CrossFireArabia
Former Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon lashed out at the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over the estranged relations between the two men despite Israel’s critical war in Gaza and north of the country.
Netanyahu is under pressure to sack Gallant but somehow he can’t bring himself to do so, fearing a political backlash from his own Likud party. Yet he is under constant pressure from the extreme rightwing like Itamar Ben-Gavir and Bezalel Smotrich who keep threatening to leaving his government and thus bring it down if the war doesn’t continue and Hamas is brought down which many believe is an impossible task.
Meanwhile the United States wants to keep Yoav Gallant who they believe he is more moderate than his prime minister. This emanates from his utterings that the Israel army must not state in the Philadelphia axis but need to withdraw to the back of the Gaza Strip.
Another bone of contention is the fact that Gallant does not widen Israel’s war into Lebanon before the issue of the dwindling hostages – put now at 100-or-so – is resolved. Netanyahu wants the exhausted Israeli army to switch directions and go into Lebanon and thus widen the war and keep it going.
This is something that is against the interests of the United States which believes that the war must be contained within the framework of Israel and Gaza rather then moving to other territories and is continually push for a political solution.
Saleem Ayoub Quna
