What Israel is billing as a decision for a “Gaza City takeover” is actually the new phase in the starvation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide project that Benjamin Netanyahu has been actively pursuing since October 7, 2023. The Guardian reports:
UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk on Friday said that “the Israeli government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza Strip must be immediately halted”.The effectively unconditional aid that the US has been providing for Israel’s war under both the Biden and Trump Administrations has been critical to Israel’s ability to do what they have been doing and are now escalating. Britain, Germany, and France are the most important European supporters of the war and genocide. (Though Germany just announced it would discontinue weapons deliveries to Israel.) But it is being carried out by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
In a statement, Türk said:
“It runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-state solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination.” (1)
Israel over the decades has become expert in framing their policies in a way that has minimized dissent from Western publics, especially in the US. But part of their ability to do so has been that the active fighting in their wars since 1948 has been short. Until now. The war that began October 7 is far and away the longest war Israel has fought since its founding. That affects the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a decisive way, because the IDF has been focused on waging short and decisive conventional wars. This war, by contrast, has created enormous strains with no end in sight.
That has affected Israel’s hasbara (public relations operations), too. In a month-long war, they could successfully repeat the narrative that they have popularized over years in Europe and especially the United States. And before the public started disbelieving it to an extent it would affect support for the war, it was over. And news consumers could move on to the latest scandals and disasters elsewhere.
That is not the case now. Here, prominent Israeli dissenter Gideon Levy explains what is happening with Netanyahu’s new phase that he just announced, endorsed by a majority of his war cabinet, while most government ministers are on leave until September. (2)
In his Haaretz column, Levy described the new phase that has now been decided upon as follows:
For the first time in Israel's history, the security cabinet is slated to make a decision on annihilation on Thursday [August 7]. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to occupy the Gaza Strip, which clearly no one in the security cabinet will challenge, means confirming the killing of thousands of people, demolishing the living conditions of more than two million walking dead and carrying out the final destruction of a busy, crowded strip of land where people once lived, but will no longer.Amos Harel also takes a grim view:
If this plan is implemented in full, Thursday will be remembered as the day in which the annihilation order was issued. People may yet learn about this day in history class, just as they learn other dates on which a people's fate was decided. The names of the decision makers will go down in disgrace.
This time, the last remaining masks will be removed. Nobody will take the prattle about destroying Hamas or freeing the hostages seriously any longer. The annihilation order that will be issued on Thursday will be a sentence of destruction, but not for Hamas. The first victims will be the handful of living hostages. And immediately after that, the fate of all the powerless people in Gaza will be sealed. [my emphasis] (3)
Netanyahu may have other goals (placating his governing coalition's messianic right flank; deterring Hamas), but he currently seems to be focused on persuading the army to prepare for a full or almost full occupation of Gaza.While there is a lot of criticism of Netanyahu’s government and war policies among the Israeli public, polls show high public approval of the war itself. The criticisms often focus on the lack of progress in getting the remaining Israeli hostages (living and dead) returned.
Early Friday morning, after a marathon meeting, the cabinet approved Netanyahu's plan to prepare for seizing control of Gaza City. [IDF Chief of Staff Eyal] Zamir thinks this would be disastrous. It's not inconceivable that he will be pushed into resigning, or fired, due to the dispute, and that would cause numerous secondary earthquakes in the IDF. (4)
Netanyahu seems to be locked into a policy of war and ethnic cleansing which enables his goals to avoid going to prison over corruption charges and establishing a fully authoritarian government in Israel itself. And there is no indication that he has given up on his long-held goal of drawing the United States into a full-blown regime-change war with Iran.
The Trump 2.0 Administration, meanwhile, continues to blunder on with its incompetent diplomacy, open-ended support for Israel’s wars and genocide, and the enthusiastic supporter of the Christian Zionists who are a key constituency in the MAGA base.
Mearsheimer notes in his presentation that he does not expect that Israel’s current leaders have any intention of leaving the territories in Lebanon and Syria that it currently controls.
Notes:
(1) UN says Israel's plan for military takeover of Gaza 'must be immediately halted'. Guardian 08/08/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/aug/08/israel-gaza-city-take-over-netanyahu-plan-approved-live-updates-latest-news?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6895aaf78f080766d85bbabb#block-6895aaf78f080766d85bbabb> (Accessed: 2025-08-08).
(2) Inside Israel: a fractured state amidst genocide in Gaza. Middle East Eye YouTube channel 08/07/2025. <https://youtu.be/r2EM4Z0-fVU?si=N_XUBcU3-xn_SOYk> (Accessed: 2025-08-08).
(3) Levy, Gideon (2025): Netanyahu Is Pushing Israel's Security Cabinet to Pass His Annihilation Order. Haaretz 08/06/2025. Link to full article: <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-08-06/ty-article-opinion/.premium/netanyahu-is-pushing-israels-security-cabinet-to-pass-his-annihilation-order/00000198-8090-d21c-a5bd-e7f404750000?gift=470d0723e9db4458b1412a2964c20e75> (Accessed: 2025-08-08).
(4) Harel, Amos (2025): Netanyahu's Gaza Takeover Plan Puts Israel Firmly on the Road to Perpetual War. Haaretz 08/08/2025. Link to full article: <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-08/ty-article/.premium/netanyahus-plan-to-control-gaza-puts-israel-firmly-on-the-road-to-perpetual-war/00000198-8621-dabe-a7bd-e6b363d30000?gift=ec8dd3fda1674eefa4982914e059fc52> (Accessed: 2025-08-08).
(5) Prof. John Mearsheimer: A Brief History of Israel. Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom YouTube channel 08/07/2025. <https://www.youtube.com/live/z8wooQEYyzc?si=7HnDKedI9zvxDr4o> (Accessed: 2025-08-08).
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