Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel’s war on Gaza is “the least successful war in its history” and that it should be stopped.
In an article for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Barak wrote that Israel is “the most serious and dangerous crisis in the country’s history”.
According to the Israeli politician, Israel cannot “afford any more mistakes.”
“We need to immediately replace this failed government by setting an agreed date for elections, or, alternatively, by holding a constructive no-confidence vote,” he wrote, warning against the possibility of having to fight on multiple fronts.
“We will still be in Gaza, with no clear victory, while also being in an all-out war with Hezbollah in the north, a third intifada in the West Bank, conflicts with the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militias in the Golan Heights and, of course, conflict with Iran itself, which has already shown through April’s missile attack that it is willing to act against us directly,” Barak wrote
International Isolation
Barak also stated that Israel is internationally isolated and “at odds with the United States, the only country that provides us with arms and effective diplomatic backing.”
“We’re threatened with action from both international courts in The Hague and confronting a group of countries that seek to recognize a Palestinian state even without negotiations with Israel,” he said, adding that this creates “a clear and present danger to the country’s security and its future”.
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‘Absolute Victory’
According to Barak, ‘Absolute Victory’ is but an empty slogan. Instead, “under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failed leadership, we are closer to total failure,” he wrote.
“We’re far from the end in Gaza – at least seven months according to National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, years according to National Unity Party chairman and former war cabinet member Benny Gantz,” Barak added.
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Urgent Step
According to Barak, what Israel needs is “an urgent step that would make clear to Israelis that the moment of decision has arrived and to opposition leaders that it is time to act.”
“We need a joint appearance by all the opposition leaders, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman, Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa’ar and Yair Golan,” he said, noting that former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet could also be part of the potential coalition.
Barak also called for “massive demonstrations” throughout the country.
“The Knesset should be surrounded by 30,000 tents in which protesters would sit 24/7 (in shifts) until the government falls,” he wrote.
According to the former prime minister, “failure to remove this government and its leader quickly will endanger Israel’s future and even its continued existence.”
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Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,296 Palestinians have been killed, and 85,197 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
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The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
