Netanyahu’s Israel will know no peace

"I believe that we are doing the right things. It would be worthwhile to pay attention not only to what we are saying, but to what we are doing,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on a July 17 visit to the IDF Gaza Division. So what are Israel's leaders doing to ensure the welfare of the Israelis living along the Gaza border and to protect their fields against the flaming kites destroying their crops? The answer lies in the newspapers’ archives. They are doing exactly what they did the previous time warning sirens blared and sent the children in the border town of Sderot running to shelters. They will probably do the same again next time.

The scene never changes: threats, airstrikes, closing of border crossings to Gaza, limiting Gaza’s fishing, imposing a fuel embargo, more threats. If Education Minister Naftali Bennett surges in the polls after riding the wave of suffering of Gaza’s 2 million residents and the hysterical media coverage, Netanyahu will be forced to order a ground operation in Gaza. In a few months, perhaps a year or two, rockets will once again whistle over Sderot accompanied by blaring sirens, the prime minister’s office will invite reporters to accompany him on a tour of the battered town and to hear him suggest yet again that Israelis pay attention “to what we’re doing.” Until the next time.