Watch Nidhi Razdan: Netanyahu seeks to prolong Middle East conflict

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00:00The assassination of a senior Hamas leader on Iranian territory allegedly by Israel has

00:09set off the most serious flashpoint in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

00:13The question is whether it's now a matter of time before the entire region is engulfed

00:17in war.

00:18What Benjamin Netanyahu is doing through this action is basically signaling that he wants

00:24an escalation and is not interested in a ceasefire that is being brokered presently by the United

00:29States.

00:30For President Biden, who is now a lame duck president, ensuring peace in the Middle East

00:35has just become much, much tougher.

00:38And of course, the Hamas leader who was killed was someone who was leading the negotiations

00:42for a ceasefire with the Israelis and the Americans.

00:46So where do we go from here?

00:48The problem really is that Israel and Mr. Netanyahu in particular have had a very long

00:52rope from the West.

00:54We can see that in the invitation by the U.S. Congress for him to address them, the

00:59standing ovation that he got in the U.S. Congress.

01:02And despite the International Court of Justice making that landmark ruling that Israel's

01:08occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, there's really no moral compass, it seems,

01:14particularly in the West, about what to do with Israel.

01:17And frankly, until arms sales to Israel, particularly by the United States, come down

01:23significantly, there's really not going to be any marked shift in how they deal with

01:28Mr. Netanyahu.

01:29And this is important because while the attacks by Hamas on the 7th of October cannot be condoned

01:35or justified in any way, the Israeli response has been completely disproportionate.

01:40And nearly 40,000 civilians, many of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza

01:45due to Israeli actions over the last few months.

01:48This has to stop and for that, the world's moral compass needs to wake up.