Bibi the peacemaker: how starvation, bombs became his tools for ‘stability’

As the world watches in horror, Israel’s war on Gaza rages on with unrelenting brutality. What began as a stated military campaign has morphed into a systematic effort to destroy an entire population’s will to exist. The suffering is unimaginable. The destruction is relentless. And at the center of it all stands Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose policies have made starvation, bombardment, and forced displacement the cornerstones of his so-called strategy for “stability.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly obstructed diplomatic efforts, vetoed ceasefire initiatives, and weaponized humanitarian aid. What he frames as self-defense has become a campaign of annihilation. In recent weeks, the world has witnessed the unthinkable: the deliberate targeting and destruction of hospitals, medical staff, and ambulances in Gaza. The few functioning health facilities that remain are overwhelmed, operating without electricity, medical supplies, or safe corridors. Entire wards — neonatal units, intensive care, surgery— have been turned to rubble. The international humanitarian principle of medical neutrality has been trampled underfoot with impunity.

This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against the very idea of Palestinian identity. By turning Gaza’s healthcare system into a battlefield, Netanyahu is not merely violating international law, he is challenging the conscience of humanity. Through siege, starvation, and bombings, he aims to erase a people. But history tells us that such attempts always fail.

The memory of the 1948 Nakba — when over 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes — and the displacement following the 1967 war are not distant events relegated to textbooks. They are living history, woven into the collective Arab consciousness. These traumas, still raw and unresolved, are the context within which today’s horrors are unfolding. Palestinians remember. And they resist.

Gaza’s pain has become a shared human experience

Hani Hazaimeh

Netanyahu’s miscalculation lies in his assumption that brute force can extinguish the Palestinian spirit. He underestimates the power of memory, resilience, and rootedness. He believes that if the suffering becomes unbearable, the people of Gaza will simply vanish — cross into Egypt, scatter into permanent exile, and relinquish their land. But this is not 1948. It is 2025. The world is watching live. Every airstrike, every bloodied child, every collapsing hospital is documented and broadcast globally. Gaza’s pain has become a shared human experience. Its people, now symbols of endurance, have shown the world what it means to stand tall in the face of systematic erasure.

Netanyahu’s strategy is not only morally reprehensible, it is also politically self-defeating. Every targeted hospital, every blockade that prevents food and medicine, further isolates Israel on the world stage. Traditional allies are wavering. Within Israel, the narrative of national security is being challenged by the families of hostages and soldiers who see the war dragging on without clear purpose — except, perhaps, to protect Netanyahu himself from mounting legal and political pressure.

Facing corruption charges and widespread public dissent, the Israeli leader has weaponized war as a political shield. It is an old tactic: stoke fear, provoke nationalism, distract from domestic failures. But this time, the cost is devastating — not only to Palestinians, but also to Israel’s moral standing and long-term security.

And yet, much of the international community continues to offer only muted objections. World leaders speak of “both sides” even as one side demolishes entire neighborhoods, flattens hospitals, and turns children into orphans. Humanitarian agencies warn of famine and disease, but still, convoys are blocked, aid workers killed, and ceasefires undermined.

How many more hospitals must be bombed before the world speaks plainly? How many more infants must die in incubators without electricity before we say: enough?

It is time for a clear, unified voice from humanity

Hani Hazaimeh

To the Arab world, this is a historic test. The tragedies of 1948 and 1967 must not be repeated. Gaza is not a buffer zone. It is home to over 2 million people — families, students, doctors, poets, children with dreams. They do not need pity. They need protection. They need political action, humanitarian aid, and justice.

This war is not about eliminating Hamas. It is about redefining the Palestinian question — reducing it to a humanitarian crisis rather than a political struggle for rights, land, and self-determination. But that effort, too, will fail. Because Palestinians are not a charity case. They are a people, with a history, a culture, and an unbreakable bond with their land.

Netanyahu should study the fate of empires that sought to erase indigenous peoples. From the crusaders to colonial powers, they all eventually left. But the people remained.

Palestinians will remain. That is not in question.

The question is whether the international community will stand with them before Gaza is reduced entirely to ashes. Before the moral stain becomes permanent. Before the world’s silence becomes complicity.

It is time for a clear, unified voice from humanity. Palestine belongs to its people. And no prime minister — however ruthless, however relentless — can change that.

• Hani Hazaimeh is a senior editor based in Amman. X: @hanihazaimeh