The
Independent’s Mid-East correspondent
Bel Trew makes the following claim in an
article on recent US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights (“Golan Heights: How Donald Trump’s tweet saved Netanyahu’s re-election”, March 23).
This is actually the second time in a week that Trew made some variation of the allegation that Israel’s prime minister launches wars against Hamas in order to secure electoral victories. A March 18th
articleby Trew on fears that a (evidently accidental) Hamas rocket attack on Tel Aviv could lead to all out war argued that “
Israeli incursions into Gaza have been launched ahead of the last three elections…often winning incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu additional votes on a security ticket.”
Trew’s narrative is completely counter-factual.
Israeli
Operation Cast Lead began on December 27th, 2008 and ended on January 18th 2009. Ehud Olmert, head of the Kadima Party, was the prime minister who launched the war, not Netanyahu, who didn’t become prime minister until after elections were held the following month.
Operation Protective Edge, from July 8th to Aug. 26th, 2014, was launched by Netanyahu as a response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens and subsequent Hamas rockets attacks on Israeli cities. However, elections were called in December – due to disagreements within the coalition over the budget and the Jewish state law – with the vote taking place on March 17, 2015. So, the timeline itself contradicts Trew’s claim.
The only war where the timeline is even consistent with Trew’s claim was
Operation Pillar of Defensefrom Nov. 14 to Nov. 22, 2012. The Knesset was suspended in Oct. 2012 and new elections announced which were to take place on Jan. 22 2013. However, that war was launched after
more than 100 rocketswere fired at Israel in the two-week period prior to Nov. 8th bringing Israeli life in the south to a virtual halt.
Further, the fact that this war ended after only eight days, and without an IDF ground assault, in fact demonstrates a larger point, one that even
Haaretz has conceded: that Netanyahu is widely viewed – even amongst his fiercest critics – as extremely risk averse when it comes to launching military offensives. Indeed, it is believed that his restraint during the 2012 war actually cost his party Knesset seats in the subsequent elections. As Haaretz’s Yossi Verter
argued, he agreed to a ceasefire early enough to avoid “entangling the Israel Defense Forces in a casualty-heavy and pointless ground offensive in the Strip” and “shut his ears to the loud warmongering by the right wing, including in his own party”.
(full article online)
Indy evokes ‘wag the dog’ conspiracy to explain Israeli wars with Hamas