Israeli PM’s struggles to break any actions for a truce is so transparent that Israeli citizens have been frequently protesting against him, calling for his resignation and a ceasefire deal. The families of hostages, as well as the opposition, members of the army, and so on, have protested, and even Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized Netanyahu’s lack of a post-war Gaza plan, confessing that Israel has been the disrupter of the deals so far. Hamas has opposed the unending presence of Israelis in Gaza and maintained that it will not accept a ceasefire that is not permanent. Everyone knows that Netanyahu’s extremist government does not want a permanent ceasefire. Hamas has rejected the latest deal, blaming it mainly on Netanyahu, stating that he is fully responsible for the lives of his prisoners, exposed to the same danger that Palestinian people are facing due to his continued aggression and systemic targeting of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip. For the ninth time in 10 months, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East, as talks will resume in Cairo. All these visits have mainly been to meet Israeli ministers, and all the energy spent has led to nothing noticeable except the continuation of the hellish extermination of Palestinians. Netanyahu has restrained every mediator of ceasefire deals, especially the US, by imposing conditions that Hamas will not accept. Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his self-preservation. Everything that has happened in the past few years has proven a fact that the US cannot deny, which is that the main weapon in Netanyahu’s hand is the laxity in US diplomacy towards Israel, which has now changed into a culture of deference. Blinken’s efforts at so-called peace would have been more successful had he carried bags of rice and flour in his giant jet and given it to starving Palestinians in Gaza, instead of flying thousands of kilometers to talk and have expensive yet futile conversations. Netanyahu and his cabinet were very clear in their aims to deliver a multi-dimensional blow, when they decided to assassinate Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Tehran, right after Netanyahu’s controversial visit to Washington, where he garnered shameless applause from members of Congress. Once again, the US is flexing muscle power with its fleet, sending stealthy fighters, dozens of F-22 Raptors, and even a guided missile submarine along with a squadron of Marine Corps, not to mention bolstering US forces in its bases in the region, only to show its support for Israel. During the last ten months, many Jews around the world, especially young Jews, have been taking a moral stand against Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians that began in 1947, not October 7, 2023. It is increasingly becoming clear even to some Western observers that the Zionist project is running its course. It had an extraordinary run, but it has now reached the end of its settler-colonial track. The creation of this exclusionary settler-colonial Jewish state was a historical anomaly, among the greatest blunders of Western civilization in the twentieth century. Despite the deep alliance between Western and Eastern European Jews and their Western tormentors that established Israel in the mid-20th century, this Jewish state could not in the end resist the deep logic of history. A few sober Israelis too can read the writing on the wall. It is time now to show displeasure with Israel’s extremist leadership. It may not be too late. There may still be time to do the right thing. Western powers have shielded Israel for seven decades and the result is a brutal genocide with catastrophic implications for the region. It is now time, for them, to make amends.
