Binyamin Netanyahu on the Temple Mount (Photo: Roy Avraham/L.A.M)/Maariv
In the vernacular, it can be said that the "Mossad announcement" published on Saturday night outraged quite a few elements in the war cabinet and the professional ranks, that is, the security system.
"At this point, Hamas is fortifying its position that it is not interested in the deal and strives to set the area on fire during Ramadan," the statement said.
According to many and varied factors in the system, the picture that emerges from this message is not correct.
There are those who define it as a "sequence of lies" designed to organize an alibi for Israel to freeze contacts for dealing with abductees and continue to drag out time, at the expense of human lives.
According to the sources, there are quite a few members of the War Cabinet who believe that there is room for the negotiations to continue and claim that Hamas has not "slammed the door" and is not barricading itself, but on the contrary: it gave a detailed answer to the Paris Plan, and also gave a detailed answer to the improvement section of the Paris Plan, during the week passed. According to these factors, Hamas answered each of the parameters, "On some issues it presented tough positions and there are large gaps," said one of the senior officials I spoke with, "but there is definitely room for negotiation, creativity, additional proposals and tricks. The situation that the Mossad's announcement attempts To describe that there is no one to talk to is not true. The reality is the opposite. If there is anyone who refuses to talk now, it is the Israeli side."
"The Mossad announcement twists the data."
Barnea and Netanyahu/official website, Kobi Gideon/L.A.M
These are the details, as they became known: at the previous meeting in Paris, the "Paris Outline", the general outlines of the kidnapping deal, was reached.
The Israeli delegation returned to Israel and Netanyahu's conclusion was that Israel would wait for Hamas' answer.
In the meantime, the mediators wasted no time and put an "improved outline" on the table.
Below is the Paris outline 2. The war cabinet decided not to address the second outline until Hamas' answer arrives.
As things stand, the mediators put this outline before Hamas.
Last week a large Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo and discussed with the Egyptians an outline throughout the week.
"Hamas answered all six parameters in the outline," one of the senior sources told me, "some of the answers could be a basis for an agreement, some others are harsh and a lot more work is required, but they answered," he said.
Then he arrived in the area of the head of the CIA and went to Paris with the head of the Mossad, Dedi Barnea.
At this stage, and after this meeting, the Mossad announcement came out.
"This announcement does not reflect reality," concludes one of the sources, "there are negotiations, there is a discussion of the clauses, Hamas responded, Israel stops the talks or at least declares it," he said. The
sources emphasize that the Mossad's announcement was not coordinated with the ministers of the War Cabinet Nor with the rest of the security forces. According to the sources, the IDF, the Amman and probably the Shin Bet also do not feel comfortable with the Mossad's announcement.
Some of the sources I spoke with pointed to gross errors made during the negotiations by the Prime Minister, which caused great damage to his progress.
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"If there is anyone who refuses to talk now, it is the Israeli side."
Demonstration of kidnapped families at the entrance to Kriya, last week/official website, Eitan Salonim
One of them is the closing of the prime minister with the head of the Mossad, behind the back of the cabinet and without the knowledge of the security system, about a dramatic increase in the days of truce that will be during the release of the first wave of abductees.
"In the first deal, they received a day of respite for every 10 abductees, and now we found out that they were promised much more than that, without this being approved by the cabinet," said a senior security official.
The sources point to additional omissions: "The fact that Sanwar drew great encouragement from Netanyahu's conclusion two and a half weeks ago regarding Ramadan, in which he supposedly adopted Ben-Gvir's position to limit the ascent of Israeli Arabs to the Temple Mount, is also hindering progress. Sanwar hoped that Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir They will help set fire to the Temple Mount and the entire area," said the source, "until Netanyahu fixed it, two weeks passed."
Israel's dragging its feet regarding the establishment of an orderly address in Gaza that can provide humanitarian aid and manage civilian life is also very helpful to Hamas.
"The fact that Netanyahu refuses any solution offered to him greatly strengthens Hamas, now the Americans and the Europeans are doing everything on our heads, from dropping supplies to a sea port, Sanwar understands that time in this context works in his favor."
"On some issues, Hamas has presented tough positions, but there is definitely room for negotiation." Sinwar and Hania in the Gaza Strip in 2017/photo adaptation, Reuters
Regarding the six parameters for the deal, it is estimated that after Hamas' answer there are large gaps in at least 3 parameters, but according to the definition of members of the war cabinet and the security system, "there is something to talk about and something to work with, these are not things that destroy a deal in advance."
Regarding the truce days, as mentioned, Netanyahu and Barnea have already promised a significant increase in them.
On this issue the parties are quite close.
Hamas also demands the withdrawal of the IDF from the city centers during the implementation of the deal. This demand is also seen in Israel as a reasonable basis for negotiations.
Another demand by Hamas, to allow the Gazan population free passage to the north of the Gaza Strip, is considered problematic, but here too it is not an automatic spoiler.
Increasing the number of delivery trucks to 500 per day is not a problem.
The other demand is to remove the dismemberment of the Strip, that is, to cancel the corridor that the IDF maintains between the north and the south. Here too, according to the security system, creative negotiations can be conducted.
The last obstacle is the number of prisoners that Hamas demands: the last demand of Hamas was about 2,000 prisoners, then it dropped to only about 1,000.
"For one Gilad Shalit, we released 1027 prisoners," a security source recalls, "so it's not possible to negotiate a thousand prisoners in exchange for over a hundred abductees?
And we must not forget that we have the right to veto the identity of the prisoners who will be released."
In conclusion: "The Mossad's statement twists the data, presents the situation in a manipulative way and does not tell the truth.
All this is done the day before Ramadan, to create an alibi of inaction and continued shuffling.
The statement that Hamas rejected the terms and does not want a deal is not true.
He wants a deal, but on his terms.
We want on our terms.
We need to talk about it and bridge the gaps.
What is happening here is that we are living a lie.
The fighting now in Gaza is more in the Tash, at the peak there were 28 brigades and now there are three and a half to four. Someone here is playing games in my opinion and is unable to make decisions."
It is estimated that the position shown here is held, in addition to Ministers Gantz and Eisenkot, by Aryeh Deri, Minister of Defense Galant (partially) and possibly Minister Dermer as well.
In the security system, the Shin Bet presents a more assertive position, although even there it is clear that Hamas did not answer in the negative. The IDF believes that there is room for continued negotiations
. Abductees," said a senior security source, "Those who talk about total victory and falter in Gaza, when the whole world is dictating reality to us instead of us initiating it, should understand that there is no victory without the return of the abductees," says a senior security source.
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