Summary
Transcript
It’s an instability that the Americans are seeking to exploit. The protests leading up to October 7 had influence from the Biden administration. I don’t think there’s any question about that. Benny Gantz is the person the Biden administration would like to see in place of Netanyahu. They welcomed him to Washington, which infuriated Netanyahu. I mean, he did get a little dressing down, but they didn’t do anything to him.
And Netanyahu has made repeated decisions, including decisions about negotiations in Doha over the objections of or without the approval of other members of his war cabinet, basically violating the rules. So israeli politics are very unstable now. And this coalition that Netanyahu has, I mean, the fanatics, Ben Gevir, the security minister, who’s from the most fanatical faction of the settler religious nationalist movement in the West Bank, Smotryk, they got Netanyahu by the shortened curlies, which is why Netanyahu is promising to build settlements in the Gaza Strip, which is just seems untenable and absolutely insane.
It’s sort of a sop to keep them from bolting from his coalition. I mean, they’re also demanding a massive strike on Iran. And then you have people like Gabi Ashkenazi, the former chief of staff of the israeli military, who comes from Netanyahu’s left immediately after Iran’s counterattack. It was Ashkenazi who is pushing for a direct attack on Iran. This is something a lot of people don’t recognize outside observers as Netanyahu is not always the most hawkish and might even be more cautious than the militarists who are supposedly to his left, who are more favored by the Americans, a head scratcher.
.