WP whitewash Netanyahu again: #Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet but plans to keep far right sidelined
🔶️ #BenGvir and #Smotrich’s continued influence, even from outside the war cabinet, was partly the reason for the resignation of war cabinet members Benny #Gantz and Gadi #Eisenkot last week. The two centrists said they joined the cabinet to ensure the war was conducted responsibly, but have since concluded they couldn’t work with Netanyahu as long as he refused to commit to a day-after strategy for Gaza.
🔶️ The departure came after a string of military leaders made rare public statements airing their grievances with Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, with many saying that Israel cannot afford to continue it indefinitely, especially with tensions escalating on the Lebanese border.
🔶️ Brig. Gen. Efraim Sneh, a former deputy minister of defense, said that Israel has achieved its military objectives of degrading the majority of Hamas capabilities and can afford to declare an end to the war in Gaza, get back the hostages, and redirect its focus to distancing #Hezbollah forces from its northern border.
🔶️ “Israel is in an unacceptable situation, in which a big part of the country has been deserted,” he said. He added that, while “Israel’s forces are stretched thin between Gaza and the Lebanese border,” Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are exacerbating the situation by blocking hundreds of thousands of Palestinian day laborers from entering Israel and enacting punitive measures against the #WestBank-based Palestinian Authority.
🔶️ The #IDF is moving closer to a larger war with Hezbollah, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a video message Sunday. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks at the Lebanese border. “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation — one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Hagari said. After an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander last week, a Hezbollah official said the militant group would retaliate with increased operations “in intensity, strength, quantity and quality.”