by Haggai Huberman, long-time Arutz-7 military and Yesha affairs correspondent, translated by Hillel Fendel.
True, the continued combat in Gaza endangers the hostages, but it's also the only chance to save most of them.
Thomas Friedman, in one of his recent New York Times columns, revealed details from an exchange between US President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu this past week. He wrote that Biden, in pushing for a Palestinian state, presented Netanyahu with the following two choices: "Either you'll go down in history as the one who rejected any chance at ending the conflict by cooperating with the Palestinians and the one who led to Oct. 7th – or you will be the Israeli leader who granted a state to the Palestinians, guaranteed Israel's security, and led to peace with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world."
In other words, according to Friedman, Biden was offering Netanyahu the opportunity to be remembered either as a failed Prime Minister who made a comeback, or as one who, like an idiot, turned his failure into an even greater catastrophe.
Joe Biden is the latest in an illustrious line of American presidents who never really understood the reality of the Middle East – and therefore lived in dreamland amid fantasies and who never advanced any type of positive plan for the region. More than once they actually made the situation worse. The Rogers Plan, the Reagan Plan, the Clinton Outline, the Road Map of Bush, the Obama Program – these great plans of US presidents with their unrealistic dreams all ended up in the trashcans of history.
An example of the dangerous folly of Biden's present plan is this: As Friedman tells it, the United States is trying to promote a scenario that will include a deal to release the Israeli hostages, transfer administrative control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, and introduce a multi-national force into the Strip to maintain order. Biden has overlooked just one thing: How can both of the first two elements coexist at all, given that the main demand and condition of Hamas for any hostage release is that it retains control over Gaza?
Biden, like his predecessors, doesn't understand that there is a built-in contradiction in an offer to be the Israeli leader who both "granted a state to the Palestinians" and also "guaranteed Israel's security." A Palestinian state and Israeli security are a contradiction in terms. If, Heaven forbid, a Palestinian state should ever be established in which the IDF does not rule and control the entire expanse of Judea and Samaria, the results are unthinkable. The scenes that we saw this past Simchat Torah, of thousands of Hamas terrorists roaring through the streets of Sderot, Ofakim, Nachal Oz and Be'eri on motorcycles and pickup trucks, will be repeated in Kfar Saba, Modiin, and Rosh HaAyin. Kfar Yona (near Netanya) will look like Kfar Aza, Netiv HaLamed-Heh (outside Gush Etzion) will be as Netiv HaAsarah (immediately north of Gaza), and Givat Oz (west of Afula) will be like Nachal Oz.
Please don't give me the knee-jerk response, "It can never happen." This is exactly what will happen, as it did just recently, if a Palestinian state arises – and therefore it will not arise. Not because of Ben-Gvir, but because of the instinctive responsibility that Netanyahu and his government, and even many on the left, have for Israel's future.
The writer of a very recent Times article claims to have interviewed four Israeli generals who requested anonymity. Like every other Israeli citizen, I have no idea who these four might be, but I can say that some of their claims against the Netanyahu government are totally groundless. For instance, they reportedly said, "The diplomatic path – a deal to release the hostages – will be the fastest way to return the Israelis who remain in Hamas captivity." Pure nonsense.
But one claim of theirs is on target: "The stated goals of the war – release of the hostages and destruction of Hamas – clash with each other." This is true, although not 100%. They are right in their evaluation that dismantling Hamas will require lengthy battles, but to say that "the result will most likely cost us the hostages' lives" is far from a fact. The continued combat for the purpose of destroying Hamas endangers the captives, yes – but it is the only chance to save them, or at least most of them.
There is much to say in criticism of Netanyahu. It is intolerable from every standpoint that he does not talk for extended periods with his Defense Minister. Leaks from the Cabinet meetings indicate that some of them have turned into a circus. The ongoing problems of the citizens evacuated from their homes in the north and south are a genuine crime. And of course, how is it possible that the government allows so much "humanitarian aid" – nothing less than material aid to our enemies during wartime – to enter Gaza? Soon the world will demand that we allow Hamas to receive weapons as well…
But at the same time, to say that Netanyahu "has no strategy" is totally groundless. Netanyahu most definitely has a very clear strategy – one that is correct, in my opinion – but he simply cannot say it out loud, and certainly not to the families of the hostages. It is that "destruction of Hamas takes precedence over the release of the hostages, and even if it comes at their expense." There is no choice. Hamas has not offered a practical proposal for the hostages' freedom, other than a total Israeli surrender in its totally just war. That is, Hamas expects an immediate end to the war, an IDF withdrawal from all of Gaza, a guarantee that Hamas will continue to reign in Gaza, and even the release of all terrorists from Israeli prisons. This is of course not something that any Israeli prime minister with a minimal sense of responsibility would ever agree to. All that remains, then, is to keep on fighting, at all costs, until victory.
I have nothing bad to say about the behavior of the families of the captives. They are doing what they feel and think from their own point of view. But let us remember the words of the late MK and late Lechi fighter Geulah Cohen, who told the government ministers: "If my son were captive, I would demand that you pay any price for his release – but I would also expect you not to listen to me." Netanyahu must embrace the families, but under no circumstances follow their dictates.
---- Editorial note: Yesterday's tragic incident in which 21 IDF soldiers lost their lives in Gaza took place just 600 meters from the Jewish town of Kisufim, and was part of the critical battle for Israelis to be able to return to their homes. For a studied but not cynical explanation of what happened from a military and strategic standpoint, see this IsraelNationalNews article: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384045