Make no mistake. Hamas executed six Israeli hostages last week in cold blood. They’d been shot from behind at close range, belying Hamas’s claim that they were victims of Israeli bombs.
Could these deaths have been prevented? That is the question many Israelis are asking. Some or all of the six were expected to be among the first hostages released in a ceasefire deal being negotiated. Does this mean Hamas intends to execute all its hostages or was it a signal to Israel to soften its demands?
Many Israelis are asking whether these hostages gave their lives so Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can keep his job. Does he put his political interests – which include keeping his far-right-wing government intact – ahead of those of the Israeli people and the nation in general, and the remaining hostages in particular?
He is caught between two forces. On one side, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets this week demanding he stop stalling on a ceasefire and hostage exchange before more hostages come home in body bags. But his coalition partners say that if he does, they’ll topple the government – and he’ll not only be out of power but back in court on bribery and fraud charges and trying to stay out of prison.
He put religious-nationalist extremists like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in power, and now they have him by the short hairs. They want all of Gaza with the Palestinians out, their goal on the West Bank as well. The hostages and a ceasefire are obstacles to their ambitions. Damn the diplomats and the demonstrators: full speed ahead.
Netanyahu insists there can be no ceasefire that does not include an Israeli presence in the eight-mile Philadelphi Corridor along the border between Gaza and Egypt. He knows that’s a deal killer, which may explain his demands. His defense minister, Yoav Gallant, disagrees, along with leaders of the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad, saying that holding the border strip is a poison pill that means “there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released,” in Gallant’s words.
Controlling the corridor was not one of Netanyahu’s original war goals; only later it became a bargaining chip and now a nonnegotiable demand, prompting questions about his true intentions.
ANOTHER QUESTION many Israelis are asking is why the American government is more concerned about bringing home the hostages than their own.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris immediately denounced the Hamas murders and personally phoned the parents of the American victim, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, to express their grief.
Republican candidate Donald Trump waited most of the day to react, and then, instead of expressing compassion, he spewed his usual vitriol. He suggested Biden and Harris were to blame for the tragedy and wrapped it in one of his favorite lies: “This terror would have never happened if I were president.” Predictably, his GOP sycophants in Congress echoed his trash talk.
Biden long ago lost trust in Netanyahu, and he is said to be running out of patience with the Israeli leader’s lies, foot-dragging, shifting goalposts in negotiations, and coming up with new non-negotiable demands, as well as with Hamas’s intransigence.
He told reporters this week that the prime minister is not doing enough to bring home the hostages, and The Washington Post reported that the president, along with negotiating partners Egypt and Qatar, is considering a “take it or leave it” proposal. Rejection by either side could lead to the end of US mediation; the paper quoted a senior administration official as saying.
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III once said we can’t negotiate peace in the Middle East when we want it more than the parties themselves. That was true 40 years ago, and it is true today.
HAMAS LEADER Yahya Sinwar has little incentive to make a deal beyond his personal survival as the target of Israel’s intense manhunt. Tens of thousands of dead Gazans are martyrs to his cause and assets in his war to weaken Israel politically. He has shown no interest in Palestinian statehood, much less the two-state solution, and remains dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Yet this war has given the Palestinian cause new stature and support around the world.
Israel is tearing itself apart
He sees his Zionist enemy tearing itself apart from within. A majority of Israelis want new elections and a new prime minister. Hundreds of thousands demonstrate against Netanyahu’s policies and he accuses them of showing “support” for Hamas. At the same time, Israel has been shedding friends and allies abroad: Britain this week announced it is curtailing some arms deliveries to Israel, pro-Palestinian sentiment had been growing in the US and Europe, and polling indicates that Israel’s lead in popular support over the Palestinians is narrowing.
A survey for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that 53% of Americans think there should be restrictions on military aid to Israel so it can’t be used in operations against Palestinians. Israel’s support has been noticeably shrinking among Jewish voters and in the Democratic Party, which consistently draws most of their ballots, driven by changing perceptions of the state of Israeli democracy, its human rights record in the West Bank and its handling of the Gaza war. Repairing the relationship will depend less on who becomes the next president than on who is the next prime minister of Israel.
Bibi, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, is the poster boy for term limits. All the Adelson money and AIPAC endorsements of election deniers and the war on progressives can’t repair the damage he’s done. That must come from within.
The next president will have to focus on helping all sides heal the deep wounds inflicted since October 7. The new American leader will want to work to expand the Abraham Accords and regional security arrangements, but any talk about Israel-Palestinian peacemaking will be a dialogue of the deaf. That work cannot begin until Hamas and Netanyahu and his extremist allies are replaced.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.