Gaza: return of brutality

Israel's decision to restart its bloody campaign in Gaza has taken the death toll of the 'conflict' past 50,000 lives. Israel's egregious breach of the ceasefire - Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza while mediation talks were taking place - was blamed by its government on Hamas using the ceasefire to regroup, but this has been rubbished by Israeli media, and even former hostages have questioned the logic behind violating the ceasefire. The real reason appears to be that under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to eventually begin negotiating toward a permanent peace deal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government refused to do. Israel also saw a window to force a much more one-sided deal on Hamas now that US President Donald Trump is in office. Remember, Trump has already suggested ethnic cleansing in Gaza, which had previously only been suggested by fringe, virulently anti-Palestinian politicians and commentators.

But getting a 'better' deal for Israel may not even be Netanyahu's primary motivation. The Israeli PM had used the war to stay in office despite facing a corruption trial and several governance challenges. Recently, he also fired top security officials who cited his political problems among the reasons Israel failed to detect and prevent the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that started the current crisis. Israelis are still protesting in the streets over the sackings. Meanwhile, active hostilities give him a smokescreen to pass a controversial budget - failure to do so would trigger an election, which would likely see him lose power. It was bad enough when Palestinians were being slaughtered as part of an ultra-nationalist Israeli security plan. Now, it is increasingly clear that 50,000 people have died to keep one corrupt man in office, all with the approval of the US, Germany and several other Western powers that continue to provide Israel with the arms and ammunition it needs to mow down hapless Palestinians.