Netanyahu wants a forever-war

MEMO TO TRUMP: You're being played. This is a tragedy for Israel, Gaza and the hostages. Including US hostages.

In Israel, there was recently growing hope of an imminent hostage deal that would free the 100-plus hostages held by Hamas — many of whom are presumed dead — and end the war in Gaza. Then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal and shattered those hopes, declaring any deal would be partial, and the war would grind on.

He tried to make this seem logical. But there’s a sense among Israelis that something is actually terribly amiss, and that Netanyahu is prolonging the Gaza war to buy yet more time for himself in power, because ending it would collapse his coalition. He is, basically, a megalomaniac. It’s depressing to contemplate and sounds cynical, yet there’s no other way to explain things.

The implication is heartbreaking: That Netanyahu, desperate to cling to power, is prioritizing political survival over the lives of hostages, soldiers, and civilians on both sides of the conflict. No previous leader of Israel was capable of such immorality; I’ve personally met almost all of them since the 1980s, and I’m sure. About Netanyahu, who I’ve interviewed thrice, I’m not so sure at all.

This assessment does not absolve Hamas, whose catastrophic decision to invade Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was an act of barbaric evil. That day’s atrocities — mass murder, kidnappings, and inhuman terrorism against civilians — reflect a level of cruelty that short-circuits people’s minds. Hamas’s leaders, indifferent to the suffering of their own people, gambled on a path that caused Israel harm but brought Gaza to absolute ruin.