IS ISRAEL ON THE VERGE OF ANNEXATION?

Religious extremists may force Netanyahu's hand in Gaza

On Wednesday in southern Israel, an explosion is seen over the Gaza Strip as right-wing Israeli activists march during a rally calling to resettle the north of Gaza. / Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images.

As the world recoils from the stark photos of the starving Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s religious far right is increasingly insisting in public that the fate of the at least twenty hostages still believed to be alive can no longer delay Israel’s annexation of parts of Gaza that its settlers controlled until 2005. The war of revenge that was started in part to save the then hundreds of hostages captive in Gaza is no longer of interest to the very devout in Israel.

In desperate need for the political support of the religious right, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently sent a high-level team to Washington seeking US approval for what I have been told is a take-it-or-leave-it approach to the leadership of Hamas. Their demands include Hamas’s surrender as well as the release of all living hostages and the bodies of the dead within weeks or Israel will begin unilaterally annexing parts of Gaza.