Who will stop Netanyahu?

This week, after a two-week hiatus from our weekly, we wanted to talk to you about Gaza. About the terrible famine raging in the enclave, which the world became aware of at the end of July through striking photos—and which have since been contested. But whatever the controversy surrounding the images, the fact remains: Gaza is starving, and Gaza is dying.

“I’m so hungry… Every morning, we wake up with only one thing on our minds: finding something to eat. […] Our bodies give out. We’re weak, unable to concentrate, wobbly. We get upset over nothing, but most of the time, we keep quiet anyway – talking wastes too much energy.” These are the words of journalist Ruwaida Amer. From Khan Younis, she bears witness to the situation in a powerful text published on the Israeli-Palestinian website +972 and translated on our site.

And it was also about Palestine that we wanted to talk to you. And about the slim hope raised by the desire expressed by several countries – France at the forefront – to recognize a Palestinian state.

But that was without counting on Benjamin Netanyahu. By having his plan to occupy Gaza approved, the Israeli Prime Minister persists and signs: the occupation of the enclave is his priority, in defiance of the Israeli hostages still alive, in defiance of international law (but has he ever respected it?), in defiance of even the most cynical common sense, as Ha'Aretz journalist Zvi Barel reminds us in the article that opens this report. Certainly, the condemnation is widely shared, from Arab countries to Europe. But to what end?

Perhaps the answer will come from within. On August 4, 550 Israeli figures signed an appeal to Donald Trump to end the war. Among them was Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service. He signed the text in Foreign Affairs that concludes our dossier, which says, in essence, that Israel cannot win this war. He is very clear: “Only a regional agreement, with the determined support of the international community, leading to a viable two-state solution, can preserve Israel's security, its Jewish identity, and its democracy, end the spiral of violence, and transform the Middle East from a battlefield into a zone of cooperation.”