God, Gaza and Bibi Netanyahu
By David W. Virtue DD
August 7, 2025
Oct. 7, 2023, was an event of Biblical proportions, and Bibi Netanyahu understood this from the moment it happened, and so he answered biblically.
His answer was to wipe Amalek (read Hamas) off the face of the earth. You might say he is doing God’s work. I am told he is not a religious man; he wears no kippah but he can quote long stretches of the Torah. So, he sees himself doing God’s work. He knows his Bible. It might be said he is a man of the Bible, according to a well-placed source.
When speaking before the US Congress, he often brings along an archaeological trinket that dates back to the time of King David. He reminds America, and the world, that he is a successor to King David, and so is all of Israel, holy, holy, holy…as proclaimed by the prophet in a moment of divine clarity.
King David is Bibi’s all-time hero. King David is Bibi’s measure of Jewish leadership, and so he won’t stop until he feels Israel has been fully avenged.
He won’t be pressured and biblically he knows not to buckle and tremble before the enemy, militarily or politically. He won’t cave for the UN or the EU or the Hague or even members of his own cabinet. He is on a mission from God.
It’s probably why so many US presidents and secretaries of state disliked him. That’s because he refused to cave. They all wanted him to buckle for a two-state solution. Give in and we’ll be pals. Imagine the pressure. But Bibi refused. Ironically Hamas doesn’t want a two-state solution, only the liberal West want this solution, which is no solution at all.
Somone wrote, “America first for Trump. Israel first for Bibi.” It’s a soundbite you won’t forget.
And this might be a better handle on understanding Israel’s prime minister. He is on a mission from God! It would certainly explain his intransigence against forces that weaker men would have caved. He has steadfastly refused.
Hamas must be destroyed or they must surrender. They must hand over their weapons, they must never be allowed to be a part of the political solution for Gaza and its people, and all the hostages must be released.
With the latest pictures of gaunt, starving Israelis hidden away in tunnels under Gaza, Israel gained the PR upper hand. Hamas overplayed its hand. Bibi won. If Hamas thought that humiliating two young emaciated Jews would bring about an end to the war, they were dead wrong. It got world attention but not Hamas’s favor.
Bibi dug in his heels and said he might occupy all of Gaza to find all the hostages. Hamas has threatened to kill them all. But dead hostages invite massive bombing because Israel has nothing left to lose if they are all dead. Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, "You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power—he's free again." This quote reflects on the nature of power and the limits of control over individuals. Hamas should live and learn. Apparently not.
Some voices say occupying Gaza is a terrible idea and would be a grave mistake if the Israeli government and Knesset agree to it. Occupation tends to create more problems than it solves; and it becomes an open wound, a staging post for all of a nation’s domestic and foreign enemies.
But Netanyahu’s push for Israel to occupy Gaza has been long in the offing. Some members of Netanyahu’s government have, ever since the horrific terrorist atrocities on October 7 2023, talked about removing the entire population of Gaza and replacing them. An American plan was to involve foreign occupation and the creation of an American-administered Mediterranean Riviera in Gaza. That idea seems to have dropped off the agenda.
The leaders of the Israeli settler movement, meanwhile, have protested near the border with Gaza and are demanding that they be permitted to settle the strip as they have settled in the West Bank. A groundswell of support in Israel – by no means a majority – considers the indefinite takeover of Gaza to be the only permanent solution to the war, one Israeli commentator noted.
Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, recently issued a letter to Donald Trump and called on him to pressure Netanyahu to end the war rather than continue it indefinitely.
Certainly, occupation has its downside as the US learned in Afghanistan. And Bibi told Fox News today that he has no intention of occupying Gaza long term, but to turn it over to Arab leadership.
And we should remember that this is the Middle East where every nation surrounding Israel would love to see it vanish off the face of the earth and replaced with a single Palestinian state. A Hamas remnant is as dangerous as four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001.
These Palestinian terror groups have emphasized time and again that they will never disarm or recognize Israel's right to exist. They have also repeatedly vowed to continue their jihad against Israel until it is obliterated. Despite their opposition to the "two-state solution," the Palestinian terrorists are nevertheless prepared to take any land Israel gives them so it can be used as a launchpad to destroy Israel.
Hamas has Warned Against Normalizing Relations with Israel
Hamas Political Bureau member Kamal Abu Aoun has warned Arab nations against normalizing relations with Israel, emphasizing the group’s ongoing commitment to a ceasefire. He has expressed hope that mediation efforts will lead to Gaza’s reconstruction. But that still leaves Hamas with skin in the game and a hand in Gaza’s future. Netanyahu will have none of it.
World opinion is steadfastly against Israel continuing the war, but that will not work for Israel. The flow of history is with Israel even if antisemitism continues to rise globally. Jews don’t play the victim card. They get up and move on. In doing so they win, over and over again.
Netanyahu will not be moved. He has the last word. “I am telling you—there will be no more Hamas. There will be no more Hamas-stan. We are not going back to that. It’s over. We will free all of our hostages.”
END