Israeli citizens:
Only you can rise up and eject Netanyahu’s government
Pencils Up!
Months BEFORE the OCTOBER MASSACRE in Israel by HAMAS, Israeli citizens were marching in the streets by the hundreds of thousands protesting Netanyahu’s bigoted policies towards Palestinians and his government’s Rights-Wing attempt to destroy Israel’s Supreme Court. (Sound Familiar?)
Today, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s murder will haunt every Israeli’s dreams—and hopefully Netanyahu’s legacy. In some sense, culpability rests with Hersh’s executioners. But Netanyahu’s selfish behavior when presented with opportunities to secure his release, makes him the real murderer.
Netanyahu’s own defense minister has blamed him for scuppering a deal. In a cabinet meeting this past week, Yoav Gallant dumped on him for insisting on new conditions that Hamas would never tolerate—conditions that effectively guaranteed the hostages would remain in jeopardy in Gaza. Gallant reportedly screamed at him, “There are living people there.”
Well, there were.
Netanyahu refused to push toward a deal because he doesn’t want to face the consequences of agreeing to a deal that far-right members of his cabinet have vowed to reject. He’s reverting to lifelong patterns of dithering in the face of a hard choice, giving in to fanatical political bedmates, the elevation of his survival.
And now, a beautiful young man and five other hostages will return from Gaza in bags—lives horrifically truncated when they could plausibly have been saved.
Netanyahu is done. He has failed. He will lose. He will go to prison for crimes he committed in his private life and hoped to avoid by being PM.
With luck and hard work Real Progress in the Middle East might finally begin. Shalom.