Skip to main content
NEU job advert
Netanyahu’s provocations are a desperate and doomed strategy
By trying to appease his far-right coalition partners and their desire for all-out religious war on what is left of Palestine, Netanyahu is provoking an armed uprising in the West Bank, writes RAMZY BAROUD
IDF soldiers stand guard as Jewish settlers rebuild the previously illegal settlement of Homesh in the West Bank

AFTER signing a military decree on May 18, allowing illegal Israeli Jewish settlers to reclaim the abandoned Homesh settlement located in the northern occupied West Bank, the Israeli government has informed the US Biden administration that it will not turn the area into a new settlement.

The latter revelation was reported by Axios on May 23. This contradiction is hardly surprising. While Israel’s far-right ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, know precisely what they want, Netanyahu is trying to perform an impossible political act: he wants to fulfil all the wishes of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, but without veering off from the US political agenda in the Middle East, and without creating the circumstances that could eventually topple the Palestinian Authority.

Moreover, Netanyahu wants to normalise with Arab governments, while continuing to colonise Palestine, expand settlements and have complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Palestinian Muslim and Christian holy shrines.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
BREAKING POINT: Israelis take part in a protest against Prim
Features / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
Netanyahu’s failed attempt to replace Shin Bet’s chief violates longstanding Israeli political taboos, as the apartheid state’s internal power struggle spirals to a new level of crisis while Gaza burns, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ne
Features / 21 January 2025
21 January 2025
Unlike previous military campaigns in Gaza, there is no significant strand of Israeli society claiming victory, and a political crisis long-brewing has now reached crisis point, argues RAMZY BAROUD
Palestinian children play next to buildings destroyed by Isr
Editorial: / 7 January 2025
7 January 2025
Features / 6 January 2025
6 January 2025
The Israeli PM has won political favour by repeatedly playing the victim card – but when the war on Gaza ends this kind of manoeuvring will no longer suffice in order to maintain his coalition, says RAMZY BAROUD