Higher Than Ever: Israel on the Snow-Capped Hermon

by Haggai Huberman, State of Israel historian, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Taking quick advantage of the overthrow of Syrian dictator Assad two weeks ago, Israeli military forces captured what some refer to as the Syrian Hermon, the highest of three very strategic peaks in the Hermon range. Israel is currently in the midst of a rushed and complex logistical operation to build army camps on the summit before the first snowstorm hits. The plan is to remain there until at least the end of the winter, if not for the foreseeable future. State of Israel historian Haggai Huberman, providing a historic overview, explains that the time has come to decide how to refer to this historic and important mountain – but certainly not as "the Syrian Hermon."

On June 11, 1967, a few days into the Six Day War, the headline of the HaTzofeh newspaper blared out: "Syrian Heights in the Hands of IDF Forces." The paper, and others, apparently found it hard to break the Israeli habit of the previous 19 years, since Israel's War of Independence, of referring to the area by the name of the ruling entity.

But within a very short time, the original name – the Golan Heights – made its way back into our lexicon. On June 12, the left-wing Al HaMishmar featured an article that referred to the area as the Golan Heights, noting that it had been called "the Syrian Heights."

Just a few days later, another story referred to the Golan Heights, and by 1981, when Israel extended its sovereignty over the area, the name of the legislation was "the Golan Law" – certainly not "the Syrian Heights law."

I was reminded of this nomenclature change this week with the reports of our capture of the Syrian Hermon (pronounced Hĕrmone). Many people, quietly but insistently, are demanding that the Hebrew term be used, and that "Syria" be taken out of the "Syrian Heights."

Hebrew linguist Dr. Avshalom Kor has proposed that our new Hermon be termed "the Hermon Crown" – a phrase taken from a poem written by none other than Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He wrote it when he was in the British Akko prison with his Haganah comrades for their role in protecting the Jewish community in the Old City of Jerusalem during the pogroms of 1920. The poem ends: "We are in captivity, but our hearts are directed towards Tel Chai in the north; we will yet have the Crown of the Hermon."

This of course referred to the entire Hermon range, for no one then dreamed that it would ever be divided between a Syrian entity and a Jewish entity less than 30 years later. The term "Hermon Crown" came into popular use in the Hebrew language. On April 23, 1925, Jewish National Fund leader Yosef Weitz, whose views were much to the left of Jabotinsky even as he engaged in the purchase of lands for Jews up through the first years of the State, wrote:

"I walked after the plow through a long furrow, back and forth. To my north, the crown of Mt. Hermon gleamed, and to my south, the mountain tops were tinged with blue and red..."

Another Land of Israel lover and expert, Ze'ev Vilnai, later came up with another name for the Hermon: Sion. It was taken directly from Deuteronomy 4,48, which states that the border of the Promised Land ran from "Aro'er on the Arnon bank, up to Mt. Sion, that is Hermon." In his work "Love Your Land as Yourself," Vilnai wrote about one of several tours he led on the mountain:

"At sunset – and the sunsets are amazing from the heights of the Hermon – we reached the sion, the highest summit of the Hermon range. Though it was summertime, we still found fields of snow and ice, especially on the northern side. We had a great time throwing snowballs; for some of the hikers, it was the first time they had ever seen snow. On the sion [summit] is a small cave, where we spent the night… As a memento of the occasion of our visit, we planted a national flag on the summit before we left. We then steeply descended from the sion to the village of Hatzbia [now in southeastern Lebanon]…"

What could be more appropriate than to call the highest point of the Hermon range Sion, a Biblical word related to the Hebrew si, meaning climax and top?

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Syrians briefly captured the one Hermon peak that had been in Israeli hands. However, the IDF soon recaptured it, and also the other two peaks, including what was known as the Syrian Hermon. [Israel withdrew from them after the war ended.]

An article in Al HaMishmar related the events: "The IDF Golani Brigade troops took upon themselves a very difficult mission. While the Paratroopers were flown to the Syrian Hermon in helicopters, some four kilometers from the Israeli Hermon, the Golani fighters had to break through frontally against well-prepared Syrian commando units… Israel's recapture of the Israeli Hermon, as well as its taking of the Si HaHermon and the Syrian Hermon, crowned an amazing IDF operation, which included heroism on the part of every single IDF soldier who took part."

On June 24, 1974, when Israel and Syria carried out the Separation of Forces agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War – and which came to an end after over 50 years two weeks ago – the Maariv newspaper reported: "Tomorrow at 3 PM the IDF will hand over to the United Nations the northernmost area, termed the Syrian Hermon, as well as the Kuneitra area…"

Now, with the return of the IDF to the Hermon summit, it would be appropriate to erase the name "Syrian Hermon," and return to use one of the Hebrew names – either Sion or Keter (Crown) HaHermon.

Made in Gaza

by Dr. Meir Seidler, senior lecturer in Jewish Philosophy in Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities, translated by Hillel Fendel.

A British research center reveals how the Ministry of Health in Gaza manipulates and falsifies data on Hamas and Gaza casualties – the very data on which the international community and the International Criminal Court in The Hague rely when condemning Israel. 

Following the IDF's three-week long Operation Cast Lead military campaign that began in December 2008, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza reported that 1,300 Gazans had been killed, of which only 48 were Hamas members. At the same time, an IDF report noted 1,166 Gazan deaths, including 709 Hamas terrorists.

Ultimately, the Hamas administration was forced to change its version and admit that some 600 to 700 Hamas terrorists had been killed in the operation. The correction was published at the time by the Haaretz newspaper, but did not receive much attention in the press.

During the weekly violent Gazan protests between March 2018 and December 2019, known by Hamas as the Great March of Return, the Gazan MoH reported 55 protesters killed on one day in clashes with IDF forces at the border. This figure was adopted in a report by OCHA (the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), leading to a sharp condemnation of Israel by UN Secretary-General Guterres and a demand from the head of OCHA to prosecute those responsible for killing "innocent civilians." However, two days later, Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, was asked sharply by a PA journalist why Hamas sent civilians to die at the border. Al-Bardawil answered that 50 of the 55 killed were actually Hamas fighters. This admission that the official Gaza numbers were false changed nothing in the UN's accusations against Israel.

These are just two examples cited in a report published a few days ago by a Middle Eastern affairs think-tank operating under the auspices of the conservative British research institute HJS (Henry Jackson Society).

But it's not the past that is the main point of the HJS report, which is entitled: "Questionable Counting: Analyzing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza." It is rather the current war in Gaza on which the report chiefly focuses. This comprehensive survey, the first of its kind since the war broke out close to 15 months ago, relies on a very large number of sources and research institutes, including the Washington-based ISW (Institute for the Study of War). It presents and analyzes many statistics and data, and provides conclusions. The report's data is verifiable by the sources cited in the notes, and in fact, I randomly checked some of the information and found that all of it was reliable.

I would like to note that behind the dry numbers of Gazans killed in the current war stand, as in every war, some people who are in fact innocent, as well as many children. Even after the atrocities that we so painfully experienced on that infamous Oct. 7^th, and even after the resulting cheers of glee that we saw in Gaza, I personally am sorry for the death of every Gazan who did not cheer, as well as for the children who died.

The primary feature of this report is the finding that the Hamas-run MoH has "systematically inflated the death toll [among Gazans] by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children, and even including individuals who died before the conflict began." This is no accident, but is rather the official policy of Hamas, as evidenced by a document revealed as early as a decade ago by the Hamas interior ministry. The instructions there were very clear: 'Whoever was killed and became a shahid [holy martyr] will be counted as a Gazan or Palestinian citizen… When describing those killed in Israeli attacks against Gaza, do not forget to always add that they were 'innocent citizens.' In conversations with friends from other countries, do not praise the [fallen] military commanders regarding their military successes."

The overall picture is that Hamas is reporting nearly 40,000 total deaths, while Israel states that of these, nearly half were Hamas terrorists. (American intelligence sources say that Hamas deaths numbered only 12-14,000).

The lack of differentiation between terrorist deaths and civilian deaths is particularly blatant given the fact that the official Hamas numbers do specify how many men, women, and children were killed – even if not quite accurately. For instance, among the women killed in one particular month, were more than 100 whose names were given as Muhammed… Many of those originally listed as aged 18 and above suddenly were counted as having been 17 years old – thus increasing the number of dead "children."

An interesting anomaly that arises from the statistics is listed on Dec. 5, 2023, when the MoH reported a total of 16,248 deaths in Gaza. Some 1,353 women and children were reported killed on one specific day – way more than the total number of deaths that day, which was only 1,041.

The report notes the following brazen attempt to deceptively increase the numbers of dead: More than 5,000 people who died natural deaths during the course of the year of the war were counted as having been killed by Israel! Concrete examples of Arabs felled by cancer are presented in the HJC report as having been killed by Israel. So are Arabs killed in criminal murder cases – and even those who were killed as a result of the commandeering of humanitarian aid deliveries by Hamas.

And get this: Hundreds of Gazans were killed by the more than 1,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that didn't quite reach their targets and instead exploded inside Gaza – and they are counted as having been killed by Israel! The report cites the famous case of the Al-Ahli Hospital that was hit by a rocket. When the rocket was thought to have originated in Israel, Hamas reported that 471 were killed, but when the truth was learned that it was a mistakenly-fired Hamas rocket, the reported numbers went down considerably.

Fake Media Reporting

The report also examined some 1,400 English-language articles written about the war for eight leading websites between February and May 2024. It found that 98% of them relied on the Hamas MoH stats – and of these, 19% did not even mention their source. Only 5% relied (also) on IDF numbers.

Fewer than 2% of the articles that used data from the MoH indicated that the data was questionable and could not be verified. In contrast, half of the articles that mentioned IDF-provided data noted that its numbers were questionable. Only 16% of the articles noted that the MoH does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

It is hard to say that we were surprised by the report's findings, but for the rest of the world, such a report by a prestigious think-tank such as the HJC is of supreme importance. It is incumbent upon the State of Israel to use it proactively in its hasbara (PR) efforts around the world.

The Prophet Isaiah's Vision Coming True – Let's Do It!

by Ziv Maor, Editor-in-Chief of the news broadcasts at Galei Israel radio station, translated by Hillel Fendel.

A cursory glance at the new residents in the palaces of our Syrian neighbors, currently known as "the rebels," leads more to feelings of concern than of optimism. This is because of our long-standing acquaintance with the Arab enemy, and our general perception that the Arabs continue to be the same Arabs and the sea that they wish to push us into is the same sea…

To this is added the knowledge that our new neighbors have frightening associations with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. And even more worrisome is the fact that Julani and Shar'a, the two new sheriffs in the neighborhoods, are long arms of the Turkish enemy octopus.

If we look at Syria as a square on the checkerboard of the Middle East, we can note that there is a Qatari-Jordanian-Syrian-Turkish contiguity. This is a critical route for the entire region that can provide oil from Qatar to Europe. In the developing Middle East, the diplomatic engine will no longer be the "Palestinian problem," but rather, who will control the European gas market. For while on the one hand, there is this pipeline that can open in the wake of the fall of Assad, but there is also a developing and competing maritime axis of Israel-Cyprus-Greece.

Despite all, many experts are expressing very non-cautious optimism in light of the events. Shar'a himself declared that he does not see Israel as an enemy country, and Israeli expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar speaks of key Sunni figures in the rebellion who say they plan to open a Syrian embassy in Israel's capital of Jerusalem. Ziv Jenisov, an independent journalist who spent much time in the areas of the battles in Syria in 2018, has related that when he whispered to some Sunni rebels that he was Israeli, their admiration was palpable. And demographer Prof. Yaakov Feitelson has been speaking about Syria's return to the days before the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement [which defined the respective spheres of control of Great Britain and France following the expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire]. In those days, each ethnic group in what was to become modern-day Syria lived securely in its own area: the Alawites along the coast, the Druze south of Damascus, the Kurds in the northeast, and the Sunnis everywhere else.

Two important ethnic groups in Syria, the Druze and the Kurds, are supporters of Israel. The Kurds have expressed pro-Israeli sentiments for many years. The Druze indeed remained loyal to Assad, despite his oppression of them, but the spontaneous joyous reactions to his overthrow in the Druze villages in the Golan leave room for optimism that the Syrian Druze will join their brethren in Israel.

Time for a New Conception

The events that have so suddenly overtaken us are an opportunity to take a hard new look at a certain long-running Western, left-wing approach – and throw it out the window. This approach, or conception, holds that sovereignty is a binary situation: Either there is sovereignty, or there isn't. It has been a fundamental element of the twisted Israeli policies towards Judea and Samaria since the first intifada. That is, it is commonly held that either there will be two states between the Jordan and the sea, or one state, which will either be binational, or a Jewish-run apartheid. Any middle ground is not even considered, but rather denounced as an unstable temporary solution that will perpetuate the conflict forever.

The revolution in Syria invites us to introduce a new word into our vocabulary, which can not only help us formulate a new solution to the problems of the Arabs of the Land of Israel, but can also serve as a key to a reorganization of the entire Middle East. The word is: suzerainty. It generally refers to the partial control of an area, or even a country, by another country. There are many regions in the world that enjoy a certain measure of independence, but at the same time entrust certain important functions associated with sovereignty in the hands of a different country (usually a stronger one). The classic example of such is the state of relations between Puerto Rico (and also Guam) and the United States. There is also suzerainty between Montana and the U.S., between Belgium and the European Union, and between Flanders and Belgium.

The Left, and anti-Semites around the world, define Israel's position in Judea and Samaria as a "conqueror" or "occupier," thus distorting the meaning of "occupation" in international law. In practice, the more accurate term for Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria is "suzerainty." A deep understanding of the concept of suzerainty, and of the ways in which it is implemented in various areas of the world, opens before Israel a wealth of possibilities in the new Middle East that is currently taking shape. Internalizing Israel's suzerainty means understanding that Israel is a regional power and can use its power unapologetically to fortify its status and interests.

This is how it can look: Judea and Samaria will be recognized immediately as an integral part of the State of Israel; its Arab residents who remain here will receive Israeli citizenship; and Arab Palestinian nationalism will be outlawed. The Arab cities will have the status of local autonomies, run by the families that already run many of their affairs. The Gaza Strip will retain, for now, the status that the Palestinian Authority currently enjoys, with Israel overseeing its education network (to prevent anti-Israel incitement and the like). Perhaps in a few decades from now, Gaza will be ready to join Israel.

The Druze and the Kurds in the new Syria will exist as autonomies, with their own armies and with military guarantees from Israel. Southern Lebanon will be governed by Druze and Maronites (Christians), who will also enjoy Israeli military protection. Israel will open a gas pipeline to Europe, thus subordinating the economies of Lebanon and Egypt. Israel will also be able to leverage, without compunction, its control over the drinking water that it supplies to the Kingdom of Jordan, and will be free to enforce Israel's political interests over King Abdullah.

Who doesn't know the Prophet Isaiah's famous prophecy: "Nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will never again wage war." But when it is understood as a simple vision of peace and serenity, it is being taken out of context. Just a few verses before it, which are somewhat less well-known, the true and complete prophetic vision is laid out:

"And it shall be at the end of the days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it. And many peoples shall go and say, "Come, let us go up to the Lord's mount, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths" – for from Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge between the nations and reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…"

Thus we see that even the Prophet says that the condition for regional peace is suzerainty of the Holy Temple mountain over the neighboring peoples. G-d has opened the way for us – let us go forth and ascend it.

Let's Keep On Winning – and Not Stop!

by Emmanuel Shilo, editor of the Besheva weekly, translated by Hillel Fendel.

1. We hadn't even quite digested the wondrous miracle of our successes against the cruel Hezbollah terrorist organization, when suddenly, we merited to see another amazing series of events: the collapse of the evil regime of our bitter Syrian enemy and the destruction of nearly its entire army.

The work of toppling the Assad dictatorship was done for us by others, leaving us with the job of making the courageous decisions to reap the fruits thereof. Thus, the humongous and costly war machine that Assad's Alawites built, with the help of Russia and Iran, was liquidated in a matter of days with no opposition, in an unprecedented blitz carried out by our air and naval forces.  

These are amazingly great days, in which we are privileged to see the fulfillment of the verse, "Gladden us in accordance with the days You afflicted us" (Psalms 90,15). After the calamitous strike we suffered on Simchat Torah over a year ago, when our rejoicing turned into such grief, we now see that G-d has given our enemies into the hands of our armed forces in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

Our joy is far from complete, however. The formidable missions before us have not yet been completed. On all fronts the situation is quite sensitive, and the war rages on as we continue to pay high prices with the loss of additional holy and pure soldiers. But there is no doubt that our situation on Oct. 7th has turned around most concretely. No longer are we beaten and bruised, but are rather carrying out that which King David prayed for: "I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, never turning back until they are consumed" (18,38). We began the year 5785 with the unbelievable beeper attack, continued with the liquidation of the evil Nasrallah, and from there have climbed from one success to the next, from the lowly tunnels of Gaza to the summit of what has long been the Syrian Mt. Hermon – and which is now ours. If until now the Hermon has been "the eyes of Israel," now, with the capture of the higher, Syrian summit, these eyes can see much further.

2. Now that Syria and Hezbollah have fallen and will apparently not be threatening us any time soon, the three remaining great challenges that face us are these: putting an end to Iran's nuclear program, defeating Hamas decisively, and freeing our 100 captives, about a third of whom are known to be dead, from Hamas captivity.

These challenges are not at all simple. But now is not the time to tire, nor may we allow ourselves to suffice with less than the achievement of all three. The major changes that have already happened, and those that can be expected in the near future, enable and obligate us to think big and carry them out.

In less than five weeks, Joe Biden and his administration will finally leave the world stage, and Donald Trump – a friend of Israel in deed, not just in heart – will replace him. Though Biden has long supported Israel, it must be emphasized that his stubborn insistence on more and more humanitarian aid to Gaza – well beyond that which was needed for the Gazan population to survive – was that which allowed Hamas to survive throughout these 14 months of war.

Our own government also failed in this area, in enabling Hamas to take control of the humanitarian supplies, providing for themselves in greater quantities than what they left over for the populace.

The objective of the IDF's continued fighting in the Gaza Strip has been to create a sterile zone clean of Hamas terrorists, in which only those who have been carefully examined will be allowed to enter and receive the necessary supplies directly from our hands without Hamas intervention. This will greatly weaken Hamas, and is thus important for Israel.

Hamas is willing to make a deal now to release our hostages because it knows that when Trump becomes President again, the terms for any deal will be much worse for the terrorists than they are now. Still, we are far from guaranteed that Hamas will agree to release all the hostages, for it wishes to continue to torture at least some of them and the entire Israeli society. But even if Hamas does agree, it will be at a terribly high price for Israel, including the release of hundreds of dangerous terrorists from Israeli prison who will try to carry out the next wave of kidnappings. Israel may also be forced to end the war now, which itself will be a victory for Hamas. If this is the endnote of our 14 months of war and casualties, our accomplishments on the other fronts are likely to be endangered, as it will provide encouragement to the Shiites in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and our other enemies to continue their war against us.

3. We must therefore try to hold on and hold out until Trump takes over, when we will be able to see our hostages come home without suffering the defeat described above. If there are those who see the current weakening of Hamas as an "opportunity" to reach a terrible agreement with Hamas, they would be advised to remember those who saw the weakening of the PLO as a reason to sign the Oslo Accords – which brought us tens of thousands of uniformed terrorists and the establishment of the Palestinian Terrorist Authority.

True, it is hard to continue to stand strong in the face of the suffering of the hostages, the anguish of their families, and the pressure of the media, who are once again emotionally and shortsightedly trying to push us into a disastrous deal like that which freed Gilad Shalit. But now is the time for the government to show leadership, exercise reason, think about the nation and not just individuals, and focus on the long term beyond today and tomorrow.

We, the religious-Zionist public, must also behave responsibly. The left-wingers who have always wanted "Peace Now" and now want "Hostages Now," are looking to us to help them swing the pendulum. We must remember our commitment to true victory, and not lend our voices to capitulation. Similarly, we must not be tempted to fight for Hareidi recruitment, which is liable to lead – as the left-wingers’ hope – to the downfall of the only government that is striving for Israel's true victory.

Another challenge that we must overcome is the judicial establishment, ensconced in its ivory tower and unable to rise to the greatness and importance of the occasion. We know that there is no one else in the Israeli political establishment who can wage the war as well as Netanyahu – and yet they insist that he spend hours every day testifying about champagne and cigars. It is truly too bad that even those who hate him cannot realize that we need him to run our multi-front war for the entire country much more than we need him trying to defend himself from trivial accusations. 

The Deal with Lebanon is Disappointing, but Not Bad

by Hillel Fendel.

With varying degrees of praise for the deal, some observers had unrestrained praise for Netanyahu's strength in resisting international pressure for so long. 

"It's a tactical move, designed to serve our strategic and security interests." So summed up Cabinet Minister Orit Strook of the Religious Zionism party, referring to the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon/Hizbullah that went into effect this morning (Wednesday). This party's representative in the Security Cabinet, party leader Betzalel Smotrich, voted for the agreement, after it was reported that his proposals for extra-strict conditions be inserted.

Other observers were also measuredly optimistic. Though there are problems with the ceasefire, wrote Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate, he added that this deal is "probably the best Israel can get under the circumstances… The Jewish state has not come away from the negotiations empty-handed but has achieved some real gains."

Minister Strook said that the American letter of assurance attached to the agreement guarantees that Israel can respond militarily to various expected Hizbullah infractions without being considered in violation of the ceasefire. 

She also noted that the agreement preserves our military achievements. It does not "return us to October `23, and not even to July `24 [when senior Hizbullah commander Fuad Shukr was killed by an Israeli airstrike] – but to the 'status quo' created this very month."

'Quiet for Quiet' is Out 

Strook also said: "No more are we following the 'quiet will be met with quiet' formula – because 'quiet' simply enables the terrorists to strengthen themselves. Our objective is not 'quiet,' but prevention of the rehabilitation of Hizbullah. And it is our sense that the IDF and all the security organs perceive the situation as we do, and are determined to enforce the agreement [and respond to violations] seriously and significantly." 

What she left unsaid, of course, was the tremendous American pressure brought to bear upon Israel by the outgoing Biden Administration. It has been widely reported that the Americans threatened not to veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council, to apply sanctions, and to withdraw other support, if Israel did not agree to stop destroying Hizbullah terrorist infrastructures. 

Resisting the Pressures

The fact that this pressure was resisted for so long is attributed by many to one man: Prime Minister Netanyahu. Tobin, for instance, writes that the very significant setbacks dealt Hizbullah, Iran, and Hamas over the past year "were only made possible by the determination and the ability of one man to stand up to U.S. pressure to abandon the fight for Israel’s security many months ago. It’s difficult to imagine anyone other than Netanyahu could have stood his ground against Washington’s pleadings and threats, and have gone on to achieve an outcome that leaves Israel’s enemies far weaker than they were when the current conflict began almost 14 months ago."

Interestingly enough, even when the largely left-wing media in Israel, traditionally very anti-Netanyahu, offered up its automatic criticism of the prime minister for the deal, it seemed to trip over itself in seeking to find the problems. A negative article on the Walla site, for instance, harped at great length on the fact that Netanyahu's video speech explaining the deal to the Israeli public was edited and spliced together.

The Walla article, by one Nadav Menuhin, tried hard to keep track of whether it was more pro-ceasefire no matter what the cost, or more anti-Netanyahu. "More Israelis support the ceasefire than object to it," Menuhin wrote. "This is understandable, because the home-front is exhausted after more than a year of getting hit by rockets, deaths, and chaos… But whoever watched the news reports on the three main networks saw a different picture, in which the TV lined up totally with the deal's opponents, referring to Israel's 'surrender' and 'abandonment of the northern residents'…  Even Netanyahu, who practically apologized for the ceasefire, at least explained why it was necessary."

In short, the media is either against the agreement because it was brought by Netanyahu, or else serves the ceasefire back-handed compliments while denigrating its "author," Binyamin Netanyahu. 

Israel's Achievements

We thus return to Tobin, who elaborated on Israel's achievements in this agreement and in the military campaigns leading up to it: "[The past] two months of Israeli attacks on Hizbullah have significantly degraded [the terrorists'] capacity to inflict harm on the region. That’s a defeat for Iran, which had hoped that the seven-front war on Israel it had incited could go on indefinitely, weakening the country and its citizens’ resolve. Instead, they [Hizbullah] are the ones who have been diminished by military setbacks and vast losses inflicted on a group whose main purpose is to serve as a deterrent to attacks on Iran…"

And regarding Netanyahu, Tobin writes that his "leadership has been indispensable." He adds that what Netanyahu "has done in the year since [Oct. 7th] is truly remarkable. Only someone with his steely determination and savvy understanding of the tricky dynamics of the U.S.-Israel relationship could have navigated the long months of war so skillfully. No possible successor in his own Likud Party or among his opponents in the Knesset could have stuck to his goals - and do so much harm to Hamas and Hizbullah in the face of the [American] desire to force Jerusalem to accept the continued rule of Hamas in Gaza and avoid direct conflict with Iran’s Lebanese auxiliaries."

Outsmarting Biden

Similarly, analyst Avi Abelow of "Pulse of Israel" stated that Netanyahu is actually outsmarting Biden with this deal. With Biden having withheld much-needed weapons from Israel's war against Islamic terrorism, Netanyahu now calms the waters in anticipation of the second Trump Administration. 

"While I totally oppose this ceasefire," Abelow said, "I totally understand Netanyahu's calculations. [He] is trying to avoid Biden's dangerous threats… and is buying time to rest IDF forces and refresh critical armaments… His approach appears to be one of 'survival' until Jan. 20th when Trump is inaugurated again."