The Trump Light is Green – Go!

by Emanuel Shilo, editor of Besheva weekly , translated by Hillel Fendel.

1. Why oh why, many are asking, did we agree to enter into negotiations with Hamas and consent to give them almost everything they wanted at such an early stage of the deal?

In general, it is hard to avoid the impression that the push to reach a deal right there and then, and the cave-in to the pressure of the media and the "Bring Them Home!" groups, caused our negotiators to wage the negotiations in a rushed and most unprofessional manner. Perhaps we would have done a lot better had we sent to Qatar and Egypt not the senior figures in our security establishment – Gen. Nitzan Alon, Shabak chief Ronen Bar, and Mossad head Dedi Barnea – but seasoned and savvy businessmen or lawyers.

The price is unfathomable. What could have justified the exponential jump from the fairly reasonable price we paid for the release of some of our hostages at the end of 2023 and the outrageous price we are now paying? The gap is huge, in terms of the number – and quality – of terrorists we are releasing for each hostage, the number of ceasefire days that the enemy will use to rearm and rebuild itself, and of course the dangerous precedent of our concession of strategic assets that we won with the blood of our soldiers.

2.  But beyond that: Is it not obvious that when and if one has to deal with a cheat and liar, one must ensure that he leaves sufficient assets in his hands to ensure that the other side carries out its part of the deal? Why did we agree to pay in full even before receiving the promised goods? How could we have allowed the Gazan population to return to northern Gaza, and agreed to withdraw our forces from the Netzarim axis, at such an early stage of the deal? We could have agreed, in the first stages, to call a ceasefire, to release terrorists, and to allow even more humanitarian aid – while retaining the cards that were so important to Hamas, such as the return of the population to northern Gaza and the IDF's withdrawal from Netzarim, until after the all our living hostages were freed.

Another elementary rule is that our enemy is not to receive live terrorists in exchange for dead bodies; only dead terrorists are to be given over in exchange for our corpses. This principle - one of the conclusions of the Shamgar Committee that was established in 2008 after the Gilad Shalit deal to set guidelines for future hostage exchanges - is both just and smart, for it motivates the abductors to preserve the lives of those they have kidnapped. For some inexplicable reason, in exchange for several corpses in the coming days, Israel will release all the women and minors who were arrested in Gaza ever since Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the massacre.

Certainly bringing deceased Jews to proper Jewish burial is a great Torah commandment and value. But it cannot justify the future danger to lives inherent in the release of murderous terrorists. We have in our hands many "valuable" terrorist corpses, such as that of Yichye Sinwar. If the negotiations had been handled correctly, all of our dead hostages could have been attained in exchange for Sinwar's cadaver, with perhaps a few more thrown in for good measure. It's true that ultimate justice requires that his remains be lost forever in the sea, as we did with the ashes of Eichmann and the Americans did with Bin-Laden. However, for the sake of Jewish burials for our dead hostages, we could have compromised on that point. 

Of course, it's not only the negotiators' fault, but also that of our Prime Minister and other government minister who approved the deal. We can be happy at least that from now on, Minister Ron Dermer will replace the failed negotiators and head our negotiating team.

3. Another missed opportunity – so far – was the threat last week by Israel's friend U.S. President Donald Trump that "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas did not release at least the three hostages it promised to free this past Saturday. Given that the "excuse" for the current agreement was pressure by the incoming Trump Administration, there is no reason that Trump's support for a strong Israeli reaction should not be utilized now to extricate ourselves from this terrible deal.

That is, now that this past Saturday noon did not see a full release of all the hostages, we have a green light from Trump to attack Hamas again with abandon. With full American backing, a new Defense Minister who thinks differently than his predecessor, and a new Chief of Staff, this is the time to wage the ultimate offensive that will achieve the war aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages – as well as the new goal of transferring the Gazan population to other countries, in the spirit of the Trump vision.

[Ed. note: We now know that Hamas has agreed to release six living hostages this coming Saturday, in addition to four corpses beforehand and another four afterwards. It is therefore far from certain that the writer would call for an immediate Israeli attack under these circumstances.]

4. The war objective of dismantling the Hamas regime should be done in three stages. First, Israel must take over all of Gaza and establish a military administration that will control, among other things, the distribution of food and humanitarian aid to the populace. When the Gazans are no longer dependent on Hamas for food, and are no longer threatened by Hamas, they are more likely to cooperate with Israel and provide information for the release of the hostages and the capture of the Hamas leaders.

Secondly, any Gazan who wants to leave should be helped to do so. Pres. Trump has laid his prestige on this initiative, and will be of great assistance to this end.

And thirdly, the IDF must wage war on all fronts in Gaza simultaneously. The only agreement that can ever be made with Hamas is its surrender, in which all the hostages, dead or alive, are returned safely. If we allow Hamas to end this war with a victory of any type, the chance that it will return all our hostages is microscopic, for they serve to guarantee that Israel will not continue to attack and destroy Hamas.

If we muster up the strength, courage and resourcefulness to resume the military effort with a new spirit, there is a very good chance that Hamas will reach its moral breaking point very quickly and will agree, from lack of choice, to hand over all the hostages to us as part of its surrender.

Hypocritical Alternatives to the Trump Gaza Plan

by Dr. Ron Breiman, former Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade are appalled by President Trump’s proposal to empty Gaza of its Arabs. “Trumpsfer,” they mockingly call it. They view it as impossible to implement, but continue to champion their favorite lie – the “two-state solution” – which is even less implementable.

They conceal the fact that Trump has no intention of forcibly expelling anyone. He rather intends to offer incentives to the Gazans to encourage them to emigrate. The freedom to live anywhere one likes is one of the most basic and important human rights - but the hypocrites who want to prevent this plan are seeking to deny it to the Gazans. 

These two-faced critics repeat over and over their mantra regarding "The Day After" – which is really their codename for their dangerous dream of a Palestinian state in the heart of western Eretz Yisrael. And they wish to pave the way for it by having our IDF soldiers put their lives on the line to destroy Hamas just so that the Fatah-run, terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority can take its place. And all this comes precisely as they reject outright the Trump initiative for "The Day After," which is geared to encourage the terrorist-supporting, and worse, population of Gaza to begin new lives elsewhere.

What is their problem with the Trump plan? They say it's too coercive and racist, and immorally uproots people from their land. They forget, of course, that they themselves were very much in favor of a similar program to forcibly evict a myriad of Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Shomron just 20 years ago. Many of them also favor the transfer of another few hundred thousand Jews so as to make room for their beloved two-state solution. They would be well advised to wake up to their hypocrisy and keep quiet.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade, by comparing modern-day Israel to Nazi-era Germany, are guilty of belittling the Holocaust. The racist, Messianic left-wing camp has no right to even begin speaking against Israel's shining democracy!

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade claim to have compassion for the Arab "refugees" living in squalid refugee camps – when in fact we are talking about the fourth generation of those who left Israel back in 1948. By no means can they still be considered refugees. Instead of being resettled, as is the case with refugees around the world within two generations [according to the official UN definition for refugees who are not Arab Palestinian], they continue to benefit, decade after decade, from the generosity of the anti-Semitic UNRWA organization. The "camps" they live in are generally full-fledged cities, and the IDF would be well advised to stop using the term "refugee camp" (R.C.) altogether.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade would have us forget that in 1948, there were not only Arab refugees, but also Jewish refugees – those who had been forcibly expelled from Arab countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and others, beginning immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel. Some 650,000 of them arrived in Israel destitute and truly homeless, and immediately began a process of rehabilitation and acclimatization. Yet the hypocrites condemn Trump's nonviolent proposal for the Gazans.

What Type of Investigation?

Speaking of those whose hypocrisy is their trade, out of their desire to topple the Netanyahu government at any price, they demand a public commission of inquiry – something that doesn't even appear in the Law of Commissions of Inquiry – to investigate the failures, faults and mishaps that led to the current war. However, they are not coming to the public debate on this matter with clean hands. A genuine investigation must look deeply into the following:

a.     How to ensure that such a catastrophic event as Simchat Torah-October 7^th not ever be repeated – and not how to simply find those who are guilty, and especially Bibi Netanyahu. There are those whose only goal is to ensure that Netanyahu leaves public life, and as ignominiously as possible. The inquiry must therefore be carried out by professional investigators who enjoy the public trust; its members can certainly not be appointed by Judge Yitzchak Amit – who recently and controversially took on the position of Supreme Court President – who does not enjoy such public confidence.

b.    How the concept of giving gifts to the enemy evolved. These include, specifically, handing over parts of our homeland under the Oslo Accords, and giving money to Hamas. In addition, why was arch-terrorist Arafat and his successors granted the role of peace-maker, and why did we feel the need to purchase quiet from Hizbullah and Hamas?

c.     It must also investigate the plethora of new evidence that has been amassed over the years regarding the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, thus shedding light (or darkness…) on the circumstances of the murder and the motives of the murderer.

Those whose hypocrisy is their trade have not seemed to notice, or care, that there are politicians in Israel who wear suits, and others who wear judicial robes. Most unfortunately, the latter operate most zealously and aggressively to erode the public trust in them – trust that is so very important for a judicial system. They might want to check every once in a while to see if possibly the only ones standing behind them are those who wear similar robes to them.