In an article published on Sunday, the veteran Middle East War correspondent Elijah Magnier, reported on the recent speech made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following a hundred days of absence from the local press, the prime minister reaffirmed Israeli war efforts against Hamas and called for “absolute victory”, Magnier reported.
On Monday, Magnier joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas which will likely reach its anniversary of a year in October. The death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached over 38,000, with the injury toll well over 88,000, the enclave’s health ministry said.
“Netanyahu is doing everything to sabotage the negotiation. He promised [US] President Joe Biden he'd send him all details of the points that he would like to achieve, and then he criticized these points, saying, ‘well, what Biden said is inaccurate,’” Magnier explained.
“First of all, [Netanyahu] does not delegate any power to decision-making authority, like the head of the Moss, the head of the Shin Bet when they go to negotiate in Doha or in Cairo,” he added. “Secondly, when they return with a reasonable proposal from Hamas that Hamas agreed to more than once, then Netanyahu comes up with new ideas and blows everything up.”
“And additionally, he's saying the war will never stop until he kills every single Hamas member from the top leader to the simple militant. Again, this is a violation of any proposal that is offered to Hamas or even to President Biden who said this is an Israeli proposal. And Netanyahu is contradicting it because if he wants to continue killing, it means he doesn't want the ceasefire,” the correspondent explained.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari openly admitted in late June that Hamas cannot be made to “vanish”, and the idea that it is “possible to destroy Hamas” is like “throwing sand in the eyes of the public”. Netanyahu’s office then corrected the spokesman’s remarks with a blunt response, saying that the IDF is still committed to their war goals of destroying Hamas.
“So Netanyahu wants to continue the fight endlessly. He creates unachievable conditions and a new reality on the ground to sabotage the discussion with Hamas, hoping that Hamas is going to say that they reject the proposal, but Hamas has not done that since May,” said Magnier. “What he wants is Hamas to come out, raise the white flag and leave Gaza for another country. This is not going to happen because this is not how negotiations happen.”
Sputnik’s Garland Nixon then commented that Israel has come to the conclusion that former president Donald Trump is likely to win the upcoming US presidential election. And because of this, their government has become more critical of Biden.
“Now we see that Netanyahu knows that Biden has little chances to win this election in his mentality, or at least in his wishful thinking, he wants Trump to win because he believes Trump is going to give him a free hand to do what he wants,” Magnier responded.
“Not because Biden is withholding bombs from Netanyahu, because he has delivered more than 57,000 bombs to Israel and with help 3,500 of which 3,000 he has delivered after a few months,” he added. “But Israel is in a place where it has its own industry, an armament industry that is manufacturing bombs. So, at the end of the day, yes, Israel is using disproportionate firepower and this is why it needs a lot of bombs to drop on Gaza.”
“At the end of the day, every single US president is beating his predecessor on how much he is going to support Israel. [Former President] Barack Obama initiated $3.5 billion yearly to the Israelis and Biden abided by it and at the beginning of the war he took it up with 17.5 billion additional to the $3.5 [billion] and increased also with the resupply of the Iron Dome interceptor missiles,” he added.
“So he has been extremely generous. The behavior of Netanyahu is only an intervention in the US elections because he wants a free hand and he wants a US president who will tell him exactly what Trump said - finish them off.”
On Sunday, it was reported that the US launched “several rounds of strikes” on Yemen over the past few days in its war against the Houthis in the Red Sea. The report added that since the US and the UK began their bombing in Yemen in January, the Houthis have escalated their attacks on Israel-associated shipping and other commercial shipping. The Houthis have maintained that they will stop their attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Lebanon has started this war with Israel, like Yemen, to support the people of Gaza from a humanitarian approach because the Palestinians in Gaza are left alone. The international community is complaining about what Israel is doing, the disproportionate attack, the killing of so many civilians,” the correspondent told The Critical Hour.
“The US spokesperson at the White House and the State Department said there are too many civilians killed but nobody is effectively doing anything," he added. "Nothing so far has managed to stop the Israelis and make Netanyahu change his mind about his objective to destroy Gaza, to destroy the infrastructure, to destroy all the EU/UN institutions, to kill journalists - kill civilians, mainly."
"But he's still facing a very harsh reaction from the resistance in Gaza and he's not managing to defeat them. So what he's doing is he's going [after] civilians and this is why the front from Lebanon is supporting the civilians of Gaza and will immediately stop the day Netanyahu ends this."