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13 days ago

Netanyahu never fits into a peaceful Middle East

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In the early hours of Saturday, when people in the subcontinent, were preparing to embrace the new Bengali Year, more than 300 missiles and drones simultaneously cruised through the airspace of Iraq and Jordan.

 By that time the entire world came to know that they were ejected from Iran and the target was Israel.

And at the same time top military analysts were analysing the probable impact of the attack in the talk-shows in the world's top TV channels, with almost all of them predicting that Iran's 'retaliation' would not be that much damaging as  Israel has one of the strongest air-defence capabilities in the world.

Their predictions came true. Out of 300 drones and missiles, only nine could hit the target, the rest were intercepted and destroyed in the sky  by Israeli military, and its allies mainly the USA and the UK.

International affairs' experts were found divided in their opinions regarding the outcome of the Iran's retaliatory mission as many felt that it would strengthen the hardliner Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. 

In fact, Netanyahu has been facing protests  in his own country since last year and his popularity was heavily dipping. Then, came the Hamas attack in October last, which changed his luck as the people of Israel pledged their support to their prime minister in his mission to eliminate the Hamas.

But when despite carrying out unprecedented brutality against unarmed civilians in Gaza, Netanyahu and his trigger-happy Generals  neither succeeded in rescuing the Israeli hostages nor could eliminate the Hamas, the popular sentiment at home started to turn against him again.

Even the western allies of Israel started to say 'enough is enough' when they did observe the inhuman attack against the Palestinian children and women in Gaza.

Then on April 1, killing of seven volunteers of an international aid agency by Israeli attack in Gaza made the world stunned and shocked.

Apparently losing patience, the US and the UK, who have been backing Israel unconditionally, started to grill Netanyahu publicly.

The New York Times went one step ahead by calling for an embargo on supplying arms to Israel in its editorial.

On the same day, Israel attacked Iran consulate in Damascus killing seven top officers, including two Generals of Iranian army.

Many felt that it was a calculated move by Netanyahu, to rope in Iran in the scene so that the attention was diverted from the incident of killing of the aid workers in Gaza.

And a section of foreign affairs' experts believe that by retaliating though the drone and missile attack Iran fell in the trap of Netanyahu, who is regarded as a maestro in the art of surviving in power.

However, another section of analysts felt that Netanyahu's trick to prolong the escalation with Iran may prove to be  a boomerang for him as by attacking inside Israel for the first time Iran managed to present a spectacular display of its military capability.

The western allies of Israel have been urging Mr Netanyahu in the last couple of days not to respond to Iranian attack warning that they would not back any Israeli effort in that direction.

But is it possible for a man to refrain from doing so whose very survival as Prime Minister depends on war and escalation?

It is widely believed that as long as Netanyahu wants to remain in power he has no option but to prolong the conflict.

Here lies the problem of ensuring peace and stability in the Middle East.

Netanyahu hates the idea of co-existence and is always in favour of expansion of Jewish settlement in Gaza by forcibly evicting the Palestinian people from their homeland and thus enlarge his vote bank.

So taming leaders like Mr Netanyahu should be the utmost task of the world powers to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East.

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