Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; feature) – The world’s most poorly kept secret is that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi) is escalating his state-sponsored genocide in Gaza, by engaging ISIS to help “finish the job.” Bibi’s newest mercenary partner is Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of the Popular Forces of Palestine of the Islamic State—an offshoot of the ISIS terrorist group. Israeli MK Avigdor Lieberman called this out last week, in an interview on Radio KAN Reshet Bet, adding that just as he empowered Hamas to undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority (PA, al-Fatah), Bibi intends to use ISIS as a new armed force to counter Hamas. Though the guise is to defeat Hamas and rout them from Gaza, the apparent reason is to complete the ethnic cleansing to fulfill convicted felon Donald Trump’s plans to establish a Trump Resort on the shores of Gaza.
Before Bibi coopted Hamas to disempower the PA, the US saw fit to arm and finance the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, who ultimately allied with Al-Qaeda. That didn’t end well. There’s a disturbing pattern here of overplaying one’s hand by manipulating deadly internecine conflicts, which is now a “whack-a-mole” game.
Factors driving this unholy alliance include the attrition of Israeli soldiers during the 20 months since October 7, coupled with the widespread refusal of Israel’s Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) men to serve in the IDF. Though a Court order has been in place since June 2024 to end this exemption, only 1212 of 24,000 Haredi men sent draft notices have reported. As a result, Israel is sending more women into fighting squads in Gaza and the West Bank, so that one in five Israeli combat soldiers is now female. Bibi’s solution to a manpower shortage is woman power on the front lines, and to enlist ISIS to do Israel’s dirty work. And the Haredi men aren’t chivalrous enough to relieve them, asserting the privilege of study over service. In the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II, that exemption was necessary to rebuild the rabbinate and religious scholars. That urgency has long since passed, and the Haredim have become a drag on the Israeli economy, with their sense of entitlement without contributing to the state.
Bibi’s desperation to undermine creation of a Palestinian state led by PA, led Netanyahu to empower Hamas and to get Qatar and Egypt to keep Gaza afloat economically even as he blockaded the Strip. In 2015, when now-MK Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism Party) had no more standing than an Israeli “Proud Boy,” he characterized Hamas as an asset in the campaign to undermine the PA. Bibi and his far right wing Likud Party enacted policies that allowed Hamas to do what they did on October 7, 2023. Who’s sorry now? Bibi and Likud had a valid negotiating partner in the Palestine Authority, which recognized Israel in 1993. But because he never intended to negotiate, Bibi minimized and disempowered them in favor of Hamas, a much less reliable negotiating partner that never recognized Israe. But Bibi placed a big bet on Hamas’s inability or lack of interest in lashing out at Israel in a big way.
By allowing more money from Qatar to flow into Gaza, a fragile “peace” could be better maintained by reducing the hardship of the Israeli blockade a little. But things didn’t work out as planned. Bibi got complacent, thinking that Hamas would be a reliable border patrol for Israel. He also foolishly put his faith in a surveillance camera network that was easily destroyed as a precursor to the Hamas invasion. The Likud strategy for dealing with the occupied Palestinians is akin to how corporations defeat unionization efforts, by giving employees large bonuses days before a union vote or at Christmas.
“Gaza 41,” Digital, Midjourney, 2025
Bibi responded by saying that Lieberman should be ashamed for this “dangerous leak,” and said audaciously, “It seems that there are no limits to the cynicism and populism for the sake of self-promotion and narrow political ambitions.” How rich is this coming from a man who exudes just that? Bibi added vaguely, “Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways.” This means Israel is furnishing US-provided weapons to the Islamic State military wing, to act as Israel’s proxy army in Gaza. Not only was the Israeli cabinet not informed about this, but doing so violates the terms intended by Congress. Israel has become a rogue state, defying the intent of its only patron. And demanding more.
Lieberman sounded a great alarm about how, “No one can guarantee that these weapons will not be directed at Israel,” which has already happened. But Bibi is not enough of a deep thinker to consider the proven long-term consequences. His only interest is prolonging the war for his own political survival, and escape from the justice system—which is trying him for graft and breach of public trust. Now he is relying on criminal gangs in Gaza to fight his war, and giving them weapons that are being turned on Palestinians and can be turned on Israel sooner or later.
© 2025 All Rights Reserved