Hamas forms part of an “axis of evil” with Iran, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who denounced that nexus of adversaries while preparing to intensify the Israeli military campaign against the terrorists.
“Hamas is part of the axis of evil of Iran, Hezbollah, and their minions,” Netanyahu told the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. “This is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.”
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Netanyahu seemed to draw on American political rhetoric at the outset of U.S. wars in the Middle East, most obviously through the echo of the 2002 State of the Union address in which George W. Bush listed Iran alongside North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in an “axis of evil.” And George H.W. Bush characterized the first Persian Gulf Crisis as an opportunity to inaugurate “a new world order ... a world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle.”
Netanyahu offered his sweeping condemnation while casting the coming conflict in civilizational terms pitched at Western leaders.
“They want to return the Middle East to the abyss of the barbaric fanaticism of the Middle Ages, whereas we want to take the Middle East forward to the heights of progress of the 21st century,” he said, referring to the Iran-backed terrorists who massacred more than 1,400 people in their rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7. "I tell our friends in the enlightened world: Our war is also your war. If we do not stand together in a united front, it will reach you as well.”
Israeli forces have called for an evacuation of the Gaza Strip north of the Gaza River in what is believed to be preparation for a major ground offensive into Gaza City. Russia and Iran have warned that such a campaign could lead to a multi-front war, with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah forces already equipped to fire a vast arsenal of rockets at Israeli positions.
“Considering what is happening in Gaza, there’s a possibility that the war and clashes might spread to other fronts,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Monday. “In that case, it will be more difficult to control the situation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has amplified that warning to reinforce Iran’s diplomatic pressure on Netanyahu, but Moscow likely does not desire a major expansion of the conflict, according to a longtime Middle East expert.
“As for the Russians, they don’t feel that it’s contained ... it’s unpredictable, and I doubt the Russians are very happy with this,” former Estonian diplomat Peeter Raudsik told the Washington Examiner. “And I think that might end up in a situation where no one really wants it. ... [Even] Netanyahu right now, I'm not sure that he really wants to have this ground offensive, but in a way, he's been put in a spot where there is nothing else he can do.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu on Monday during his second trip to Israel in less than a week, a pair of stops bookending a diplomatic tour of the Middle East. U.S. officials reportedly are pressing the Israel Defense Forces to develop a strategy that extends beyond their initial goal of destroying Hamas, but Israeli officials have sounded hesitant.
“We’re not thinking now what will happen the day after the war,” Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who leads the Israeli mission to the United Nations, said Sunday. “We need to win this war, and that’s the only thing that we’re focused on.”
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Netanyahu vowed that Israeli Forces would be “storming forward” to destroy Hamas.
“Our goal is victory, a crushing victory over Hamas, toppling its regime and removing its threat to the State of Israel once and for all,” Netanyahu said. “To this end, determination is required because victory will take time. There will be difficult moments. There will be pitfalls. Sacrifice will be necessary. But we will win because this is our very existence in this region, in which there are many dark forces.”