Netanyahu Facing Rising Headwinds
Helena Cobban / Just World Educational
(January 20, 2024) — The misery in Gaza continues, as you doubtless know. (Click on the infographic here, taken from the latest UN-OCHA update, to see more details, as horrifying as usual…)
The agony of Palestinians in Gaza — and of their compatriots in the West Bank — is intensifying. On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly adopted a new “special session” resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. As it had back in October, the United States voted against the resolution, as did Israel and just eight other countries (many of them tiny.)
Twenty-three countries abstained. 153 voted for it — including Canada, Australia, Japan, and several other key Asian countries that had abstained during the vote in October.
The United States is becoming increasingly isolated globally in the unwavering support it is giving to Israel’s war in Gaza. And meantime, the misery of the 2.3 million Gaza Palestinians continues.
Israel’s current massive assault on Gaza — which is already the longest war in Israel’s history — grinds on, inflicting havoc on all the 2.3 million people of that enclave. But there are now some intriguing signs that the political dynamics that underlie the war are starting to shift.
Crucially, the Israeli military now finds itself increasingly trapped/ bogged down in Gaza, with no discernible end in sight (and that, for a country whose entire national security concept is based on achieving speedy, decisive victories.) PM Netanyahu meantime faces mounting criticism within his country — and even from within his own war cabinet. The grassroots movement of Israelis urging him to prioritize release of the hostages and criticizing his continuing war-making in Gaza has also been growing greatly.
Then, on Thursday evening, war cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military, told a news broadcaster that the main goal of the war in Gaza should absolutely be to free the hostages — and that, “It’s impossible to get the hostages returned alive in the near future without a deal... ”
In that interview Eisenkot, whose IDF-serving son was killed fighting in Gaza in November also reiterated his sharp accusations that Netanyahu had been fully responsible for the Israeli security failures that led to October 7.
PM Netanyahu has also been falling afoul of his only significant international ally, Pres. Joe Biden. Biden has continued to insist that some form of Palestinian body take control of Gaza once the war ends, and that negotiations should then speedily head toward a “two-state solution” between Isarel and Palestine.
Netanyahu bluntly rejected both goals.
And for good measure, Pres. Biden himself has been facing other headwinds in his campaign to end the attempts the Houthi authorities in Yemen have been making to use “robust sanctions enforcement” to force Israel to agree to the sorely needed Gaza ceasefire…
At the end of December, you may recall, Biden had launched an international naval coalition to counter the Houthis’ armed campaign against Israel-related shipping. Notably few states stepped up to join Biden’s coalition, but over the past couple of weeks he had U.S. Navy ships launch several mid-scale attacks against claimed Houthi military sites deep within long-troubled Yemen.
On Thursday, Biden was asked at a press conference about the effectiveness of the attacks. His reply: “Are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”
Hmmm. Definitely not a way of having Washington’s global “leadership” look focused and effective.
And meantime, a high-level Hamas delegation has been in Moscow, where they discussed possible hostage releases, the campaign for a ceasefire, and the broader political horizons with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister…
