These days, despite his best efforts, everything is going wrong for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The massive and relentless assault on Gaza, now in its seventh month, has failed to deliver the decisive victory he solemnly promised Israelis after Hamas’ successes on 7 October. The US and other Western allies, horrified by what they have done in conjunction with the Israelis in Gaza against the Palestinians, are warning Tel Aviv against carrying out the much-publicised ground invasion of Rafah. And daily rallies by families of captives who want B. Netanyahu to agree to a prisoner swap deal with Hamas, tear apart and continually agitate Israeli society.

Pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges and universities are piling pressure on the White House over unprecedented US support for the Gaza war, dealing a blow to Israel’s once stellar image at home. For its part, the UN International Court of Justice has indicted Netanyahu on charges of genocide, and worse, pressure is mounting on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for the Prime Minister himself, his Defence Minister and the Commander-In-Chief of the Israeli army. Interestingly, the Israeli media reported that the ICC prosecutor, British-born Karim Khan, could issue these warrants in the coming days. The Jewish press reported that Netanyahu and his military cabinet have held several emergency meetings to discuss the looming crisis. Many leading newspapers and opposition leaders believe that under these unprecedentedly harsh conditions, the Prime Minister is very hopeful that the US will do something to make this nightmare go away and to some extent pull Netanyahu out of the military-political impasse he has driven himself into. The US has shown the world many times how it can ruthlessly and instantly abandon friends and allies it does not need.

Apparently, hoping for help from Washington and, above all, from the powerful Israeli lobby, which has enormous influence on the Congress, the Israeli Prime Minister is still chortling and making a good face at a bad, or rather bloody game. In particular, he stated flatly: “We will never stop defending ourselves. While the judgements of the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens the soldiers and officials of any democracy fighting criminal terrorism and aggression”. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also criticised the possibility of the ICC........

© New Eastern Outlook