Eschatology: /ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/ Def: the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
Bibi Netanyahu has gotten himself and Israel into a real pickle. Seeing the commencement of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation by Hamas as his golden opportunity to finally rid British Mandate Palestine of the Palestinians, he has, along with his cabinet, grossly miscalculated the resolve and the ability of the Palestinian resistance. The IOF may think it has months to clear Gaza of Hamas, but more informed sources say Israel has only weeks instead of months to do so – and there are doubts that will happen at all. In this post we take a closer look at Netanyahu, where the conflict stands at the moment, and what the likely trajectory of the conflict is going forward. For more, read on…
Since October 7, and given that it is been two months now, we have reached the point made in the last post regarding the transit of Pluto in its direct phase to the IC of the Israeli 16:15 chart. The IC in a national chart represents infrastructure, land and opposition parties. As it stands the opposition parties external to Israel have coalesced and are gradually increasing the pressure on the IOF incrementally and horizontally.
The genocide in Gaza and the Israeli pursuit of supremacy in the region is promoting asabiyyah (group or tribal cohesion, solidarity and unity of action) in the Islamic world against Israel and increasingly against the United States. This is perhaps one reason why we see the abstentions of the UK, Italy and Germany in the UNGA ceasefire vote recently, in order to appear to somewhat distance themselves from the hardline stance of the US and Israel.
There was in fact a temporary ceasefire, provoked in part by the UNSC vote on November 15th for humanitarian corridors to be opened. No one voted against it, but the US, UK and Russia abstained, allowing the motion to pass. There was also the announcement of a 1,000 boat flotilla from Turkiye to break the humanitarian blockade at the same time. That ceasefire was due to combination pressures, including domestic pressure on Bibi from the families of the hostages to get the hostages released, at least some of them. It was also shown in transits to a key midpoint in his chart, discussed shortly. The ceasefire for four days went into effect on the 24th of November. At the end of the ceasefire the IOF continued its genocide as usual.
On December 6 Antonio Guterres invoked article 99 of the UN charter, when transiting Pluto was exact on the Israeli IC, stipulating that the UN Security Council vote on a measure to end the genocide still ongoing in Gaza. It would be a non-binding measure. It is a vote that was vetoed by the US and the UK, of course, but the fact that it was even being floated – and for the first time ever in Guterres’ tenure – shows the concern and the outrage of the wider international community:
“I’ve just invoked Art.99 of the UN Charter – for the 1st time in my tenure as Secretary-General.
Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.”
Since that initiative was vetoed by the US, the motion was passed to the UNGA, where the vote was overwhelmingly in support of a permanent and sustainable ceasefire (linked above), thus showing the isolation of Israel and the US among world opinion. Since then and sensing growing condemnation and isolation, the Biden administration has begun to mildly pressure the Israelis.
At this point the question needs to be asked: Why has no nation invoked the Genocide Convention regarding Israel? It would only take one nation to do so. Craig Murray, ex-ambassador to the UK recently found the answer, and it is quite important to note, and why:
“Yesterday I attended a session called by Palestine at the United Nations in Geneva. Over 120 states attended. While the formal session consisted of statements of national position with few surprises, I was able to discuss with a large number of delegates in the corridors why the Genocide Convention has not been activated triggering a reference to the International Court of Justice. The answer is now clear to me. It is not that people are worried that a claim of genocide will not be successful at the International Court of Justice. It is that everybody is quite sure it will succeed. There is no respectable argument that this is not a genocide…
The problem is that once the ICJ has determined that this is a genocide, it follows that not only are Netanyahu and hundreds of senior Israeli officials and military personally liable, but it is absolutely plain that “Genocide Joe” Biden, Sunak and members of their administrations are also criminally liable for complicity, having provided military support for the genocide. The International Criminal Court cannot ignore a judgment of genocide from the International Court of Justice and will have no choice but to issue arrest warrants.”
Let that sink in…
Biden has called for Bibi to alter his course, to reconsider the two-state solution (as in actually implementing it), not that they are at all worried about the Genocide Convention, and warning that Israel faces isolation in the world. In terms of all that, and given Bibi faces ouster and jail time if he relents, there is a word for the warning of the White House from Bibi – ‘Buckley’s’, or from WWII, ‘Nuts’ – as in little to no chance of Bibi changing course or cabinet.
As to the war itself the IOF in Gaza has gradually come to realize they are fighting a very capable and formidable enemy in Hamas. Along with the conflict in Gaza, the actions of Hezbollah in the north of Israel continue and slowly escalate in line with Israeli actions. It is gradually coming out that the IOF is sustaining serious casualties, in a society that is casualty averse. What is reported in Israeli media, like we see Ukraine, is probably the very low end of what the casualties and the nature of them actually are.
Ansarallah (the Houthis) are stopping all shipping going to Israel via the Red Sea from arriving in Israel, thus increasing economic pressure – no food to Gaza, then no Red Sea. Israel is now enduring a naval blockade from the Red Sea, greatly increasing the cost and arrival times of imported goods, impacting the entire Israeli economy.
The blockade will impact Europe, too, as shipping companies are now halting all shipping through the Red Sea. In fact, 4 of the 5 major shipping companies have stopped their transit through the Red Sea. Most raw goods for Israeli industries come from Asia, which normally pass through the Suez Canal. Public unrest in Israel will grow as a result. And with 350,000 working-age reservists now engaged in the fighting, factories are either closed or short-staffed.
Most of the fertile farm lands in Israel are in or around the war zones, so cannot be worked, but Netanyahu’s son Yair is doing his part (hiding out) for the war effort by keeping the family home in Miami maintained while enduring the Miami beaches and weathering the hurricanes. Israelis are not sympathetic. Apparently Israel also has its version of fortunate sons when it comes to war.
As it stands the hasbara from the IOF is off the charts and increasingly ridiculous, constantly debunked on social media. Stories of beheaded babies, rapes by Hamas on Oct 7th, Hamas killing civilians during the Al-Aqsa Flood operation (translate from Hebrew), the captured ‘Hamas’ fighters (Gaza civilians) – all debunked.
As to the latter claim about ‘captured fighters’, the reasoning (if we can call it that) for calling civilians ‘Hamas fighters’ comes from the IOF itself:
“In essence, the use of aerial and artillery firepower as a preparation for any ground action is practically unlimited, especially in areas north of the Gaza River, which the IDF had called on civilians to evacuate. Anyone present in those areas is likely to be considered a Hamas operative – even if they are not directly affiliated with Hamas but have chosen not to leave.”
Bolding added. It is much the same as blaming all Republicans in the US for Biden being elected in 2020, or vice-versa with the Democrats and Trump in 2016. They live in the US, therefore they must support the President, right?
The truth is the Palestinians did not vote for the Al-Qassam Brigade (the military wing of Hamas) when Hamas took over the leadership of the Gaza Strip in 2006. They voted for the political wing, which ran on a promise of cleaning up corruption and lawlessness, and Hamas followed through on it. And not everyone in Gaza likes Hamas or voted for them. The EU pronounced the 2006 Gaza election free and fair, much to the consternation of Israel and the US. Now Israel must deal with Al-Qassam.
The IOF has yet, after two months, to enter the center of Gaza City with ground troops. They are using tactics like those of ISIS, according to Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet. The Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades regularly post videos and comments of their military exploits. We see no pictures or videos of actual captured or killed Hamas fighters in Israeli media. If there had been any, would they not have been paraded across Israeli media?
Further than that, Al-Qassam is showing considerable tactical knowhow, even by American standards, knocking off Israeli officers (there is a list, in Hebrew) instead of the lower ranks, thus disrupting the chain of command on the field for the IOF and souring troop morale. It speaks of incompetence on the part of the IOF.
Then there are the tunnels, estimated to run 400km+ under Gaza City, with over 1,000 (as of 2009) stretching from southern Gaza into Egypt. The latter have been the lifeline to Gaza since the Gaza blockade was imposed in 2007 after Hamas took over. The Israelis considered flooding the tunnels with seawater, but the logistics of that are staggering and it is doubtful they could flood them all or enough of them to make a big difference. With this background we get to the substance of this post – Bibi Netanyahu.
By the end of October Netanyahu had pronounced the struggle between the Palestinians and hardline Zionists (Note: There is no mention of Jews as a whole here) to be existential and thus started spouting eschatological rhetoric in order to rally the troops and Zionists worldwide. As it is, though, the title of this post can be read in several ways.
Bibi Netanyahu’s self-proclaimed war against Hamas has taken on a religious and messianic overtone, according to his rhetoric, of his own making. It is a false narrative, as we will see, but it is also rhetoric that speaks of desperation. His rhetoric taps into deeply held beliefs by the majority of the Israeli public, as well as Christian Zionists – the evangelical Christians – in the US. Both the Israeli public and the Christian Zionists have been blindsided (for any evangelical reading this) and falsely led to believe the Zionist hard line rhetoric. This has wide implications for the state of Israel, for the Palestinians, and for the region at large, in that it serves to push the conflict into a do-or-die struggle – existential, in other words.
Bibi sees himself as the one man who can lead Israel to victory over the Palestinians, on the way to realizing the fabled ‘Greater Israel’, which is envisioned to stretch from the Fertile Crescent in Iraq, the Nile in Egypt, to Southern Turkiye and southward toward Ethiopia. It is indeed simply a fable and will not materialize, but it is held before the more ignorant in the Israeli public as a favored outcome.
What exactly is in Bibi’s chart that shows his current messianic bent? The birth time for his chart is disputed, but as it turns out we don’t need a birth time to see what is influencing his current behavior. His noon chart for the end of October with transits and directions is below (bigger):
Netanyahu has a particular midpoint in his chart that was strongly activated by transits and directions on October 7th and which was still in effect at the end of October (shown by the green lines), the Mars=Mercury/Neptune midpoint. It has the following indications:
Mar=Mer/Nep: “Thinking with a purpose, great powers of imagination (the disposition of a genius). – The realization of plans or inventions, acting according to deliberation and experience.”
There is no doubt he has been a very cagey and astute politician, seeing he is now into his 3rd term as Israeli PM. But in October events started to go awry for him and for his coalition as a result, starting with the solar arc of the Sun and Venus coming within a degree of orb of the midpoint in December of 2022, around the time he was reelected. That combination of planets in the natal midpoint structure can be problematic, though, as follows:
Mer=Mars/Nep: “Thoughtlessness, nervous weakness (in consequence of drugs or misuse of energy), weakness of mind, sensitive nerves, (a receptive mind). Many plans without a chance of realization.”
Nep=Mer/Mars: “The pursuit of fantastic plans, speaking without acting, not keeping of promises. – Hopeless plans, the tendency to harm others through falsehood or underhanded behaviour, the process of undermining another person’s position.”
Those are combinations found in the charts of conmen, liars, hopeless dreamers and sociopaths. They are also found in the charts of brilliant creative artists when the person is well adjusted, but they can still be left open to deceit and underhandedness. Then, we compare Bibi’s natal midpoint setup when activated by the Sun and Venus:
Sun=Mars/Mer/Nep: “Sensitiveness, receptiveness, a rich imagination, intellectual creativity. – Impressionability, dependence on moods. – The state of being deceived.”
Ven=Mars/Mer/Nep: “Rapturous imaginings, expecting too much of love, strong attractive powers of short duration, a strong fluid-like emanation”
But there is more. His Sun and Venus are in a natal semisquare anyway, and Venus squares Saturn, an unforgiving combination. Thus we see a ‘hard triangle’ with the Sun at the apex in Bibi’s natal chart. It is also a midpoint combination:
Sun=Ven/Sat: “Unsatisfied desire in love, inhibitions in sex-expression, an unhealthy expression of the sex-urge, weak powers of procreation. – A lonely life, separation in love or marriage. – Organic troubles.”
But wait, there is more. We note from the chart the Sun also forms a midpoint with Uranus and Pluto – our ‘revolution midpoint’. It carries the following probable manifestations, positive and negative:
+ The attainment of great objectives by an immense application of effort, the bringing of new things into being, the creation of new conditions of living.
– Acts of violence, upsets, subversive activities, putting the gun to someone’s head, the enforcement of decisions, an accident.
Bibi would have hoped for the positives, but instead he is reaping and displaying the negatives. This war he provoked has its basis in his own self-deception and sense of aggrandizement and impunity, thinking whatever happened he has always had the US to pull him out of trouble. He once stated the US was easily maneuverable, to ‘move in the right direction’.
And it just so happens that Uranus/Pluto midpoint by direction is now within orb of Bibi’s Mer/Nep midpoint. It will increase his instability. Not only is he pointing the guns at the Palestinians, but he now has a figurative gun to his own head (perhaps even literally. He and Zelenskyy have some parallels) if his bid for a final solution to the ‘Palestinian problem’, as he calls it, goes against him, which it seems to be doing. Hence, we have his fiery and eschatological rhetoric since the start of Al-Aqsa Flood. In doing so, he has relied on an old prophecy from Isaiah, as follows:
“We shall realize the prophecy of Isaiah — ‘there will no longer be stealing at your borders, and your gates will be of glory.’ Together we will fight. Together we will win,” he said.
He paraphrased the original verse, from Isaiah 60:18. This is called cherry-picking scripture to suit your political purposes, something for which the Christian evangelical Bible-thumpers in the US are also famous (guilty). The original verse is as follows:
“Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”
Now, the original verse can be interpreted in several ways, from the mundane to the esoteric, the more esoteric interpretation being that once humanity achieves liberation and enlightenment (Salvation), peace shall reign on Earth and praises to the Divine in all shall be the gateway to liberation and enlightenment, for example. It is a very mystical verse. Returning to mundane realities and events, actually there is another prophecy for Israel by another Israelite prophet, one more respected, name of Jeremiah, as follows:
‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind. So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter [just south of Jerusalem]. And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”
Apparently Bibi didn’t much care for that prophecy and decided upon Isaiah’s. What he didn’t reckon, though, is he had sealed his and his nation’s fate in so doing, because the prophecy of Isaiah as he meant it calls for genocide – the blood of the innocents. In invoking Isaiah to rally the troops and the Zionist populace, he has also provoked the wrath of the Arab and wider Islamic world.
Just who is Benjamin Netanyahu, anyway? His father, Warsaw-born Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky; 1910–2012), was a historian specializing in the Jewish Golden age of Spain. Netanyahu’s paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a rabbi and Zionist writer. So from that, we know Bibi was raised in the Zionist mindset, notable from the following, from his father:
“The two state solution doesn’t exist,” Netanyahu snr said. ”There are no two people here. There is a Jewish people and an Arab population … there is no Palestinian people, so you don’t create a state for an imaginary nation. They only call themselves people in order to fight the Jews.”
Like father, like son. Bibi claims ancestry from Vilna Gaon, though there is no record of it. He either did a bit of political invention on that one or he needs to find another genealogist. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.) in a recent interview called Bibi ‘Der Führer’, further stating Netanyahu is the most draconian leader Israel has had in its short history. If we compare the Nazi and hardline Zionist ideologies and actions it would appear the Colonel is pretty much on the mark:
- Racial supremacy: untermenschen vs. ‘human animals’, the ‘master race’ vs. ‘the Chosen people’ [racism]
- Expansion of empire: lebensraum vs. ‘Greater Israel’ [colonialism]
- Genocide: extermination/expulsion/enslavement of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, etc. vs. expulsion/extermination/enslavement of Palestinians
- The final solution: genocide in both cases, noting for Germany in WWII it was not only the Jews who were slated for extinction, but other groups as well
There are other comparisons we could make, but the evidence for the preceding is clear for all to see since October 7th. Bibi’s ancestry is secular Ashkenazi Jewish, from Polish patrimonial descent. Bibi has only a small trace of Mizrahi Jewish or Israelite blood, if any, as his son’s DNA test shows. His DNA is Polish/Lithuanian/German. His maternal ancestry, which determines actual ‘Jewishness’, traces back to at least seven previous generations in what was then the Lithuanian province of the Russian Empire. So, although he claims Israelite/Mizrahi genealogy, he is actually a poseur, leading the Israeli Jews down the garden path. Perhaps his surname should be ‘Netan-yahoo’.
As of 12 Dec 2023 White House support for Israel is beginning to erode. Biden just issued the closest he has come yet to a rebuke of Netanyahu, telling him the world was turning against Israel as well as urging him to ditch the extremist cabinet of his administration. It is doubtful Bibi will comply, seeing as that extremist coalition is what is keeping him in power, along with his current Messianic mindset. What can we likely expect for Israel, then, if the current trajectory continues?
Given the losses in the IOF, the rapidly declining economy, the tenacity of the Al-Qassam and Al-Quds brigades, the intransigence of the Israeli public especially among the settler class, Israel’s increasing isolation internationally and the yet-to-be tested capabilities of Hezbollah, the next weeks ahead are not a good look for Israel. They refuse the two state solution, insist on the elimination of Hamas as a military threat and refuse to negotiate with the Palestinians. There is little to no chance they would ever eliminate Hamas.
On the other side the Resistance shows no sign of weakening. Instead the various Resistance factions across the region are only gradually upping the ante on Israel and the US. Hezbollah has vowed to intervene if Hamas appears to be on the ropes. The wider world increasingly calls for the implementation of the two state solution, meaning the settlers would have to be cleared out of the West Bank and the Golan handed back to Syria. There would be civil war in Israel and international armed intervention were that to be the case. Any dreams of a Greater Israel are increasingly just that – dreams. Imagine rounding up all the armed and extremist settlers and expelling them from the West Bank. There would be howls of genocide once again by the Israelis, this time against them.
As for Bibi Netanyahoo his hold on power is tenuous at best, his only assurance in staying there being the IOF is able to keep going in the face of the above-mentioned factors acting against them. That is not liable to last long. By the end of this year Saturn completes its direction to his natal Neptune. Reality will bite hard. Saturn to Neptune in such a case as his is the dream-killer.
“Never again” has been the rallying cry against genocide since the end of WWII. If the Israelis continue with their current genocidal policies toward the Palestinians, never again will the Israeli society feel safe within their borders. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, in his video linked above gave Israel another 18 years as a state, after which the land would return to the Arabs. That day may come much sooner than he thinks. But Yair is keeping the house warm in Miami for mom and dad. Otherwise Bibi may have celebrated his last Passover as a free man. Meanwhile the Palestinians have a long road to go in order to return to their homes.
Featured pic from Financial Times