Autumn 2023: The Tragic Legacy of PM Netanyahu

Bibi Netanyahu may be Israel’s longest serving prime minister, but as recent tragedy after tragedy has unfolded during his watch, it seems to further solidify the view he may have stayed around too long.

In the past couple of months Netanyahu has seen the greatest massacre of Jews since WW2, has seen the largest number of Palestinian civilians killed since 1948 and has seen the most UN officials killed in any conflict since it was formed at the end of WW2.

And every day since October 7th, all the news bulletins report the ever growing civilian death toll from Israel’s carefully targets bombing runs that are geared to limit non Hamas casualties.

The IDF has now been conducting Gaza ground operations for weeks. Yet, there still are daily Israeli air strikes, air strikes that kill Gazans. Why? The cheaper combat option is still active. Why put IDF troops at risk when air strikes accomplish more with less risk to the troops.

On the other hand, as one IDF official said, Israel believes it has killed two Palestinian civilians for every Hamas militant in its intense campaign to eliminate the armed group from the Gaza Strip, a ratio the spokesperson described to CNN as “tremendously positive.”

The Hamas controlled health department claims more than 17,000 Gaza civilians have been killed by Israel since October 7. There are two contentious points about this figure. First, Hamas has a long history of inflating civilian deaths and that figure doesn’t distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists, who normally wear civilian clothes. For all anyone knows, the true Gaza death count could be largely composed of Hamas members.

On top of this, the UN claims more than 104 of its personnel have been lost in the conflict.

The UN Security Council has tried to pass one of its effete resolutions demanding a cease fire, with the US the only member voting against the measure. This, however, came with the Biden Administration again pleading with Bibi to protect Gaza civilians. His plea has gone unheeded.

As more Hamas rockets headed towards Israel, Israel responded with more aerial bombing runs on Gaza. An IDF official has yet to claim that only two civilians were killed for every Hamas terrorist sent to paradise.

But, there’s only so much carnage the US public and Politicians can stand. The Vietnam War was a case in point where the war’s horrors eventually turned the nation against its involvement in the long bloody conflict.

If Israel doesn’t want to lose the support of its only true friend, it had better cut back on aerial bombing, restricting the war to ground operations. The fact is, aerial bombing of an urban area kills too many civilians without any proof of its effectiveness in taking out Hamas members.

Already daily videos of dead and wounded kids amidst the ruins of a Gaza City flooding the news media have drowned out photos of the horrific Hamas massacre.

More and more America and other friendly nations may change their opinions from Israel conducting a self defense operation to a war of revenge being carried out at the orders of a government enraged over being caught napping on October 7th.