After signing a military decree on May 18, allowing illegal Israeli Jewish settlers to reclaim the abandoned Homesh settlement
located in the northern Occupied West Bank, the Israeli government has informed the US Biden Administration that it will
not turn the area into a new settlement.
The latter revelation was reported by Axios on May 23. This contradiction is hardly surprising. While Israel's far-right ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and
Bezalel Smotrich, know precisely what they want, Netanyahu is trying to perform an impossible political act: he wants to
fulfill all the wishes of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, but without veering off from the US political agenda in the Middle
East, and without creating the circumstances that could eventually topple the Palestinian Authority.
Moreover, Netanyahu wants to normalize with Arab governments, while continuing to colonize Palestine, expand settlements
and have complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Palestinian Muslim and Christian holy shrines.
Worse still, he wants, per the insistence of Ben-Gvir and his extremist religious constituency, to repopulate Homesh and
create new outposts, while avoiding an all-out armed rebellion in the West Bank.
Concurrently, Netanyahu wants good relations with the Arabs and Muslims, while constantly humiliating, oppressing and
killing Arabs and Muslims.
Indeed, such a feat is virtually impossible.
Netanyahu is not a novice politician who is failing at appeasing all his target audiences simultaneously. He is a
right-wing ideologue, who uses the Zionist ideology and religion as the foundation of his political agenda. Anywhere else, especially in the Western
world, Netanyahu would have been perceived to be a far-right politician.
One of the reasons that the West is yet to brand Netanyahu as such is that if there is a general agreement that
Netanyahu is an affront to democracy, it would be difficult to engage with him diplomatically. While the likes of
Italy’s far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, hosted Netanyahu last March, US President Joe Biden is yet to meet the Israeli leader in person, months after the latter
composed his latest government of far-right religionists.
Netanyahu is aware of all these challenges, and that his country's reputation, even among allies, is in tatters. The
Israeli leader, however, is determined to persevere, for his own sake.
It took five elections in four years for Netanyahu to assemble a relatively stable government. New elections carry risks, as
the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is slated to win a majority of seats, if a sixth election is held.
But satisfying Ben-Gvir and others is turning Israel into a country governed by populist, nationalist leaders determined
on instituting a religious war. Judging by the evidence on the ground, they might get what they want.
The truth is neither Ben-Gvir nor Smotrich has Netanyahu's political savvy or experience. Rather, they are the political
equivalent of bulls in a China shop. They want to sow the seeds of chaos and use the mayhem to further their agenda:
more illegal settlements, more ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and, ultimately, a religious war.
Due to these pressures, Netanyahu, with an expansionist agenda of his own, is unable to follow a clear blueprint
regarding how to fully annex large parts of the West Bank and render Palestinians permanently stateless. He cannot
develop and maintain a consistent strategy because his allies have a strategy of their own. And, unlike Netanyahu, they
care little for overstepping their boundaries with Washington, Brussels, Cairo or Amman.
This must be frustrating for Netanyahu who, through over 15 years in office, has developed an effective strategy based
on several equilibriums. While slowly colonizing the West Bank and maintaining a siege and occasional wars in Gaza, he
also learned to feign the language of peace and reconciliation internationally. Though he had his own troubles with
Washington in the past, Netanyahu often prevailed, with the support of the US Congress. And though he provoked Arab,
Muslim and African countries on numerous occasions, he still managed to normalize ties with many of them.
His was a winning strategy, which he bragged about shamelessly at every election campaign. But it seems that the party
is finally over.
Netanyahu's new political agenda is now motivated by a single objective: his own survival or, rather, that of his family, several members of which are implicated by charges of corruption and nepotism. If the
current Israeli government collapses under the weight of its own contradictions and extremism, it would be nearly
impossible for Netanyahu to recover his position. If far-right parties abandon Netanyahu's Likud, Israel will sink even
deeper into a seemingly unending political crisis and social turmoil.
For now, Netanyahu will have to stay the course - that of unprovoked wars, deadly raids on the West Bank, attacks on
holy shrines, repopulating or establishing new illegal settlements, allowing armed settlers to unleash daily violence
against Palestinians and so on, regardless of the consequences of these actions.
One of these consequences is widening the armed rebellion to reach the rest of the Occupied West Bank.
For a few years now, the armed struggle phenomenon has been growing across the West Bank. In areas like Nablus and
Jenin, armed Resistance groups have grown in power to the point that the PA is left with little control over these
regions.
This phenomenon is also an outcome of the lack of a true Palestinian leadership that invests more in representing and
protecting Palestinians against Israeli violence, rather than engaging in 'security coordination' with the Israeli
military.
Now that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich's followers are wreaking havoc in the West Bank in the absence of any protection for Palestinian civilians, Palestinian fighters are adopting
the role of protectors. The Lions' Den is a direct manifestation of this reality.
For Palestinians, armed resistance is a natural response to military occupation, apartheid and settler violence. It is
not a political strategy per se. For Israel, however, violence is a strategy.
For Netanyahu, the frequent deadly raids on Palestinian towns and refugee camps translate into political assets that
allow him to keep his extremist supporters happy. But this is short-term thinking. If Israel’s unchecked violence
continues, the West Bank could soon find itself in an all-out military uprising against Israel and an open rebellion
against the PA.
Then, no magic trick or balancing act by Netanyahu can possibly control the outcomes.
ENDS
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His
latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals
Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
PO Box 196, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
E: info@ramzybaroud,net - ramzybaroud@gmail.com
Visit: www.RamzyBaroud.net