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**APRIL 8, 2024**

On the Prospect website

American Workers Get Some Help From an Enlightened German Law

As the UAW seeks to unionize an Alabama Mercedes factory, a new
German law requires the company not to go union-busting. BY HAROLD
MEYERSON

Clawing Their Way Back to Relevance

The Florida Democratic Party aims to take advantage of Republican
miscues and sweep up the voters who are fed up with them. BY RAMENDA
CYRUS

The Prospect Weekly Roundup: Going Radical
On
our weekly news show, David Dayen and Robert Kuttner discuss how
policymakers both in America and across the pond need to think bigger.
BY PROSPECT STAFF

Kuttner on TAP

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**** If Not Now, When?

Has Biden's pressure finally ended Israel's war on Gaza's
civilians? Or is the U.S. allowing Bibi one more head fake?

Last week, Biden at last read Netanyahu the riot act. Israel's
destruction of Gaza's civilian population had to end, or U.S. support
for Israeli military operations in Gaza would end.

The language put out by U.S. media officials was softer, mainly
referring to the need for more extensive relief operations and greater
care to spare Gazan civilians. But obviously, no such relief operations
would be necessary in the absence of Israel's massive destruction.

Netanyahu has now pulled all Israeli troops from southern Gaza, while
denying that this had anything to do with Biden's ultimatum. The
official explanation of the Israeli government
,
in the words of an army press spokesman Sunday morning, was that the IDF
left the southern Gaza area because "It doesn't make sense for us to
stay there now ... The 98th Division

crushed the [Hamas] brigades in Khan Yunis and killed thousands of
terrorists. Anything that could have been done there, we have done."

This is nonsense, but as Sunday wore on, the statements from Israeli
military leaders grew more aggressive, walking back Netanyahu's
commitment to Biden.

IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi, who reports to Netanyahu, added
:
"The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping. Senior Hamas
officials are still in hiding. We will get to them sooner or later. We
are making progress, continuing to kill more terrorists and commanders
and destroy more terror infrastructures ... We will not leave Hamas
brigades active in any part of the Strip. We have plans and we will act
when we decide."

And Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
,
speaking Sunday night, insisted that Israeli troops were withdrawn from
Khan Yunis to prepare for the expected offensive in Rafah. "We will
reach a situation where Hamas does not control the Gaza Strip and where
it does not function as a military framework that poses a risk to the
citizens of the State of Israel," he said.

These statements were obviously coordinated. And it's all dangerous
fantasy. In truth, Hamas cannot be disabled, and Israel has pulled out
of southern Gaza because Biden demanded it. Netanyahu also relented on
negotiations and allowed a top-level delegation to return to Cairo where
serious discussions are in progress on a cease-fire-for-hostage deal.

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U.S. officials, unhelpfully, reinforced Netanyahu's fable. On Sunday
morning, John Kirby, White House national-security spokesman, said on
ABC's

**This Week**

that the troops have "been on the ground for four months ... The word
we're getting is they're tired. They need to be refit."

That is also malarkey. In reality, the Israeli pullout is a devastating
defeat for Netanyahu's Gaza war. With demonstrations in Israel
escalating, the reversal should hasten new elections, because any
regional deal will require formal Israeli recognition of a Palestinian
state, something Netanyahu cannot accept without blowing up his
far-right cabinet.

Biden finally, reluctantly, took the hard line with Netanyahu that he
should have taken six weeks ago, before so many more Gazan civilians
were killed and so much of Gaza reduced to rubble and famine. Now Biden
needs to take an even harder line (and make sure that his own spokesman
doesn't undercut it).

He needs to demand that Netanyahu's top military aides stop
equivocating about Israel's actual policy. And Biden needs to warn
explicitly that if one more Gazan civilian is killed by Israeli bombs,
forget about the U.S. supplying Israel with offensive weapons.

The bigger question is whether a cease-fire, hostage deal, regional
settlement, and the replacement of the Netanyahu government can stem the
damage already done. It cannot bring back the lost Israeli lives or the
lost Gazan lives.

It remains to be seen whether an end to the Gaza war can reverse the
loss of support for Biden's re-election among young people and people
of color; stop the toxic influence of AIPAC meddling in Democratic
politics; begin to restore something of Israel's ruined moral
credibility in the world; and undo some of the increased
antisemitism-of which the principal cause is Netanyahu himself.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

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