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Israel resumes strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu battles for survival | Avi Melamed’s insights quoted in this article by Ishaan Tharoor for The Washington Post.
Avi Melamed, a former Israeli military intelligence official, suggested that the public pressure against Netanyahu was only encouraging him to consolidate his position within the Israeli right. “At the end of the day, Netanyahu’s government is hanging by a thread, and it depends on the far right,” he told The Washington Post. “And they have been very clearly pressuring him not to stop the war, but to resume the war.”
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended with more scenes of carnage. Starting in the early hours Tuesday, Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 404 people and injuring hundreds more, according to Palestinian health authorities. Social media teemed with images of slain Palestinians, including children, overwhelmed hospitals and grieving families. The strikes marked one of the bloodiest days yet in the 17-month war that flared after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In a speech Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government had no plan to relent. “From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing intensity. Negotiations will take place only under fire,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
The first phase of the ceasefire — which saw the release of 33 hostages abducted by Hamas and held in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel — technically expired at the beginning of the month, with regional interlocutors struggling to restart talks for the next phase. Hamas wanted commitments regarding a longer-term end to hostilities, while Netanyahu’s government appeared to want to extend the framework of the first phase.
Israelrestricted access for humanitarian goods into the war-ravaged territory, as the first phase of the truce ended this month, and Israeli officials argued that further military pressure was the only path to freeing the remaining hostages captured by Hamas. “In the past two-and-a-half weeks, we found ourselves at a dead end — with no fire and no return of hostages — and that’s something Israel cannot accept,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, insisting that Israel had made genuine efforts to negotiate a framework. “Had we continued to wait, the situation would have remained stuck.”
The mass protests that took place across Israel on Tuesday suggest many don’t buy what Netanyahu’s government is selling. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, protesting both the resumption of hostilities that imperils the surviving hostages Hamas is holding captive, as well as Netanyahu’s move in recent days to dismiss Ronen Bar, director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service. Organizations representing the families of hostages denounced Netanyahu’s government, seeing how the collapse of the ceasefire had paved the way for the return of far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir into Netanyahu’s coalition — a necessity for the prime minister as he scrambled to reinforce his parliamentary majority amid complex wrangling over the country’s budget.
“There is a military case to be made that Hamas wasn’t destroyed and is in the process of reconstituting, but there is no way to divorce this from the political events,” Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, told my colleagues. “I don’t think anyone can ignore the timing.”
Avi Melamed, a former Israeli military intelligence official, suggested that the public pressure against Netanyahu was only encouraging him to consolidate his position within the Israeli right. “At the end of the day, Netanyahu’s government is hanging by a thread, and it depends on the far right,” he told The Washington Post. “And they have been very clearly pressuring him not to stop the war, but to resume the war.”
That view was echoed by domestic opponents. “If his government had genuinely prioritized bringing the hostages home, a deal could have been reached long ago,” wrote Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of the parliament. “But that would mean ending the war, without which Netanyahu’s coalition would collapse. The fighting has thus become a political tool, carried out under the pretext of security.”
Writing in Israeli daily Haaretz, Amos Harel mooted that raising the pressure on Gaza was part of an attempt “to divert media attention from the renewed protests” against his government over plans to ax Bar. “Netanyahu’s true objective appears increasingly clear: a gradual slide toward an authoritarian-style regime, whose survival he will try to secure through perpetual war on multiple fronts,” Harel wrote.
Palestinians in Gaza are reeling from the trauma of months of relentless bombardment. “I cannot believe the war is back,” Ahmed, a father of three in Gaza City, told my colleagues over the phone. “We don’t know where is safe.” Many Gazans are living out a rough existence in makeshift shelters and in the ruins of their homes.
“The latest attacks come as lifesaving aid remains blocked from entering Gaza, compounding the risks to children,” said Catherine Russell, head of the U.N.’s children agency, or UNICEF, in a statement. “It has been sixteen days since the last truck delivering humanitarian aid crossed into Gaza. In addition, electricity has been cut to the main desalination plant, significantly reducing the amount of potable water.”
While the White House helped push through the first phase of the ceasefire, it appears content to back the course taken by Netanyahu. The United States launched its own attacks on Yemen’s Houthis, the militia that controls much of the country and has ties to Iran. Houthi forces have ramped up attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea in reaction to Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
“As President Trump has made it clear — Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, said during a recent TV appearance. “All hell will break loose.”
That message found its echo in Israel. “Continuing hell for the Gazans,” Michael Sfard, a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, wrote on social media Tuesday. “Hell for our kidnapped men and women. Moral hell for us. The Israeli government is condemning us all to hell.”
Ishaan Tharoor is a foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post, where he authors the Today’s WorldView newsletter and column. In 2021, he won the Arthur Ross Media Award in Commentary from the American Academy of Diplomacy. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.
Israel resumes strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu battles for survival | Avi Melamed’s insights quoted in this article by Ishaan Tharoor for The Washington Post.
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