Benjamin Netanyahu he is alone with his government. Because the alternative toisolation it would be there political death. The Israeli people had been clear after the attack Hamas of October 7: the prime minister will have to resign as soon as the war on Gaza. So, now that the countdown is approaching zero, the conflict must continue, in any way. Especially if to put an end to it the prime minister must betray the central point of 30 years of politics: opposition to the birth of one Palestinian state.
Even if regional tensions have made it almost a utopia, the deaths, devastation and suffering on both sides of the curtain that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip they reported the solution of ‘two peoples and two states‘ at the center of the international community’s plans. It is not an easy solution to pursue, but it is the only one that world politics can hypothesize. Thus, most of the people took that position Arab countriesi European governments and also the big one American ally. Everyone is calling for the end of Hamas and, on the other hand, of the illegal colonies in the name of normalization leading to the creation of a recognized State of Palestine.
Everyone is asking for it, except Netanyahu. Not only because stopping the war would put an end to his extensive political parable, leaving him alone with his people legal troubles. But also because it would be one inglorious endthe extreme betrayal of his idea of a Jewish state, Benjamin who kills politically Bibi. A short circuit that is clear to those who know the political history of the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Israel.
It’s 1993, at 44 years old Netanyahu becomes the leader of Likud. A war veteran and former member of the Israeli special forces, he based his political career on right-wing conservatism in years in which the country is experiencing a rift between those who reject any type of dialogue on the birth of a Palestinian state and those who, instead, believe that there is no other way than confrontation with the other party. The then prime minister thinks so, Yitzhak Rabinso much so as to reach the famous handshake with the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafatsymbolic image of the Oslo Accords which were signed in August 1993.
Netanyahu himself has always opposed those agreements and the idea that we should move towards a two-state solution. Already in his time he made it the fulcrum of his politics, an alternative to that of the more moderate formations. Barely two years pass and the dream of Oslo dies together with the man who was its main face in Israel: in November 1995, at the end of an event called “yes to peace, no to violence”, a far-right student and religious fanatic shoots and kills Prime Minister Rabin.
The prime minister’s funeral is also one of dialogue with Ramallah. So much so that in the following elections Netanyahu himself will come to power, immediately making things clear: no to the birth of a Palestinian state. With the talks slowly running aground and tensions growing more and more, a clash soon came between his governments and their Palestinian counterpart which led, among Intifada, attacksdevelopment of illegal colonies and bloody operations on Gazato the current situation.
Those who, among Biden, the European or Arab governments, today ask Netanyahu to end the operations in Gaza and encourage a dialogue that leads to the birth of a Palestinian state know that they are asking him for most painful concession. A concession that Netanyahu has no intention of making. It is no coincidence that the end-of-year phone call with Joe Biden it ended with a US president annoyed at the lack of collaboration: “This phone call ends here”. He repeated it in his statements on Thursday evening, when he specified that as long as he is at the helm of the government there will be no State of Palestine. “I also told the guys United States“, he specified almost challengingly Washington and stating that “the war will require more many months“.
Time is precisely what Netanyahu plays with, with American elections which represent his only hope of political survival: in the event of victory Donald Trumpthe bond between the USA and Israel would become strong again, a bond unconditionally unbalanced on the positions of Tel Aviv even at the risk of growing regional tensions. It is therefore no coincidence that Netanyahu once again underlined his conditions for the end of military operations: the “total eradication of Hamas” and the “release of all hostages“. A liberation which in recent weeks he himself has refused to discuss because, as he explained on Thursday, “stopping the war without having achieved our objectives will damage Israel’s security for generations, it would create a message of weakness and the next massacre will only be a matter of time.”
Long times, therefore, for which Netanyahu has prepared his fortress, besieged by enemies and pressured by allies. This is his strategy, the only one possible if he does not want to be remembered as the longest-serving Israeli prime minister who fell by betraying himself.