Netanyahu’s impunity threatens Israel

Since Hamas’ horrific terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone on the offensive, reducing Gaza, Hamas’ stronghold, to rubble and decapitating or demolishing its adversaries throughout the region. Israel’s attacks have become more brazen with each success and there are rightful questions to be asked about its compliance with international law.

Israel has two objectives. The first is protecting the country from attacks by its enemies. It is largely succeeding in this quest, although complete security is impossible. The second is delegitimizing the Palestinian cause, and in so doing creating a Greater Israel that does not have to share land with them. In this, Netanyahu’s government is failing and is likely giving Palestine and Palestinians greater credibility. It is certainly undermining Israel’s international status and moral authority.

Following Hamas' brutal terror attack, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage, Israel launched a sweeping offensive, reducing much of the Gaza Strip to rubble, forcing most of the Palestinian population from its homes and creating a humanitarian disaster and a famine. By one account, over 65,000 people, more than 19,000 of them children, have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’ deadly assault.

In addition, Israel has struck Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and then invaded that country, bombed and invaded Syria, launched targeted terror attacks against high-value targets in Iran, attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and assassinated top scientists and officials, and earlier this month bombed the Hamas headquarters in Qatar, reportedly targeting some of the organization’s top leadership. This week, Israeli forces invaded and took control of Gaza City allegedly to prevent Hamas from regrouping and using that territory to launch more attacks against Israel.

These moves have been largely successful — in military terms. Hamas is reeling and its political and military leadership dead or incapacitated. Hezbollah has agreed to end its armed presence in Lebanon while the government in Syria was overthrown. Iran has been forced on the defensive and ended much of its support for proxies that had threatened Israel.

At the same time, however, Israel is increasingly isolated. Following the Qatar strike — which reportedly killed six people, none of them members of the Hamas leadership, however — the United Nations Security Council released a statement endorsed by all 15 of its members that condemned the attack. Remarkably, even the United States, Israel’s strongest supporter and which ordinarily vetoes any hint of criticism of Israel, signed on.

In a social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the air strike, saying it “does not advance Israel or America’s goals.” While that is a fairly toothless comment, it does go further than any other statement the U.S. president has issued against Israel. European governments too are increasingly critical of Israel, with Germany halting the export of weapons that could be used in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel has concluded that Israel committed four of the five “genocidal acts” defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention and called on all states to impose sanctions on the country.

In an especially damning survey, the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that there was no majority positive view of Israel in any of the 24 countries it surveyed. Those views take on real meaning when governments such as Australia, Britain, Canada and France indicate that they are prepared to now recognize a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu is likely ready to brush off much of that sentiment as inconsequential. He is more inclined to focus on the reaction of Arab governments, and their message has been mixed. While they convened an emergency summit to condemn the air strikes against Qatar, their response was muted.

Their communique called for states to take all possible “legal and effective measures to prevent Israel from continuing its actions against the Palestinian people” and to “review diplomatic and economic relations” and “initiate legal proceedings” against Israel. There was no commitment to actually do anything, however.

The invasion of Gaza may force their hand. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt said that Israel’s diplomatic ties to Arab countries are now threatened. Regional leaders have called for a halt to efforts to join the Abraham Accords, a peace deal brokered by Trump during his first term in office that established diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Now, the UAE has declared the invasion a “red line” that could imperil the pact.

More worrisome for Netanyahu is whether Saudi Arabia will similarly reassess relations with Israel. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said that the normalization of relations with his country is off the table unless Israel ends its war in Gaza and agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While Netanyahu might once have been concerned about Trump taking offense if his signature regional peace initiative is undermined, the U.S. president now seems to have washed his hands of the situation, distancing himself from developments and professing to have little say over the Israeli prime minister’s actions.

That seeming indifference gives Netanyahu the freedom to do as he wishes. Most observers agree that his goal is to cement his legacy as the prime minister who destroyed Hamas, vanquished the Palestinian problem and made Greater Israel a reality. That victory will keep him in office and prevent him from facing justice on charges of corruption.

But the cost to the country will be high. There is no such thing as absolute security. Even today, Israelis continue to live in fear of random attacks: There have been two in the last two weeks. More alarming is the erosion of sympathy and support for Israel as it continues to punish the citizens of Gaza in ways that generate charges of genocide. The country’s growing isolation is real.

Netanyahu and his supporters believe that they can create facts on the ground which will overcome those objections. If the warnings are correct and Israel’s invasion of Gaza does lead to still greater death and destruction, then any “victory” will prove illusory and fleeting. More enduring will be the ignominy and isolation seeded by such arrogance and impunity.