Our Wednesday News Analysis | Five key fronts to counter Israel’s Gaza genocide

With Israel’s intentions fully unmasked, the global community must shift from passive mediation to active enforcement (File/AFP)

It is now official: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the core conditions of the Board of Peace framework, explicitly stating that Israel will neither adhere to a ceasefire nor withdraw its forces from Gaza. During a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu stated in unambiguous language: “Israel rejects the 15-point document published by the Board of Peace for Gaza.”

In a previous conversation with lead envoy Nickolay Mladenov, Netanyahu set conditions — such as demanding unilateral operational freedom for the Israeli military to strike inside Gaza at will — that would render a genuine peace agreement structurally impossible.

The Israeli army leadership, under Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, reinforced this posture by outlining three uncompromising “red lines” to the political establishment: complete operational freedom to eliminate perceived threats anywhere in the Strip, strict control over all weapons entering or exiting Gaza, and zero military withdrawal unless Hamas is “completely disarmed.”

One can fault Netanyahu for many things, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza. But in recent years, he has been remarkably straightforward about his intentions; therefore, no one can claim that Netanyahu has fooled anyone.

Earlier this year, while speaking at a conference in a West Bank settlement, Netanyahu boasted that he had instructed the Israeli military to expand its physical footprint and permanently occupy at least 70 percent of the Gaza Strip — a massive expansion far beyond the temporary administrative demarcation lines established in previous truces.

The Israeli government has no intention of ending its genocide in Gaza or relinquishing its control of the territory

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Meanwhile, his far-right ministers have pushed the government’s rejectionist stance even further. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Missions Minister Orit Strock last week issued a joint demand for an emergency Cabinet meeting to roll back authorization for the deployment of the International Stabilization Force...

Read more: Five key fronts to counter Israel’s Gaza genocide

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THE MOUSE THAT WANTS TO BE AN ELEPHANT: ISRAEL AND THE STEROIDS OF US AID

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-mouse-that-wants-to-be-an-elephant-israel-and-the-steroids-of-us-aid/

By Jeremy Salt
Published August 18, 2026

Whoever wins, this is not going to affect the slow and steady degradation of Israel’s standing in the US, accompanied by ultimately steady and increasing cuts in the steroids of arms supplies and economic aid.

The United States and Israel share an unbreakable bond. (Photo: James Emery, via Wikimedia Commons)

The obese, sweaty Ben-Gvir, physically more repulsive than Goering, more bloodthirsty than Himmler, is now demanding that 30-40 Palestinians be killed every day because they are “not worthy of life,” a phrase that comes out of Nazi Germany and, in reality, sums up the genocide in Gaza.

In Israel’s case, the Palestinians are not worthy of life because they are human animals or the insects and snakes that Zionist rabbis, politicians and generals have described them as being over decades. Once put in that category, it is easier to kill them, to squash them, to bury them beneath tons of concrete so they die unseen and alone in the dark.

Bishop Desmond Tutu used to say that Zionism was worse than apartheid, but no one should hesitate in going further and comparing it to Nazism. Many of the Nazis were gentlemen compared to murderous trash like Ben Gvir and the gangsters around him in the cabal known as the ‘government’ of Israel.

Zionism is a fanatical ideology, more akin to a cult, it might be said, but it still has its own extreme, which is the even more murderous beliefs and behavior of the West Bank settlers, of Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and others like them. Their Zionism shares with Nazism and the Islamic state the same characteristics of extreme violence, sectarian hatred, persecution of a targeted group, and rejection of all laws but their own.

The parallel lines between Nazism and Zionism, ideologically and in their mass violence, are clear for those prepared to look at them and put up with the shrill cries of ‘anti-semitism.’

Who are the true Semites anyway? Not Jewish Israelis of European stock. They have no living or genetic connection with the ancient Middle East.

The Semites, if one wants to use the word, are the Palestinians, living in the Mediterranean basin of ancient civilizations for countless generations. DNA research shows that they are overwhelmingly of Bronze Age Canaanite/‘Levantine’ stock.

Palestinian Jews have the same ancient lineage, but the Zionists don’t. They came to Palestine as European intruders who had no living or genetic relationship with Palestine, with the geography of Palestine, the people of Palestine, and even the Jews of Palestine, whom they looked on with contempt. They were cultural and historic aliens on Palestinian soil...

Read more: The Mouse that Wants to Be an Elephant: Israel and the Steroids of US Aid

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ISRAEL'S EXTREMISTS SAY WEST BANK ANNEXATION IS INEVITABLE. THEY'RE WRONG

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-08-16/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israels-extremists-say-west-bank-annexation-is-inevitable-theyre-wrong/000001a0-0acf-d88f-abbf-decf17330000?

By Mickey Gitzin
Published August 16, 2026

The reestablishment of settlements in the northern West Bank, alongside the uptick in settler violence, is part of a broader plan to normalize annexation. But both things are a result of specific government policies that can be reversed

A ceremony earlier this year marking the reestablishment of the settlement Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum

Last week, the IDF expelled a Palestinian family from their home ahead of the inauguration of a settlement called Emek Dotan in the northern part of the West Bank. Earlier this year, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich both participated in a similar event at Sanur, another new settlement nearby.

Both of these settlements are located in an area of the West Bank that Israel had once withdrawn from, due to understandings between the government of Ariel Sharon and the administration of George W. Bush. The U.S., at the time, wanted Israel's disengagement from Gaza to also include a limited evacuation of West Bank settlements.

Sharon agreed to remove four, all in the vicinity of the Palestinian city of Jenin. Now, 21 years later, the current Israeli government is working to reverse this reality by reestablishing those settlements and building new ones in the same area.

Smotrich stated that by resettling this corner of the West Bank, Israel is making a "historic correction." He added that the construction of these settlements is an important step toward "killing the idea of a Palestinian state." These events are deeply connected to the uptick in violent attacks by extremist settlers all over the occupied territories and the resulting displacement of Palestinian communities.

For Smotrich, this is all part of a broader plan to prepare the ground for Israel formally annexing the West Bank. By creating new settlements, even in areas that Israel had once agreed to withdraw from, Smotrich is trying to send a message that annexation is inevitable.

But if you peel back the curtain, the latest developments in the northern West Bank prove something different: that annexation is a political project – one that relies on governmental and legislative support and can therefore also be reversed via cabinet decisions and legislation.

To understand why, it's important to examine the history of Israel's settlements in this specific region. In 2005, when the disengagement took place, Sharon's government passed a law barring Israeli citizens from returning to the evacuated settlements. For nearly two decades, despite relentless pressure from the settlement movement, this law remained in place, and was enforced by the IDF on the ground...

Read more: Israel's Extremists Say West Bank Annexation Is Inevitable. They're Wrong