A cycle of violence - Netanyahu's policies of escalation and fear lead back to war

Why is Benjamin Netanyahu still prime minister of Israel? More than any other single political leader, on either side of the Israel-Palestine divide, he is responsible for the spiralling tensions, divisions and anger that preceded this horrific catastrophe. Disastrously, Israelis and Palestinians are again at war. Yet Netanyahu's first duty was to prevent such an eventuality. He has failed miserably, and the measure of his failure is the unprecedented number of civilian dead. He promised security. He created a sea of tears. He should resign immediately.

- Simon Tisdall

Netanyahu's long political career has been characterised by fear and confrontation. Now, typically, his vengeful response to last weekend's atrocious Hamas onslaught is to pledge yet more violence, greater escalation. Many Israelis understand this full well, even if Netanyahu and his culpable, deliberately provocative, far-right coalition allies do not. "The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession," an editorial in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper snarled. By adopting a policy that "openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians", Netanyahu made a collision inevitable.