The furious reaction today reported by the Times of Israel from the two racist and genocidal members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, explains a lot about the “hostage-taking’ of the Israeli government.
The issue was the decision of Israel’s war cabinet, almost six weeks into the conflict against Gaza, to accede to Washington’s call to have fuel delivered to Gaza. A statement attributed to an Israeli “diplomatic official” said two fuel trucks could “enter Gaza every day for UN needs and to support water and sewer systems.” It send that the IDF and Shin Bet had signed on and that the fuel is intended “to enable the minimal maintenance necessary for water, sewer and sanitary systems to prevent pandemics that could spread to the entire area, hurting residents of the Strip as well as our own forces and potentially spreading into Israel as well.” The official said that they would monitor the fuel delivery to ensure that it doesn’t reach Hamas and that the move “will offer Israel the necessary diplomatic maneuvering room to eliminate Hamas.”
While it is dubious that the two trucks a day is what the water and sewerage systems need, there is not much doubt that the continued lack of any arrangements, e.g., for electricity to hospitals will keep the babies without incubators, and keep the suffering and deaths on track.
Nevertheless, Ben-Gvir declared that Netanyahu and his war cabinet are “leading Israel to a wrong policy. So long as our hostages don’t even get a visit from the Red Cross, there is no sense in giving the enemy humanitarian gifts.” His colleague Smotrich said that allowing any fuel “is a grave mistake and contradicts the decision of the [full security] cabinet.” It “broadcasts weakness, gives oxygen to the enemy and allows [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar to sit comfortably in his air-conditioned bunker, watch the news and continue to manipulate Israeli society....”
Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, tweeted: “Stop fueling the Nazis from Hamas! The statements that ‘not a drop of fuel’ would enter the Strip have turned into allowing thousands of liters unilaterally, without receiving any humanitarian gesture for our hostages. I call for this recklessness to be stopped at once.”
Israeli National Security Council chairman Tzachi Hanegbi tried to calm the outcry, saying: “If plague were to break out, we’d have to stop the war.” The IDF couldn’t operate. Anyhow, the security chiefs had assured the war cabinet that the fuel level was only between 2-4% of what Gaza used in normal times.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have a track record of racism and calls for genocide. Over the last year, they have done their level best to inflame Palestinians and Arabs alike with highly provocative actions, insulting language and organized killings in the West Bank. It has taken 41 days for Washington to get an inch of sunlight in between the calculating craziness of Netanyahu and the outright KKK-style racism of his two cabinet members.
