Alon Pinkas/Haaretz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo: Brookings)

26 march 24 (RSN.org)

We have repeatedly written since last November that this would happen, and the U.S. warned Israel incessantly it was in the cards. Israel ignored the threats and is now disingenuously pretending to be surprised and shocked

Monday’s UN Security Council resolution “demanding” an immediate cease-fire – adopted by 14 members, with the United States abstaining – puts Israel on a collision course with both the UNSC and, particularly, the Americans.

No one should be surprised by this. We have repeatedly written since last November that this would happen, and the U.S. warned Israel incessantly it was in the cards. Israel ignored the threats and is now disingenuously pretending to be surprised and shocked.

When you ignore U.S. requests, dismiss a president’s advice, inundate the secretary of state with endless spin, casually deride American plans, exhibit defiance and intransigence by refusing to present a credible and coherent vision for postwar Gaza, and actively pursue an open confrontation with the administration – there’s a price to pay.

Alongside his unwavering and unconditional support, President Joe Biden warned Israel that there are also consequences. Vice President Kamala Harris followed suit, as did Secretary of State Antony Blinken on numerous occasions since October 7.

Most recently, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer publicly warned Israel of the ramifications of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s patterns of behavior and imprudent policies.

Seriously engaging the U.S. on any of the above issues, without necessarily agreeing to everything, would have prevented the current deep (and deepening) rift. However, Mr. Netanyahu deliberately preferred a showdown with the world and the United States. He managed to turn a just war and an imperative, justifiably harsh retaliation into world condemnation.

The U.S.’ decision to abstain, refraining from vetoing a cease-fire vote for the first time since October 7, puts substantial added political pressure on Israel and increases its already dire state of isolation in two arenas: the Security Council itself, and relations with the United States.

In terms of the Security Council, Israel will conveniently tell itself that the resolution is not a big deal, there will be no sanctions, the sun will shine today and, besides, the UN was always and remains anti-Israel.

Perhaps. But that’s not the point. A Security Council resolution binds all UN members. Furthermore, it requires that council member-states assist in the implementation of any adopted resolution. That doesn’t mean sanctions, but it is a very unpleasant place for any country – let alone a democracy, not to mention a U.S. ally – to be in.

The more significant arena is U.S.-Israeli relations. Their deterioration under Mr. Netanyahu has been written about extensively and profusely over the past year, but the Security Council resolution is a new low.

Most recently, Blinken warned Israel of an impending isolation that it is living in defiant and unwise denial of. “The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in the region but elsewhere in the world. … We are concerned that the Israelis are missing the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in writing off their reputation damage,” wrote Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo, the official overseeing global public affairs in the State Department, in a memo leaked to NPR.

For the past four months, the United States has negatively revised its assessment of Israel under Netanyahu: He does not behave as an ally. He has accrued a debilitating credibility deficit over the years on a multitude of issues and behavioral patterns. He failed to come up with a plan for postwar Gaza – and he is seriously suspected of prolonging the war for his own political survival.

His ongoing recalcitrance finally exhausted America’s patience.

The premier’s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from

By TAL SCHNEIDER8 October 2023 (timesofisrael.com)

Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.

The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.

Hamas was also included in discussions about increasing the number of work permits Israel granted to Gazan laborers, which kept money flowing into Gaza, meaning food for families and the ability to purchase basic products.

Israeli officials said these permits, which allow Gazan laborers to earn higher salaries than they would in the enclave, were a powerful tool to help preserve calm.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Editionby email and never miss our top storiesNewsletter email addressGET IT

By signing up, you agree to the terms

Toward the end of Netanyahu’s fifth government in 2021, approximately 2,000-3,000 work permits were issued to Gazans. This number climbed to 5,000 and, during the Bennett-Lapid government, rose sharply to 10,000.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a government conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Since Netanyahu returned to power in January 2023, the number of work permits has soared to nearly 20,000.

Additionally, since 2014, Netanyahu-led governments have practically turned a blind eye to the incendiary balloons and rocket fire from Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its crossings since 2018, in order to maintain its fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip.

A Palestinian man receives financial aid at a supermarket in Gaza City, on September 15, 2021, as part of the UN’s Humanitarian Cash Assistance program, supported by the state of Qatar. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.

According to various reports, Netanyahu made a similar point at a Likud faction meeting in early 2019, when he was quoted as saying that those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While Netanyahu does not make these kind of statements publicly or officially, his words are in line with the policy that he implemented.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas looking on as he receives Palestinian athletes in Ramallah in the West Bank on August 4, 2023. (Wissam KHALIFA/PPO/AFP)

The same messaging was repeated by right-wing commentators, who may have received briefings on the matter or talked to Likud higher-ups and understood the message.

Bolstered by this policy, Hamas grew stronger and stronger until Saturday, Israel’s “Pearl Harbor,” the bloodiest day in its history — when terrorists crossed the border, slaughtered hundreds of Israelis and kidnapped an unknown number under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at towns throughout the country’s south and center.

The country has known attacks and wars, but never on such a scale in a single morning.

One thing is clear: The concept of indirectly strengthening Hamas — while tolerating sporadic attacks and minor military operations every few years — went up in smoke Saturday.

Just a few days ago, Assaf Pozilov, a reporter for the Kan public broadcaster, tweeted the following: “The Islamic Jihad organization has started a noisy exercise very close to the border, in which they practiced launching missiles, breaking into Israel and kidnapping soldiers.”

The body of a person killed by Hamas terrorists lies covered inside a bullet-riddled car in the southern city of Sderot on October 7, 2023 (Oren ZIV / AFP)

The difference between Islamic Jihad and Hamas doesn’t matter much at this point. As far as the State of Israel is concerned, the territory is under the control of Hamas, and it is responsible for all the training and activities there.

Hamas became stronger and used the auspices of peace that Israelis so longed for as cover for its training, and hundreds of Israelis have paid with their lives for this massive omission.

The terror inflicted on the civilian population in Israel is so enormous that the wounds from it will not heal for years, a challenge compounded by the dozens abducted into Gaza.

Judging by the way Netanyahu has managed Gaza in the last 13 years, it is not certain that there will be a clear policy going forward.

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

Editorial | Haaretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July. Credit: Sraya Diamant Haaretz Editorial Get email notification for articles from Haaretz Editorial

Oct 8, 2023 (Haaretz.com)

The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. 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 Israel 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 Palestinians.

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 Hamas attack proving flawed.

They scorned the enemy and its offensive military capabilities. 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.

• Netanyahu’s government is responsible for the ’23 Israel-Gaza debacle
• October 7, 2023: A date that will live in infamy in Israel
• Netanyahu: First goal is to purge Israel from enemies, then exact huge price

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.

Israel At War: Get a daily summary direct to your inbox

Email ^*

Please enter a valid email addressSign Up

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 West Bank, at a price that would seem acceptable to the Israeli public.

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 election, 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 Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley.

This also included a massive expansion of settlements and bolstering of the Jewish presence on Temple Mount, near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as boasts of an impending peace deal with the Saudis in which the Palestinians would get nothing, with open talk of a “second Nakba” 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. Hamas exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack on Saturday.

Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three corruption cases cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible conviction and jail time.

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.

The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.