Corrupt Bargain Behind Gaza's Catastrophe: Israel's far right wants to take over Gaza. Netanyahu wants to stay in power.

[Celerity]

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/07/corrupt-bargain-behind-gazas-catastrophe/683690/

https://archive.ph/l281v



By Yair Rosenberg

When Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in 2022 after a brief period of political exile, he did so on the backs of the most extreme allies in Israeli history. Fourteen of his coalition’s 64 seats were held by parties led by two explicitly anti-Arab lawmakers: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Ben-Gvir had been charged and convicted of support for terrorism and racist incitement. He was a disciple of Meir Kahane, a rabbi who called for the expulsion of Israel’s Arabs and whose political party was banned from Parliament for its radicalism. Smotrich had advocated segregating Jews and Arabs in Israeli maternity wards and told his Arab colleagues in the Knesset that they were “enemies” who were “here by mistake.”

Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich expressed sympathy for violent settler attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Both sought to annex the West Bank and disenfranchise or expel the Palestinians living there. And both became ministers in Netanyahu’s new government, because the Israeli leader desperately needed their support.

Read: The Two Extremists Driving Israel’s Policy

The math was simple: The parties in Netanyahu’s coalition received just 48.4 percent of the vote and attained a parliamentary majority only through a quirk of the Israeli electoral system. This meant that Netanyahu entered office in a profoundly precarious position—on trial for corruption and beholden to extremists who could bring him down if he bucked their demands.

Recognizing how bad this arrangement looked from the outside, Netanyahu embarked on an international PR campaign to assure outsiders that he, not the extremists, was running the show. “They are joining me,” he told NPR. “I’m not joining them.” The trajectory of the war in Gaza has conclusively disproved this spin. At crucial junctures, the prime minister’s choices have been corrupted by the need to cater to those with the ability to end his grip on power. As a result, he has undermined Israel’s war effort and shredded the country’s international standing abroad. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the events that precipitated the Gaza hunger crisis.

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[malaise]

1. And Slobby

wants his beach front hotel

[dutch777]

2. Is any of this a surprise to anyone...other than us blessing and de factor underwriting it?

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

[eppur_se_muova]

4. When do you start using the name 'Satanyahu' ? nt

[Beastly Boy]

5. Why was all the genocide, colonialism and ethnic cleansing nonsense necessary when this was so apparent from the start?

Netanyahu did what no other sane PM in the history of Israel would ever do: to escape (or delay) his own inevitable encounter with justice, he created a governing coalition consisting almost entirely of extreme right wingers.

He thought he could control them, but he gave himself too much credit - they ended up controlling him. They, not Netanyahu, are setting the agenda, and they revel in their newfound power. Netanyahu, to use an obscene expression, is their fuck toy now. If you follow them closely, you will see a pattern of them taking turns threatening Netanyahu with dissolving the government to get what they want.

It's a classic case of tail wagging the dog, and it's not just Gaza's catastrophe, it is Israel's catastrophe.

[IbogaProject]

6. It has been horrific to watch with friends and relatives over there

One of the things that gave Hamas an opening was that the military was up helping settlers up in the west bank leaving the area by Gaza largely unprotected. There was a good article from the Times of Israel about how Bibi was a major cause of that disaster soon after that horrific attack on civilians.