The Witness Chronicles, July 26, 2024

Why are we coddling Netanyahu?

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Bibi Netanyahu is a Lying SOB

He just wants the bombs. We need to stop giving him authority

Netanyahu stood in front of the US Congress, at least part of them, and told a boldfaced lie about casualties in Gaza. His troops are killing insane numbers of civilians in the name of hunting down Hamas terrorists. It’s an extraordinarily primitive way to root out a guerilla movement embedded in a sympathetic population.

This strategy is known as the ‘kill them all and let god sort them out’. Everyday the death tolls are so horrific and so regular that the media has pushed them to the back columns of their coverage. While Netanyahu stood in front of Congress and blatantly lied about the casualty counts, his true motivation was obvious. He wants as many huge bombs as we can send him.

To be clear, this is Netanyahu, not Israel as a whole. And to be clearer, it is obvious it is not in Bibi’s interest to actually bring any hostages home. Nor, to be fair, is it in Hamas’ interest. It is a stalemate and the hostages are the leverage. Meanwhile they are dying. And I do not believe that Netanyahu cares.

This week the bodies of five more hostages were recovered from a tunnel supposedly used for refugees. Hamas are murderers. But to indiscriminately bomb heavily populated areas because you might get one terrorist is inhuman and primitive.

That is harsh, but he is playing the same game Trump is. It’s called protecting their asses. Both face trials for major crimes if they are not in power. The fact that we give a forum to this war criminal in our Congress is shameful.

The election prospects in the United States changed drastically in just the last few days. With Kamala Harris the likely Democratic candidate, it is up in the air what US policy towards this war will be. She is still VP and Biden’s policies are still in place, but she will have to navigate the strong feelings among the electorate regarding this issue.

Today she rightly, in my opinion, criticized the pro-Palestinian protests in DC during Bibi’s visit. They have gone off the rails, playing into the Hamas anti-Semitic dialog. This is not acceptable and detracts from their legitimate anger about the deaths and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank.

The solutions there, if there are any, require someone to negotiate in good faith and right now it is not in Netanyahu’s short term personal interests to do so. Every time US officials think we are close, he moves the goal posts.

There is one way we can stop this man’s madness. Stop sending him weapons, including heavy bombs and smart missiles. And make it clear that they have no business building more settlements in the West Bank and displacing Palestinians from their ancestral lands. There must be a path to a two state solution.

It is the only way we see any possibility of progress while slowing the inevitable creep of a regional war. Netanyahu must go, and those who support him here must look into their souls and ask why we would endorse slaughter.

~ I write The Grasshopper, an occasional letter on the creative life and it’s sister, mostly daily publication The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate. They share a free and paid subscription. I don’t paywall any content in these, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen. 

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