Netanyahu declares Israel’s ambition to take over all of Gaza

There’s a chuckle from someone in the audience that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be gesturing towards as he says “My directive is to move to … go step by step. First of all, 70% let’s start with that.”

I felt a chill of horror, my mind created the visuals of what that really meant, scenes I witnessed in person during my four trips to Gaza post Oct 7^th with my charity INARA before Israel denied me entry with no reason given. Visuals we have all seen on our social media feeds or in the news. Little limp lifeless bodies carried out of the rubble. The primal cries of the agony of loss. The heavy exhausted steps of a population who cannot carry the weight of what is being demanded of them just to stay alive, the haunted look in people’s eyes.

Netanyahu’s demeanor is that of a man who knows that there will be no consequences for his rhetoric or his actions. He is utterly relaxed, smiling as he talks about how at the start of the so-called peace plan in October 2025 Israel occupied 50% of Gaza, then took 60% and now this directive to take even more.

The media did pick up on this, headlines all over talking about this directive to take 70%, but there’s a crucial point in Netanyahu’s smirking declaration. The words “LETS START WITH THAT.”

There are some who are analyzing this as Netanyahu playing to his specific audience, he was talking at a conference at a settlement in the occupied West Bank, and their calls for Israel to fully take occupy Gaza and re-establish settlements there.

The concept of pandering to your base is one thing, politicians and world leaders do it all the time, as is the use of rhetoric to pressure an opponent or party at a negotiating table. But to dismiss this merely as pre-election political blah blah or a pressure tactic is rather naïve against the backdrop of Israel’s actions since Oct 7^th.

These are not comments made in a vacuum. Outside of Gaza, Israel has expanded its occupation of the West Bank, of Lebanon, of Syria. From the onset Israeli leaders have specifically expressed their ultimate goal. Just one example is last year when Netanyahu expressed his support for “Greater Israel”, comments which caused condemnation and an outcry across the region, not that is made much of a difference.

Unsurprisingly there has been, as of this writing, no reaction from the Board of Peace. Barely a hiccup from Europe. Deafening silence from Arab countries. Then again that has pretty much been par for the course. What can change any of this? The quick fix answer to that is the same as it has always been: The United States of America. Be it the Trump administration or the Biden one, America knows this as well.

But to lay this fully squarely on the US is to allow others to abdicate responsability. Arab countries, namely Gulf countries, if we lived in a world where the concept of Arab unity existed as anything but a concept, do have power. Perhaps not to pressure Israel as much as to pressure the US. But that would take a level of courage that no nation whether in the region or out of it as exhibited to date.

Europe has sanctioned some Israeli leaders, some agreements have been suspended, there has been a small degree of economic isolation, but most of it has been performative and hardly carries the weight of what Europe and others can actually really do.

I flash back to one encounter I had in Gaza. A mother had grabbed my arm after hearing that part of the work we do was with mental health for children.

“My son he’s 7.” She said. “Every night he screams and convulses. He’s been doing this ever since he saw his younger sister’s head fly off when the bomb hit our house.”

“Where were you?” I had asked.

“I was there too” she had responded.

In that moment, I had felt like my brain froze. It wasn’t just the horror of what she was describing, it was her tone of voice. Utterly monotone as if she was commenting on the weather.

It hits me just how deep she’s had to bury her own emotions, how much she has to fight everyday to make sure they don’t surface, that they don’t break her. It’s as if she’s reading my mind because then she says “I know, but I have other children who are still alive. They need me.”

To try to frame Netanyahu’s comments as anything but what they are – a declaration that 70% is JUST THE START – is, at this stage unconscionably naïve.