kill Gazans in a campaign that to most of the outside world looks like a deliberate annihilation of the ability of the Palestinian population in Gaza to survive.
Israel’s army chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has openly opposed Netanyahu’s plans for Gaza. Before the Jerusalem cabinet meeting he repeated his opposition stating: “We’ll continue to express our position without fear, in a matter-of-fact, independent and professional manner”.
“We’re not dealing in theory, but with matters concerning life and death and protecting the state, and we do so while looking our soldiers and the citizens of Israel in the eye,” he added. “We’ll continue to act responsibly, with integrity and determination, guided solely by the best interests and security of the state,” he told a general staff briefing.
But Israel’s PM is also already an indicted war criminal with an arrest warrant hanging over his head. The UN has accused his country of genocide in Gaza. Even Donald Trump has backed away from his fantasy of exiling Gaza’s population and turning its beaches into resorts.
He has clearly concluded he needs to stay on in office, keep his nation at war, and the blood flowing hard or stability and peace will be his cold reckoning. Netanyahu has long forgotten that it’s not all about him.
