Saleem Ayoub Quna
By Saleem Ayoub Quna
The “next day” scenario for Gaza as outlined by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in the wake of the Hamas surprise and bold assault on the Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, did not sail the way he wished.
Instead, he and the Israeli establishment gradually came to realize that this war was more costly, complicated and longer than all previous wars Israel fought since 1948.
Even most Israeli pessimist strategists couldn’t have predicted a worse course of events!
Simultaneously, domestic and international pressure to free the 120-or-so remaining Israeli hostages, held by Hamas, by force or through negotiations, kept growing by the day.
Besieged by these mounting pressures and other legal problems at home, Netanyahu maneuvered his way to address a joint session of the American Congress on July 24, 2024.
Such a coup would be an additional mark of his statesmanship, he thought!
Aside from obvious theatrics and tactics including carefully-chosen vocabulary, Netanyahu feeling like he had hypnotized his listeners, received more than 50 “overdone” standing ovations during that showcase session!
Whether he was rightly shrewd or desperately wrong in this approach, i.e. in addressing a foreign nation’s elected assembly with such an aggressive language and style, rather than talking to his own constituency back home, is an open topic for debate by political scientists and historians!
But for the time being, let us look at some of Netanyahu’s main points.
No one can argue against Netanyahu’s own impression of himself. He only can admire the image reflected on his own mirror: A great leader whom destiny had chosen to play a big role in history!
Netanyahu Versus Churchill
I can only agree with one thing in common between Netanyahu and Churchill. Both addressed the American Congress, while their countries were engaged in a war with a third party in some faraway battlefields!
Britain then, was facing a dominant Germany which had all of Europe in its grip: Israel today, fighting a group of Palestinian militants known as Hamas, thriving in a besieged poverty-stricken, densely populated strip of land, that has been cut from the outside world for the last 18 years by a tight Israeli siege.
Comparing Germany of the 1940s to Gaza under Hamas in 2024, amounts to a flagrant insult to basic human intelligence!
Nevertheless, Netanyahu in his emotional address kept repeating that Israel was the most reliable ally of the US in the Middle East. By saying that he tried to insinuate to his VIP audience that they should not hesitate to take sides against his enemies, calling them barbarians!
In this regard, Gideon Levy, dubbed by Israeli right wing groups as Hamas Ambassador to Tel Aviv, in an article in the Ha’artz daily on July 28 2024, slammed those who attended the session.
Levy wrote: “Shame on you American legislators for applauding a man whom the International Court of Justice has recently declared as a war criminal”. Then he added “your support for this man means that you condone his crimes in Gaza, as if he was commissioned to do it in your behalf”!
Netanyahu then brought up one of his “favorite” haunting nightmares, “nuclear Iran”. He categorically attributed all Middle East problems to Iran. But no Congressman would have the courage to remind him, during the coffee break that the Middle East was never short of problems, long before the present regime in Iran came to power in 1979!
By addressing the UN Congress at this crucial moment, Netanyahu, aimed to bring home on his back, like an untimely Santa Clause, a bag stuffed with more illusions. Among these was a message to his home-based critics, that being the indispensable leader he is, he has influential allies abroad who share his concerns better than they do!
He also wanted to impress his friends and enemies alike, that he is that type of leader who combines word with deed to achieve political goals. In this regard, he managed, separately, to meet with the incumbent President Jo Biden, and the two other, potentially, would be leaders, Harris and Trump, in the near future.
Finally, Netanyahu’s ultimate unpronounced objective during his “last” visit to Washington, was to be able to continue the carnage in Gaza until his promised total victory was achieved; a goal that cannot be reached without the continuous flow of arms, ammunition and other types of financial and political support from the US.
“If you provide us with the arms we need, the fight against those barbarians, our common enemies, will continue on a faster pace and more efficiently”, he shouted!
In brief, Netanyahu was begging the American people through their elected Congressmen for a license to kill as many Palestinian civilians as it takes, until his “next day” scenario for Gaza comes true!
This opinion was especially written for Crossfire Arabia by Saleem Ayoub Quna who is a Jordanian author writing on local, regional and international affairs and has two books published. He has a BA in English Literature from Jordan University, a diploma from Paris and an MA from Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He also speaks French and German
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