Netanyahu told to declare war on the West Bank!

Right, so the deranged attitudes of some in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet have had to be seen to be believed, these are the obstacles in his government, people who he chose to get into bed with to return to power to a ceasefire being possible, Netanyahu putting his own position as Prime Minister before rescuing the hostages from the Israeli perspective and ending the assault of Gaza from the Palestinian view. He ends up in a position of being damned by both, as the General Strike in Israel continues to bite into Israel’s already flagging economy and the rest of the world all wants to see him dragged to the Hague for his war crimes. He put himself in this position of course, no sympathy for that.
However he’s far from the worst in his government. The hard right he chose to get into government with, the Bezalel Smotrich’s and the Itamar Ben Gvir’s and as much as that gruesome twosome so often are the root cause of any outlandish claims and demands, it is in this instance neither of them behind cries to now declare war on the West Bank, though is another member of Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party that we really need to talk about.
Right, so with Israel already at war on some 7 fronts right now, it’s not enough to functionally have begun the largest assault in 20 years in the West Bank, the attacks in recent days on refugee camps in Jenin and the surrounding areas in the north, the ripping up of roads, the switching off of water and power, does Israel still have that right Keir Starmer? Still no apology for that of course, still denying he ever said it. But essentially going to war, assaulting occupied territory in and of itself is not sufficient for some of the hard right in Netanyahu’s horrendous coalition government, as his Security Cabinet and his Military Secretary Roman Gofman have now had it demanded of them by another far right minister that they now declare a state of war on the West Bank, all as Netanyahu is scrabbling and doing damage limitation due to the General Strike that began yesterday over his failure to rescue the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th.
The minister in question, which given her job in government likely ought to come as no real surprise I suppose, neither in the role she has or the fact she got the role from Netanyahu in his cabinet, for it the Minister for Settlements, because of course Israel’s government has such a role, Orit Strock of Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party who is demanding this. You might as well call her the Minister for Illegal Activity then, or the Minister for Land Grabs, Minister for Property Theft, Minister for quick he’s gone out, nick his house whilst he’s gone.
Orit Strock is a real piece of work. A settler herself, she’s prominent in the West Bank town of Hebron, and it was only last July, before the assault on Gaza began following the events of the night of October 7th, that she was demanding war be declared on Gaza, simply so the old settlements that had been withdrawn from in 2005 could be re-established, the so-called disengagement from Gaza under then Israeli President Ariel Sharon fully admitted to the result probably requiring many casualties in order to re-establish those abandoned settlements, but ultimately it must be done because the original disengagement was apparently in her view a sin and we know that because she said as much in an interview just yesterday where she also called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza as this excerpt from The Cradle explains:
‘An Israeli minister called on the government to declare a state of war in occupied West Bank cities and settlements, Israel Hayom reported on 2 September.
Orit Strock, the Israeli Minister of Settlement, made the demand while addressing the Military Secretary Roman Gofman and the Security Cabinet for Political and Security Affairs on Monday.
Strock, of the Religious Zionism party, has been at the forefront of the movement calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza to settle Jews in their place.
In July 2023, before the current war in Gaza started, she called for launching a war against Gaza to retake the strip and rebuild Jewish settlements, including Gush Katif, which was evacuated in 2005 as part of the Disengagement plan of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Strock told Israel’s Channel 7, “I believe that, at the end of the day, the sin of the disengagement will be reversed.”
She suggested this would require going to war, adding that “sadly, a return to the Gaza Strip will involve many casualties.”
Earlier this week, the Israeli military launched its largest military operation in the West Bank in decades, as its forces invaded Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tuba.’
Is it any wonder therefore that Benjamin Netanyahu keeps on scuppering any ceasefire talks, when he is beholden to his far right partners and they are making calls like this? No matter how much external pressure might be brought to bear by other countries and other world leaders, some more than others certainly, to hold his country together and to keep himself in power, he cannot stop this kind of language, cannot stop it getting out into the public domain, cannot stop people reacting to it in the way they are, both the disgust shown by people around the world and the people of Israel itself taking to the streeting in protest and going on strike to cripple the economy if that is what it takes to trigger change, not that I can see it working, because there is no price it seems that Netanyahu wouldn’t pay in order to remain in power, economic calamity too if that is what it takes.
Certainly the hard right are just as blasé to that end too, though in their case it is more their deranged ideology and weaponisation of Judaism and anti Jew hatred, along with their divine belief in some sort of entitlement to a land that simply was not theirs to take. God didn’t hand you that land, idiotic Western politicians way back when did, committed to yesterday’s ethos of colonialism and imperialism. Certainly Orit Strock is not the only one holding such views, or such beliefs, holding such a commitment to seizing for Israel what remains of Palestine, because whilst she was mouthing off about declaring war in the West Bank and ethnically cleansing Gaza, Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu’s Security Minister, a laughable position given all he does to destabilise national security in the interests of settlers and other hard right Zionists was ratcheting up the rhetoric addressing members of the Gvura Forum, or Heroes Forum, basically the families of those who have died whilst in the service of the IDF, who were protesting against the General Strike that began yesterday:
‘Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is trying to use his powers to block negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, Haaretz reported on 2 September.
“Today, we have power in the government, and I’m not ashamed to say that we’re using this power to prevent a reckless deal and to stop any negotiations altogether,” Ben Gvir stated while speaking to members of Forum Hagvurah.
The forum’s members were protesting outside the Prime Minister’s Office against the general strike called by the Histradrut, Israel’s labour federation.
The Histradrut had called for the strike Monday to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a deal to retrieve the Israeli captives being held by Hamas in Gaza.
“You give us the strength, so keep shouting, and we will do our job to ensure that Netanyahu doesn’t fold and that there won’t be a reckless deal,” he added.
Israeli radio reported on Sunday that Netanyahu is not seeking a deal with Hamas out of fear of his ministers, including Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.’
This of course adds a whole other slant to these hard right ministers and that is the hostages don’t mean a damn thing to them, just pushing their own ends and achieving their own directives. Hostages got caught? Tough. Let’s appeal to those who are already against a deal, those who want justice for their fallen loved ones, even though God only knows what their own loved ones might have been doing in Gaza, the conduct of the IDF, the abuses they’ve been committing now all too well documented on film and in news articles. Sowing division to get their way it is the politics of madness and they have no compunction but to keep driving it ever onwards, so it should come as zero shock to hear demands not to wind things down, but to drive even more aggression. Peace negotiators here frankly have the most difficult job on their hands ever, having to negotiate with a Prime Minister who really isn’t in any position of power at all and is more interested in doing whatever it takes to keep his job than usher in peace. He cannot negotiate a ceasefire because his handlers won’t let him and where the world is demanding he engage meaningfully and end this genocide, those keeping him in that job are demanding he goes further, harder and faster in more areas, in more land that isn’t theirs that they want anyway. The chances of a ceasefire whilst Netanyahu remains in post is zero. The chances of this war spreading and an all out assault on the West Bank though as Orit Strock demands? Chances are a lot higher. If Netanyahu is told by the lies of Ben Gvir and Smotrich that it’s war in the West Bank or we’re out, what do you think Netanyahu is going to do? It should be painfully obvious by now.
For more on the General Strike and the demands of The Histradrut trade union that risks bringing Israel to its knees and may actually in and of itself be the best chance of toppling Netanyahu, where diplomacy and negotiation has consistently failed to shift him check out this video recommendation here ans your recommended next watch and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.