Benjamin Netanyahu is once again leading Israel into catastrophe — not just for Palestinians in Gaza, but for his own people, his own government, and the world itself.

As Israel gears up for a fresh offensive into the shattered ruins of Gaza, Netanyahu claims this operation will “bring back the hostages” and “defeat Hamas.”

But behind these slogans lies a darker, more cynical reality: this war has become Netanyahu’s personal lifeline, a desperate bid to hold onto power at any cost, no matter how much Palestinian blood is spilled or how many Israeli lives are put at risk.

Let’s be clear: The war in Gaza was never about Israeli security.

The most effective hostage releases came not through relentless bombardment, but through negotiated ceasefires — deals Netanyahu’s own extremist allies sabotaged, threatening to collapse his fragile coalition if he agreed to further peace talks.

The military goalposts have kept shifting: first it was about punishing Hamas, then dismantling Hamas, now it’s about permanent territorial control and demographic engineering, euphemistically called “relocation” by far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich.

What does this mean on the ground? It means more than two million Palestinians crammed into Gaza’s southern wreckage, cut off from food, water, and medicine.

UN agencies warn of starvation and epidemic disease, and even Israel’s closest European allies are warning it is violating international law.

Yet Netanyahu presses ahead, wielding the blockade as a “pressure lever,” openly using civilian suffering as a tool of war — a strategy that amounts, under international law, to collective punishment and war crimes.

And for what?

Even U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, before leaving office, admitted the brutal campaign had simply regenerated the insurgency.

“Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost,” Blinken warned in January.

Israel, in short, has not won — it has simply created the conditions for endless, grinding war, where every dead fighter is replaced by two more, hardened by grief and rage.

The truth Netanyahu won’t admit is that this war is no longer about Hamas.

It’s about him.

Israeli society is fracturing: thousands of reservists now refuse duty, arguing that Netanyahu is dragging out the war to save his political skin.

Hostage families accuse the government of abandoning their loved ones, clinging instead to fantasies of military victory that will never come.

Within Israel, criticism is mounting that Netanyahu’s real enemy is not Hamas, but accountability — that only constant war can delay the inevitable reckoning for his failures and miscalculations.

Meanwhile, the world — especially Israel’s Western backers — does little beyond issuing polite condemnations.

The UK, France, Germany, and the EU all warn against the blockade, against demographic change, against the endless killing of civilians.

But where is the action?

Where are the sanctions, the arms embargoes, the diplomatic isolation?

The US, still Israel’s main military sponsor, remains complicit, funding the bombs that fall on Gaza while wringing its hands about humanitarian consequences.

And Gaza pays the price.

Palestinian civilians, the vast majority of whom have nothing to do with Hamas’ violence, are starved, bombed, and displaced.

Children make up more than half the population; they now grow up under the shadow of war, blockade, and grief, knowing that the world sees their suffering and shrugs.

Netanyahu’s legacy is already written: he will be remembered not as a protector of Israel, but as the architect of its moral collapse, a leader who clung to power through division, destruction, and perpetual war.

His Gaza offensive is not a path to peace or security — it is a path to ruin, not just for Palestinians, but for Israelis as well.

And unless the world finds the courage to act, to end its complicity, and to hold Netanyahu and his government accountable, this ruin will continue — one airstrike, one funeral, one shattered city at a time.