Will “Bibi Khomeini” Or “Bibi Eichmann” Decide Gaza’s Fate?

The horrific TERRORIST attack by Hamas into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 has led to unimaginable suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. Of course Hamas, at least their leaders never cared about their own people. Certainly not for those who they brutalized and murdered and still hold hostage. However Netanyahu doesn’t care about those victims of Oct. 7 either.  For him this war has meant distracting his own people from his own misdeeds. As a ‘wartime’ Prime Minister he’s effectively made the case the people of Israel court disaster in replacing him.  Still, much as he’s fought to avoid it Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu stands at a fork in the road. Worse (for him) he can’t go back, but only forward which means choosing which path to take.  I fear the choice I believe he wants to make because his Cabinet isn’t meeting today. He wants to buy time. But he has to choose and time is running out.  With a cease-fire deal on the table, one that is being publicly lauded by just about everyone but him and his cronies AND Trump being sworn in as President on Monday his hand is being forced. Trump is even publicly taking credit for the deal which increases the pressure on Bibi.

Given that, it looks to me like he might want to pull a stunt like Ayatollah Khomeini did with Carter. For those who don’t know the outlines of a deal to release the hostages Iran took in 1979 had long been on the table. Iran had no choice but to agree to the terms but Khomeini strung out final approval. THEN he strung out the actual release until Carter was officially out of Office.  A final ‘eff you Carter” so to speak.  That might be what Netanyahu wants to do to Biden. Prevent any hostages from being release by Hamas until AFTER Biden’s out of Office on Monday.

However there’s another possibility. Netanyahu might, and I believe does want to emulate a worse historical figure. As in Adolf Eichmann, widely regarded as the key figure in carrying out the Nazi’s “Final Solution” with the Jews.  Netanyahu’s life and more importantly career is a testament to his determination to rid Israel of every single Palestinian. He doesn’t want someone with drop of Palestinian blood to occupy, much less live on a single square foot of Israeli soil.  I honestly don’t think Netanyahu cares if Palestinians flee Israel, are ‘extracted’ by another country in the region and given a place to live or die.  He simply wants them GONE. By any means necessary. So from where I sit that’s the question: Will Bibi choose to be a modern Khomeini or a modern Eichmann?

Well, let’s unpack this. After too long a time, yesterday brought welcome news that a cease-fire agreement had been reached to end the war in Israel’s Gaza Strip.  There was a ‘qualifier’ in that Israel’s ‘War Cabinet’ needed to meet and ratify the deal but the meeting was set and most were cautiously optimistic that as of now, as I’m writing this Phase 1 would be implemented starting this weekend. As I said even Trump crowed last night about the deal, trying to steal credit for all of Biden’s (and his administration’s) tireless work. Me? Not for a minute did I believe Netanyahu would allow this agreement to go into effect.  Sure enough, the planned meeting where ‘Bibi and the Boyz’ would (reluctantly) agree was ‘postponed.’ Delayed. They aren’t meeting today either, leaving negotiators in Qatar scrambling to salvage things.

According to The Wall Street Journal the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office alleges Hamas is already reneging on the proposal drafted in Qatar, creating a “last minute crisis:” The Israeli prime minister’s office said the cabinet, which had been expected to convene early Thursday, wouldn’t meet to vote on the deal until Israeli negotiators said Hamas had accepted all aspects of the deal.

Hamas of course disagrees, but this kind of thing is always fraught with mistrust, even people looking so hard for bad-faith from the other side they start seeing things that aren’t there. Or trying to squeeze one last bit of concession in their favor.  But the fact is, while everyone else is on board Netanyahu and his Cabinet are NOT. So mark my words when I say this ain’t over. Not by a long shot.  Whatever their allegations towards Hamas Israel itself certainly hasn’t let up:

Israel launched more airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday morning, according to Palestinian media and residents of the enclave. WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, said several people had been killed in several Israeli bombings in Gaza City.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the reported strikes.

That isn’t unusual. As negotiations to end fighting near completion either or both sides often press for one last bit of gain or advantage.  It’s been an ugly, brutal war and most of the suffering has been borne by innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians and their families. People who just wanted to go about their daily lives. Innocents suffer and die in all wars but this one has been waged by leaders on both sides targeting areas inhabited mostly by innocent civilians.  Consider this:

If it is fully implemented, the deal could mark the beginning of the end of one of the deadliest episodes in modern Middle East history, coming after a war that killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza and hundreds of Israeli soldiers, leaving much of the enclave in ruins in a war that began after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Make no mistake, HAMAS is who planned and carried out a large and brutal TERRORIST attack across into Israel proper. Roughly 1200 were killed and 250 hostages taken. It was pure terrorism and aimed at civilians. Not just Israelis either although they were the primary targets.  There was that large, long planned International music festival taking place close to the fence, and IT was specifically targeted. It was a truly appalling display of terrorism and to call it the Israeli version of 911 is a fair comparison.  Day after day and week after week the number and enormity of the atrocities Hamas committed came to light.  When it comes to those who planned and carried out the attack and its aftermath I can’t help but wish I was still the 1980s version of myself (a Marine infantryman) and had these despicable pieces of shi*t in human form in my rifle sights.

At the same time however we have to bear a few things in mind. Hamas would never have been able to rule Gaza, acquire the means and logistics and weaponry to carry out their terrorist attack if not for… Bibi Netanyahu!  HE is the one who installed them in Gaza despite their organization being clearly on record as wanting to destroy the State of Israel. Bibi had a problem in the West Bank. He (like others before him) wanted to drive out Palestinians with Jewish “settlements” and the Palestinian Authority there was gaining credibility.  Both with Palestinians and outside Israel where international diplomacy/pressure for a so-called “Two-State” peace plan was gaining traction. That’s the LAST thing Netanyahu has ever wanted and he needed a wrench to throw into the works.

HE chose Hamas as his tool. He chose well, at least for his own goals as they acted exactly the way he expected they would. They regularly engaged in hostile acts. Terrorism. From suicide bombers to raining rockets and missiles over the fence into Israel. All the while, Israel provided financial support for Hamas to be able to “govern” the Gaza Strip (the regular Palestinians there NEVER had a choice in any of this and were not supportive of Hamas’ rule I must add) which of course helped them buy those weapons they fired into Israel!  Even worse, a full year before the Oct. 7 TERRORIST attack was carried out Israeli intelligence learned of the plan. And those who tried to warn higher-ups were blown off. Even in the weeks prior to the attack when Hamas terrorists could be seen grouping, and those ‘paragliders’ were practicing warnings by Israeli intelligence went unheeded.

Netanyahu claims the information never reach him or his closest advisors and eventually threw his intel chief under the bus.  I call b.s.  Ole Bibi took one last step, deploying members of the IDF from a base across the wire that COULD have quickly responded and perhaps broken up most of the terrorist attack. So forces that could have stopped or greatly limited were in the West Bank because Bibi wanted a bigger show of force there! The area Hamas attacked was left almost bare of the capability to effectively respond.

For a full year, that multi-faceted, carefully crafted Hamas attack sat there. They were waiting for the optimal time. That huge international music festival was a target enticing as hell and Hamas started getting ready. Then, when IDF forces in the area redeployed to the West Bank Hamas had the opportunity they’d long hoped for. Preparations went into high gear including practicing moving “units” close to the fence. Assembling them suddenly, then pulling them back. Then there were those paragliders up there practicing on their side of the wire. They weren’t just flying around. They were comparing what their maps said to what they could see from the air about where they were supposed to go.  Lower ranking Israeli intelligence officers again sounded the alarm, pointing to that year old plan that had been obtained. Tragically, once again the warnings got blown off by the higher ups.

ALL of that falls directly on Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his closest cronies in his Cabinet. It’s my contention that if the Hamas terrorist attack turned out to be more devastating than what Bibi or the others assumed it would be he/they WANTED it to happen.  Netanyahu has been facing serious legal troubles of his own.  A crisis, a war with Hamas would keep in him power.  Bibi has named his proverbial ‘fall guy’ but it’s doubtful a full investigation will end with his sacrificial lamb.  Bibi knows, or at least greatly fears that, especially in light of all the other questions that will someday be raised.  For me it begs the question of whether Netanyahu, not realizing just how devastatingly effective Hamas’ attack would be wanted it to happen.

Yes, I believe Benjamin Netanyahu is that despicable a human being. Just like Donald Trump was so despicable as to allow COVID to grow out of control in our own country and cost a million or more lives that might have been saved had he taken some unpopular but necessary steps in the spring of 2020.  So to anyone who says no leader of a Democracy would sacrifice their citizens to stave off legal trouble or lose political power I say take a good look at 2020. Or at what Putin has done to  his own country with his attempt to take over Ukraine.

I realize the title is provocative. It was meant to be. So is much of what I’ve written and again it’s meant to be.  We have a cease-fire agreement on the table. Is it perfect? Of course not BUT it will lead to a much needed break, or at least HUGE reduction in hostilities and allow for a longer term peace to take hold.  It’s along the lines of what the Biden administration proposed over six months ago, back before he was forced to step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee. I for one think Netanyahu wanted Trump back in the WH again and there was no way in hell he was going to give Biden that kind of diplomatic win.  (Not to mention that without a war his own position as Prime Minister would be in great peril)

I don’t blame Israel’s Jewish population for wanting a measure of retribution for what Hamas did. You could feel every Hamas leader and fighter into a wood chipper while they were still alive and I wouldn’t object. However, there came a point where Israel’s methods in Gaza began to harm their standing in the world. Many object to the use of the term Apartheid over the years but now the “G”-word, Genocide is being whispered.  Given what happened to the Jewish people not that long ago at the hand of the Nazis there are people in Israel who are quietly asking themselves if they aren’t following a maniacal leader down the same path.  Personally I believe (and have said so before) Netanyahu wants total “Ethnic Cleansing” in Israel. EVERY Palestinian gone – one way or the other. Make things so miserable they’ll leave on their own, or such that some other country will take them in. And if he can’t get them out THAT way then find a way to kill them off. In this current war he’s killed off a LOT of civilians who never wanted Hamas rule. He’s herded as many as he can into increasingly smaller areas and KNOWS Hamas leaders will hide among them.  That gives him an excuse to mount indiscriminate attacks that will kill countless civilians. And he doesn’t care. Bibi just wants all Palestinians GONE from Israel, one way or the other.

However as I said he’s under outside pressure and it might have dawned on him that while TRUMP will give him free reign to do whatever the hell  he wants the rest of the free world will not. Just as others have planned for the contingency of having to support Ukraine without the support of the United States, they are also looking at the mess in the middle east.  As a result Netanyahu faces the choice I outlined at the start.  Does he play the role of Ayatollah Khomeini and grudgingly “release the hostages” but string it out until Reagan instead of Carter can take credit?  Or does he play the role of Eichmann and assume the role of administering a 21^st century ‘Final Solution?’

I know which option I believe Bibi wants to choose. He wants the war in Gaza to continue for two reasons. His messianic belief that despite the two Abrahamic tribes we now call Jews and Palestinians having grown side-by-side on that land starting thousands of years ago that Palestinians have no right to be on a single square inch of it. The second is that continued war means holding on to power. No prosecution of the crimes that he was facing before the war. And no examination of just how Hamas came to and stayed in power in Gaza in the first place. Or the actions in the year, hell couple of WEEKS prior to the Oct. 7 attack were ignored.

Continued war isn’t just what Netanyahu wants, it’s what he NEEDS to keep his hold on power AND out of prison.  I for one am not hopeful.  However maybe, just maybe there are some of his fellow hard-liners who have had enough and are willing to toss Bibi to the wolves. Force him to accept the deal. They too are pissed at Biden for not letting them prosecute their war the way they wanted and holding off until the afternoon of Monday the 20^th to announce approval of the cease-fire might be the sugar in the Castor Oil they need.  Plus, if by tossing Netanyahu aside they can hold on to power they will have their chances to scuttle a long-term peace taking hold.

The whole situation is sickening beyond words. However for those who have read this and are offended and want to accuse me of Anti-Semitism again I remind you that I fully agree what Hamas did was among the worst terrorist attacks in modern history.  Yet had Netanyahu not cynically installed them in power in the first place, then allowed them to remain in power despite so many prior acts of terrorism and THEN ignored (for a full year) a warning that included the exact details of the attack we wouldn’t be where we are today.  I ask you to consider that before judging me.

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