On the occasion of your 73rd birthday, April 2nd, I am writing to wish you a happy birthday. I sincerely hope that you will be granted an unconditional release before your 74th birthday…

What is clear to observers of the present genocide taking place in Gaza is this: the Warsaw Ghetto of 1940 where more than 80, 000 Jews (among 380, 000 Jews sealed within the Ghetto by the Nazis) died of starvation and overcrowding is now the Gaza Ghetto where more than 65, 000 Palestinians have been murdered and are dying from bombardment and starvation. The call to forcibly transfer the Palestinians out of Gaza is the same call that Hitler made in relation to the transfer of Jews out of Germany and Europe.

Israel’s operation in Gaza will be justified as a necessary step to break the deadlock in negotiations while simultaneously fulfilling Netanyahu’s promise to defeat Hamas – even though the timelines for these two goals are not aligned. The hostages could die before Hamas is defeated, if it’s defeated at all. But above all, this is about a series of urgent political goals that the prime minister won’t admit to publicly: restoring Itamar Ben-Gvir and his far-right Otzma Yehudit faction to the government, passing the budget and stabilizing the coalition. Netanyahu’s true objective appears increasingly clear: a gradual slide toward an authoritarian-style regime, whose survival he will try to secure through perpetual war on multiple fronts.