VIDEO: Netanyahu’s Rejection of Gaza Withdrawal Plan Keeps the Genocide Going
In an interview on Al Jazeera English, Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, explains why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to carry out a phased withdrawal from Gaza — despite having agreed to it — is not surprising, and why U.S. pressure in words alone will never be enough to stop the genocide.
On Netanyahu’s rejection of the structured withdrawal plan, Phyllis cuts to the core: “The so-called pressure from the United States is simply in the arena of words. It’s only statements, and we’ve seen this from the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, back in 2023, when we saw requests from the White House, whether it was from President Biden and then later President Trump, to say please stop killing so many Palestinians, please negotiate seriously — but without any real pressure behind that.”
She is direct about what real pressure would look like: “What that would have to mean is saying there will be no more U.S. arms transfers to Israel. Period. Full stop. There will be no more military aid to Israel. Period. Full stop. You know, this is what makes the genocide, which is still going on in Gaza, possible. It’s the support from the United States — support diplomatically in the United Nations, protection from the International Criminal Court.”
The human toll of the stalemate is not abstract, she stresses: “There have been 1,100 people killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes just since the so-called ceasefire deal was passed in October of last year. The notion that the genocide is over is simply not the case. If it goes into stalemate, that means the genocide is continuing. This is what’s so dramatically dangerous about this.”
On the shifting political landscape in the U.S., Phyllis notes a significant development: “AIPAC has been one of the most powerful sectors of the pro-Israel lobby. Their money is now toxic among a huge sector of candidates, particularly Democratic Party candidates, who know that if they accept AIPAC money, it will discredit them in the eyes of their own base.”
Asked whether meaningful pressure on Israel could come before the midterms, Phyllis is candid: “I think it’s very unlikely.” But she lays out what it would take: “No more money, no more weapons, and no more deals to be closer — until or unless Israel goes ahead with what they had originally agreed to in terms of a structured, phased withdrawal.” She also flags the dangerous provision now moving through Congress to formally merge the U.S. and Israeli militaries, describing it as something that must be taken off the agenda entirely.
She closes with a sharp assessment of Trump’s political calculus: “He’s actually carrying one out and enabling another. So I think that there is a serious problem facing the elections. Some of it may be that he’s more concerned about his own reputation than that of his Republican colleagues — looking ahead only to 2028 and what happens to his reputation at that point, rather than worrying about which Republicans get elected to either the House or the Senate in November of this year.”
See the full interview below.
