GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 645

Once And For All

Still No Deal

Prime Minister Netanyahu is back in Israel after his visit to America didn’t yield the ceasefire deal US President Trump wanted. But the PM still thinks an agreement can happen as we see in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism on Thursday that a hostage release deal with Hamas could be sealed in the near future.

“I hope we can complete it in a few days,” he told Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren in an interview before flying back to Israel, while indirect talks continued in Qatar amid signs of deadlock.

The PM said that getting half of the hostages out next and then getting the rest back as part of the end to the war can happen, but on one condition:

“We’ll probably have a 60-day ceasefire. Get the first batch out and then use the 60 days to try to negotiate an end to this,” he said on the last day of a four-day visit in which he met US President Donald Trump twice. “And this could end tomorrow, today, if Hamas lays down its arms.”

As I and the various hostage forums are saying that’s not good enough. It means that those not released will have to spend two more months in captivity and some of them may not survive that. Still Netanyahu thinks they can end the war soon adding something Hamas won’t like:

“We think we can bring it to completion,” said Netanyahu. “So I wouldn’t tell you that we have a war goal that is unachievable. We’re going to defeat these monsters and get our hostages back.”

Comments like that are why I don’t see diplomacy ending the war. And the interview shows why Israel will return to fighting once any ceasefire deal is reached:

Amid reports that the Trump administration does not intend to allow Israel to resume fighting in Gaza after a potential ceasefire, Netanyahu promised earlier Thursday that Israel would return to war if Hamas does not give in.

“We were told, ‘You will not return to war,’ after the first ceasefire, and we did return,” said Netanyahu in a video statement. “We were told ‘You will not resume your fight,’ after the second ceasefire, and we did. Now they’re saying ‘You will not continue fighting’ after the third ceasefire. Do I need to say more?”

Hamas Demands

We see in more of the article that Hamas is slowing things down by asking for conditions that Israel will not accept:

However, indications that talks were bogged down continued to emerge on Thursday. Hamas said it opposes any ceasefire deal that includes a large Israeli military presence in Gaza, describing disagreements over the withdrawal and free flow of aid into Gaza as sticking points, as well as its demands for “real guarantees” for a lasting truce.

Of course they want the IDF to completely withdraw from Gaza so they can do what they’ve done in the previous ceasefires which is to rebuild and retool themselves. And the article quotes them trying to spin their demands to make Israel look like the bad guys:

“We cannot accept the perpetuation of the occupation of our land and the surrender of our people to isolated enclaves under the control of the occupation army,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP. “This is what the negotiating delegation is presenting to the occupation so far in the current round of negotiations in Doha.”

It is the areas that the IDF took back since the last ceasefire that are holding any deal up now:

Hamas is particularly opposed to Israeli control over the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and the so-called Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, he added.

Hamas will never agree to the terms laid out because the areas of contention are key to their defeat, especially the land Israel doesn’t want to leave and Hamas demands they do. Another topic was broached and it is one I and others wonder about and that is why this war is taking so long:

Netanyahu also said in his Thursday statement that he is aware Israelis are asking why the war against Hamas is taking so long, defending his approach to combating the terror group.

“First of all, this is a war zone that no army in the world has faced,” he said. “And thanks to the heroism of the fighters, thanks to the sacrifice of the fallen, thanks to the creativity, we dismantled most of Hamas’s military capabilities. But not all of them. There are still thousands of fighters there with weapons. And we want to act, again, with a combination of diplomacy and military force, and military force if diplomacy doesn’t work, to complete the mission.”

Netanyahu said that he’d rescue them at one time if he could:

Regarding the order in which hostages will be released, Netanyahu said he would prefer to get everyone out at once, but “we are dealing with a cruel terrorist organization. Of course, we would like to rescue everyone, and from our point of view, they are all humanitarian. I want to rescue everyone in one fell swoop.”

Everyone wants every hostage back and as soon as possible and all at once as the PM stated. And Hamas knows this and will continue to use these emotions and sentiments to pressure Israel into letting this terrorist organization exist longer because of them. That’s part of why they took them in the first place. Unless Hamas is guaranteed to survive along with their weapons in Gaza they won’t even discuss releasing the last half of the hostages. In my opinion the only way these innocents are returned is if they are rescued. I may be in the minority on that, but as I’ve listened to Hamas over the past 644 days their intentions are quite clear: give them what they want or else. There’s no negotiating with that attitude and the sooner everyone figures that out the sooner a path to victory will be found. Deep down I believe that the Israeli leadership knows this and it will help them finally defeat Hamas and all of these terrorists once and for all.