Benjamin Netanyahu must be stopped. The horror unfolding in Lebanon is another crime, to add to all the others. Are Britain, the US, the UN and everyone else who supposedly cares about civilian lives, human rights and international law really going to look away while Israel’s out-of-control prime minister does it again? That shocking prospect beggars belief.
“Again” in this context means Netanyahu turning southern Lebanon, maybe the whole country, into a sort of second Gaza. More than 41,000 Gazan Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died since the 7 October Hamas atrocities. Nearly 500 people were killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon on Monday, including many children. Tens of thousands fled their homes. How many more innocents is this man going to kill before he’s out of office?
Netanyahu says this latest massacre is necessary to “restore the security balance”. But it’s Netanyahu himself who is unbalanced. With his peremptory order to south Lebanon residents – citizens of a sovereign country – to evacuate immediately, he signalled that Israel’s unprecedented air attacks will intensify further. A military ground incursion may follow.
That didn’t work in 2006 and it won’t now. Netanyahu’s “strategy”, as always, is self-defeating. Despite 1,300 Israeli strikes on Monday, Hezbollah is firing more rockets than before into Israel, and extending their range. Displaced Israeli residents cannot safely return – ostensibly his primary aim. Violence begets violence. It does not bring security, just more hatred and vengeance.
As usual, Netanyahu is sending mixed messages. What to believe? He claims the operation has a limited overall purpose: to degrade Hezbollah and push it away from the border, north of the Litani river. He claims to care about Lebanese civilians, just as he claims to care about Israeli hostages held by Hamas since 7 October – many of whom have since perished miserably.
But in truth, having failed dismally in his delusional objective of destroying Hamas, Netanyahu is deliberately creating a second front by escalating the confrontation with Hezbollah – exactly what US diplomats have spent months trying to prevent. Last week’s pager and walkie-talkie attacks and assassinations of key commanders were the prelude. Bottom line: only “forever war” keeps him in office and in power.
Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s prime minister, is in no doubt: Netanyahu must be stopped. “Continuing Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a war of extermination in every sense of the word,” he said. He appealed to the UN security council, general assembly and “influential countries” to act to prevent widening carnage.








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