IDF opens criminal investigation into video of reservist threatening mutiny
Yair Netanyahu should be immediately brought in without delay - no matter where he may be sheltering or otherwise hiding - and questioned for sedition. The insane video made by a rogue hard Right soldier wearing a mask and threatening mutiny while inferring huge numbers of supportive IDF reserve soldiers (which I strongly doubt) appears directly driven by Netanyahu's now fully out of (or, perhaps, in) control Jewish Supremacist coalition members.
But folks should take great care to NOT implicate the full IDF on this single and, likely, substantially overextended bizarre event. The IDF are fighting and dying for a necessary reason but are still responsible to and trying to simultaneously deal with a horribly bad and deadly dangerous hard Right political process with non-stop power plays during a time of war all spearheaded by Netanyahu and his Jewish Supremacist coalition members.
As the article indicates, with all this going on while fighting and dying in Gaza every day, continuing to go above and beyond in an on the ground effort to help Gazan citizens used and long abandoned by Hamas (even as this is NOT supported by the Israeli Right and its more violent settler groups), and dealing with the deeply self-aggrandizing Prime Minister who is wholly beholden to his fundamentalist coalition, the IDF has previously tolerated (however improperly) ill conceived political actions and activity by smaller numbers of IDF soldiers. Thankfully, that is about to end.
There is now no doubt the IDF will respond to this broadcast threat of a broader mutiny by a single masked solider and put on Telegraph by Yair Netanyahu seriously and immediately. I'd hypothesize the identity of this person has already become known to senior IDF. I'd also expect the IDF to now become more aware of and responsive to political and other clear transgressions by individual IDF soldiers which directly violate IDF professional codes of conduct, ethics and regulations.
This is all happening as PM Netanyahu is under the full control of key Supremacist coalition operatives as Ben Gvir and Smotrich. They must ALL and together be removed from Israeli government and investigated for related crimes. Netanyahu MUST either immediately resign or be forced out of Israel's government since this is the ONLY way Israel can regain its internal moral compass and control then be able to complete the war against Hamas with an identified point of success.
Only Netanyahu and his Supremacist coalition could have so quickly and entirely lost the empathy of even their most supportive members in the global community for the overt brutality in Gaza and lack of any coherent and identifiable plan for the war...and after.
Yes - Israel must, first and foremost and as we have always, be certain to take care of ourselves, our own and the State of Israel since it has long been true that 'people love dead Jews.' But geopolitics still matter no matter rants by Netanyahu and his immediate cohort in the same way as do global relationships. Coalition building also still matters and, as has been written about, the Saudis seemed so close to being ready to form a political coalition with Israel just before October 7. And they still want to do so, by report, but have had to temporarily; politically back off due to the Hamas created war in Gaza.
I am not at all a fan or defender of Saudi Arabia or, in particular, MBS. But a coalition with and recognition by Saudi Arabia would be a uniquely pivotal and dramatically positive event in Israeli history. It can still be prioritized but only after Netanyahu and his extremist coalition have been removed.
Netanyahu represents little more than tragic failure which Oct 7th should have made ever so sadly clear.
'Netanyahu and his government have long faced criticism over their refusal to make a plan for the management of the Strip after the war, and the prime minister has refused to hold substantive cabinet discussions on the matter due to concerns they could collapse his coalition amid opposition from the far-right'
This paragraph represents an absolutely pivotal and overtly deadly dynamic.
That is, Netanyahu's ONLY interest is Netanyahu and avoiding his unavoidable court date to which he is potentially now only adding more substantive charges. He's allowed power to be wielded by Ben Gvir and Smotrich which was NEVER supported by the IDF, law enforcement, and Shin Bet among others in Israel
Netanyahu MUST resign NOW and his coalition government ended for one which will first prioritize Israel's context driven realities towards a clearly definitive defeat for Hamas while reestablishing global ties. A new government must be put in place immediately which will recognize the need for security and stability for BOTH Israelis AND Palestinians. We also need Netanyahu and his coalition OUT of Israel’s government before they start a second all out war with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon.
Netanyahu's opaque and largely useless promise to 'eliminate' Hamas was never possible but a fundamental excuse for his pursuit of far a more brutal campaign impacting Gazan citizens which was never valid nor militarily justifiable.
While I ultimately support a 2-state solution, Hamas' October 7 massacre with its extreme sexual violence, taking of and brutalizing Israeli hostages has neutralized that goal for the moment. And there’s no doubt this was also a piece of the Hamas agenda in that Palestinian independence would be anathema to Hamas. But that there is also no unified Palestinian political or economic infrastructure matters which must be somehow first be corrected. All that is in the Territories now are two competing Palestinian organizations long engaged in an internecine war with little concern for their citizens unless they can get international photo ops of dead and suffering Palestinians.
This is another important point which has been seemingly and conveniently wholly overlooked and lost by Norway, Spain and Ireland in their foolish and Hamas friendly decision to 'recognize a Palestinian state.' I have to wonder if any of these countries are able to even identify exactly what and whom they have 'recognized?'
In the shorter term, however, prioritizing increased Palestinian autonomy based on a written and agreed to treaty to include the demilitarization of Palestinian territories must be considered.
A new coalition will first have to effectively define what a 'definitive defeat' of Hamas means since 'to eliminate' Hamas is not at all possible as it has long deeply embedded itself into Gazan society. This, not to mention that every especially, but certainly not only, male adolescent to adult Gazan and West Bank citizen is a possible Hamas, or otherwise militant, gunman in-waiting and even more so for Netanyahu's grotesquely improper prosecution of the war on Hamas in Gaza.
Please do not implicate or try to evaluate the entire IDF for this one rogue video. From its soldiers fighting and dying to the IDF's senior command structure which has also been grossly manipulated and, even, compromised by Netanyahu and selected extremist coalition members over a period of years. Just one reason the IDF were slower to fully respond to southern Israel during Hamas' genocidal terror attack on October 7 was that Netanyahu and his coalition had shifted so many active duty IDF towards the West Bank for their political and Supremacist agenda.
Exactly why Netanyahu and senior elements denied the so many red flags; so many reports of overt irregularities made by forward Gaza uniformed IDF observers must and will be covered for the full investigation to come which will hopefully happen very soon. In the past, Israel has often been brutally honest in such needed self evaluation. Golda Meir retired as PM following the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a direct result of Israel’s process of self evaluation.
Of these forward Gaza observers who sent the red flags and recorded the irregularities in Gaza which were ignored, many were young women. The IDF’s forward observers were, tragically, among the first to die on October 7. Many of the women were sexually brutalized and murdered or taken back to Gaza as a hostage.
October 7 is one Netanyahu driven and largely unnecessary tragedies. Netanyahu must resign or be otherwise removed from office immediately