London (National Times): Pressure is rising on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to formulate a post-war plan for Gaza, with political rivals accusing him of indecision and the US warning of a power vacuum emerging in the devastated Palestinian territory.
Splits in the war cabinet burst into the open this week. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant chastised Netanyahu for not trying to establish a Palestinian governing body as an alternative to Hamas.
Without that, he said, the Israeli military would be forced to occupy Gaza, which would be \u201cdangerous\u201d for the Jewish state. He was quickly backed by Benny Gantz, a former head of the Israel Defense Forces.
The premier hit back, saying that rather than focusing on so-called \u201cday-after\u201d issues, the IDF needs to concentrate on routing the remnants of Hamas \u2014 designated a terrorist organization by the US \u2014 in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Netanyahu wants to block any involvement of the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the West Bank and controlled Gaza before Hamas took over in 2007.
At the same time, Hamas is regrouping in parts of Gaza, causing the IDF to send troops back to areas, including the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, that were cleared of the group\u2019s fighters months ago. That\u2019s led to some criticism of Israel\u2019s tactics of not keeping troops in areas when fighting stops to secure them, including by former US General David Petraeus.
This week, South Africa, in a case supported by Brazil, Turkey and others, urged the International Court of Justice to order Israel to do more to protect civilians and said \u201cits aim of destroying Gaza from the map is being realized.\u201d Israel rejected the accusation.
Until the war ends and there\u2019s clarity over what happens to Gaza, Israel\u2019s internal divisions will likely fester and its global standing worsen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London (National Times): Pressure is rising on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to formulate a post-war plan for Gaza, with political rivals accusing him of indecision and the US warning of a power vacuum emerging in the devastated Palestinian territory.Splits in the war cabinet burst into the open this week. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant chastised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n