Netanyahu on the blueprint for the hostage deal: "We will not release thousands of terrorists"/Prime Minister's Office
On Sunday afternoon, after more than three and a half years of paralysis and silence, the Twitter/X account of Yonatan Urich, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political spokesman, came to life with a new profile picture, of a branded American baseball cap with the inscription "Total victory".
The night before, at Netanyahu's routine press conference on a wartime Saturday night, Urich arrived in the auditorium with the new fashion statement, which echoed the main message of the Prime Minister's words: until total victory.
In the last two months, there is almost no speech, statement or performance by Netanyahu without the word victory, for its multitude of biases, at least once, and Urich's hat took it to the next level.
Coming soon: car and WhatsApp stickers.
If it looks, sounds and feels like a campaign, it is probably a campaign, and in the case of Netanyahu, the eternal campaigner, there is no question at all.
Everything is directed and directed from above.
Almost every evening the best minds gather in his office and work on the next political moves to strengthen the stability of his rule as well as on the messages of the poison and propaganda machines.
This is how the slogan "Until absolute victory" was born, which he makes sure to repeat in every appearance in front of the camera, and even more so in recent weeks, against the backdrop of increasing pressures, from home and abroad, to promote another hostage deal and decide what will happen in Gaza the day after the war.
There is almost no speech by Netanyahu without the word victory, and Urich's hat took it to the next level
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/EQ0phRCZM5
— Yonatan Urich (@jonatanu) January 28, 2024
This is how the recurring attack on the media, the commentators in the studios and the reporters at the press conferences in Kriya, who are accused of harming the fighting spirit, was reborn.
And so was born Urich's gimmick that stirred up the web as a concoction.
Insiders say that Netanyahu's office recently decided to step up the victory campaign in an attempt to recover from the collapse in public opinion since the October 7 massacre.
The more they pump up the "victory", they hope, the more the words disaster, failure, catastrophe, or discrimination, which Israel suffered under his leadership on that terrible morning, in which over 1300 Israelis were murdered and an entire land was despoiled and occupied, will dim in the public's consciousness.
In the meantime, except in the polls of the home reviewer on the home channel, it doesn't really work on public opinion, and the rates of support for it continue to deteriorate.
But beyond simple mind engineering, promises to fight until "total victory" also have a clear political purpose: to delay as much time as possible and prevent elections that could endanger his throne.
And even if there are elections - the absolute victory in one version or another will accompany him into the campaign.
The commitment to Netanyahu's absolute victory delays the scenarios of the day after.
The War Cabinet/Photo processing, Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90, Reuven Castro
Netanyahu, who built his career on the war on terror, knows that in history there is no complete victory over terrorist organizations like Hamas, whose goal is to remain terrorist and resistance organizations.
And in the same breath that he gloats about total victory, he postpones making decisions about the day after in Gaza, in a way that endangers the IDF's achievements in combat and creates a vacuum for the re-establishment of Hamas rule.
But the commitment to total victory guarantees that the war will not end soon, and delays the scenarios of the day after The political from knocking on his door: from the dissolution of the war cabinet with Gantz and Eisenkot through the investigation of responsibility for the 7/10 failure in a state committee to the protest organizations, which are already warming up to the lines to return to the streets demanding elections. The promise of a complete victory also provides hope to his extreme partners on the right, who dream and dance of re-occupation and the establishment of settlements in the Gaza Strip, fueling his patriotic supporters on Twitter and Channel 14, who fear that a deal to release hostages will herald the end of the war.
He promised that he is making efforts, but his spins are piling up difficulties.
Netanyahu met with the families of the abductees/Government Press Office, no
I hear statements about all kinds of deals, so I want to make it clear: we will not end this war with less than the achievement of all its goals.
This means the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our abductees, and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.
We will not remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen. What will happen?… pic.twitter.com/oaBwhIhw0t
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) January 30, 2024
"Complete victory, nothing less than that," Netanyahu promised this week at the Ali High School, just before announcing that he would not withdraw the IDF from Gaza or release thousands of terrorists, amid reports of progress in negotiations after the Israel, Egypt, Qatar, and Arab security summit in Paris.
As Yaron Avraham published yesterday on News 12, in the framework document for the negotiations drawn up in Paris, there was no mention at all of the key to the release of the Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal. This was on purpose, according to political sources. The War Cabinet decided not to specify numbers and to leave the outline of the framework very vague, To begin to set the process in motion.
Miraculously, the draconian numbers trended to the media and were immediately accompanied by a loud public denial by Netanyahu, in a practice that is already repeating itself for the second time. So is his proactive attack on Qatar, which as far as we know is the only effective mediator with leverage on Hamas. Netanyahu assures the families of the abductees that he is making every effort to return them home, but his spins and campaigns pile up difficulties on the contacts for their release and only fuel the opposition of the base on the right to the heavy prices, whether by releasing terrorists with blood on their hands, or by stopping the war.
announced that they oppose the deal.
Itamar Ben Gabir and Bezalel Smotrich/photo processing, Reuven Castro
Thus, without Hamas ever responding to the framework agreement, Netanyahu's partners on the right, Itamar Ben Gabvir and Bezalel Smotrich, already announced this week in response to publications that they oppose the deal, and Ben Gabvir even escalated the threat to withdraw from the government, and is trying to recruit allies in Likud to thwart approval of the deal.
This political-political-human drama, which touches the lives of 136 Israelis kidnapped in Gaza, may reach its climax in the coming days, and place Netanyahu at a decisive crossroads: between the war cabinet with Gantz and Eisenkot and between the full right-wing government, between the fate of the abductees and the fate of his coalition.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid this week offered Netanyahu a safety net to approve a deal, and publicly announced that he would be willing to replace Ben Gabir and Smotrich in the government for the benefit of the matter;
The Likud's response, a skilled campaign message machine, included, of course, the phrase "total victory".
Behind the scenes, there are those in the coalition who would have been happy to expand, whether with the addition of Lapid or Yisrael Beitenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, but Netanyahu does not intend to part with his natural partners so quickly, and uses the periodic spins mainly to convey to Ben Gavir that he has a replacement and that he will not rush to run away - and to buy He still has time, until the absolute victory.
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Benjamin Netanyahu
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Yonatan Urich
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Bezalel Smotrich