May 17—The poet of freedom, Friedrich Schiller, famously wrote, “There is a limit to a tyrant’s power.” Israel’s current despot, the bloodthirsty Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, it appears, is about to discover this truth. After months of letting him use their soldiers as if they were units of the Waffen SS against the Palestinians in Gaza, a significant component of Israel’s military establishment is now in open rebellion against Bibi and his policy of endless war against Palestinians, sources report.
These sources, both here in the United States and in Israel, believe that there will be no benefit to Israel from a broad assault on the last standing Gazan city, Rafah, which even after more than 400,000 residents have reportedly fled, still holds more than a million people, among whom, Bibi claims, are 4 battalions of Hamas fighters, which he has said must be “annihilated.”
Israeli military intelligence, as well as the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, believes that Netanyahu will not succeed under any circumstances in eliminating Hamas, will not fully destroy Hamas’ fighting capability, but instead, through the expected extensive “collateral damage” in the form of thousands of innocent civilian deaths, will only increase the political strength of Hamas and other militant groups, by mobilizing the Palestinians against “their insane and murderous Zionist enemy,” as one source stated.
“The military believes that the solution to this crisis can not be won on the battlefield but must come from a negotiated settlement that will force Hamas and others to disarm and become part of a new political leadership that will rule Gaza. While this view may be far from a unanimous opinion, a majority of the military sees now that there is no alternative to the eventual creation of a sovereign Palestinian state—something Israel agreed to in the Oslo Accords of 1993, but which the Messianic Bibi rejects, with Old Testament fury. He has said the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] must stay permanently in Gaza, if ever the fighting were to stop, to police the peace. But as one military figure told me, they don’t want to do that, as it makes them targets and will never lead to peace.
“The time for bombs is over, if there is to be any kind of peace,” the source stated.
But this and other sources believe that the racist Netanyahu's campaign in Gaza has never really been about Hamas or some kind of vengeance against the perpetrators of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel that slaughtered at least 1,200 mostly innocent civilians and took 240 hostages. They see what he is doing as part of his messianic ambition to "save" Israel from being overwhelmed by a Palestinian state. His purpose, they say, is to render Gaza and the rest of a potential Palestinian homeland an uninhabitable rubble heap for decades to come, while drowning the potential state in Palestinian blood. In Bibi's warped reality, the only "day after" plan for when the fighting stops, "is the peace of the graveyard," a source stated.
Looming over military leaders, their civilian commanders, and most decidedly Netanyahu, is the likely issuance of arrest warrants for them by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity—precisely the charge against the German Nazis, which led to their being tried at Nuremberg after the war, and many being hung.
“People are taking this very seriously, especially in the last week, on May 5-6 when Israel observed Holocaust Remembrance Day, a state day of commemoration, to remember the victims of the Holocaust,” a source stated. “They [the military leaders] want to make it clear that Bibi is the guilty party and remains so.”
On May 11, in an unprecedented move, several generals of the IDF held a press conference directly contradicting Bibi’s claim that his long-awaited Rafah offensive would completely destroy and eliminate Hamas and its fighters. The generals declared that not only would the operation in Rafah not destroy Hamas, but no military action could accomplish that. They also questioned whether there was any post-fighting government plan, and said that a permanent IDF occupation was not a solution.
Then, on May 15, In an unprecedented open challenge to Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at a press conference he would not agree to Israel establishing military rule in Gaza, and called on Netanyahu to publicly declare that Israel will not do so. Gallant said that he had asked the Prime Minister to find an alternative governing body to Hamas, but has yet to receive a response. Gallant said that this effectively means a military regime in Gaza, to which he will not agree.
Also on May 15, Netanyahu told CNBC that Israel and the U.S. “have a disagreement on Gaza. Rather, on Rafah. But we have to do what we have to do.… We cannot continue into the future by having Hamas retake Gaza...Talk about the day after [the war], while Hamas is still intact, is [pointless].”
“The time for IDF generals to confront Netanyahu about the lack of a strategy for ‘the day after Hamas,’ was before embarking on the ground maneuver. They have grounds to blame him now for squandering the tactical gains, but they also shoulder part of the blame. The debate on ‘the day after’ is an essential one, but it’s taking place seven months too late,” commentator Anshel Pfeffer wrote in Haaretz May 13.
At Israel’s May 13 Memorial Day ceremony on Mt. Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery near Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: “We will realize the goals of victory, and at the center of them is the return of all our abductees home.... But the price we pay ... is very heavy.” Many audience members left during the speech in protest.
As Bibi ally, the lunatic National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, tried to speak at the Memorial Day ceremonies at the Ashdod Military Cemetery, bereaved family members began shouting: “Get out of here, criminal! Trash! You didn’t serve in the army for a minute!” Meanwhile Gallant himself was given similar treatment at the military cemetery in Tel Aviv, where the crowd waved signs bearing photos of their dead loved ones in his face, as they shouted out, “Their blood is on your hands.”
All this follows several days of televised police brutality against families of hostages who are leading the demonstrations demanding a ceasefire deal and a return of the hostages. These images have shocked many Israelis, turning ever more of them against Netanyahu. Now, with the hostage talks on hold, journalist Seymour Hersh, writing yesterday in his Substack blog, reports that the IDF, on orders from Bibi, have begun to flood Hamas tunnels in parts of Rafah. The murderer Netanyahu wants everyone in the tunnels dead, Hersh reports. It is thought that many hostages are in those tunnels.
Also, yesterday, there are reports from Cairo, that Egypt may not only pull out of any mediating role in peace talks, but may break relations with Israel over its attack on Rafah.
“Something has to give,” said a source in the United States. “Bibi is not going to resign. If he does that, all he faces is jail from his corruption indictments, whose trials the war has conveniently stalled for a time. And he may face an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, should that come. Nor does he plan to call for new elections. So, that means he has to be forced out.
“Those who might want to do this might now gain some courage with the knowledge that the IDF will support such a move. If all else fails to get him out, would the IDF initiate such a move, and demand Bibi resign, or place him under house arrest? Normally, I would say that would never happen in Israel. But these are not normal times. The Biden administration would look on such an action as a blessing. Joe Biden hates the guy, but lacks the balls to take anything more than the dithering steps he has already done. But he will definitely support Israelis getting the job done. Let’s see what develops.”
