The New York Times published an analysis Friday in which it claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “gone rogue” by killing terrorists who had killed Israeli citizens, rather than acquiescing.
The story, by Steven Erlanger, is just one of many stories that appeared Friday in the center-left media — both in Israel and the United States — accusing Netanyahu of chasing victory at the price of a ceasefire-hostage deal.
Erlanger, citing “analysts,” wrote:
The assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures abroad have now sharply raised the risks of a larger regional war as Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah prepare retaliation, analysts say.
…
Absent a clear goal in the war, however, Mr. Netanyahu’s defiance is dividing Israel from its allies and the country itself. It has further shaken trust in his leadership. It is fueling suspicions that he is keeping the country at war to keep himself in power. It is intensifying a deep rift inside the society — about the fate of Israeli hostages, the conduct of the war and the rule of law — that is challenging the institutional bonds that hold Israel together.
To Israelis, striking back at Hezbollah was an absolute necessity after a rocket fired by the Iran-backed terror group killed 12 innocent children in the Druze Arab village of Majdal Shams last Saturday.
Taking out Hezbollah’s second-in-command in a targeted strike was a way of forcing Hezbollah to pay a price, and reestablishing deterrence, rather than risking a major ground war and all the civilian casualties that would come with it.
Likewise with the apparent Israeli hit on Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, a billionaire who lived a life of luxury while ordering thousands of deaths, both Israeli and Palestinians. (President Joe Biden, who is trying to stop the war short of an Israeli victory, said the death of the arch-terrorist “has not helped.”)
Netanyahu’s opponents, in the U.S. and Israel, have been leaking to the media to report Biden’s displeasure, and the apparent irritation of Israel’s security chiefs.
Barak Ravid of Axios — a reliably anti-Netanyahu, anti-Trump voice — reported that Biden was “frustrated” with Netanyahu. And Israel’s Channel 12 said that Israeli security chiefs urged Netanyahu to accept a hostage deal.
As Biden himself has admitted, Hamas is responsible for sinking a hostage deal, because it insists on ending the war as a condition for the return of some — not all — of the hostages. Such a deal would leave it armed and in power in Gaza.
But it is an election year, and Biden prefers to look for ways to appease Iran and its terrorist proxies — which, critics say, is the very reason that the Middle East has reached the point of conflagration in the first place.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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