For Israel's sake, put the brakes on war
Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. Peace isn't just the right choice but the smart one for Israel — and Netanyahu. Hamas will have to release all remaining hostages and bodies of those who died in captivity.
On its part, Israel will have to stop military action in Gaza and Lebanon.
Persisting with the war may give Bibi an avenging strongman aura, but it's not helping Israel. The conflict has now moved beyond Hamas and Gaza to the north with Hezbollah in Lebanon, coupled with the warning that Bibi issued Iran at the UN. The high-profile Hamas and Hezbollah casualty list may seem like justification for continued military action.
But Netanyahu should know better. Nature abhors a vacuum; a new leadership will emerge. Worse, these terror groups will have rich pickings of recruits from the war-weary, ravaged Palestinian youth.
It will also reactivate inter-terror group coordination, endangering exactly what Israel has gone out to fortify: its security. The long war is making actualising the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) difficult, undermining the critical economic venture. This helps China, leaving the field open for its ventures such as the currently spluttering BRI.
As the war morphs into a shadow conflict between Israel and Iran, the troika of China-Russia-Iran gets tighter, with consequences for the Indo-Pacific and Europe, and impacting democracies beyond that include India.
Netanyahu's legal and political problems are reasons enough for him to persist with the war. But in doing so, he is endangering the safety and security of Israel. He must now allow for a political solution to take over.
