Netanyahu must go

My opinion on Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip is no secret to readers of this column.

Israel must destroy Hamas as a military and political force in the territory and at the same time minimize harm to civilians.

It must do everything possible to rescue its hostages without jeopardizing the primary goal of destroying Hamas.

He must, through diplomacy or force, expel Hezbollah of Lebanon’s southern border, so that 60,000 Israelis can return safely to their homes in the north.

He must face the battle head on, as he did last week Damascusto the sponsors of Hamas and Hezbollah, both in Syria, Qatar or Iran.

And for all this to happen effectively, Benjamin Netanyahu You have to leave.

I have written versions of this article before, but Netanyahu’s disastrous engagement with Hamas before he carried out the October 7 massacre and his conduct of the war since have made it vital.

The need became painfully evident again last Thursday, when Nir Barkatcenter-right Israeli minister and former mayor of Jerusalem, was trashed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Barkat is an honest and courageous man who could be a credible future prime minister.

But he collapsed when the show’s host, Joe Scarborough, challenged him to explain Netanyahu’s policies before October 7.

Because – to paraphrase Scarborough and his co-hosts – Netanyahu asked Qatar to finance Hamas with hundreds of millions a few weeks before the massacre?

Why wasn’t most of the Israeli army near Gaza in the first hours of the attack?

Why does the Israeli government give such clumsy responses when it comes to legitimate humanitarian needs in Gaza?

Barkat claimed, feebly, that the policy had been wrong and that everything would be investigated after the war.

When an Israeli minister is forced to do so humble yourself on American television because he can’t muster either the sophisms or the servility that a softer response would require, is a sign that he’s in the wrong government.

Where is Israel after six months of war?

Not in a good place.

Netanyahu and his generals continue to insist, Westmoreland style, that victory in Gaza is just around the corner, providing data on Hamas fighters killed.

But Hamas was not defeated, and Israeli soldiers were forced to retake the same places – such as the Shifa hospital in Gaza City – that should have been cleared of terrorists months ago.

Only a handful of hostages were rescued and many of those remaining are presumed dead.

The perception of Israeli invincibility and competence has been destroyed.

As my colleague David French has pointed out, the approach Israel has taken in Gaza in recent months – destroying the enemy but ignoring civilian safety and basic needs – replicates the strategy that led to disaster in the early years of the US occupation of Gaza. ‘Iraq. .

Last week’s strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was definitely an accident, just like the American strike against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan in 2015 it killed 42 people.

But the command and control failures that produced the WCK tragedy show that Israeli military leaders do not realize that they cannot afford such fiascos, as other militaries can.

A double standard, but this is another reality in which Israel has always operated.

Responsibility

Netanyahu may not be directly responsible for WCK deaths.

But it is he who has the ultimate responsibility, just as for everything that preceded October 7: funding Hamas and ignoring warnings about its attack plans, incorporating far-right agitators into his government and giving them key positions in the system of security, polarizing the country movement with a useless judicial reform bill and rejecting repeated warnings of reduced military preparedness.

In a thousand years, Jews will remember Netanyahu’s name contempteven more so because of his refusal to take responsibility for anything.

He now argues that there should be no change in government until the war is over.

This argument seems increasingly self-serving as the war drags on.

It’s also a bad topic.

TO parliamentary democracies who are saddled with bad leaders in times of national emergency do well when they get rid of those leaders.

This is what Britain did in the First World War when it withdrew H. H. Asquith in favor of David Lloyd George, and in the Second World War when he got rid of it Neville Chamberlain in favour of Winston Churchill.

Netanyahu might aspire to be Winston, but he’s actually more of a Neville, than who bad treatment with bad people They led to bad things.

It is also dangerous for a country at war to be led by someone the people do not support or trust.

According to polls released Sunday, 71% of Israelis want Netanyahu ousted from office, and 66% want an early election to be called, which could happen if a handful of members of the ruling coalition defect.

Wanting Netanyahu to go is the most common position possible, and sincere friends of Israel should never be afraid to express it.

I hope Barkat reflects on his “Morning Joe” embarrassment and asks himself whether supporting his party’s leader is a price he’s willing to pay.

I hope that other leading members of the Israeli government will also consider their sense of the matter national responsibility above their political positions.

Israel cannot afford to lose this war.

But she needs to lose a leader who doesn’t convince her.

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