Political survival is the only impetus for Netanyahu's war

Do not be fooled to believe the resumption of the war in Gaza has any military justifications, or is intended to produce a better long-term agreement. It is a personal, politically motivated adventure by Benjamin Netanyahu and meant to advance personal political goals.

- ALON PINKAS

Unlike Carl von Clausewitz’s dictum that “War is merely the continuation of policy by other means” – that a war’s goals are aligned with and derived from political objectives – there are no political objectives here, only one man desperately clinging to power and trying to salvage his indelibly stained reputation.

Ignore the sanctimonious statements he is making about “necessity”, do not pay attention to the bogus explanations he is offering about grand “military goals”, and avoid his grossly exaggerated boasting on the close coordination with his soulmate, US president Donald Trump: Netanyahu’s decision to unilaterally breach the ceasefire and resume the war in Gaza is entirely and unequivocally motivated by his political survival interests. Everything else is just details.

There is zero military justification for the resumption of the war, and there are scant qualitative military targets that haven’t already been decimated twice since October 2023. A military operation that involves aerial attacks and targeted assassinations of mid-level Hamas semi-anonymous nobodies hardly warrants the resumption of a war, the devastation it brings, nor the callously and inhumane sacrificing of the lives of Israeli hostages who, for almost a year and a half, have been held captive in Hamas tunnels and cages.

If the idea is to “eradicate” or “annihilate” or “obliterate” Hamas once and for all – a legitimate war aim when it all started, and something Netanyahu repeatedly pledged to pursue but failed to achieve over 15 months of war – then there is only way: occupy the entire Gaza Strip.