The bombardments by Israel in Rafah, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, once again demonstrate the obvious: Israel is not waging a war of self-defence, but of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Any statement to the contrary, nearly 130 days after the tragic October 7th and amidst the ongoing bloodbath caused by Israeli occupying forces, contributes to Israel’s attempt to absolve itself of the war crimes it commits.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself is unequivocal in all his statements following the Hamas attack (and even before), continuously affirming Israel’s desire to seize the Gaza Strip and make the lives of Palestinians even more unbearable.
Just yesterday, rejecting yet another ceasefire proposal from Hamas, he stated that Israel cannot agree to… the imposition of a Palestinian state after October 7th. Simultaneously, he called on the Conference of Presidents to adopt a resolution opposing the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
He constantly refers to a “complete victory” and clamours about massacres against civilians, bombings, and destruction. “We will finish the job here with our brave soldiers,” he declared yesterday in front of US Jewish leaders.
Moreover, if there is any illusion that the Israeli people stand by this butcher, nothing could be further from the truth. On Saturday, a large anti-government demonstration took place in Tel Aviv, with the main demand being early elections.
Netanyahu’s popularity has plummeted dramatically since October 7th, but he refuses to hold elections, calling for unity to continue the genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.
The title of the text reflects this. The Prime Minister of Israel operates as a Putin of the Middle East (not to mention Erdogan, lest the analysts get angry) and is capable of opposing his own people to achieve his policy of ethnic cleansing.
A policy he himself implemented after the Oslo Accords, when he assumed a position of power for the first time.
Since then, with few exceptions, the Israeli leadership has rejected the two-state solution and exterminated any hope of a peace agreement. It also constantly sabotages the Palestinian Authority and the political forces that follow a path of political, rather than armed, struggle, to justify attacks both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Like Putin, therefore, Netanyahu seeks or creates pretexts to impose the terror of his war machine in the Middle East. He remains in power at all costs to continue Israel’s perennial genocidal work and to “get rid of” the Palestinians.
Ideal for him would be for only Hamas to remain, and to speak of a “complete victory” until his twilight years, in order to maintain the “bubble” of a supposed democracy between “terrorists” and to have the sympathy of Western states.
But the lies have ended. No geopolitical interest can justify sympathy for Netanyahu’s Israel, just as it happened with Putin’s Russia.
Nothing can justify silence about war crimes, and nothing can “acquit” leaders who commit them. There is no dilemma when Palestinian casualties reach 30,000, with 70% being women, children, and the elderly.
There can be no dilemma in Israel, in Russia, in Turkey, when people are murdered in prisons for their political beliefs, when cities are evacuated and levelled, when entire peoples are threatened with disappearance by septuagenarian dictators who were supposed to be serving life sentences.
