Smotrich, Netanyahu in Crisis After Decision on Gaza Humanitarian Ceasefire

 

Smotrich, Netanyahu in Crisis After Decision on Gaza Humanitarian Ceasefire

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are in a “real” crisis and the relations between them are “very, very tense and complicated,” following the prime minister’s decision over the weekend without Smotrich’s knowledge to enact “localized humanitarian ceasefires” in Gaza, an official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, if Smotrich did not receive “real and concrete” guarantees from the prime minister regarding defeating Hamas, Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party could be “on its way out” of the government.

With the coalition currently numbering just 60 MKs following the departure of the two haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties earlier in July, the departure of Smotrich’s seven MKs would likely topple the government.

At press time on Monday evening, the usually vocal Smotrich had yet to comment publicly on the political tension or on the decision regarding the ceasefires, which the IDF announced early on Sunday morning.
– Jerusalem Post

Our Take: Yesterday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called Bibi Netanyahu "morally bankrupt" for allowing food into Gaza. Today, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands guarantees from Bibi that Israel will begin annexing Gaza in a matter of days.

Assuming they move forward with this plan, one of three things are about to happen:

1. The annexation of Palestine will provoke a geopolitical response that will find Israel in the crosshairs of the entire Global South, with a serious risk of the conflict going kinetic. (Simply put, if Israel is allowed to take Palestine, it will signal the inherent weakness of Putin and the Sovereign Alliance, which cannot protect any of these countries from the hegemonic regime. The strength of the Fellowship will fail.)

2. The annexation of Palestine will provoke a strong response from President Trump, who will turn away from Israel and lament their descent into madness. (I see this outcome as less likely, at least in the immediate future, as I believe President Trump is baiting Netanyahu into crossing every line, which is only sealing Israel's inevitable fate.)

3. Nothing will happen. Neither Trump, nor Putin, nor Xi, nor MBS will stand up for Palestine. They will all stand down, in silence, while Israel is permitted to do what it pleases – including annexing portions of other nations, such as Syria and Lebanon. The world will watch in horror and disappointment as Palestine is erased from the map and its people are brutally slaughtered like some sort of subhuman parasite, and then the world will harshly judge the self-described "leaders" of the world who stood by like cowards and allowed a band of bloodthirsty zealots conduct a full-blown genocide with complete and total impunity. The Sovereign Alliance will never again be respected by any leader, and MAGA will forever be stained with this atrocity, just as the Bush administration is forever stained by Iraq and Afghanistan.

The eyes of the world, and history, are watching. This is about so much more than the tiny nation of Palestine. This is about whether the world is just enough to usher in something as noble as the "Golden Age," or perhaps it is simply too corrupt and too fallen into evil to be redeemed. (It's happened before, and God chose to send the rain to wash it all away.)

For the Evangelicals in the audience who will respond to this with comments like, "Palestine isn't even a real place," and, "There's no such thing as Palestine," and, "All of those people support Hamas and therefore deserve to die," just realize that you are only further demonstrating that we are irredeemable.

You will never convince me that Jesus wants these people to die so that a secular government of men can have their land. – GhostofBasedPatrickHenry