Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza because the West and the United States in particular have given Israel a free hand, allowing them to act without consequences, veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Monday.
“[Netanyahu is] killing children… on the basis they… will grow up one day and [so] we have to kill them today. This is [the] exact same thinking of the Nazis during the Second World War with the Jews,” explained Magnier. “So we have history repeating itself but today in different ways and the problem that it touches upon is the Americans are the only country in the world who are supplying an indefinite supply of weapons and ammunition to Israel.”
“If this supply doesn’t stop, nothing is going to stop for Netanyahu. And why doesn’t this supply stop? Because the politicians in the United States fear for their position,” he concluded.
Multiple times since the start of the year, the United States announced that a ceasefire deal had been agreed to in principle, or that the Israelis had presented a peace deal to Hamas, but every time the Israelis backed out or modified it.
“[US President Joe] Biden came out and said there were modifications, now we have an Israeli document, and then Hamas accepted it and then Israel again refused it. And then in the last speech, Benjamin Netanyahu put on the table the new conditions. The first condition is that he's not going to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, that's 40m separating Gaza from Egypt,” explained Magnier. “That’s a violation of the 1978 Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel… but not only [that], he also gave another condition that he wants to stay in what he called the Netzarim corridor that is dividing the north of Gaza from the south of Gaza, which means maintaining forces… able attack anywhere in Gaza.”
In late June, a month after Biden claimed in a televised address that a ceasefire agreement had been proposed by the Israeli side, Netanyahu told Israeli media that the agreement would only include a “partial” ceasefire and said Israel was still committed to the “goal of eliminating Hamas.”
“So this [Netzarim corridor] condition means that there is no end to the military hostility and the war will continue endlessly. This is what Netanyahu is saying. ‘I want to continue the war until I kill every single member of Hamas’ …how can he have a deal with the Palestinians and then at the same time [be] saying I want to kill you all?”
Netanyahu’s continual refusals to seriously consider a peace deal has become obvious to even the Israelis, who are largely okay with his violent tactics but want to see a return of the remaining Israeli hostages.
“The families of the prisoners and the captives are saying ‘Actually, you don’t want our children back,’” Magnier explained.
On Monday, Netanyahu landed in Washington DC, where he plans to meet with Biden and speak to the US Congress. He was followed by several family members of Israeli hostages who plan to protest his speech on Wednesday.
“But the problem is not in Israel. Israel has a free hand. The problem is all the West that’s supporting Israel and not putting an end to this plan. Israel has been given three months to achieve its objectives, then six months, and then nine months. [Now] we are in the tenth month… I don’t know what’s going to happen. As long as Israel enjoys the full support of the United States, anything can happen,” Magnier warned, adding that “on the other hand” Hezbollah, the Ansar Allah Houthis and the Iraqi resistance are not going to stand idle while Israel slaughters Gazans with US support “without doing something that forces a high cost on the Israelis.”
“We have seen only… the tip of the iceberg,” said Magnier, clarifying that the “whole iceberg” will be “a multi-front war on Israel for one objective: to stop the war on Gaza.”