I Negotiated for Israeli Prime Ministers. Netanyahu Is Lying
Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy joins Zeteo as a contributor and unpacks this week's resumption of Israel's violence in Gaza.
Note from our Editor-in-Chief: I have known Daniel Levy for over a decade now, and it is with great delight and honor that I welcome him to Zeteo as our newest contributor. Daniel is a renowned British-Israeli analyst, president of the U.S./Middle East Project, and a former Israeli peace negotiator under Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. These days, however, he is a passionate critic of the Israeli government, as well as the “abuse” of antisemitism to silence opponents of Israel. He now calls the peace process “the refuge of scoundrels who want to maintain the status quo,” and, in a recent viral appearance at the UN Security Council (below), dubbed Israel an “occupying, colonizing state” that is rendering the UN Charter “meaningless.” His first piece for Zeteo, also below, is equally scathing – and eye-opening – about this week’s Israeli assault on Gaza. It is available in full to our paid subscribers, so if you haven’t already, please do upgrade from free to paid today to read all of Daniel’s essay and to help support independent journalism!
-Mehdi
I Negotiated for Israeli Prime Ministers. Netanyahu Is Lying
By: Daniel Levy
It has taken less than two months for normal service to be resumed – a White House that is the plaything of the prime minister of a client state, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. Having briefly flirted with leading the ‘ceasefire over war’ camp, the US is back to bombing Yemen, threatening Iran with military action, and undermining its own negotiations in the service of greenlighting Israel's resumed bombing of Gaza.
Trump has apparently been reminded who is the superpower here. The peace president? Not if Israel says otherwise. It is hard to say that Trump 47 has exactly been duped, he of the ethnically-cleansed Gaza Riviera plan. Alignment with Israel's genocidal orientation would seem to come naturally.
Having, in the words of Einav Zangauker (mother of Israeli captive Matan), “sabotaged negotiations” in order to “blame Hamas,” Netanyahu definitively shattered the ceasefire in the early hours of March 18, aerially bombarding parts of Gaza, killing over 400 Palestinians, among them over 180 children, and the slaughter of innocents has continued since. The timing of the initial strike was designed to coincide with Suhoor, the pre-dawn meal taken during the month of Ramadan, rubbing salt in the wounds of religious sensibilities well beyond Gaza.
Israeli officials have claimed that the resumed strikes create leverage in getting Hamas to accept Israeli terms for a deal. Lies, pure and simple. Israeli war crimes failed to shift the terms of a deal for over a year. Hamas is negotiating in accordance with the parameters agreed in January, Netanyahu is not. On Wednesday, Hamas clarified that “any proposal based on negotiating the second stage and permanently ending the war will be welcomed.”
Protesters inside Israel are also calling out Netanyahu’s bluff. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement calling for a renewed ceasefire, dismissing the government's claim that a return to war is “for the sake of hostages' return” as “a complete deception,” and blaming the government for “withdrawing from the agreement” and endangering the hostages. Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, addressing a Tel Aviv rally, accused Netanyahu of “start[ing] yet another round of war ... not to protect your people but to protect your government. Another war with no purpose, another war with no strategy.”
A number of Israelis recently released from Gaza in the 42-day ceasefire joined the protest, expressing their shock and dismay at the government's resumption of war. The reality is all too transparent. Israel already broke the terms of the ceasefire during its first phase of implementation. Israel also repeatedly disavowed the broader framework agreement that had been reached, which committed the Israeli side to negotiate a second and third phase and stipulated a full ceasefire and full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
Addressing the Knesset on March 3, Netanyahu committed to a continued war even if the hostages were returned; he replaced his negotiating team, placing loyalist Minister Ron Dermer in charge; on March 2, Israel reimposed a humanitarian siege, which has subsequently been tightened by closing off electricity, with the premeditated spillover effect that has on water supplies, and in particular, desalination plants. In other words, Israel's leadership is doubling down on the war crimes that led to the urgent provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the case brought by South Africa regarding violations of the Genocide Convention and that also led to arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant being issued by the International Criminal Court.
As Tom Fletcher, the UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, testified to the UN Security Council earlier this week, “This total blockade of life-saving aid, basic commodities, and commercial goods will have a disastrous impact on the people of Gaza who remain dependent on a steady flow of assistance into the Strip.”