We’ve been hearing from Secretary of State Antony Blinken for some time now about how we can have a Palestinian state with a “renewed,” “revitalized” Palestinian Authority. A Palestinian state that will be able to take over Gaza after the war.
Over the last few days news has surfaced about the forthcoming resignation of the entire PA government, which would be replaced by new individuals presumably not politically affiliated with any party. On Monday, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh submitted his resignation to Abbas (although he will stay on in a caretaker position until his replacement is found).
When Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about this, he said they were simply playing musical chairs:
“They haven’t had an election in the Palestinian Authority for 17 years, so they’re just shuffling chairs. But the real thing we want to see is genuine de-radicalization.
“They have to stop teaching their children to become terrorists. They have to stop paying terrorists based on the [number] of Jews they kill. They have to stop teaching and indoctrinating a whole generation on the annihilation of Israel. That’s real reform. That, so far, has not happened…”
Bibi was absolutely correct, and the very apt image of “musical chairs” caught on in Israel.
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Shtayyeh, for his part, said that new political arrangements were required that would take into account “…the emerging reality in Gaza, the national unity talks [with Hamas]…and the extension of the Palestinian Authority’s sovereignty over the entire land of Palestine.”
https://worldisraelnews.com/unity-with-hamas-entire-pa-govt-resigns/?traffic_source=Connatix
Please note carefully the reference to “sovereignty over the entire land of Palestine.” This was a direct quote provided in English by WAFA, the PA news agency; it is not a misquote. Whether it was a Freudian slip by Shatyyeh, who is supposed to be talking about Judea & Samaria and Gaza, or a conscious statement of PA intentions regarding the takeover of all of the Land of Israel, I cannot say.
What I can say is that it indeed does represent PA intentions.
https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/142023
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At the very same time, Matthew Miller, the US State Department spokesman, while indicating that the resignations were matters for the PA to speak to, said (emphasis added):
“We think those steps are positive” and “important… to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. We will continue to encourage them to take those steps.
“…we have been engaged with them [the PA] on the need to reform and revitalize the government, and we have seen them start to take steps in that direction, and we welcome them.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-788993
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And so, the answer is yes, they do take us for idiots. But we most certainly are not. This is what we will have to contend with, going forward, along with everything else.
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There are a number of instances of American officials who are apparently oblivious to political realities: they spout nonsense that plays to their perception of how things ought to be.
The primary instance I have in mind at the moment concerns President Biden and the negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a hostage release agreement.
On Monday, Biden had come to Manhattan to appear on the Seth Meyers show and went to an ice cream parlor. There he was asked about a ceasefire in Gaza. His response:
“My national security advisor tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire.”
https://www.jns.org/biden-my-hope-is-by-next-monday-well-have-a-ceasefire/
Where he got this idea remains a mystery. Israeli officials said that Biden’s optimism was premature; they were caught off-guard by his comments.
An official for Hamas said Biden’s statement did not reflect the situation on the ground. And a second Hamas official indicated that there were “still big gaps to be bridged.”
A spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry said there had been no breakthrough.
And so, we see how difficult it is to understand what is going on. This situation is wrought with overblown, fallacious, and frequently contradictory comments. Biden is exceeding eager to see a deal come to fruition, a deal that would lead to a final cessation of hostilities. This, he hopes, would pave the way for a Palestinian state in Gaza. To this end, he applies pressure whenever and however he can.
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As to a hostage deal, it is looking unlikely that one will materialize now.
I myself have been struggling with the question of what is the wisest and most moral path for Israel to take on this issue.
There is no question but that we have a moral obligation to try to bring back the hostages. But not at “any price”! This I have addressed repeatedly. To surrender to Hamas demands that we halt the war and release very large numbers of terrorists with blood on their hands is to invite a major disaster down the road. They have already demonstrated that they are pure evil, and they have vowed to attack again. Our very first obligation is to ensure that this never happens.
Over the years our rabbis have taught that there are limits to what should be done to rescue a hostage. It is not a given that we should accede to all demands of captors. If too large a ransom was demanded for return of a Jewish captive, the community was told to refrain, for to pay the ransom would have been to invite capture of additional Jewish hostages and demands for even larger ransoms.
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And so, the question hangs over us: How much should we agree to in order to release our hostages?
There are those in our government who maintain that we should agree to nothing, hitting Hamas as hard as we can until they are finished. This, they maintain, is the best way to secure those hostages – and to do so without bringing future disaster upon Israel.
They make a strong case.
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But a case can also be made for attempting to bring home at least some of our captives, short of surrendering to all demands. Especially is this so as there are children involved, and women who have almost certainly been raped and are exceedingly traumatized.
And so, what then?
The number of hostages is given at 134, but it is understood that at least 30 and possibly a good many more of these have been killed.
However – and this is a very important point — what is being discussed is not the release of all remaining live hostages. The number being cited in unofficial reports is 40, which represents half or less than half of those live hostages held by Hamas!
They are never going to release all of them, because the Israeli hostages are used by Hamas as human shields in ways similar to how they use Gazan civilians. The possible presence of innocent hostages in an area – likely in tunnels – causes the IDF to use caution in bombing. It is being said that Sinwar surrounds himself with hostages, making it impossible for Israel to bomb locations where he might be hiding.
What is more, holding additional hostages secures the possibility of further negotiations, and further demands, down the road.
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There are essentially two basic demands (there are others) that Hamas has with regard to releasing some of the hostages. One involves letting large numbers of terrorists with blood on their hands out of our prisons. The talk is of ten prisoners for every hostage released.
The other demand (or so unofficial reports have indicated) is a ceasefire of some extensive duration – six weeks is the number being cited – that apparently involves a cessation of arial surveillance and possibly a pull-back from some strategic areas. This really puts my back up, as it would allow Hamas to strengthen, regroup, re-arm (with arms brought in from the Sinai) and make the battle when it resumes more difficult for Israel, more dangerous for our troops.
I do not report on this every day. But the painful, painful reality is that our soldiers are dying daily. We lost many on October 7.
Since the beginning of the incursion into Gaza, 243 soldiers have died in battle. An additional 2,981 have been injured, 296 severely.
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-idf-casualties#
By the time you read this, more will likely have died and been injured.
What would be the price to our young soldiers if Hamas is allowed to rest, regroup, and rearm?
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This is what Thomas Hand, father of Emily, who was held by Hamas and then freed, says on this issue:
“I hope we do it to the very end because if we don’t all the tragedies, all the murders, the kidnapped, the raped, the tortured, it would be all for nothing. We have to go all the way to the end and finish this job.
“If we back out before the job is done it will all be for nothing. They’ll crawl back in the next 10 years, and it will all happen again, we have to stop it right now.” (Emphasis added)
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385926
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The negotiations have been proceeding in a very strange format. Apparently, Israel and Hamas signed off on a format for a deal, but without particulars that still have to be established. At the moment, Hamas is not participating in the talks. The US, Egypt and Qatar are hashing out details, with, as I understand it, representatives of Israel present.
When there are questions raised that Hamas must answer or issues on which Hamas must sign off, the particulars go to Hamas. But Hamas, for its part, is not responding.
Netanyahu has demanded some pertinent information: How many live hostages is Hamas holding and what are the names of those who would be released? (Perhaps you will recall some game-playing by Hamas during the last hostage release agreement. Israel wants to have specificity with regard to important matters upfront.) He also wants the names of the terrorist prisoners Hamas would want released. (If high-level terrorists were to be released, Netanyahu has insisted they would have to be released directly to Qatar, and not into Gaza.)
Hamas, however, has thus far not answered. And Israel will not proceed without this information.
There is another pertinent issue to be resolved: the timetable for release of the hostages during that six-week ceasefire.
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All of the above discussions may be moot. Whatever very cautious optimism had been expressed during the course of this tortuous process had been largely dashed by yesterday.
From the Times of Israel today (emphasis added):
“…an Army Radio report on Wednesday morning described a largely negative Hamas response.
“The unsourced Army Radio report said Hamas representatives had termed the proposed outline ‘a Zionist document,’ and objected to the fact that it did not relate to Hamas’s demand for an end to the war, did not include Israeli agreement to the full return to northern Gaza of internally displaced residents, and envisaged too few Palestinian security prisoners being freed in return for Israeli hostages.
A ratio of ten prisoners released for every hostage is too few? Some of these details irk mightily. Among those:
“Ninety Palestinian security prisoners would be released in exchange for five Israeli women soldiers held hostage, an 18-to-one ratio. Fifteen of those prisoners would reportedly be major terrorists with blood on their hands, including several mass murderers.”
“Twenty-one Palestinian security prisoners would be freed by Israel in exchange for the seven Israeli women who were to have been released on the final day of a previous truce, at the end of November, when Hamas reneged on the terms and the truce collapsed.”
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Families of hostages are now engaged in a four-day trek from the site of the Supernova music festival, where 360 were slaughtered, to Jerusalem. They are marching under the banner, “United to free the hostages.”
There is no question about the fact that their frustration is enormous and their pain overwhelming. But their push to free the hostages puts pressure on our prime minister as they demand a political means to free the hostages be found. He has said he will do much to free them, but not without limits.
What seems clear to me is that rallies such as this one up the ante. Hamas is watching.
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Questions have been raised (I’ve had my own questions) about the participation of Qatar in the hostage negotiations. Qatar has funded Hamas with huge sums, and major Hamas leaders, most notably Ismail Haniyeh, luxuriate in hotels in Doha.
See this article:
“Experts told JNS that it’s a ‘sick joke’ that the Gulf emirate is hailed as a serious hostage mediator between Israel and Hamas.”
https://www.jns.org/qatar-basically-hamass-divorce-lawyer-not-us-ally/
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Lastly here today, the matter of Ramadan, which begins on Sunday night, March 10. This is a month-long Muslim holiday which requires fasting during the day. While it is supposed to heighten the spirituality of Muslims via that fasting and contemplation, it has been associated with heighted levels of Muslim violence.
Last week, Minister Benny Gantz said that Ramadan was the deadline for a hostage deal. If none had been achieved by then, Israel would enter Rafah.
“If there is no hostage deal, we will operate during Ramadan,” he said.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-788185
But there are suggestions from various quarters – notably the US – that we would not fight during Ramadan. In this regard, please see a superb article by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq. , “The Ramadan Ruse.”
“…we should show as much concern for Ramadan as our enemies showed for our Simchat Torah this year or, for that matter, our Yom Kippur of 1973. It is a ruse and it should be treated, and dismissed, as such.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385938
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Yesterday (Tuesday) Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are aiming to take advantage of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and turn it into “the second stage of October 7, and ignite the ground.”
We are in for some very difficult days ahead.
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Keep praying to Heaven for Israel, my friends. Pray for the strength and wisdom of our leaders, for the safety of our soldiers, and for the rescue of our hostages. Pray with a heart filled with hope.
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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
