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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Columns
Opinion articles written in the style of their author. These texts are to be based on verified facts and must be respectful towards people, even though their actions may be criticized. All opinion articles written by individuals from outside the staff of EL PAÍS shall feature, along with the author’s name (regardless of their greater or lesser renown), a footer stating their office, academic title, political affiliation (if any) and main occupation, or the occupation related to the topic being assessed

Netanyahu has a plan, but it’s secret

The Israeli prime minister’s intention is to continue the war, extend it, forget about the hostages and remain silent about the future of Gaza and the Palestinians

Netanyahu
Netanyahu visiting troops deployed at the Reim base, near Gaza, in an image released by the Israeli Army.
Lluís Bassets

Netanyahu does not actually have a plan for when the war ends. His plan, his only plan, is to continue until total victory is achieved, even if not even he himself has been able to explain what that means. It is a survival plan, not for Israel, but for the survival of his government and of himself as prime minister. To implement it, he must satisfy the far-right ministers who are threatening to break the majority if a truce is declared to free the hostages, if the troops leave Gaza or, above all, if a Palestinian State becomes the exit door for the war.

These ministers do have a plan, and they shared it and celebrated it with lively dancing this past weekend at a conference to organize the return of settlers to the Strip. It is the plan that Netanyahu is keeping secret with his silence and his complicity. It is about rebuilding in Gaza the settlements that were dismantled in 2005 by Ariel Sharon and adding six more to boot, as dictated by the law of revenge. Given the difficulty of convincing 2.1 million Palestinians to make room for them, they have decided that they must be expelled.

It will be a voluntary emigration, according to their words. The conviction to do so is being helped along by the tanks and the soldiers, and especially by the tons of bombs being dropped on the Gazans. Nothing is more convincing than destroying hospitals, schools, universities and bakeries, contaminating crops, prohibiting fishing beyond a hundred meters from the coast and cutting off supplies and humanitarian aid.

The International Court of Justice has not yet ruled that the State of Israel has committed the crime of genocide, but it has issued precautionary measures in case it is committing it, paying particular attention to the constant and inflammatory calls by ministers and deputies of the majority to get rid of the Palestinians any way possible, even with atomic bombs. The UNRWA, on the other hand, without any court decision, has already been declared guilty by Israel due to the alleged participation of 12 of its 13,000 Palestinian workers in the October 7 attacks. Many donor countries, starting with the United States, have imposed their own particular precautionary measures in the form of withdrawing their contributions. It is as if they were obeying the extremist slogan of turning Palestinian life into a living hell from which they must urgently flee.

Netanyahu’s plan is to continue the war, extend it, forget about the hostages, and remain silent about the future of Gaza and of the Palestinians. This is how he keeps his government alive and advances the explicit plan of the extremists who see anti-Semites everywhere: the International Criminal Court, António Guterres, the United Nations and, of course, the UNRWA. The prime minister of Israel will only make a move if he is pushed to it by the only person who can push him, Joe Biden, and on whom he depends for everything: weapons, ammunition and, naturally, his long and powerful diplomatic hand. So far it has not happened, nor does it seem likely that it will happen in the near future.

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