Opinion: Israel is dragging the US into a future regional war

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked whether he agreed with the recent “Victory of Israel” conference, which called for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, he said the ministers from his government who attended were “entitled to their opinions”.

This was, as usual, misleading. Just months earlier, he had reportedly tasked Ron Dermer, one of his closest aides, with exploring ways to “thin out” Gaza’s population.

The idea was to bypass the resistance of Egypt, the US and Europe to another mass wave of refugees, by opening up the sea as a humanitarian gesture.

Israel Hayom, the Israeli newspaper, which got a copy of the plan, noted: “The phenomenon of refugees in war zones is an accepted thing. Tens of millions of refugees have left war zones across the globe in just the last decade, from Syria to Ukraine. All of them were found to have an address in the countries that agreed to accept them as a humanitarian gesture.

“So why would Gaza be different? … The sea is also open to the Gazans. At its will, Israel opens the sea crossing and enables a mass escape to European and African countries.”

Opinion by David Hearst.

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