Netanyahu’s Political Parachute is not a War

The gross insult in the entire affair in Gaza is that most media buy into the Netanyahu propaganda point that this is a war. Wars are fought between nations, between governments or between armies organized by one of the former entities. Hamas is neither a government nor a representative body of any Palestinian constituency. Hamas is not an organized military by any stretch of the definition, and the only task of which it is capable is the wholesale slaughter of unarmed civilians: a hallmark of imbeciles, not of trained soldiers. Hamas’s ineptitude at conducting warfare is manifested repeatedly when they have to be ferreted out by force from hospitals and schools and by the ease with which Israel has reduced the region to rubble.

The military incursion into Gaza is just that: a military incursion. It is not a war. In the absence of any military resistance, the Israeli military is not conducting war. It is just as gross an insult to the Israeli military to pretend that Hamas’s imbeciles are worthy adversaries. Those who accept the “war” ascription are deprecating the vaunted Israeli military to the level of Hamas’s imbecile terrorists. It will be a point of shame and utter humiliation for the Israeli army to assert that it is fighting a worthy adversary.

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Israel Has a Recurrence of Herpes

Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated reappearance on the Israeli political stage can only be compared to the recurrence of herpes. Herpes enters the body because of careless acts on the part of the host, it emerges when the immune system is weak, it is an unsightly sore that causes much burning and pain, it disappears after frustrating the host for an unbearably long time, and it finally seems to disappear without leaving any marks only to return when the host least expects it. Like herpes, Netanyahu ascended to power during the chaos of the early 2000s, which definitely made the Israeli electorate careless. Since then, he has managed to engineer enough chaos to create political channels to reinfect the Knesset. He causes inordinate pain and burning through his ugly visage and uglier rhetoric. He seems to leave no trace as the governments that follow his ouster are decidedly more centrist and pragmatic, but he managed to resurface as soon as the propaganda apparatuses at his disposal weaken the psyche and will of the Israeli electorate.

Some people are very lucky never to have a recurrence of herpes. For most, death is what relieves them of another recurrence. Though it is likely that Israel will outlive Bibi, it is not a certainty.

Herpes reemerges on the Israeli political system, well before the previous scabs healed.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday appeared set to return to power as head of Israel’s most right-wing government ever after winning this week’s national election, with the current caretaker prime minister conceding defeat.

Source: Netanyahu set to return to power in Israel after PM concedes