The Road to Autocracy: Netanyahu is Waging War on Gaza and on Us – “Enemies Within”

By: Aluf Benn, editor-in-chief of the daily Haaretz / The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com

Riots have once again taken over the streets of Israel, as thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to oppose Benjamin Netanyahu's dual bid to reignite the war in Gaza - risking the lives of Israeli hostages there - and to remove senior civil servants who are trying to halt Israel's slide toward autocracy.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister ordered the bombing of Gaza, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas and killing hundreds of Palestinians in the middle of Ramadan.

It was a devastating tactical surprise. But it was not unexpected or foreshadowed. Netanyahu and the new military leaders he appointed have made clear their intention to resume the war with the aim of “finally destroying Hamas” and “preventing any future threat from Gaza.” They rejected the January deal, which called for an end to the fighting in exchange for the release of 59 Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

The Trump administration has given Israel a free hand against the Palestinians. Donald Trump has even formulated the goal: to relocate more than two million residents of Gaza and turn the ruins into seaside resorts. His idea was greeted almost as divine intervention by the Israeli far right, which for decades has advocated the “transfer” of Arabs from the occupied territories. What was once seen as an extremist and marginalized idea has now become American policy that is disguised as a “humanitarian solution,” while in reality it would constitute a war crime. After being expressed by Trump, this idea found widespread support among the Jewish majority of Israel as a deserved punishment for the massacre of October 7.

So far, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not issued a clear order to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. Nor have they directed ground force reservists toward an occupation campaign. Tuesday's attack was presented as a blow to Hamas's efforts to rearm and its leadership, targeting several of its civilian officials and members of their families.

However, Trump, Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials have threatened Hamas with “hell.” The Israeli Defense Ministry has set up a new office to facilitate “voluntary emigration” from Gaza through Israeli airports and seaports. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader, envisions transferring 2,500 Palestinians a day, depopulating the entire Gaza Strip within months. Defense Minister Israel Katz, whose office is leading the emigration project, has said that XNUMX evacuees a day would be enough. Israel and the United States have already asked Sudan, Somaliland and other governments to accept the Palestinians.

However, most Israelis still regard talk of a transfer, or a second Nakba – recalling the 1948 “catastrophe”, or exodus of most Arabs from the territory that became Israel – as empty right-wing rhetoric. The attention of the Israeli public is focused on the 59 hostages being held in Gaza, of whom 22 to 24 are thought to still be alive. For Netanyahu and his allies, the fate of these tortured and starving hostages is an inconvenience, an obstacle on the road to “final victory”. The government’s opponents, concentrated in the old layers of the Israeli center, see the return of the hostages as an absolute priority. They have found an unlikely ally in Trump, who welcomed the freed hostages to the Oval Office – a gesture that Netanyahu has yet to make. By distancing himself from responsibility for the October 7 catastrophe, he avoids meeting the victims face to face.

Tuesday’s bombing ended the debate. Netanyahu ignored the pleas of the hostages’ families and survivors of Hamas captivity, and sent bombers into the skies over Gaza, knowing that Hamas, once cornered, might kill the remaining hostages. The deadly attack provided immediate political gains in Jerusalem. The Israeli Kahani party, Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), which had left the coalition to protest the ceasefire, returned on the eve of a crucial budget vote. Passing the budget would buy the government time to score a much-needed victory in a second—though by no means secondary—battle in the country.

Since returning to power in late 2022, Netanyahu’s goal has been to transform Israel from a semi-liberal democracy, however tired it may be – at least on this side of the Green Line that separates official Israel from the occupied territories – into a Jewish autocracy. Having transformed the ruling Likud party into a cult of personality and allied himself with the once-disdained Kahanists, Netanyahu aimed to remove the old elite from its power strongholds in the defense and intelligence complex and the judiciary, replacing them with his alliance of “Bibist” loyalists, religious nationalists and disciples of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. The former secular, Western-oriented elite responded with mass protests that slowed changes to the judicial system. Then came October 7, and the internal division was suspended.

But Netanyahu never lost sight of national reshaping. With the intensity of the war waning and his ideological friend Trump returning to power in the US, the Israeli coalition resumed the coup. Laws that would strip the independence of the judiciary were rushed through the Knesset [Parliament]. With the police and prison service now politicized and the IDF chief of staff replaced, Netanyahu is targeting the most sensitive and powerful targets: the Shin Bet (Israeli security service) and the attorney general, who is the country’s top law enforcement official.

Netanyahu’s motivations are as personal as they are political. Gali Baharav-Miara, the attorney general, is leading the prosecution in Netanyahu’s corruption trial. Replacing her with a trusted figure could derail the entire case. Ronen Bar, the Shin Bet chief whom Netanyahu wants to fire, is investigating allegations of shady financial ties between his communications aides and Qatar – Hamas’s main sponsor. Netanyahu, predictably, claims that “Qatargate” is a last-ditch effort by his opponents, Bar and Baharav-Miara, to avoid impeachment. Both are loyal bureaucrats turned dissidents, and they will wage a legal battle to preserve their jobs and the independence that remains in the civil service.

Thus, the dual battle lines – inside and outside Israel – have been drawn in the face of the great conflict. Netanyahu wants to fight Hamas to the point of ethnic cleansing and is willing to sacrifice hostages along the way. And he wants to purge the state of its traditional rivals: members of the military, academic and legal elites, keeping the right in power forever.

His opponents, who are trying to rescue hostages and defend democracy, have been weakened by the failure of the IDF and Shin Bet to prevent the October 7 massacre and protect border communities. This historic debacle has irreparably damaged the prestige of the military and intelligence community, whose former leaders were at the forefront of the anti-government protests. The political opposition is weak, leaderless, and without a vision for the post-war period. Yet, despite all these obstacles and in the face of a Netanyahu of extraordinary resilience, the anti-Bibiists understand that if they lose now, they may no longer have the opportunity to protest and will be reduced to spectators as their country slides down the path of autocracy – just like Hungary, India, Turkey, and Trumpist America.

In the coming weeks, we will see whether Israel is approaching the precipice of war crimes in a deserted and dictatorship-ridden Gaza. de facto in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, or whether Netanyahu's uncontrolled run can be slowed down. The risk to Israel's future has never been greater. And, protesters are trying once again to reverse the rising tide. /Telegraph/