Hostages be damned, Netanyahu out to expand the war | Faraz Ahmad

With barely a fortnight to go for the first anniversary of the Palestinian daredevilry of entering South Israel and whisking away hundreds of Zionists on their motorcycles, it is amply clear that securing the safe release of more than a hundred hostages, still in Hamas captivity, is not a priority of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Contrary to that, the latest surreptitious “pager” attack followed by a similar remote simulated explosion of the Hezbollah walkie talkies and then the assassination of top Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil, is not merely confined to targeting the Hezbollah but to put fear into the hearts of the Lebanese people and this way expanding the “war” against anyone daring to challenge Israeli genocide in Gaza, banking fully on the unqualified support of the United States of America (USA) and its allies in western Europe. There is therefore no stopping Netanyahu.

The latest surreptitious assault on Hezbollah is in fact a defiant attempt at provoking Iran, Hezbollah and Syria to retaliate wit their full might, which in turn could force the US and its allies to directly involve in this Zionist war. In these last few months has done everything possible to extend this war to involve the US and its allies.

Israel’s audacity to kill Hamas Political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran there to attend the celebrations over the installation of the new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, perceived as a moderate and pursuing peace and progress of the Iranian people is like thumbing its nose at Iran, daring it to retaliate and invite US retribution, assessing full well that Iran would avoid such a course. In fact choosing Ismael Haniyeh too was an act aimed at this objective because Haniyeh was in no way involved in the October 7 hostage taking. That action of Palestinians of Gaza sought to bringing Israel to the negotiating table for an honourable settlement of the dispute between the Gazans and ending atrocities inflicted on them by the Israeli armed forces, a daily occurrence for decades, since the establishment of the Israeli state by the white supremacists of America and its European allies who unapologetically support and promote Zionist occupation and expansion in Palestine, till the Zionists gobble up almost all of it as also part of Arab land from neighbouring Golan Heights in Syria and Jordanian territory.

And this revelation comes from none other than an Israeli named Menachim who commented in the Haaretz daily months before on May 14. Menachim wrote, “Netanyahu cannot provide a sensible post war plan. To do so, would cause his coalition government to fall. The extremist right-wing ministers are clear they will settle for nothing less than Israeli resettlement of Gaza and "voluntary" emigration of Palestinians. But for Netanyahu to openly say this is his plan also would terminate US support for Israel and make Israel an outlaw state.”

Israel has succeeded in destroying the entire communications system of Hezbollah through the pager attack, followed the next day by simulated remote-controlled explosion of the walkie talkies that Hezbollah uses. The Israeli attack left the Lebanese vulnerable to any attack and lo and behold the next target was top Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil on whom the US administration had put a bounty of $ 7 million. Targeting Aqil was aimed at securing approval and sanction of the US State department for its expansion of war now into the Lebanese territory, what with little work left for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in Gaza having completely annihilated virtually the entire Palestinian population in Gaza.

The US connection to this latest series of Israeli assault on Lebanon is hardly a secret anymore. Taiwan is the manufacturer if the Gold Apollo pager and Taiwan has been a US satellite ever since it broke off from the communist People’s Republic of China. These pagers were in turn marketed and presumably supplied to Hezbollah by a company called BAC in Hungary’s capital Budapest. Since the collapse of Soviet Union, Hungary too has aligned fully with the US and become a member of US patronised North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) focused on containing Russia. The latest AP report disclosed that immediately after the reports of explosions came, the BAC CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono has gone underground and is “currently in safe place protected by the Hungarian secret services” according to Cristiana’s mother who added that the Hungarian secret services advised her not to talk to the media.” So it leaves no one in doubt that this operation in planning and execution for a couple of years had covert and tacit support of the US.

No, its not just Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters, its he himself who believes the best course for him is to expand this war, provoking Iran, Hezbollah and Syria into retaliatory action thereby create a situation whereby America intervenes directly on behalf of Israel, bombs Iran and destroys it the way it flattened next door Iraq, before that Afghanistan.

Once that happens, none in Israel or the world would question Netanyahu for the genocide of close to 50,000 Palestinians, majority being women and children. And most Israelis would consider the loss of hundreds of hostages in captivity as collateral damage and bear it

But unlike Saddam Husain of Iraq, Iranian leadership is far more sagacious and even though it has enough arsenal to deal a fatal blow to Israel, it has assessed the devastation it would cause to Iran were it to dare to take on the might of the Americans. It is evidently not in Iranian interest to expand this war.

Netanyahu knows this and he is therefore gleefully dealing one blow after another to Iran and its allies speaking in support of the Palestinians. He has calculated that once this war is expanded he would succeed in chasing away the last remnants of Palestinians on the Gaza strip and then take over the whole of it installing Zionist settlements there. And for all the lip service for the Palestinians of Gaza that the US administration mouths from time to time, this is the best moment for Netanyahu to escalate the war With the US presidential election about two months away, the US is led by a lame duck President who can’t do a thing either way.

If Netanyahu succeeds in this endeavour he would become a hero in the eyes of a majority of Israelis.