Israel:
Netanyahu the Assassin Is Challenged

Aug 4, 2025

This article is translated from the August 1 issue #2974 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

Protests against the genocide in Gaza are spreading within Israel itself. With more than 60,000 Gazans killed and nearly 146,000 wounded after 21 months of war, more and more voices are being raised to denounce the murderous policies of the Israeli government and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two Israeli human rights groups, B’Tselem (the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, known by its abbreviation) and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, issued a statement on July 28 denouncing killings by starvation and the systematic destruction of the Palestinian health system.

Criticisms by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are likely not innocent of political calculation. He was a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party. He now claims Israeli public opinion is overwhelmingly for the immediate and unconditional end to the war if that means the hostages are returned. He adds that he regrets that a significant part of the Israeli government explicitly opposes ending the war although this means more hostages will die.

Former Israeli ambassador to France, Elie Barnavi, had supported the war in response to the Hamas attack on October 7. But in a recent column he wrote, “What is improperly called the Gaza war has long since mutated into a brutal assault against the civilian population, which no longer has any military justification. What remains is the thirst for revenge, the tortuous designs of a desperate prime minister fighting for his political and judicial survival, and the aspiration of his supremacist and messianic allies to empty the territory of its inhabitants and replace them with Jewish settlers. This is what we call ethnic cleansing.”

Israeli government spokespeople respond to these criticisms by daring to assert, “There is no famine caused by Israel in Gaza today.” They accuse Hamas of causing the shortage by seizing humanitarian aid. The testimonies of Israeli soldiers present on the ground, relayed by the New York Times, do not prevent Netanyahu and his loyalists from continuing to lie brazenly. Israeli leaders and spokespeople are used to this. Their job is to defend the indefensible, anyway!

Still, testimonies are multiplying, particularly from soldiers returning from Gaza. They are severely affected by what they saw and the dirty work they were forced to do. Some lose their minds. Some commit suicide. But above all, every week and sometimes more, demonstrators demand the government stop the famine, stop the war, and bring back the remaining hostages. Protestors oppose Netanyahu’s cynicism, as he makes every effort to continue the massacre and shows the utmost contempt for the hostages and their families. As recently as July 24, demonstrators in Tel Aviv saying, “Netanyahu, you’re killing us!” were chased away by police.

Clearly, Netanyahu and his band of far-right ministers want to take advantage of the current situation for as long as possible. They have been able to carry out massacre and destruction with the complicity of all the major powers and with the open support of U.S. President Trump. This backing gives them the opportunity to kill as many Palestinians as possible as well as to advance their agenda, which is to drive Palestinians out and annex all of historic Palestine, which would complete the Zionist project as a colonialist project of the worst kind.

One obstacle remains: the Palestinian people, who after decades of this oppressive regime still resolutely oppose this enterprise of annihilation.