We have reached a stage where Netanyahu and his cabinet need to rethink their course. While we civilians became addicted to the pictures of children being released from monster captivity, Netanyahu and Galant took care of themselves with flattering pictures in Gaza "victory style", Hamas armed, organized and are ready for another round of fighting. The Political Security Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, halted the momentum of high-intensity military activity in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a bad deal.
May I say that already? After all, if Hamas were really the side begging for a deal, we would see it release our abductees, all the 93 that it is willing to release in one beat, and not by trickles and manipulations. Perhaps the continuation of the military strike would have led Hamas there in a week or two, but this is already a belated accounting.
The Yaakov family watches their relatives return from captivity to Israel // Yifat Glick
The chairman of the Likud, who promised to topple Hamas, is extending his breathing space with every day of pause. The toppling of Hamas has never seemed like such a distant goal. Those who entered the cabinet to support Israel's salvation were expected to knock on the table, but Netanyahu could not have had more comfortable partners like Gantz and Eisenkot. When Ben-Gvir shouts from the sidelines that this group can't make good decisions because everyone was part of the same processes – he, I hate to admit, is right. The good intentions of Gantz and Eisenkot do not meet the need of Israeli citizens for sustainable security. Not in the north and not in the south.
Netanyahu, who deluded himself and his fellow party members as if he had a political future after the hell we went through, apparently hasn't woken up since October 6. The only thing he can salvage at this stage (and it's not about how his character will be remembered by history) is the conduct of the war from now on. When he assures his party members that only he will prevent a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, he can only chuckle in embarrassment. The sequence of political and operational actions that he led just this month is taking us there much faster than the promises made by Yair Lapid on the subject.
The partners are too comfortable for Netanyahu, Prime Minister Galant and Gantz, photo: Dana Koppel
So what now? The cabinet must convene this morning and stop the Hamas extortion, under whose auspices it is now organizing, a serious blow to our soldiers deep in the field. Want them to release the twenty or thirty they have now, don't you want to? As the country's leaders proudly said last week, the renewed military activity will lead them to a better deal going forward. This is also the time to stop the wanton release of terrorists with Israeli citizenship into Israeli territory, when they owe deep gratitude to Hamas – and they are the ones who will lead the next unhindered attack in Tel Aviv or Netanya.
Released terrorists – plots. They are not returning to Israeli territory. Neither East Jerusalem nor any place from which there is ease of movement in order to produce the next dead children or orphans. The narrow view of the fate of the children currently held in Gaza denies the right to normal life of the soldiers' children deep in the field and of the children who will again be harmed by dangerous gestures by the government. Regards from Sinwar.
Hamas transfers the abductees Or Vigil Yaakov, photo: None
It is enough to see what is happening now in Judea and Samaria, in the Palestinian cities Hamas flags are waving with pride. Israel is working to topple (ostensibly acting) the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and is building it in the West Bank with the same hands. In the next stage, under the auspices
of "democratic elections" and with the blessing of the United States and Israel, Hamas will control Gaza and Palestinian cities. Well, we've seen that before.
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