The West Bank is paying the price.. Netanyahu is employing operations to save his political future ahead of the elections

Jerusalem - News Report - Benjamin Netanyahu has always used any event in the West Bank, especially operations, to his advantage politically and electorally, exploiting every security event to escalate the military rhetoric and direct attention away from his internal crises, in an approach that is being renewed with the approaching Israeli elections and the decline of his chances of retaining power.

Observers believe that the operations at this time serve Netanyahu electorally, as they allow him to escalate the security discourse, divert attention from his internal crises, and use them to strengthen his political position through incitement and expansion of military operations in the West Bank.

In the wake of the shooting attack at the Hebron intersection, the features of this employment began to become clear through the inflammatory statements that he himself made this morning when he decided to close the West Bank and cancel the Likud Party’s election propaganda, all the way to the pillars of his government, such as the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who was quick to demand a broad military campaign in the West Bank. In addition to Minister Ben Gvir, calling for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.

Smotrich announced that he had issued orders to demolish Palestinian buildings close to the site of the operation, claiming that they were illegal, indicating that the demolition operations would begin in the coming hours and continue until Saturday, in a move that raises fears that the operation will be exploited to expand punitive measures against the Palestinians.

Smotrich's statements did not stop at the demolition of buildings. Rather, he called for a broad military campaign that included collecting weapons, pursuing those he described as terrorists, and leading to the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. He called for changing the Israeli security doctrine and repeating what he described as success in Gaza and Lebanon.

These statements reveal the speed of the transition from dealing with a specific shooting operation to presenting a broader political and military agenda targeting the entire West Bank, and open the door to a new escalation affecting the Palestinians, their property, and their institutions.

In light of the political crisis that Netanyahu is facing and the approaching elections, the question arises about the extent to which these operations are used to serve his electoral calculations, by making his government look tough in security, and presenting the military escalation as a necessary response to the events, instead of focusing on its accumulated failures and crises.

While Israeli statements calling for the expansion of military operations continue, the West Bank appears to be at risk of turning every security event into a pretext for imposing further restrictions and sanctions, at a time when security considerations overlap with the political and electoral calculations of the Israeli leadership.