Escalating Israeli Operations in Gaza and Lebanon Amid Rising Regional Tensions

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Ory Goldberg is a political commentator with a focus on Israel who joins us now from Tel Aviv. Good to have you with us.

[00:00:06]So, why are we seeing Israel expand its military occupations in both Gaza and Lebanon at the same time, do you think?

[00:00:17]>> Well, the immediate answer would be that Israel has lost all of its options for expanding its operations in Iran.

[00:00:23]Israel has been pushed away from the negotiations that are taking place without any active Israeli involvement.

[00:00:30]And uh Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have to say many Israelis, even those who consider themselves his staunchest critics, uh support a war as the only means for Israel establishing its security on a more permanent basis in the region. So, Israel is uh acting, you know, uh Israel is filling what it considers to be a vacuum. It acts in Gaza and Lebanon because it knows it will not encounter severe opposition at least in Gaza. And in Lebanon because so far the world is letting Israel get away with it.

[00:01:06]>> Is there any political calculus going on as well as we draw closer at least to Israeli elections?

[00:01:16]>> Of course there is. There always is. And this quote-unquote war is definitely not a war that is meant to achieve military goals.

[00:01:25]It never was. The self-imposed goals that Israel used with regard but also with regard to Lebanon are proving to be unrealistic to say the least.

[00:01:37]And as far as Prime Minister Netanyahu is concerned, war is good for him personally because it allows him to continue to obfuscate and postpone his criminal proceedings, his trial. But also because in a time of war and the generally the mood in Israel is is one of great uncertainty. Even if people don't like him, he is the one who has his hand on the tiller.

[00:02:02]Which means that he is seen almost immediately as the default option for the prime ministership. Uh if you ask many of his critics, the people who protested against him in the streets for years whether this is true or not, they will tell you that there's no doubt that this time he's going down. They've said this for five, six, seven election campaigns and they have always been proven wrong.

[00:02:26]I think a lot of it again has to do with the fact that he is simply here. He is in charge. He's directing the ship regardless of where it's going. Add to that the fact that most Israelis really do honestly believe that this is the only way to go, that Israel will only be safe if it fights a forever war.

[00:02:44]>> So, given what you just said about what most Israelis believe, does any potential replacement for Netanyahu, if he, of course, assuming he is going down as as you said many people believe, does any potential replacement propose anything different to the wars that organizations like UNICEF are saying in Lebanon alone are killing or wounding 11 children every 24 hours?

[00:03:13]>> That's the the $64,000 question and the answer, I'm afraid, is is painfully obvious and it is no.

[00:03:20]Uh no potential heir apparent, no competitor, no opposition leader is offering anything but the personal removal of Netanyahu. The support for Netanyahu's policies, the notion that these are wars that must be fought, uh the notion that the only important thing is strengthening and increasing uh the the the scope of IDF activity, which, for example, is expressed in the campaign to enlist the ultra-Orthodox. I mean, when you think about it, what the people who are calling for their enlistment, while they present themselves as liberals who calling for equality, what they're actually saying is that the most pertinent need Israel has at the moment is for more soldiers.

[00:03:59]Why does Israel need more soldiers?

[00:04:01]Because it's only potential future is a forever war. So, no, nobody uh no politician with any hopes of becoming a significant political presence in Jewish Israeli society would talk now about peace or about negotiations. They are all in essence very much supportive of Israel's genocide in Gaza and Israel's expanding genocide and ethnic cleansing in Lebanon.

[00:04:27]>> How about the fact the timing as well when it comes to how close apparently if we listen to the US vice president to a deal being worked out between the US and Iran. Is there any link there between that dynamic and the increased expansion of Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon?

[00:04:51]>> There certainly is.

[00:04:53]Uh Israel can no longer claim blind obedience on the part of the Trump White House or the United States generally to Israel's whims uh despite attempts to suggest that everything is normal and par for the course with AIPAC uh dictating Israeli interests as American interests, the truth is that Israel is now very much a political liability. And Israel knows this and Israel is very much aware of what is happening on the Iranian-American front.

[00:05:22]And what is happening is that Iran and the United States are talking perhaps through mediators, but effectively directly. They are talking about ending an American-Iranian war, not an Israeli-American-Iranian war.

[00:05:34]And that means that Israel or Israel's current leadership must prove its resilience and its capacity and ability to act alone. That is what Israel is pretending to do in in and Lebanon.

[00:05:46]Uh and while Israel causes an enormous amount of damage, an unbelievable toll of death and destruction, Israel is also completely devoid of any other options.

[00:05:58]Israel cannot negotiate because no one will negotiate with it. I mean, think of Saudi Arabia, that has made it abundantly clear it is not willing to negotiate with Israel. And Saudi Arabia was our great hope for some kind of regional solution. Uh persistent rumors about uh Middle Eastern security regional arrangements that are uh being uh discussed right now that include Iran are also a blow to Israel.

[00:06:22]So, Israel is left alone, seemingly as it has always wanted, uh but effectively the only way of proving any kind of vitality, any kind of commitment to security, any kind of Israeli spirit is through continuing these genocidal campaigns.

[00:06:40]>> All right, Ari Goldberg, that political commentator joining us from Tel Aviv.

[00:06:43]Thank you.

[00:06:45]>> Thank you for having me.