Tel Aviv, November 15 (RHC)-- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is escalating his war on the Palestinian people, although for reasons almost entirely related to Israeli politics.  Reports from Tel Aviv say he has just given the green-light to legislation that would make it easier for Israeli courts to issue death sentences against Palestinians accused of carrying out so-called ‘terrorist’ acts.

The ‘Death Penalty’ bill has been the crying rally for the Israel Beiteinu party, led by ultra-nationalist Israeli politician and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman during its 2015 election campaign.

But when Lieberman attempted to push the bill in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) soon after the forming of the current coalition government in July 2015, the draft was resoundingly defeated by 94 to 6 with Netanyahu himself opposing it.

It has been defeated several times since then.  However, the political mood in Israel has shifted in ways that has obliged Netanyahu into conceding to the demands of the even more hawkish politicians within his own government.

As Netanyahu’s coalition grew bolder and more unhinged, the Israeli Prime Minister joined the chorus.  It is time “to wipe the smile off the terrorist’s face,” he said in July 2017, while visiting the illegal Jewish settlement of Halamish, following the killing of three settlers.  At the time, he called for the death penalty in “severe cases.”

Ultimately, Netanyahu’s position on the issue evolved to become a carbon copy of that of Lieberman.  The latter had made the ‘death penalty’ one of his main conditions to join Netanyahu’s coalition.