Even setting ethics aside, I can’t believe the Biden admin trusts Bibi anymore. He will do absolutely anything as long as it helps him cling to power, including going back on assurances, blindsiding anyone, and stabbing them in the back. He will coo Biden one day and endorse Trump the next, or vice versa. As long as it helps him.
I don’t understand how Israelis keep voting him in either.
And do Republicans really support him so much these days? Why? I don’t see how he aligns with the MAGA movement, why these candidates need to please him so desperately. Same with Israel friendly Democrats?
I don’t understand how Israelis keep voting him in either.
They aren’t exactly voting him in. Israel operates under a parliamentary system, not a presidential one.
Between 2018 and 2022, Israel had 5 elections because they were unable to form a government. No political party held an outright majority of parliament, so to form a government, they needed to form a coalition between multiple parties. Historically, this had gone fine, but during this period the more liberal parties adopted an “anyone but Bibi” stance, and refused to join in a coalition led by Netanyahu. Similarly, Netenyahu’s party, Likud, representing about 25% of parliament, dug in and refused to remove Netenyahu from being party leader, and the other conservative parties joined in and refused to join a non Netenyahu coalition. With the Arab parties forming a third wing, neither side was able to get to 50% to form a government.
Ultimately, Likud and the conservative parties ended up winning this fight, but only by joining with far right parties that were previously to extreme for Israeli politics.
Biden told Netanyahu he must stop escalating tensions in the region and move immediately toward a deal.
My hope here is that ultimately no one wants a bigger war and that Netanyahu can take the assassination as a win however he needs. Hostages need to come home.
However, in the long term, Haniyeh’s assassination and the killing of other senior Hamas leaders could serve as a path for Israel to reduce its military operations in Gaza. In the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on October 7, Israeli leadership laid out several objectives, including the destruction of Hamas. “If you want peace, destroy Hamas. If you want security, destroy Hamas. If you want a future for Israel, the Palestinians, the Middle East, destroy Hamas,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared. As many analysts have noted and as the first 10 months of fighting have demonstrated, it is impossible for Israel to root out every Hamas fighter and untangle the group from its deeply embedded social, religious, and educational networks across Gaza. Instead, the killing of senior Hamas leaders could serve as an alternative form of success that enables Netanyahu and the Israeli government to claim victory and reduce its military operations in Gaza. The assassinations of Haniyeh and Deif make this path appear increasingly credible. As journalist Oz Katerji put it, “Israel is now just one Sinwar assassination away from being able to declare a ‘victory’ over Hamas in Gaza.”
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