Benjamin Netanyahu is looking for an alternative war.

After his room for action against Iran became limited, and after Washington began pressuring Israel to restrain its actions in southern Lebanon, Gaza seems to be the only battlefield left for him. He needs a war to survive politically. He needs an open front to escape domestic questions, failure, and the image of a leader who promised to reshape the Middle East but now waits for Washington to allow or stop him.

But Gaza is not an exit. Gaza may be his final trap.

Since the ceasefire, Israel has not treated the agreement as a path to end the war. It has treated it as a temporary pause before another round.

The agreement was emptied of its real meaning and reduced to one demand: disarming Hamas. The priority was no longer restoring life, opening crossings, rebuilding Gaza, or stopping the killing of Palestinians.

The agreement was emptied of its real meaning and reduced to one demand: disarming Hamas. The priority was no longer restoring life, opening crossings, rebuilding Gaza, or stopping the killing of Palestinians.

Everything became tied to one Israeli condition, used by Netanyahu’s government to say: “Nothing is over yet”.

This is the game. Netanyahu does not want a real agreement in Gaza because a real agreement means the end of the war. And the end of the war means the beginning of his........

© Middle East Monitor