Netanyahu’s government is serving Iran’s strategy — not fighting it
Israel’s poor leadership undermines the impact of its astonishing victories
The Iron Dome missile defense system fires interception missiles as rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel on May 13, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
During the last month here in Israel, three facts have become clearer than ever.
First, Israel is the strongest military force between the Caspian Sea and Gibraltar, thanks mainly to highly accurate intelligence, precise weapons systems, and highly motivated and well-trained fighters. The high-tech elite among Israel’s young generation are accountable for all three advantages.
Second, a regional alliance against the axis of evil — Iran and its proxies — is effective, as demonstrated again in its success thwarting the Iranian missile attack last week.
Third, Iran is an imperialist, aggressive power, using territories of weak, failed states to wage massive attacks against a country 1,000 kilometers away.
No matter how powerful the Israeli response will be, Iran will continue its aggressive quest for regional hegemony and a status of global power. And so the struggle against it will inevitably continue.
So far, the “ring of fire” Iran has built against Israel has failed. The spirit of the Israeli people is high, sadness is mixed with greater resolve.
But Iran, having learned the lessons of its losses and failures, may now take several compensating steps.
Given the obvious superiority of Israel in conventional warfare, Iran will accelerate and enhance its efforts to reach military nuclear capability.
Tehran will enhance its efforts from Iraq and South Syria to destabilize Jordan. It will augment its subversion of the Hashemite Kingdom by smuggling in more arms and drugs. Terrorist groups will try to use Jordan’s long border with Israel as a new active front.
Iran’s Al Quds force will employ more clandestine efforts to set the West Bank on fire, using Islamic Jihad and Hamas squads for terror operations, including in Israeli towns and villages beyond the Green Line, inside pre-1967 Israel.
The danger is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which will have to respond to these threats, is dominated by ultra-nationalist ministers. Their level of professional performance is low, their messianic zeal is high. When it comes to destroying the Palestinian economy or looting Israel’s national coffers to benefit the settlements in the West Bank, these ministers are relentless and efficient. But to thwart the next Iranian steps, they will be helpless and ineffective.
Moreover, defeating Hamas in Gaza requires that it be replaced by another Palestinian anti-terrorist force that would manage Gaza. But these ministers oppose any possible involvement of the Palestinian Authority, which tries to curb Hamas activity in the West Bank, including through cooperation with the IDF.
Without such a Palestinian-Arab force, when winter comes, a new humanitarian crisis will break out in Gaza. Israel will not be able to manage it, and will bear the consequences. It will have to finance the daily unavoidable needs of 2.2 million Palestinians and it will still be condemned by many in the international community for the plight of the Palestinians. It will shed the blood of IDF soldiers in Gaza. This will be a victory to Israel’s enemies.
The punitive measures against the Palestinian economy in the West Bank taken by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; the expansion of settlements in the West Bank; and the violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians encouraged by those ministers all prepare the ground for an outbreak of Palestinian terror in the West Bank. This active terrorism is Iran-sponsored, through organizations located in close vicinity to Israeli towns and villages inside Israel’s boundaries.
In addition, the provocations of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on the Temple Mount, defying the status quo arrangement agreed with Jordan after the 1967 war, severely undermine Jordan’s stability. Terrorist activity from the long border with Jordan is the waking nightmare of the Israeli security establishment.
Thus, Netanyahu’s government actually serves the strategy of the regime in Tehran. He is intent on remaining prime minister until 2026, the year of the next scheduled election, and even beyond, by postponing the election purportedly due to war conditions. That is why he wants a war without end, and why he torpedoed several attempts to strike a deal to bring hostages home and stop the war in Gaza. For the sake of Israel’s security, he and his government must go. All nonviolent means to make that happen are kosher.
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