Netanyahu Wants to Gamble It All Away

posted on: Jul 15, 2025

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

In his visit to the White House last week, Netanyahu asserted that Hamas must disappear because it is still a threat to Israel. At the moment, protracted negotiations in Qatar over a Gaza ceasefire seem deadlocked.

To free 250 hostages, over five hundred IDF soldiers have already died, and many more have been wounded. Nearly all Gazans have been exposed to starvation, political humiliation, and repeated displacement from their homes. Their dwellings, factories, farms, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches, and all essential infrastructure have been destroyed. But for Netanyahu, this level of Palestinian suffering, which the UN special rapporteur and prominent historians are denouncing as a genocide, is not enough: the war must continue until Hamas is permanently disarmed, and Israel must occupy Gaza indefinitely.

With unconvincing rhetoric, Netanyahu claims that Israel’s military presence in Gaza is needed to maintain stability and to protect Israeli society from any surviving “terrorists”. Does he expect the people of Gaza to accept an indefinite Israeli occupation after what they have endured? Is he ready to finance the rebuilding of Gaza? Or does he expect the oil-rich Arab Gulf states to unquestioningly bankroll the rebuilding of Gaza as a new Israeli protectorate?

It is clear that Netanyahu’s refusal to withdraw from Gaza is actually unrelated to Hamas. Rather, he wishes to expand Israel’s borders by occupying Gaza; neutralize all forms of Palestinian resistance; launch another decisive attack on Iran; and — most importantly — stay in power by winning next year’s elections.

This is a hubristic and possibly suicidal plan. He is convinced that Israel is strong enough to dominate the Middle East indefinitely, but it is simply too small to assume that role. He assumes that successive US administrations will support him indefinitely regardless of his country’s behavior, but he is blind to Americans’ changing views on the Middle East. He assumes that the international community will remain paralyzed in the face of Israel’s violation of international law, but the US will eventually realize that supporting Israel has become too costly. He ignores growing domestic pressure to bring back the hostages and end the war, but nearly three-quarters of the Israeli public disagrees with his plan.

An astute strategist knows that the best time to leave the game is when you’re well ahead, but Netanyahu is a reckless gambler. Given the chance, he will keep rolling the dice until everything is lost: Israel’s eroding democracy, its international standing, and his own political legacy.

Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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