So the Israeli Prime Minister has decided that 70 percent control of Gaza is the magic number. One wonders whether he consulted a numerologist or simply concluded that half-measures are for the weak and the European. This is not a war of necessity. It is a war of choice, a war of colonial nostalgia dressed up in the language of security. We have seen this play before. The Romans did it in Judea. The British did it in Palestine. And now the modern heirs of that tradition are doing it again, except this time the casualties are broadcast live on Twitter.
The escalation is predictable. When you cannot win the argument, you escalate the violence. Netanyahu has chosen the path of least resistance: more bombs, more soldiers, more checkpoints. He gambles that the world will eventually tire of watching, as it always does. The 70 percent figure is not a military objective. It is a political signal. It says: we are here to stay, and we will not be moved by the tears of diplomats or the resolutions of the United Nations.
But let us not pretend this is only about Netanyahu. This is the logical endpoint of a national ideology that has traded moral clarity for territorial expansion. The Israeli right has long believed that power is the only language its neighbours understand. It has now proved that it cannot speak any other. And so we watch as the Gaza Strip, already a prison, becomes a graveyard.
What of the opposition? They are silent. What of the international community? They issue statements. And what of the intellectuals who once championed a two-state solution? They have retired to their campuses to write about post-colonial theory while real colonialism rages on. This is the decadence I have warned about: the retreat from uncomfortable truths into comfortable abstractions.
History will judge this moment harshly. Not because Israel has a right to defend itself. It does. But because this is not defence. This is domination. And domination always ends badly. Ask the Romans. Ask the British. Ask the Ottomans. The only question is when the bill comes due. Netanyahu bets it will be after his time. He may be right. But that does not make him wise. It makes him reckless.
In the end, the 70 percent solution is no solution at all. It is a postponement, a stay of execution for a policy that has no future. The sooner we stop pretending otherwise, the sooner we can have an honest conversation about what comes next. But I suspect we are not ready for that. We are still too busy counting percentages.
