GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 679

Israel Won’t Budge

Only One Deal

Yesterday I reported that Israel isn’t willing to agree to any deal that doesn’t release all the hostages and ends the war on their terms and we learn in a report from The Times Of Israel that another Israeli official doubled down on that:

Mossad Director David Barnea was in Doha on Thursday to meet with the Qatari prime minister, in a visit Israeli officials attempted to play down as unrelated to efforts to revive ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations. Barnea’s visit was organized against the backdrop of Israel’s increasingly vocal opposition to pursuing another partial hostage deal, even as security officials have warned that reaching a comprehensive agreement is highly unlikely at this time.

Not everyone agrees about the reason for Barnea’s visit:

While two Israeli officials had told Reuters that the purpose of Barnea’s meeting with Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani was to restart the hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations, another Israeli official was quick to shoot down that idea. Instead, the senior official said, Barnea was in Qatar “on matters related to the Mossad, and not regarding the negotiations for a hostage deal.”

But this official also verified what we already know, too and that all the hostages must come back at the same time and that the IDF is resolute in their military takeover of all of Gaza:

“Still, the head of the Mossad clarified in the meeting that a partial deal is off the table,” the official said. According to Channel 12, Barnea conveyed to al-Thani during their meeting that Israel was not bluffing with its plan to conquer Gaza, and intends to do so unless there’s progress in the talks to free the hostages.

Any new deal will bring the hostages back, end the war, and turn it over to new leadership:

Instead, they have said Israel wants to pursue a comprehensive deal to release the remaining hostages and end the war in Gaza on Jerusalem’s terms — with the demilitarization of the Strip and the installation of a new government that is not connected to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

Egypt still wants a temporary ceasefire deal and partial hostage release meaning they have no intention of getting Hamas to compromise. So much for being objective. Israel is very clear that the previous US deal won’t work now. Hamas even wants a written guarantee that Israel won’t take back Gaza, something Israel clearly plans on doing. But Hamas isn’t even talking about the hostages this time around:

But the ceasefire plans presented by Hamas made no mention of releasing the hostages, with the terror group instead saying that it would withdraw its fighters to agreed-upon locations and “affirm its commitment to keep hostages alive,” in exchange for Israel pulling its troops back, al-Arabiya reported, citing unnamed sources.

Forced To Come

According to some accounts Hamas didn’t even want to negotiate before pressured to do so:

According to various Hebrew-language reports, Hamas’s decision to dispatch a delegation to Cairo was made not by the terror group’s senior leadership but by Turkey, which has warm ties with the terror group and is home to a number of its exiled senior members. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the outlet said that Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Hamas officials in Istanbul last week, and told them that they should resume negotiations and aim for a deal to end the war.

Turkey and Qatar think Hamas has lost Gaza and need to disarm:

Speaking to the Haaretz newspaper, a Palestinian source familiar with the details said that both Turkey and Qatar were pressuring Hamas to resume negotiations in good faith, and informed them that the only way to do so was through disarming and giving up control of the Gaza Strip.

According to the source, the combined efforts of Qatar and Turkey have led the terror group to realize that it no longer has the necessary support to allow it to continue to refuse these demands, Haaretz said.

However Israel isn’t budging from their demands of a deal that ends the war in one fell swoop:

But despite Egypt’s best efforts, and Hamas’s apparent willingness to negotiate, Israel did not appear to be budging from its stance that the only acceptable deal is a comprehensive one, as a senior Israeli official told Channel 12 Wednesday night, and that Jerusalem was unlikely to return to backing Witkoff’s proposal.

“Israel does not intend to renew talks on a partial deal. The only issue on the table is the release of all 50 hostages with Israel’s conditions for ending the war, including disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza,” the senior official said.

Some from Israel don’t see how any deal can happen now:

Another senior official was quoted by the news outlet as telling the families of the hostages that the conditions set by Israel’s political leadership for a permanent ceasefire and comprehensive deal were unrealistic. Furthermore, the official said that Israel’s talk about a comprehensive deal had actually harmed efforts to advance Witkoff’s proposal.

“We were making serious progress toward the Witkoff proposal, but the briefings from the senior officials about a comprehensive deal harmed the talks on the Witkoff proposal,” the official said.

“Now, the conditions that the cabinet decided on for ending the war cannot realistically be implemented. Hamas agreed to disarm, but it’s impossible to completely demilitarize Gaza,” he said.

Obviously dealing with anonymous sources we know that there are those in Israel that don’t agree with Netanyahu and his security leadership. And it’s easy for a liberal news source to jump on that. But we also have to keep in mind that the Bible prophecy tells us that the Gaza Strip was given to Israel by God and they will get it back and those living there are going to be removed never to return. These Gazans, Hamas included, will be judged for how they treated Israel. Can a deal be reached? Maybe, but turning Gaza over to nations who hate Israel isn’t good either. Demilitarizing Gaza will take a long time considering how Hamas entrenched itself there. So relocating everyone first will allow it to happen and that is also predicted in the Bible. It won’t be popular so pray for the peace of Jerusalem now and for the future. They will certainly need it.